The team at Unity today unveiled a beta version of their new Unity Game Simulation service, which they pitch as an affordable way to remotely simulate (via Google Cloud servers) large volumes of player interactions with your game.

Specifically, Unity claims you’ll be able to upload a build of your game (via the Unity Editor) and simulate thousands of concurrent player interactions, at variable speed, using servers running on Google Cloud.

The company is quick to position the new platform as a complement to human playtesters, rather than a replacement, though it also advertises Unity Game Simulation as a way for devs to “get more quantitative testing coverage at a fraction of a playtester’s hourly rate.”

Curious devs can find more details about the platform and how to start using it over on the Unity Game Simulation corner of Unity’s website. A free trial version is currently available for Unity devs to check out, though the company reserves the right to charge devs who exceed (otherwise unspecified) “certain limits” during use.

Forced to recount the litany of sins that we have committed in the virtual world to a priest, the average video game player might not exit the confessional booth for some time.

It’s not just the body-count, which, for even the mildest-mannered of players, is of genocidal proportions. There’s also the colonialism we have promoted in Civilization, the social manipulation we’ve engaged in while puttering about in Animal Crossing, the fornication meted out in Leisure Suit Larry, and the thievery of, well, Thief.

We brush off most virtual transgressions as playful tomfoolery. The casualties of our gamely actions are, after all, no different to fallen tokens in a boardgame (nobody grieves the toppled pawns in the grisly aftermath of a chess match). But as technology renders the virtual worlds conjured in video games with ever greater fidelity, old questions are being asked with new urgency.

Should any actions be disallowed within the seemingly consequence-free context of a video game? Should any scenarios be considered taboo? Moreover, does photorealistic rendering, or the full body trickery of virtual reality, challenge the golden rule that no subject should be off-limits to an artist?

These questions are challenging a new generation of virtual reality designers who are working in a medium where the effects on the human brain are yet to be charted, let alone understood. In 2016 Michael Madary and Thomas K. Metzinger, two researchers from the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in Germany, published a paper in which they point to evidence of “a lasting psychological impact” after subjects return to the physical world.

 

“Does photorealistic rendering, or the full body trickery of virtual reality, challenge the golden rule that no subject should be off-limits to an artist?”

“The power of VR to induce particular kinds of emotions could be used deliberately to cause suffering,” they write. “Conceivably, the suffering could be so extreme as to be considered torture.” As a result they recommend “careful screening of subjects to minimize the risks of aggravating an existing psychological disorder or an undetected psychiatric vulnerability.”

As Scott Stephan, currently at FoxNext VR (and formerly a designer at L.A.-based studio Wevr) puts it, the way that human beings process virtual reality games and experiences is “not through the eyes of a person using their critical media-viewing faculty but through the eyes of I, the self, with all of the very human, systems-level, subconscious voodoo that comes along with that.”

Stephan refuses to include any threat bigger than a small dog in VR scenarios; anything larger, he says, and the experience shifts from the kind of enjoyable frights of a rollercoaster to something that is earnestly terrifying. “In VR, players are always careful not to collide with other scale models of human characters,” he says. “It’s clear sign of a closure in the gap that has occurred between brain, body and fine motor-skills.”

As VR designers (and, in the case of the doctors who are using VR to treat soldiers suffering from PTSD, the medical profession) begin to consider the effects of actions taken in virtual spaces on the brain’s fight/ flight systems, it follows that we must also consider the effects of our virtual crimes on the heart, and what continued exposure to the kinds of power fantasies in which games have traded since their inception might mean.

Epic Games’ Robo Recall

Epic Games’ Nick Donaldson describes his VR game Robo Recall, in which you play as Blade Runner-style robotics contractor removing defective robots from circulation, as being the very definition of a power fantasy. “One of our design pillars of the game was to make you feel like Neo from The Matrix, so we allowed the player to catch bullets, teleport all over the place, and throw things with superhuman strength,” he says.

Donaldson defines the video game power fantasy as a virtual context in which “a person is able to do something that they wouldn’t have the means or ability to do in real life.” It’s a definition to which video games have long cleaved, giving players, across the decades tens of thousands of opportunities to live the lives of soldiers, space marines, professional football players and race car drivers.

