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[Dragoon En Regalia]

Aside from their fighters and Nazca's games, Shock Troopers represents the development team at their best. Incredibly tight game design and visuals/SFX, with all the best pacing you'd expect from a late-era arcade game. Music's the only subpar element.

 

[Barrel Cannon]

I recognize KOF98 and GMOTW as their top efforts
Last Blade 2 as close runner up.

My personal fav will always be Metal Slug 3. It holds a special place in my heart

 

[leroidys]

Better than the console efforts

My man. Love this game.

To weigh in with my personal opinion on some of the other titles, Garou over KoF 98 (always liked FF series better) and Last Blade 1 over 2 (more focused, better tone).

 

[MutFox]

Garou is SNK's Third Strike.

 

[mreddie]

98


King of Fighters '98
Last Blade 2
Metal Slug 2
Neo Geo Cup '98
Real Bout Fatal Fury 2

 

[cyborgnumberblue]

RBFF2: The Newcomers is my pick, this game is perfect.

Art of Fighting 3 and as many have said, Garou and LB2 are up there, too.

 

[To Far Away Times]

Garou is probably the best game they ever made, but Last Blade 2 has no direct equivalent from another studio, and it's presentation is unique and maybe the best in all of fighting games.

 

[Raitaro]

It's Garou for me as well. Incredible what they accomplished in just one game, both artistically and in terms of gameplay, compared to Capcom needing at least 2 if not 3 versions of SFIII to get to the same high level (and that's coming from someone who loves SFIII to death).

Thinking about how incredible Garou 2 would have been with those new characters as well as stages, gameplay tweaks etc. still boggles my mind. I'd say that chances have never been higher for this sequel to be completed still, now with SNK being back on track to pleasing its fans and willing to acknowledge (and re-release) Garou and the sequel, so hopefully we'll see it at some point if Garou does well on PSN. Now that would be an absolute dream come true game for many, many oldschool fighting game fans.

 

[Bloodporne]

Man, AOF3 is great. The only thing it really did wrong was being a part of the AOF series... but it's such a dramatically better game than the previous two. Great art, unique combat system, and just a lot of fun to play.

It seems kind of overlooked sadly, yes. I remember the animations really blowing me away back in the day, it's so buttery smooth and they went for some awesome realism in the combat system and its moves.

As a martial arts guy myself, I love the way they handled the low/mid/high kicks in this game and all that, nice playing game overall even though I'm not very good at fighting games to begin with ha.

 

[thepenguin55]

I think the only negative thing I can say about Garou is I think its soundtrack is terrible, though I feel this way about all the KOF and Fatal Fury games. I would say that Garou was definitely SNK's "Third Strike" but as much as Garou put a new twist on Fatal Fury it was kind of business as usual as far as the soundtrack was concerned. For me personally when it comes to Capcom fighters vs SNK fighters I feel Capcom pretty consistently spanked SNK in the music department, but maybe I feel that way because I came to the SNK fighters much later in my life?

It seems kind of overlooked sadly, yes. I remember the animations really blowing me away back in the day, it's so buttery smooth and they went for some awesome realism in the combat system and its moves.

As a martial arts guy myself, I love the way they handled the low/mid/high kicks in this game and all that, nice playing game overall even though I'm not very good at fighting games to begin with ha.

I own the Neo Geo CD version which is actually a pretty great version AOF3 despite some minor visual downgrades.

 

[Whompa02]

Garou, Last Blade 2 and KOF13

 

[Peltz]

Metal Slug 3. There is no greater spectacle in their library.

 

[sir_kevith]

Aside from their fighters and Nazca's games, Shock Troopers represents the development team at their best. Incredibly tight game design and visuals/SFX, with all the best pacing you'd expect from a late-era arcade game. Music's the only subpar element.

I was playing this game recently and was thinking that the drum n' bass kinda aged well haha. I guess it's cause that stuff has had kind of a resurgence.

 

[IndieJones]

IT ALL BEGAN IN '94
KEPT ON ROLLIN' IN '95
PIECES FELL IN PLACE IN '96
IT CAME TO THE END IN '97

AND NOW IT COMES AND HERE WE GO
THE K O F IS HERE AGAIN

NOTHING's GONNA STOP IT'S 1 9 9 8!

