Category: Nintendo News

Although SNK is best known these days for its fantastic Neo Geo console and arcade systems – of which approximately a bajillion games are already available individually on the Switch – it’s easy to forget that the Osaka-based company enjoyed 12 years developing games before the Neo Geo arrived in 1990.

The SNK 40th Anniversary Collection pays tribute to those early days by offering up 13 games released between 1981 and 1990. What’s more, it promises to add another 11 games as free DLC a month after release. It quickly becomes clear upon starting, however, that SNK is underselling its compilation a little here: there’s actually far more on offer.

In reality, there aren’t 13 games available on day one: there are 21. That’s because many of the titles available – including the Ikari Warriors trilogy, action platformer Athena and beat ’em up gem P.O.W. – come in both arcade and ‘console’ (i.e. NES) versions.

Since the NES ports of SNK’s games were often tweaked heavily to adapt to (and often take advantage of) the home system’s capabilities, they generally feel like different games entirely. Play through the arcade version of Guerrilla War, for example, and you’ll be able to make the most of its twin-stick control system, letting you run in one direction and shoot in the other. The NES version ditches these controls, giving the game a different feel.

What games are on offer, then? Well, most of the big genres of the era are accounted for here. The aforementioned Ikari Warriors games and Guerrilla War ensure the run ‘n’ gun genre is well represented, as does tank game TNK III and its NES equivalent Iron Tank. Athena and Psycho Soldier cover the oddly anime-style platformer bases, while Alpha Mission, Prehistoric Isle and Vanguard make sure shoot ‘em up fans are catered for (although Vanguard, being the oldest game here, feels pretty primitive).

Meanwhile, P.O.W. is a fun little side-scrolling brawler (the NES version has the most powerful jump-kick in the history of gaming), Crystalis is an NES adventure RPG in the Zelda vein, and fighting game Street Smart – easily the weakest in the collection – makes it clear why everyone associates SNK with the likes of Fatal Fury and The King Of Fighters instead. This is the rare stinker in the pack, though: all the others, even the extremely basic Vanguard, have enough quality in them to keep you entertained for a while.

As previously mentioned, SNK will also be adding a further 11 games, free of charge, on 11 December. Oddly, two of them (Beast Busters and Search and Rescue) will be available as free DLC on the eShop, while the other nine – including quirky hungry car game Munch Mobile, brilliant run ‘n’ gunner Time Soldiers and the practically prehistoric 1980 shooter Sasuke vs Commander – will be added automatically as part of a ‘v1.02’ patch. When all’s said and done, you’re going to end up with a healthy selection of 24 titles (not counting those with both arcade and NES versions available), which amounts to around $1.66 per game.

The emulation isn’t bad, but it’s far from perfect. This compilation has been handled by Digital Eclipse – previously responsible for the likes of Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, Mega Man Legacy Collection and The Disney Afternoon Collection – and its ever-flexible Eclipse Engine handles most of these ‘80s games with no real issues. Some of the arcade titles, though, suffer some occasional screen warping and stuttering, which can be a little distracting. Meanwhile, the usual options are available in terms of scanlines (none, TV or monitor), scaling (none, full screen or stretch) and border art, and the main menu lets you rotate the screen vertically: though this isn’t available on a per-game basis, meaning you need to change it back any time you want to play a non-vertical game.

This one-size-fits-all approach also has a negative impact on multiplayer options. Because some of these games are twin-stick shooters, you’re going to need both analogue sticks to play: as a result, there’s no option to play two-player games with a single Joy-Con. The problem is, there are plenty of games in here – most notably the NES ones – that it would be perfectly possible to play with a single Joy-Con, but because it’s not possible with some it isn’t an option for any: you’re going to need two pairs of Joy-Con, or one pair and a Pro Controller, regardless of what game you’re playing.