“Power fantasies are relatively easy to create in video games but have big emotional pay-outs,” says VR game designer Shawn Patton. “Mastering a vocation in real life is very difficult. Training your mind and body, that takes a long time. Video games allow you to be the best adventurer, fighter, detective, assassin, athlete, or soldier in a matter of hours.”

Donaldson agrees that it is human nature to want to engage in power fantasies, and they may be even more appealing to young people, whose agency in the world is necessarily limited. “Who doesn’t want to experience something they’ll never get to do in real life- to be just like that super hero they saw in a movie, you know?” he says. “Being capable and powerful is a great feeling, both in real life and in a game.”

In life, with power, so the saying goes, comes responsibility – a lesson which, only in 2017, is being learned by some high-profile men who have abused their positions. In the context of the video game, unless a designer actively implements punitive systems to discourage the player from certain behaviors, there is no responsibility or consequence for what might be considered abuses of power in a real-world context. Trying to reconcile the player agency with moral boundaries is a knotty design conundrum, one that can lead to fiction-spoiling compromises, such as in the Fallout series, where players can attack and kill any character they meet save children, who are weirdly rendered invincible.

Westworld (2017)

The theme, long a provincial concern for video game makers and commentators, has, in recent months, gone mainstream. Westworld, HBO’s recent and lavish remake of the 1973 film of the same name, is set within a giant Wild West-themed amusement park staffed by costumed cyborgs that are indistinguishable from humans. Entry to the park is expensive and, as a result, customers expect to be able to behave however they want within the boundaries of its magic circle.

Visitors sleep with the park’s robotic staff, shoot them down in cold blood during scripted missions and, generally, exercise complete free will without the threat of consequence. Like video game NPCs, the park’s staff are no more than objects created in humanity’s image; Nobody is earnestly hurt, abused or imperilled by the players’ actions, and like the murdered video game NPC, the cyborgs are repaired and restored the moment the stage is reset.

As well as examining the question of robot rights, Westworld examines what effect unrestrained power fantasies might have on those carrying them out. Shooting a robot sex worker that is indistinguishable from a human woman in the chest at point blank range may be functionally no different to, say, throwing a toaster into a trash compactor, but does the action not morally degrade the human being in the equation in some way?

“Games have been capable of depicting violence in high fidelity for a while now, so this isn’t really new territory, but it’s definitely something we think about,” says Donaldson. “Given the extra immersive qualities of VR, we made a conscious effort to avoid having humans to shoot in Robo Recall.”

***

It’s revealing that Americans often talk about ‘beating’ a video game, in a way that nobody would talk about ‘beating’ Moby Dick, or Schindler’s List. The inference is that games are things to be defeated, and victory is, in most spheres of life, won via a dominant exercising of power. But the terminology isn’t only clumsy, it also limits the medium, tying players and designers alike to an idea that every game must designed in such a way that it can be won. This artificial narrowing confines the artistic imagination: what about games that explore failure, death, loss, pain — the kinds of insurmountable challenge and set-back that are commonplace in existence

Since the early 2000s, the rise of the so-called disempowerment fantasy has become a regular feature of the underground game-making scene. Games such as Darfur is Dying placed players in the shoes, not of a marine, superhero or secret agent, but of a displaced Sudanese child, caught in the impossible situation of scavenging for water while evading capture.

Richard Hofmeier’s Cart Life

More have followed, including breakout hits such as Cart Life, in which you play as a succession of down-and-out characters living in poverty in contemporary America, and Papers, Please, in which you balance the twin pressures of your impossible job as a border agent, and your starving, sick family. That Dragon Cancer examines the rigors and stress of living with a terminally ill child and, in doing so, presents a puzzle without a solution, a game about surrender, not dominance.

“Just as games are able to put you into the shoes of a powerful hero, so they allow you to experience the life of someone working day-to-day or a border agent witnessing stories of oppressed people,” says Donaldson. Games such as Darfur is Dying “invite us to step into the smaller, more uncomfortable shoes of the downtrodden rather than the larger, more well-heeled shoes of the powerful,” Georgia Tech professor Ian Bogost writes in his book How to Do Things with Videogames. The academic Ian Bryce Jones identifies freedom, interactivity, and achievable goals as the three pillars of the video game power fantasy. Disempowerment fantasy inverts these pillars. “[They] deny player freedom, emphasize their lack of interactivity, and include goals that cruelly cannot be achieved,” he writes.