 

[FrontalMonk]

It's been said a thousand times already, but peak SNK for me was LB2, Garou, and MS3.

Favorite game still CFC tho.

 

[Ninja Dom]

The year 1998 was their absolute peak.

That year they released:

Metal Slug 2
Real Bout Fatal Fury 2
King of Fighters 98 (one of the finest fighters ever made)
Last Blade 2.

Interestingly, some will say 1999 was better but that's simply because 1998 was just such a great year that the newcomers heard about how great it was, and jumped on the bandwagon a year later.

IT ALL BEGAN IN '94
KEPT ON ROLLIN' IN '95
PIECES FELL IN PLACE IN '96
IT CAME TO THE END IN '97

AND NOW IT COMES AND HERE WE GO
THE K O F IS HERE AGAIN

NOTHING's GONNA STOP IT'S 1 9 9 8!

Exactly this!!!

 

[Metal-Geo]

That Neo-Geo startup chime in their logo animation... It's... It's so beautiful. No I'm not crying - s-shut up!

As for my answer, it's definitely Metal Slug 3. That game is packed with great levels, sprites and music. It's the Metal Slug that even its 4 successors couldn't top.

 

[kunonabi]

The year 1998 was their absolute peak.

That year they released:

Metal Slug 2
Real Bout Fatal Fury 2
King of Fighters 98 (one of the finest fighters ever made)
Last Blade 2.

Ridiculous lineup right there. Really hard to argue with any of the picks in the thread so far.

 

[AmyS]

That's easy.

 

[Syril]

It seems kind of overlooked sadly, yes. I remember the animations really blowing me away back in the day, it's so buttery smooth and they went for some awesome realism in the combat system and its moves.

As a martial arts guy myself, I love the way they handled the low/mid/high kicks in this game and all that, nice playing game overall even though I'm not very good at fighting games to begin with ha.

I love the look of the rotoscoped animations in it with how the gameplay is kind of a "3D fighter but in 2D" style. Have there been any other fighting games that have used rotoscoping? The only other one I know of is Elena's animations in Street Fighter 3.

 

[leroidys]

That's easy.

Really surprised that nobody else has even mentioned this yet. Amazing game.

 

[woodypop]

Better than the console efforts

So. Good.

It's amazing that they managed MotM on the NGPC.I should really dig it out and fire it up again.

EDIT: What AmyS said. Samurai Shodown 2 is awesome. I just wish my friends were more into it. =/

 

[EricB]

For me it's Garou, Metal Slug 3 and Last Blade 2 that stand above everything else. All of them are timeless, they still play great and look stunning to this day. I honestly prefer the look of Garou/LB2 over Street Fighter 3 even if the animation isn't as fluid. If I had to choose one I'd go with Garou just because it has the least amount of re-used stuff in it. But I can't stress enough how amazing all 3 are.

Timely post. I am now enjoying all three of these games on PS Vita.

 

[simtmb]

Last Blade 2 and Metal Slug 3

 

[cuilan]

I'm going with KoF2000. In my opinion, it has better music, presentation, and art style than all the previous KoF games. I also prefer 2k's roster and game mechanics over the previous entries. For me, it's the KoF that came the closest to offering the complete package.

SNK vs Capcom MotM would be a very close 2nd.

 

[nullpoynter]

The one game that I absolutely loved from SNK was Baseball Stars 1/2 on the NES. My brother and I sunk so many hours into that game.

 

[Dark Ninja]

Metal Slug 3 is the peak. Garou was a glorious way to end their greatness though.

 

[Edgeward]

Garou was my first thought and then KOF 98 was my second immediate thought

 

[CadetMahoney]

love sam sho 2, but it is more unbalanced than 3rd strike and has some things like 1-frame un-techable normal grabs which would never pass if it was re-made today. It is awesome for it's time though.

KOF2002 is more balanced than 98 so it takes my pick, despite what people say about ABC. Todays tournaments are so varied in characters it's not even funny, 98 not as much as 2002.

SNK Art-direction - Last Blade 2 is SNK at it's peak.
SNK Gameplay - 2002 SNK at it's peak, closely followed by 98. 13 and 14 aren't as good.

 

[Indelible]

Garou is 2D fighting perfection, I would put it at the top tier with Last Blade 2 and Samurai Shodown 2.

 

[maks]

Really surprised that nobody else has even mentioned this yet. Amazing game.

