Neo Geo confirmed for VC

By Robert Purchese Published 1 October, 2007

Nintendo spills beans.

Nintendo has finally officially confirmed that Neo Geo games will be available on the Virtual Console.

They will cost 900 points, and are likely to appear "soon", although a solid date is still to be determined.

The Neo Geo was a strange old beast made by Japanese company SNK. It boasted impressive technical prowess compared to its 1990 competition, but entered the market at such a high price point and asked for so much money for its games that it soon receded to niche, cult status.

Still, it had its moments and is remembered fondly for The King of Fighters and Metal Slug series among others.

The first titles to pop up on the Virtual Console will be Fatal Fury, World Heroes and Art of Fighting, with many more to follow in the future.

We will let you know when a date hits the airwaves.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (32) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Psi #1 4 years ago

    they littered the arcades too so its all good

  • jonsaan #2 4 years ago

    The first titles to pop up on the Virtual Console will be Fatal Fury, World Heroes and Art of Fighting, with many more to be painfully strung out over the course of the Wii's lifetime.

    /fixed

  • lambtron #3 4 years ago

    "It boasted impressive technical prowess compared to its [...] competition, but entered the market at such a high price point and asked for so much money for its games that it soon receded to niche, cult status."

    Must ... not ... say ... what ... I'm ... thinking ... of ...

    ;)

  • Riggers #4 4 years ago

    "It boasted impressive technical prowess compared to its 1990 competition, but entered the market at such a high price point and asked for so much money for its games that it soon receded to niche, cult status."

    Must...resist....PS3...comparisons....

  • Riggers #5 4 years ago

    lol at lambtron beating me to the punch. You're more restrained, but a faster typer!

  • lambtron #6 4 years ago

    :p

  • Sebo #7 4 years ago

    Ha ha, exactly what went through my head too. Plaaayyystttaaatttion threeeeee

  • Luckyjim #8 4 years ago

    Great news but will the tiny Wii harddrive have enough room. Neo Geo games must be quite big, surely.

  • Razz #9 4 years ago

    o_O

    While this is very good news considering how much the games were "back in da day" I'd expect to pay no less than 150,000 Wii points per title. :D

  • Tonka #10 4 years ago

    The VC is fantastic. I wish they would increase the amount of titles released each week. They have a huge source of classic goodness to tap.

    Now, a proper arcade stick and the Wii is the official home to retro (if you don't count illegal ways)

  • Kon #11 4 years ago

    Nintendo Europe? It's not of a great deal otherwise.

  • felderpony #12 4 years ago

    Well, I once owned a Second Hand NeoGeo waaaay back in my youth..

    was very well made, had a lovely joystick and some great shootemups!

    Roll on Viewpoint, Magical Drop, Samurai Showdown and ASO2!

  • Madafunkola #13 4 years ago

    How much was a Neo-Geo and games? I seem to have a hazy memory of each cartridge selling at about £60, or am i confused with something else?

  • Skoptsie #14 4 years ago

    Windjammers please

  • lambtron #15 4 years ago

    "How much was a Neo-Geo and games? I seem to have a hazy memory of each cartridge selling at about £60, or am i confused with something else?"

    Woah - 60 quid? I seem to remember it being more in the order of a couple of hundred quid. Although I think it depended on the game.

  • lost_soul #16 4 years ago

    What is 900 points in real money?

  • Hackenbush #17 4 years ago

    According to issue 4 of Edge, Samurai Shodown was GBP 185. 60 quid would buy you Street Figher II Turbo on the SNES.

  • rommy667 #18 4 years ago

    Great news but at those prices ill stick with fbaxx pro it looks ace in 1080i :)

  • TheMoonRat #19 4 years ago

    I seem to remember the Neo Geo didn't have any RAM in the console itself so each game cartridge had the ram onboard... thus them being damn expensive! Great games on there though.

  • GamesConnoisseur #20 4 years ago

    Looking forward to those games but damn Wii internal memory not enough blasted room, I had to swop out several games (N64 ones especially!) onto SD.

    Why cant Wii run games from SD, that would have been easier, just load them onto intermal memory and run from there! Before anyone ask no I dont have Ninja-pirate-thingy modded on my Wii.

  • Madafunkola #21 4 years ago

    Ah yes!! £60 for SFII on the snes, that was it. Thanks!

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #22 4 years ago

    I think the description of the Neo Geo is rather missing the point. It was an arcade machine format - home and arcade hardware was functionally identical, and the arcade version has continued to have new games made for it until really very recently.

    It seems to me that the home console version was more of a thing for enthusiasts. That would be borne out by the fact that SNK ported its most popular franchises to the SNES in any case.

  • 5lectro #23 4 years ago

    Wait, wasn't an Art of Fighting anthology coming out?

  • secombe #24 4 years ago

    The first titles to pop up on the Virtual Console will be Fatal Fury, World Heroes and Art of Fighting, with many more to be painfully strung out over the course of the Wii's lifetime.

    What would be the point in just throwing everything at the machine in one go? Makes far more sense to release things over the life of the console in my opinion, and probably financially it benefits Nintendo as well.

    If the 12 titles I have now were all thrown at the VC last year I doubt I would own half of them by now, but by offering a few each week it actually gives you time to play them and tempts you with new stuff on a regular basis.

  • Toothball #25 4 years ago

    I thought this had been announced a while back? I heard the size of the games may complicate matters, given the amount of storage space within the Wii. Perhaps I dreamt that news post. Hmm.

  • cyacomini #26 4 years ago

    World Heroes 2 please!

  • neosalad #27 4 years ago

    i love NEO4ALL on the DC...

    :)

    /me pats his DC lovingly...

  • Ryze #28 4 years ago

    100 megabit cartridges - divide by 8 = 12.5Mb - loads'll fit on a 4Gb SD card.

    Not got a Wii yet, but YES, why can't the damn VC games run off of SD?

    I'm sure thes games originally cost £100 plus.

    I can't wait for Samurai Shodown & the King of the Fighters games.

    Damn - gaming keeps getting better!

    Don't fuck this up Nintendo Europe!!!

  • Eraser #29 4 years ago

    "Soon".

    We all know what that means in Virtual Console land...

  • Pachinko #30 4 years ago

    Good. All we need now is a decent joystick.

  • dadrester #31 4 years ago

    "How much was a Neo-Geo and games? I seem to have a hazy memory of each cartridge selling at about £60, or am i confused with something else?"

    SNES games were about that... typical new releases were about £200-300 and the system itself was £700 (iirc) games now go for about £20 - £500 depending on what with some (like metal slug) going for up to £1000-2000. the most expensive game ever to sell at auction was kizuna encounter euro version (again iirc) and it sold for £13000. there are only 3 known copies.

    [edit] oh and it'll be shit on the wii if they don't release a proper arcade stick!
    Edited by 1 at 02/10/07 @ 12:18

  • Ryze #32 4 years ago

    I'm sure I saw a Hori arcade stick for the Wii already.

    Either online, or in Virgin Megastore - but unless I dreamt it, or mistook the 360 stick for it - it exists.