 

“We’re starting to transgress the traditional boundaries of media consumption. We’re not putting images on a screen, we’re not providing you with the useful comforts of abstraction, we’re putting you there and, in many ways, tricking you into believing it’s true.”

It’s tempting to argue that the disempowerment fantasy could be a solution to the concern that VR could make tyrannical monsters of us all. But just as there are risks to the video game power fantasy, there are risks and limitations to the disempowerment fantasy. In reality, a trafficked woman or child slave is robbed of the ability to make autonomous decisions. Games that tackle these difficult situations risk implying that real people in these situations need only make the correct sequence of decisions to escape their circumstances – a criticism which has already been levelled at David Cage’s forthcoming Detroit: Become Human, whose design appears to suggest that domestic abuse is something that can be overcome via a decision tree.

There’s also the issue in VR, of the psychological risks associated with putting players in situations where a powerless avatar’s safety is imperiled. “I’m not going to go as far as to say that you could be traumatized by a VR experience, but the fear is fear and not the abstract, fun, roller-coaster-kind-of fear,” says Stephan. “It doesn’t mean that you can’t push boundaries or do extreme content, but I do think it means that you have to really, really think about how people are going to interact with your content and how they might feel about it.”

Stephan believes that, regardless of the long-term success of the current VR boon, the rules have somehow changed, “We’re starting to transgress the traditional boundaries of media consumption,” he says. “We’re not putting images on a screen, we’re not providing you with the useful comforts of abstraction, we’re putting you there and, in many ways, tricking you into believing it’s true.”

The complications of the disempowerment power fantasy may remain a peripheral issue for most game designers. In the foreseeable future Patton thinks it’s unlikely that the traditional video game power fantasy will retreat from its position of dominance and focus in the medium.

“Blockbuster games, like movies, have to follow tried and true formulas because they have to make money,” he says. “If enough serious games make money, then certainly we’ll see blockbuster games that attempt to cash in on that, but only if it’s a sure thing.”

For now, game designers continue to wrestle with the old questions of how to create video games in which players aren’t problematically flattered through power fantasies, or empowered to behave in ways that degrade the spirit. And while they do, the uncanny valley closes, and the stakes raise.

Epic Games have just announced a massive giveaway of asset packs from Project Nature.  This is a collection of trees, bushes, grasses and controlling blueprints for creating nature scenes in your Unreal Engine games.

Details from the Unreal Engine blog:

In collaboration with Project Nature, Epic Games has released over 20 environment and vegetation products for free on the Unreal Engine Marketplace.

The collection includes over 75 varieties of plant species, many of which were photoscanned from real-world vegetation, ranging from towering trees to the smallest of ground plants and flowers. Create a refreshing oasis retreat, escape to a serene meadow, or adorn a warm desert landscape for your audience to explore; with more than 550 optimized models, the sky, or the ground, is the limit on what you can grow!

The pack consists of:

• Hundreds of optimized plant models and materials
• The shader-based Project Nature Wind System 2.0
• The Project Nature Interaction System 2.0, including replicated animations
• A dynamic low-poly grass system
• A dynamic ivy creation pack
• And more!

You can download the assets using the Epic Game Launcher or via the website available here.  There is no time limit on this giveaway, all 21 packs are available free forever.  If you want to learn how to export from Unreal Engine to another engine or tool (such as Blender) you can learn more here.  Learn more about the asset giveaway in the video below.

[embedded content]

GameDev News Unreal

<!–

–>

I’ve been looking forward to this day for a while now. CDPR’s Witcher card-game spin-off has finally released onto Android as of this morning. GWENT started life as an in-game card game playable as you explored the world of Witcher 3, similar to that card game from Final Fantasy 8. With the digital CCG still very much alive, however, CDPR decided to spin it off into its own thing.

It was released on PC first, then consoles and iOS, but it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. The console versions don’t seem to have done particularly well, and were recently shut down. PC and mobile audiences seem decent though, which is why we finally have our android version. Here’s a trailer to celebrate:

[embedded content]

I took it for a quick spin this morning – I’ve only dabbled in the Witcher 3 version of the game, but it was more different than I was expecting. Still quite fun though – the objective is to win two out of three rounds, but you’re only ever going to see part of your deck. You start with ten cards, and then you draw three additional cards on rounds two and three.

