Hidden Gems of the Neo Geo: Three brilliant, but obscure titles for the 16 bit, 2D powerhouse

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Growing up, I read a lot of gaming mags. Usually in 7-11 without buying them because I was a precocious little shit. I would ogle pictures of what were at the time tantalizing next-generation systems, and the lush, colorful screenshots which accompanied them.

For my 16 bit console, after mowing what felt like every lawn in America to raise the money for it, I got a Sega Genesis because it was percieved as cooler, and was a bit cheaper than the SNES. But SNES and Genesis were the common peoples' 16 bit machines. There were obscure oddballs like the Turbo GrafX 16 out there on the fringes, as well as the mysterious and unattainably expensive Neo Geo that all the kids swapped rumors about.

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It was a rich kid's system. The sort you go sleep over at his house for the chance to play, irrespective of how well you like him. The console was $600, games were often $200 each due to the incredibly large solid state storage they boasted for the time they were released. It made possible CD-like games in cartridge format.

They all had way more frames of animation for characters than anything seen on SNES or Genesis. They had backgrounds that were contiguous non-repeating hand drawn murals rather than being pieced together from repetitive tiles to save cart space. Some even had full motion video openings, like Blazing Star. One of my faves, but very well known, so it won't be covered here.

Instead I'd like to showcase some of the best titles for this enigmatic 16 bit monster that most people aren't aware exist, because the Neo Geo's library was dominated by fighters and shmups. First up is Top Hunter: Roddy and Cathy.

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Top Hunter: Roddy and Cathy is a side scrolling beatemup slash platformer, but even that oversimplifies it. The sheer gameplay variety in this title is difficult to express in the span of a sentence. You can stretch your arms to punch further. You can grab hanging levers to trigger the release of bonus items. You can grapple with enemies and body slam them. You can pick up and use guns they drop. You can throw enemies at each other. You can climb into a mech(!) and stomp around delivering mechanized punches.

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There is just so much to do. Every level also has humorous set pieces useful for defeating bosses or more powerful henchmen like walls you can tip over, huge rocks suspended from chains you can drop on enemies to squash them at the flip of a lever, and as if that weren't enough every level is divided between the foreground and background layer...both of which are accessible! You can at any time hop between the two with the press of a button, like two levels in one.

You can of course play cooperatively with a second person as the title implies, and it's an absolute blast. Likewise with the next title, "Crossed Swords", an unorthodox third person over-the-shoulder beatemup in which you play a knight hacking and slashing his way through the evil hordes sent by a sorcerer who has kidnapped a princess.

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What makes it really unusual and fun is the perspective. There have been plenty of medieval beat 'em ups. Knights of the Round, Golden Axe, etc. But how many are seen from behind the protagonist? The gameplay is accordingly more complex. You can dodge left to right, slash vertically or horizontally, and use your shield to block high or low.

You will need all of these moves as enemies will attack high or low unpredictably, often chaining strikes together, and many boss attacks are essentially one hit kills you can only prevent by correctly guessing whether to block high or low at the right moment.

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The lush colorful environments are a joy to behold, but this game has more than superficial merits. The magic system is worth writing home about. You have a limited magic bar which can be replenished with items defeated enemies drop, but the nature of the offensive spell you use differs from stage to stage.

In the first stage it's a fireball. Then it's a whirlwind. Then later on you can turn enemies into scarecrows! This adds much needed variety without which combat would quickly grow dull. There is also a traveling merchant you can summon between stages which gives you the option of purchasing more powerful weapons and shields, as well as food to replenish your health.

Next up is In The Hunt, a charmingly cartoonish submarine shooter. Looking at the art style, it won't surprise you to learn it was made by the same team as the Metal Slug games:

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It was in fact made before Metal Slug 1, and totally overshadowed by it. Which is a shame, because it is such a creative, unique shooter. How many submarine shooters do you know of? The rest are basically just space shooters with an aquatic paint job, the gameplay doesn't differ. Not so in this case!

The separation between air and water actually plays a huge part in the gameplay. When your sub is at the surface it employs totally different weaponry like rockets and machineguns to take down aircraft and targets on land. There are levels mostly or totally underwater, some split evenly between the two, and then some where the water is very shallow and you're at the mercy of land and air based enemies who have the upper hand due to your reduced room to maneuver.

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There are of course many more brilliant games for this console, but the intent was to shine a light only on those which are both especially good, and not widely known about. So while I may be sorely tempted to feature titles like Prehistoric Isle II, Blazing Star and Captain Tomaday, there's little need as anybody into Neo Geo is already familiar with them.

If you are one of the lucky collectors with a Neo Geo in your collection, do yourself a favor and seek these titles out. Or if you simply have a working installation of M.A.M.E., well...you know what to do. They are not to be missed!