The Neo Geo Pocket Color - Review - Game Sack

The Neo Geo Pocket Color was an excellently made handheld. It was affordable, comfortable to hold, had a solid internal architecture, and possessed a great lineup of games. It should have been successful, but SNK was already financially in the hole by that time. It's kind of similar to the Dreamcast's situation if you think about it.

I'm glad metal slug 2 pocket still has "RAWKET LAUWNCHER".

I really, really love the Neo-Geo Pocket Color. The click-stick is a dream to use, and is even better than the Neo-Geo CD's clickstick or the Neo-Geo Pad2/USB made years later. That click-stick made all the difference when compared to its rival, the GameBoy Color. While the GBC is also awesome, home to several of the best 8-bit games ever made including the amazingly underrated Shantae, it's the Neo-Geo Pocket Color's library that truly amazes me. If you were to take every Neo-Geo Pocket game ever made, put them in a stack and randomly pull one out, chances are you'll have pulled out an outstanding game. The library may be small, but that also means its free from the shovelware the GBC saw. Ultimately, I feel the NGPC had so much untapped potential, especially when it comes to shmups, platformers and RPGs. I'm holding out hope that someday there will be enough interest that homebrew games  will start to give it a second life, what has been happening with the 2600 and NES for many years now. I love the NGPC. Truly one of the greatest systems ever made.

I always thought it was cool that Pac-Man came with a little ring you affixed to the control pad in order to limit motion to the four cardinal directions. Such an odd but cool thing to include.

Waking up on a lazy Sunday morning here in the UK, with the sun pouring through my window, something suitably unhealthy for breakfast and a new episode of GameSack on the TV...does it get any better than this? Thank-you guys, for consistently putting out such interesting, informative and brilliantly crafted content.

Very nice episode, this had a ton of great fighters. I'm surprised you didn't mention how the NGPC version of Last Blade is essentially 2 games. Once you finish arcade/story with the Last Blade 1 characters, you start unlocking characters from Last Blade 2 and it even gives you the 2nd game's ending and opening screens and the 2nd game's final boss. All in all I think it's actually only missing a couple characters from the Neo Geo version of Last Blade 2.

Rockman Battle and Fighter actually was a double whammy port of the two Mega Man Arcade titles... which it surprisingly captures a lot of the original feel of the games albeit looking more like the game boy sprites

I love the motion tracked 3D text in this episode... Very nice looking.

SEGA didn't develop Pocket Adventure, they just licensed it to SNK. Sonic Team did oversee development, however. Also, calling it a "stripped down Sonic 2" is kind of misleading. The art assets are mostly from Sonic 2, but the music hails from Sonic 3, and most importantly, the level layouts and bosses are all new. As a final note, the etymology is "Special Stage." Sorry to be pedantic, I really enjoy these videos! SOURCE: My own petulant Sonic nerdiness. Also, I recently did a video with a more in-depth critique of Sonic Pocket Adventure, so check that out if you're interested!

[Couy] I had a NGPC but the only games I had for it was SNK vs Capcom and Metal Slug 2nd Mission. Both amazing games. The thing that got me in this video is that I never realized just how much the system sounds like the Master System. It's great!

Just one note, guys: The Samurai Shodown is based on the 4th game, not the 1st. Excellent episode!

I have two of these little babies I bought on ebay a few years ago, well after the system's official lifespan ended. This thing was way ahead of its time with some amazing games that would've blew my mind back when I was a little kid in the 90s. If I had Match of the Millennium back then, I never would've stopped playing it. Hell, it's still my favorite NGPC game to this day, easily.

Recently picked this console up with a stack of games and thus far every game that I've tried has been solid. The fighting games are hands down the best handheld fighting games I have ever played which makes perfect sense coming from SNK.

I still have my Neo Geo Pocket color. Got it from my friend who worked at a Ma & Pa store and he let me test out any game that came into the place. Good times. Miss the store.

Back in the day, I got this amazing handheld with MetalSlug and Biomotor Unitron! I really like the game cases and rock solid dpad/joystick.

i love that you guys upload so late at night lol

Wonderswan review in the future?

10/10 episode gentlemen. This is an A+ job you are doing, this destroys shows like... well I don't want to hurt feelings, but we all know the OTHER review shows.

Perhaps a PSP episode in the future?

Really happy to see you guys dig Dark Arms as much as I did. It's a damn fun game