The means your tactical resources are fixed and limited for the entire match, so over-committing on the first round, for example, may mean you can’t seal the victory on round two or even three. Knowing when to concede a round is also going to be key.

I highly suggest you read the guide Michael wrote for us a while back on GWENT tips, especially if you’re a new player like me.

Progress in GWENT can sync across PC and iOS, since it’s controlled via a GOG.com account. You’ll need to create one before you can log into the game, and the tutorial can also take around half an hour, so make sure you put aside time if you’re looking to try it out.

GWENT: The Witcher Card Game is available to play for free on iOS and Android.

Apple on Wednesday unveiled two new iPad Pro models that come equipped with a LiDAR Scanner, which will offer major improvements to ARKit and photography.

Apple’s new LiDAR Scanner will offer major improvements to augmented reality.

The new 11- and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models are the first of Apple’s devices to feature the 3D laser system, but they likely won’t be the last. Here’s what you need to know about LiDAR, how it improves current iPad Pro models, and what other future Apple devices could feature it.

What is LiDAR?

At the most basic level, LiDAR is a time-of-flight system that shoots low-power lasers at an environment. Using the reflections, it calculates the distance to objects and points in the environment, and creates an accurate 3D depth map or rendering based on the results.

Apple’s own proprietary take on it, simply dubbed the LiDAR Scanner, likely has a few more tricks up its sleeve. Apple says it can measure the distance to surrounding objects up to 5 meters away and operates “at the photon level at nano-second speeds.”

The iPad Pro LiDAR Scanner is used to create depth mapping points that, when combined with camera and motion sensor data, can create a “more detailed understanding of a scene” according to Apple.

What could a LiDAR Scanner be used for?

Both first- and third-party apps will be able to take advantage of more accurate depth mapping.

Among Apple’s existing features, LiDAR will have the biggest impact on augmented reality (AR) and Apple’s own ARKit framework. Apple says the new LiDAR Scanner will allow for instant object placement, indicating that users wouldn’t need to “scan” their environment before an AR app loads.

Along with improvements to motion capture and people occlusion, the LiDAR Scanner will also make the Measure app much faster and more accurate. Measure will now include a new Ruler View for more granular measurements going forward, too.

While Apple didn’t specifically mention it, LiDAR will improve photography too. Take Portrait Mode, which the 2018 iPad Pro only supported in front-facing mode. With an actual 3D depth map of an area instead of using lens-based calculations to determine depth, Apple could add rear-facing Portrait Mode to the iPad Pro and improve the feature’s accuracy and speed.

Is the LiDAR coming to other devices?

Apple’s LiDAR scanner has launched first on the new 11- and 12.9-inch iPad Pro, as was previously rumored. But the system is also largely expected to arrive on some 2020 iPhones, too.

The latest information, pulled from code within an iOS 14 leak, suggests that a time-of-flight camera will arrive on both the “iPhone 12 Pro” and the “iPhone 12 Pro Max” this year.

On those devices, a LiDAR Scanner will also bring the same improvements to ARKit apps and photography. But combined with Ultra Wide Band technology, it may also be useful in applications such as indoor navigation and item tracking.

LiDAR for vehicular applications

LiDAR is a new addition to Apple’s handheld devices, but the Cupertino tech company has actually been actively using them for years in other applications. Apple vehicles with LiDAR sensors have been spotted in California as far back as 2015. The technology is considered a crucial part of the development of autonomous vehicles, particularly so they can accurately analyze their environment.

Amid rumors of Project Titan and the “Apple Car,” the company appears to be steadily investing into LiDAR and other related research for vehicular applications, including a slew of patent applications related to the tech.

And in a rare public-facing example of its research, Apple also published a research paper in 2017 detailing LiDAR-based 3D object recognition systems for self-driving cars. Essentially, the system leverages the depth mapping of LiDAR and combines it with neural networks to vastly improve the ability of a self-driving car to “see” its environment and potential hazards.

The world is upside down right now. We’re learning lots of new phrases like social distancing, contact tracing, and stop snacking just because you’re bored. Everyone around the world is coming together to do their part, whether that’s working on finding a vaccine, delivering food and supplies, or staying indoors. Whatever the case, all of our daily routines have been thrown completely out of whack. It’s easy to get scared at a time like this, which is why focusing on something can help you stay calm.

Educators around the world are doing everything they can to provide digital lessons for the half a billion students who are out of school due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is not an easy task and we want to do our part to help keep young minds sharp and stimulated.

