Quick Man's Complete Neo Geo Ratings

[Ars Moriendi]

I really like this list. I’ve really been upset that apparently some people think the Metal Slug series is overrated and they mentioned others in the genre they like better. Personally I think the Metal Slug games are amazing and would be near the top of my list also, and are better than their contemporaries on other systems, although I haven’t been able to get into Metal Slug 4 or 5. I like Sengoku 3 being up there, which is one of my most prized possessions on MVS. I know Cyber Lip isn’t the best game ever but there’s been times in the 2 player I had a lot of fun with it. In fact one time playing with a friend of mine is maybe the most fun I’ve ever had with a Neo Geo game.

Thank you jon. It's cool that you're so passionate about Viewpoint, as of course that's one of my favorites on the Neo as you can tell by my list. It's also easily in the top ten hardest video games I've ever played, though there's some other shoot-em-ups that are extremely difficult too if you're interested, like the arcade version of Gradius III, DoDonPachi DaiOuJou White Label (the original release of the game which is more difficult), Pink Sweets, Gunbird 2, Strikers 1945 III, Gravitar, etc.

Also, I'm basically a number one fan of Nazca Corporation, as their five releases comprise not only my top five on the console but are all among my absolute favorite video games period. If you're interested, there's an upcoming game made by former Nazca staff called Black Finger Jet which looks quite promising and is essentially a true successor to Metal Slug 3, or at least I hope it will be.

I also tried of course to play the Japan-only quiz and mahjong games (and Master of Shogi), though because of the language barrier and that sort of thing I wasn't able to get very far in them. However, I think I've still played them enough to come to a general conclusion on their quality.

[Quick_Man]

I did skip the quiz games as very few are even translated, but I do hope there's a Quiz King of Fighters translation at some point. That game looks like pure fighting game diehard fanservice.

[Ars Moriendi]

I did skip the quiz games as very few are even translated, but I do hope there's a Quiz King of Fighters translation at some point. That game looks like pure fighting game diehard fanservice.

Yeah, there is some pretty good fanservice in Quiz King of Fighters, hence why I rated it a bit higher than the other ones. There's also a UniBIOS cheat that makes the correct answer the first one every time so that people like us can get farther into the game.

However, even if the questions were translated from what I've heard (and I think this applies to the other quiz games too) they are primarily based on random Japanese popular culture that foreigners would have no almost idea about. In other words, a lot of the questions are something along the lines of, "Which Japanese single was no. 1 on the charts in November 1963?" or "Which actor played this role in such and such Akira Kurosawa film?". I do know how to read Hiragana and Katakana for the most part so I could make out some parts of some questions, which in my opinion are accurate to what I said earlier in this paragraph.

In addition, the Neo Geo is my favorite video game platform, and considering that I've played at least 70 or 80 different platforms I don't see that changing any time soon. I first got into the Neo Geo at a family friend's wedding reception, where there was an MVS unit with the 161-in-1 unit inside it. I knew about the Neo Geo for the longest time beforehand, but about the extent of my knowledge of it at the time was that it was extremely expensive but pretty much completely arcade perfect. This was several years ago, and I've gone out of my way to play as many Neo Geo games as possible. I used to own a consolized MVS but I donated it since the MiSTer FPGA can do basically everything that it can and more, though I'm considering buying another one so that I can play homebrew when they come out.

Hopefully you liked my list Quick Man, though I cannot stress enough that it's nowhere near objective. If it was, stuff like Garou and Magician Lord would be higher and Power Spikes II and Zed Blade would be lower. I have a draft of a more objective list, but as far as I'm concerned I don't think anyone could make a list that is entirely agreeable, including myself. I don't mean to sound like a broken record, but it's probably true.

[Quick_Man]

It is pretty impossible to create an objective list, especially when you get to the highest and lowest quarters. You can tell from my list for instance that I happily have a huge bias for fighting games what with five of them being in my top 10. I gave Fatal Fury however a 4 and while I stand by that I know many wouldn't agree with it being so low. Your list is fun to read though and definitely interesting - you might be the first person I've seen to consider SamSho 4 the best in the series, and SvC Chaos is above any of the KOF games. The bottom of our lists are fairly close though - although it appears I hate Fight Fever slightly less than most.