One very cool feature it does have, though, we’d like to see in more retro compilations is the ‘watch’ option, which is available for most of the games here. Select this and the game will start playing itself, via an expert playthrough previously recorded (no doubt by some SNK boffin somewhere). Not only does let you study strategies for each game and see how to beat them without even losing a life, here’s the clever thing: at any point you can hit the + button, choose ‘start playing’ and you’ll take over from that moment. This means that, yes, you can fast forward the game right up to the final boss then essentially say “thanks chief, I think I can handle it from here”. Consider it an ‘older brother’ mode, if you will.

Digital Eclipse usually does a great job of not only making these games available to play, but also supporting them with oodles of archive material: the fantastic museum mode in Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection is proof of this. SNK 40th Anniversary Collection could potentially be the most impressive example yet, thanks to its section entitled ‘SNK Complete Works: 1978-1990’. All 74 games released by the company during this period are given their own section here, each filled with character art, promotional materials, a hefty helping of screenshots and loads of useful annotations explaining each game and giving some genuinely interesting trivia.

For example, arcade shooter Mechanised Attack ends with a fat cat businessman saying: “Perfect! Well done. Nothing more to say. Just relax.” Head to the entry for that game and you’ll be shown this ending – along with no fewer than 35 other screens and pieces of art for the game – with a note explaining that the businessman in question was actually the chairman of SNK at the time. Oh, and that the character art, which was a clear rip-off of The Terminator, was “influenced by a popular action horror film in which a robot wears human skin”.

On top of this 74-chapter history lesson, the museum mode also includes a bunch of other SNK flyers and magazine ads, and a bunch of fantastically illustrated Japanese player’s guides for some of the games in the compilation. The whole thing essentially raises the bar and defines how retro game collections should be handled in an ideal world: if you have any interest in game history you could potentially spend hours here reading up on each game and scrolling around the hi-res art.

Conclusion

This is how retro compilations should be done. Although the emulation has a few little hiccups along the way and single Joy-Con multiplayer is sadly missing, the overall package here is wonderfully presented. Rather than just slapping a rudimentary menu over a bunch of old ROMs, it’s clear there’s been a lot of effort made here to catalogue an often forgotten period in one of Japan’s most important game developers. As with all compilations there are a few misses, but the quality is generally high, and the supporting museum mode is an absolute treasure trove for retro enthusiasts.

From the searing colour of the menu icon to the lively title screen, Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum ‘n’ Fun! arrives on Switch with a spring in its step. And with good reason – alongside sister title Drum Session! on PS4, it’s the first Drum Master ever to arrive in Europe, and only the second to come to the US. In the East, though, it’s been a regular fixture in arcades and on consoles since 2004. The latest edition does a decent job of showcasing the series, although it trips over its own shoelaces at times with a wealth of control options, one of which simply doesn’t make the grade.

For the uninitiated, Taiko no Tatsujin involves beating a single drum on the head (red notes) or the rim (blue notes) as they move across a stave – think Rock Band with a Rhythm Paradise/Heaven/Tengoku (delete as appropriate) aesthetic and you’re there. Nailing the beat fills a ‘Soul Gauge’ and you’ll pass or fail a song depending on your performance. Yellow drumrolls, mallets and balloon notes give some room for personal flair, and new songs and characters are unlocked through high scores.

It’s rhythm game 101, then. Series mascots Don and Katsu provide the pure ‘vanilla’ experience, but a host of other playable characters offer ‘session skills’; they might fill the soul gauge at a faster rate or make the timing window for strikes more generous. There’s a whole bunch of characters to unlock, and the Switch gets saviour-of-the-moment, Kirby, and a pink Splatoon squid, too.

The first thing you’ll notice (following, of course, Bandai Namco’s comically lengthy End User License and Privacy Agreement) is the exploding fireworks of the loading screen, and they’ll soon become unwelcomely familiar. Don’t get us wrong; they’re never on screen very long, but they pop up between almost every menu transition. Sure, we expect short pauses before a track plays, but these interstitial loads, however brief, drag down the pace.