If you head over to the Minecraft Marketplace, you will find some of our favorite lessons from Minecraft: Education Edition in a brand new Education category. These educational worlds can be played on your own, with your kids, parents or friends. From the comfort of your home, you can tour the International Space Station or even explore the inside of a human eye. We’ve also included ten worlds from our Marketplace creator community! Thanks to creators Everbloom, Jigarbov, Lifeboat, Razzleberries, The World Foundry, Blockworks, and Imagiverse you can explore renewable energy, marine biology, Greek history, and more! The worlds include lesson plans like creative writing activities, build challenges, and tricky puzzles.

All of these worlds are launching today and are free to download through June 30, 2020.

Anyone with Minecraft for Bedrock platforms can find these worlds by launching Minecraft and visiting the in-game store. Minecraft is available on Android & iOS, Kindle Fire, Windows 10 PC, Gear VR, Oculus Rift, Fire TV, Xbox One, Windows MR, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4.

You can find the complete content list here: https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/marketplace/education

To learn more about distance learning with Minecraft: Education Edition, visit: https://aka.ms/remote-learning-blog

Stay safe, wherever you are. We’ll get through this.

Much like Hamster’s Arcade Archives series, the company’s line of Neo Geo titles – which goes by the bespoke title ‘ACA NEOGEO’ to separate it from the rest – has been a regular fixture of the weekly Nintendo Switch eShop download lists. With over a hundred releases under the ACA banner, Hamster has done sterling work getting these games on Switch and into the hands of fans who may never have experienced them before.

SNK’s Neo Geo was a beautiful system that fused arcade and home console hardware, but at a cost. The significant financial outlay require for Neo Geo ownership meant it was out of reach of the average gamer back in the day. Fortunately, the games below will cost you a fraction of what they originally sold for and come with a multitude of presentation options to tailor the experience to your liking on Switch.

Below we’ve listed every ACA Neo Geo release available on Switch eShop to date and it will be updated as new titles are released. The games are displayed in alphabetical order, although you can go to our games database and sort by Release Date or User Rating. Please note that the Arcade Archive releases are NOT included here. Check out our separate guide for Arcade Archive games on Switch for more info on Hamster’s non-Neo Geo Switch gems.

And if this huge list is a tad overwhelming, you’ll find our picks of the best ACA Neo Geo games on Switch at the bottom. No prizes for guessing it contains a lot of fighters.

ACA Neo Geo Switch eShop releases – Complete list

Looking at that list and don’t know where to start? Then check out our picks of the best ACA NEOGEO games – in no particular order – to get you off on the right foot.

The best Switch ACA Neo Geo games…

Publisher: SNK / Developer: SNK

Release Date: 11th Nov 1999 (USA) / 11th May 2017 (UK/EU)

The first fighter in our picks of Switch’s finiest ACA Neo Geo offerings, and it certainly won’t be the last. Garou: Mark of the Wolves is a classic of the genre; the perfect fusion of depth and beauty that will appeal to hardened veterans of 2D fighters and button-mashing newbies alike. By 1999 the Neo Geo hardware was nearly a decade old and SNK’s mastery of it is in full evidence here. It’s one of very few games we’d recommend everybody buy, even those who actively dislike fighters (yes, apparently they exist). This game is just too pretty to miss. We could sit and watch animated gifs of Garou’s backgrounds for hours. Essential.

Publisher: SNK / Developer: Noise Factory

Release Date: 2001 (USA) / 5th Sep 2013 (UK/EU)

A side-scrolling beat ’em up in the classic mould, Sengoku 3 is a straightforward and satisfying example of a genre that needs little explaining to begin with. With plenty of variety and attacking options, it’s a fun blast whether you’re playing solo or you’ve enlisted a friend for the ride. We put it on our list of the best beat ’em ups on Switch, so its inclusion here should be no surprise.

Publisher: SNK / Developer: SNK

Release Date: 25th Nov 1998 (USA) / 6th Dec 2012 (UK/EU)

As with many of the best fighters, seemingly simple mechanics hide a lot of depth and The Last Blade 2 is a fine example. An extremely enjoyable game with fantastic presentation and a host of fighting modes to get stuck into, the balancing of the first entry is arguably better, although the sequel has more characters and options available. Whichever one you go for, you’ll be guaranteed a fine-looking fighter with plenty of personality, so you can’t really go wrong.