And yeah, even though I probably have more knowledge of Japanese culture than maybe ninety percent of non-Japanese people... I couldn't get through a quiz of those questions to save my life. I once watched the Game Center CX episode of Yuuya Quiz de Go Go and I could barely answer anything that wasn't something that wasn't like "what is this specific car part".

[Ars Moriendi]

It is pretty impossible to create an objective list, especially when you get to the highest and lowest quarters. You can tell from my list for instance that I happily have a huge bias for fighting games what with five of them being in my top 10. I gave Fatal Fury however a 4 and while I stand by that I know many wouldn't agree with it being so low. Your list is fun to read though and definitely interesting - you might be the first person I've seen to consider SamSho 4 the best in the series, and SvC Chaos is above any of the KOF games. The bottom of our lists are fairly close though - although it appears I hate Fight Fever slightly less than most.

And yeah, even though I probably have more knowledge of Japanese culture than maybe ninety percent of non-Japanese people... I couldn't get through a quiz of those questions to save my life. I once watched the Game Center CX episode of Yuuya Quiz de Go Go and I could barely answer anything that wasn't something that wasn't like "what is this specific car part".

I don't consider SamSho 4 to be the best in the series, it's just my personal favorite. This is mainly because it combines a great atmosphere with a unique sense of humor, a neat gameplay system and a soundtrack that I personally quite like. My main gripe with it is that because of how bad I am at the game I find there to be a big difficulty spike with the final opponents, regardless of whether I reach them within the time limit or not. I would say that the second game is the overall best in the series, with V Special being very popular for competitive play. I love fighting games too, and they're probably my favorite genre of games. Fatal Fury 1 is the Neo Geo game that I've put the most time into, and objectively it isn't particularly good but it's quite simple and jank with enough exploits and glitches to keep me interested in it for a long time to come.

The reasons why I put 2nd Squad over the first Shock Troopers is because I really enjoy Lulu and her spread shot, and the graphical style of the game has grown on me over time. As well, I really like how the dodge maneuver is more controllable compared to the first game, and the final boss pulls out all the stops, unlike in 1 where the boss is just one guy with fairly simple attack patterns. I love both games about equally though, and I definitely prefer the first game's soundtrack.

[BlasteroidAli]

Ghost pilots is the best game on the Neo Geo followed by the Metal slug games.

[jon]

Here are my personal favorites, and of course keep in mind that this is not an objective list. I guess I could make a more impartial list, but then again there's seriously no way that I could make a list that everybody could agree on. Some of these games are far off from a more proper rating, but at least with a list comprised of my picks I can be 100% accurate. After all, this list technically applies only to me, but you people could probably at least find something interesting to try out.

I'm only including the 156 officially released games, so no Digger Man or Jockey Grand Prix or anything like that. Then again, I've played and rated some of those games too so if you people want my ratings for them then let me know.