The meat of the game is split between two modes: the standard Taiko Mode for one or two players, where you choose from the entire list of songs, or Party Game which offers co-op and competitive multiplayer nuggets for up to four players. The tracklist is identical to the Japanese release, sorted into categories: Pop, Anime, Vocaloid, Variety, Classical, Game Music, and NAMCO Original. All tracks offer four difficulties (Extreme is suitably insane) and it’s a decent list, all-told, although look no further for why Bandai Namco top brass was reluctant to bring the series to Europe. It’s slim pickings if you’re not into J-pop or anime, and you’ll need to raid your local second-hand emporium for Rock Band peripherals to enact any Phil Collins/Gorilla-based drumming fantasies. It features Super Mario Odyssey’s ‘Jump Up Super Star!’, plus Splatoon 2 and Kirby medleys, and extra songs and packs are available as DLC – the Ghibli pack looks to be a winner, although making you pay for popular, non-copyrighted classical tracks feels a bit cheeky.

Of course, rhythm games rely on watertight controls and Drum ‘n’ Fun isn’t short of options. Our editor Damien already took a look at Hori’s drum peripheral – suffice to say it remains the preferred input method, albeit a hefty investment. If you’re already up to your eyeballs in DK Bongos and Guitar Hero plastic, the touchscreen is a great substitute, though hampered slightly by a couple of baffling design choices. For example, you can’t use it to navigate menus – it’s active only for the duration of the song. Likewise, it only works with Joy-Con attached, which makes stretching your thumbs to the bottom centre of the screen needlessly awkward.

We resorted to an odd, claw-like grip with our wrists pushed up in front of the buttons, the console pressed behind our bent knuckles and our pinkies acting as a shelf; this was the only way we could get our thumbs into position while holding the console. Resting the Switch on your lap is better, but that’s not always an option and won’t do your posture any favours. Button inputs can be used in conjunction with touch. Sure, there’s no shortage of options, but for something that should be pick-up-and-play, there’s a bit too much trial-and-error involved in achieving your perfect set-up.

But what about the ‘arcade-style’ motion controls, we hear you cry! Bearing in mind that the Joy-Con feature in Drum ‘n’ Fun’s logo, it’s depressing that they’re so incredibly unreliable. Duped or missed inputs are frequent and the game can’t consistently differentiate between horizontal/diagonal swipes and vertical hits. We’ve played enough Wii games to have very low expectations – of course it’ll struggle with multiple notes in rapid succession at higher difficulties! – but you’d hope that twelve years on from Wii, X-Y axis input would be a solved problem. The Joy-Con might allow very young kids or grandparents to ‘join in’ but, frankly, granny deserves better. Be prepared, also, for the return of the dreaded Wii elbow/forearm/torso, the ‘Bane of Boxing Day 2006’.

If you’ve got this far and are thinking ‘blimey – loading screens, claw-fist, dodgy waggle… Taxi!’, hold them there horses. In addition to the main game, Drum ‘n’ Fun has got a secret weapon in Party Game mode. It shamelessly apes Rhythm Paradise and, for the most part, the twenty games stand up very well by comparison. They’re similarly barmy, with a mix of co-op and versus games involving bouncing beach balls, scooping fish out of a pond, ordering sushi by repeating a beat, slicing projectiles, launching fireworks – you get the idea. While the quality varies (and the precision needed sometimes seems to be overly exacting), in the absence of Rhythm Paradise on Switch, this is a surprisingly fine alternative.

Conclusion

Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum ‘n’ Fun! gives Europeans a long-awaited taste of Japanese drum-fun. You’ll want to consider forking out for the taiko peripheral to see the game at its best, but Switch’s touchscreen makes this an easier recommendation than it would otherwise be. The motion controls should be avoided with extreme prejudice – they’re simply unworkable – and a few odd design decisions, not to mention an excess of loading screens, take the shine off what is a beautifully bold and bouncy game. Fortunately, the Party Game section helps shore things up, offering short bursts of multiplayer fun as a credible stopgap until Rhythm Paradise arrives.