Publisher: SNK / Developer: Nazca Corp.

Release Date: 1996 (USA) / 9th May 2008 (UK/EU)

If you’re looking for an old-school shot of satisfying gameplay without endless options and upgrade systems and RPG-like progression, Metal Slug is the no-nonsense antidote to modern-day complications. It might feel a little too simplistic by modern standards, but there’s something about the purity of its approach which makes it an absolute blast and a lovely palette cleansers before diving into something more faceted on Switch. Nazca Corporation’s run-and-gun may have debuted in 1996, but it’s got the beating heart of an ’80s action icon (and a brain to match). Fabulous.

Publisher: SNK / Developer: SNK

Release Date: 23rd Sep 1998 (USA) / 30th May 2013 (UK/EU)

If you’re into King of Fighter games, you’ll find a whole bunch available on Switch. If we were pushed, The King of Fighters ’98 would probably be our pick of the bunch. It’s got a huge cast, the same tight, deep gameplay you’ve come to expect from SNK and is still regarded one of the best fighters ever made well over 20 years since release. Similarly to Garou, we’d buy it just to ogle its visual loveliness.

Publisher: Sunsoft

Release Date: 21st Nov 1996 (USA) / 3rd Mar 2017 (UK/EU)

You like fighters, right? If you’re reading this list we sure hope so. If you’re after something a little unusual, Waku Waku 7 serves up a 2D scrapper decidedly different from umpteen KoFs and Fatal Furies – a welcome break even given the quality of those series. This, too, is a sequel, to 1995’s underwhelming Galaxy Fight, but despite a small roster Sunsoft packed this game with spectacularly colourful cartoon visuals and a bunch of in-jokes and irreverent parodies to make it feel fresh and unique in a system library overflowing with quality games in this genre. This was the first game ACA Neo Geo game Hamster brought to Switch and a lovely breath of fresh air.

Publisher: SNK / Developer: Yumekobo

Release Date: 19th Feb 1998 (USA) / 2nd May 2017 (UK/EU)

There was a time when Blazing Star was beyond the reach of all but the most affluent gamer, but now anyone with a Switch can download and enjoy this brilliant shmup for the price of a (pricey) pint. The thrill of owning something that was once so inaccessible shouldn’t overshadow just how good this game is, though. The difficulty ramps right up towards the end, but if you’re a fan of shoot ’em ups, this is a treasure you won’t want to be without.

Publisher: Data East / Developer: Data East

Release Date: 1995 (USA) / 14th Jan 2011 (UK/EU)

What’s this? A Neo Geo game that isn’t a fighter? Yes, you might not have expected a puzzle game on this list but despite the shared genres of several entries here, Magical Drop III is a fantastic balloon-firing puzzler that you should definitely investigate. It mde our list of the best puzzle games on Switch and shows that there was more to the Neo Geo library than an endless parade of gorgeous 2D fighters. Puzzle fans should definitely check this out.

Publisher: SNK / Developer: Video System

Release Date: 1994 (USA) / 3rd Aug 2017 (UK/EU)

A vertical shooter (you know, for variety), Aero Fighters 2 is an easy recommendation thanks to its varied locales, multiple piloting options, large roster of enemies entertaining boss battles and multiple endings. Throw in 2-player and the usual Hi-Score and Caravan modes and what’s not to like? The sequel is also available, although with its fixed-pairings for 2-player mode we’d download Aero Fighters 2 first and go from there.

Publisher: SNK / Developer: SNK

Release Date: 28th Oct 1994 (USA) / 8th Aug 2008 (UK/EU)

Still one of the best fighters available on the console (and there are a fair few to choose from now, if the list above has whetted your appetite), Samurai Shodown II improved on the original with new fighters and tweaks and fine-tuning to the mechanics to accompany the already stonkingly lovely sprite work. This should be in your library, whether you life fighters or not. Yes, we realise that’s the third time we’ve recommended a fighting game to non-fighting fans. They’re just so purdy!

Ah, how we love that SNK artwork; all those grins and round chins! Thank you for scrolling to the very bottom. With so many games to choose from we’re just scratching the surface with the games above. Let us know which of Hamster’s ACA Neo Geo games you’ve most enjoyed–and which ones you’d avoid–with a cheeky comment below.