Game Info
Game Name: SNK 40th Anniversary Collection
Developer(s): Digital Eclipse
Publisher(s): Digital Eclipse
Platform(s): PS4/Xbox One/Switch/PC
Genre(s): Arcade/Retro Gaming/Compilation
Release Date(s): November 13, 2018 (Switch)/March 19, 2019 (PS4)/May 3, 2019 (Xbox One)/June 7, 2019 (PC)
ESRB Rating: T
Ikari Warriors Arcade
Head back to the arcade to celebrate SNK! With twenty-four games, you can gun, jump, and fly your way through level after level. Be it battling aliens, invading forces, or exploring dungeons, there is an SNK adventure for everyone…or you can revisit your NES console version for a change! Fight on!
SNK 40th Anniversary Collection is an anthology game developed by Digital Eclipse. The game was initially released for the switch in 2018 but received a wider release in 2019. It was given largely positive reviews. The reviewed version is the Switch version.
I had a strange desire to get SNK 40th Anniversary primarily for one reason…Crystalis. I borrowed the game from a friend in high school and never got to finish it. While simply a Zelda clone, it was a bit more developed for a NES game and had some fun aspects to it. It might not be the smartest reason to buy SNK 40th Anniversary, but at least you get more games with it.
Crystalis NES
The titles on the collection are rather robust and spans from 1979 to 1990. The full list includes: Ozma Wars, Saskue vs. Commander, Fantasy, Vanguard, Munch Mobile, Alpha Mission, TNK III, Athena, Ikari Warriors, Ikari Warriors: Victory Road, Bermuda Triangle, Guerrilla War, Psycho Soldier, Time Soldiers, World Wars, Chopper I, P.O.W.: Prisoners of War, Paddle Mania, Baseball Stars (only available on Xbox One), Beast Busters, Ikari III: The Rescue, Prehistoric Isle, SAR: Search and Rescue, Street Smart, and Crystalis. They range from simple early video games to the more layered RPG style of Crystalis.
I did play a lot of the games on this collection on the NES, but going back and playing the console ports, it shows their age. Games like Ikari Warriors and its sequel are rather frustrating in the perspective and the limited mobility of the characters. It feels like SNK games are clones of multiple system games and sometimes in that sense feel like generic rip-off games…but if you played them as a kid, there is a nostalgia factor.
Bermuda Triangle Arcade
The graphics may not hold-up, but the presentation of this collection is quite slick. I really like that the console version is an option since honestly, some console games were better than their arcade counterpart, but I feel that you should have a choice in which one you get to play. Often, you get one or the other and you might be dying for both.
SNK 40th Anniversary is not a fit for everyone. It helps to have a fondness for the games in the collection or a connection to even one or two of them. Even if you do like one or two games, you might struggle to be entertained by the other games in the game. They feel quite repetitive of other games within the collection. With so many retro gaming options out there, a full game of retro games might either be overkill or not worth the time for some players because of the options. I’d still take a lot of these games over some “better” new games of today.