1. Neo Turf Masters A+
2. Metal Slug 1 A+
3. Metal Slug 3 A
4. Metal Slug 2 A
5. Metal Slug X A
6. Blazing Star A
7. Nightmare in the Dark A
8. Samurai Shodown IV A
9. Super Sidekicks 3 A
10. Neo Geo Cup '98 A
11. Magical Drop III A
12. Twinkle Star Sprites A
13. Breakers Revenge A
14. Puzzle Bobble 2 A
15. Sengoku 3 A
16. Matrimelee A
17. Art of Fighting 3 A
18. Prehistoric Isle 2 A
19. Metal Slug 5 A-
20. Spinmaster A-
21. Neo Drift Out A-
22. SVC Chaos A-
23. Strikers 1945 Plus A-
24. KOF 2000 A-
25. NAM-1975 A-
26. Pop'n Bounce A-
27. Viewpoint A-
28. Real Bout 1 A-
29. Real Bout Special A-
30. Real Bout 2 A-
31. Super Dodge Ball A-
32. Goal! Goal! Goal! A-
33. Zed Blade A-
34. Double Dragon A-
35. Sengoku 2 A-
36. Aero Fighters 3 A-
37. Aero Fighters 2 A-
38. Fatal Fury 1 A-
39. Garou MOTW A-
40. Ultimate 11 A-
41. The Last Blade 2 A-
42. The Last Blade A-
43. KOF '96 A-
44. KOF '97 A-
45. KOF '98 A-
46. KOF 2002 A-
47. KOF '99 A-
48. Shock Troopers 2nd Squad A-
49. Shock Troopers A-
50. Samurai Shodown II A-
51. Samurai Shodown V Special A-
52. Breakers A-
53. Baseball Stars 2 A-
54. Bang Bead A-
55. Crossed Swords II A-
56. Ninja Master's A-
57. Puzzle Bobble A-
58. Pochi and Nyaa B+
59. Rage of the Dragons B+
60. Street Hoop B+
61. Waku Waku 7 B+
62. Fatal Fury 3 B+
63. Fatal Fury Special B+
64. Crossed Swords B+
65. Ghost Pilots B+
66. Pulstar B+
67. League Bowling B+
68. Ironclad B+
69. Samurai Shodown 1 B+
70. Windjammers B+
71. Overtop B+
72. Kabuki Klash B+
73. Battle Flip Shot B+
74. Ganryu B+
75. Karnov's Revenge B+
76. KOF 2003 B+
77. World Heroes 2 B+
78. Art of Fighting 2 B
79. Metal Slug 4 B
80. Mutation Nation B
81. Samurai Shodown III B
82. Samurai Shodown V B
83. Samurai Shodown RPG B
84. Pleasure Goal B
85. The Irritating Maze B
86. Sengoku B
87. Fatal Fury 2 B
88. Neo Geo CD Special B
89. KOF '96 Collection B
90. World Heroes B
91. Galaxy Fight B
92. Super Sidekicks 2 B
93. Tecmo World Soccer '96 B
94. Magical Drop II B
95. ADK World B
96. KOF 2001 B
97. KOF '95 B
98. Zupapa! B
99. Quiz King of Fighters B
100. Neo Mr. Do! B
101. Neo Bomber Man B
102. Magician Lord B
103. 2020 Super Baseball B
104. Thrash Rally B
105. Stakes Winner 2 B-
106. Burning Fight B-
107. Power Spikes II B-
108. Art of Fighting 1 B-
109. Idol Mahjong Final Romance 2 B-
110. Puzzle de Pon! R B-
111. Puzzle de Pon! B-
112. Top Hunter B-
113. Super Sidekicks 1 B-
114. World Heroes Perfect B-
115. World Heroes 2 Jet B-
116. Ninja Commando B-
117. KOF '94 B-
118. Baseball Stars Professional B-
119. Money Puzzle Exchanger B-
120. Captain Tomaday C+
121. Mahjong Kyo Retsuden C+
122. Zintrick C+
123. Kizuna Encounter C+
124. Savage Reign C+
125. Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer C+
126. Quiz Meitantei Neo & Geo C+
127. Quiz Daisousa Sen C+
128. Janshin Densetsu C+
129. 3 Count Bout C
130. Soccer Brawl C
131. Robo Army C
132. Eight Man C
133. Last Resort C
134. Chibi Maruko-chan Deluxe Quiz C-
135. Andro Dunos C-
136. Aggressors of Dark Kombat C-
137. Alpha Mission II C-
138. Football Frenzy C-
139. Stakes Winner C-
140. Master of Shogi C-
141. Minnasan no Okagesama Desu C-
142. Bakatono-sama Mahjong Man'yuki C-
143. Panic Bomber D+
144. Blue's Journey D+
145. Ragnagard D+
146. Riding Hero D
147. Puzzled D
148. Top Player's Golf D-
149. Cyber-Lip D-
150. Gururin F
151. The Super Spy F
152. King of the Monsters F
153. King of the Monsters 2 F
154. Ninja Combat F
155. Legend of Success Joe F
156. Fight Fever F-

This is a list that I can really agree with. In fact I’m going to play these games down the list. It’s been way too long since I played the Metal Slug games. I’m definitely not in the avante garde Metal Slug 3 is overrated camp. That’s a bunch of bologna. I feel like going down a list like this would be a good way to get familiar with maybe the whole library, definitely a lot I’ve overlooked. I do think that Cyber Lip is a heck of a lot of fun after having maybe a drink.