I think Samsho2 was the readers choice #1 game for almost a year. Amazing feat considering it was an arcade game.

 

[Tiger Mask]

SNK nostalgia threads got me like:

 

[maks]

For me Garou feels like SNK's best even though i havent mastered the gameplay and didnt start playing till i was well past my competitive fighting days. It just feels amazing and impressive the better you get at it. Each characters fighting mechanics are so well designed. I love playing as just about every character on the roster.

My heart is with samsho2 though. I played it at its highest level at the time of release. At my local arcade we seem to have had the strongest collection of US players, ive witnessed every character pull off huge win streaks when we were balance testing the game. I can see balance complaints at the low to mid end of competitive play. Its very tough to overcome some matchups but at the highest levels everyone can be dealt with. There's video of a somewhat recent japan tournament that showed great character diversity.

 

[orthodoxy1095]

It's hard to pick one. KOF '98, Garou, MS3 and LB2 are all top ten games of their genres.

The year 1998 was their absolute peak.

That year they released:

Metal Slug 2
Real Bout Fatal Fury 2
King of Fighters 98 (one of the finest fighters ever made)
Last Blade 2.

What an amazing year.

 

[oneida]

samsho 2 is sooooo much better than LB2

LB2 is pretty but

 

[orioto]

SNK nostalgia threads got me like:

that's the best videogame thing i've ever seen in my life

 

[Eliseo]

KoF 98 and Metal slug 3 were pretty damn big here in Mexico.

 

[Mister Wolf]

I would give the nod to Samurai Showdown 4 with its slash/bust system. Made the game so unique to me. Mortal Kombat X ran with the idea and its great on that as well.

 

[NeonZ]

I am not well versed in these games, but I am aware there are Metal Slug 4 and 5 as well? were they made by other house? Were those inferior graphically and gameplay wise?

MS4 was produced during their bankruptcy (like KoF 2001) and it's a mess visually and really unbalanced gameplay-wise. Significantly worse than the previous games.

I actually really like Metal Slug 5's aesthetics, soundtrack and gameplay additions (A transformable Tank/Robot Slug! All new grunt enemies with a cool special ops theme! And tribal enemies! And cultists!). In some ways it's my favorite game in the series... but the game is clearly incomplete. It's the shortest Metal Slug and doesn't even have a proper ending. The worst part is that everything introduced by this game was pretty much thrown away afterwards, rather than building up on it.

For Metal Slug 6, they moved to new hardware, resulting in more detailed backgrounds, but it's missing a lot of the variety seen in the first 5 games, and also lacks huge moving boss sprites (maybe for cost reasons),background animations and the enemy variety from 3 or 5, in spite of mostly reusing enemies from Metal Slug 1 to 3.

 

[LiveFromKyoto]

kof 98

KOF '98.

They never bettered it.

KOF 98 is a top 10 videogame of all time

I am among my people here.

You all speak in truths.

 

[Lionel Richie]

Metal Slug 3 is so ridiculously good I don't even know what to say about it.

 

[Elixist]

Metal Slug. the sprites are gorgeous and the game is fun as hell with good variety, cute humor/gags too.

 

[The Omega Man]

Is there any modern-ish game that at least attempted that art style/look? Are those games a lost art?

 

[professor denim]

My favorite company. So many godly stuff. I would say KoF98.

 

[kunonabi]

I would give the nod to Samurai Showdown 4 with its slash/bust system. Made the game so unique to me. Mortal Kombat X ran with the idea and its great on that as well.

Out of all the weapon fighters it's my favorite. Everyone seems to hate it though.

 

[Mockingbird]

Better than the console efforts

This. This was so amazing.

 

[professor denim]

Out of all the weapon fighters it's my favorite. Everyone seems to hate it though.

4 is great, like all SNK ones. My favorite are 1 and 3.

 

[boutrosinit]

Fata Fury Real Bout Special was glorious. The PSOne version was exceptionally fun. Loadtimes were the only negative for me.

 

[OrbitalBeard]

Metal Slug 3 is the single greatest arcade game of all time. It has everything they've ever tried to achieve. The spectacle, the simple but nuanced play control, the challenging and compelling gameplay, it's momentum driving soundtrack, the incredible attention to detail and constant stream of surprises that keeps you putting in quarters. It's a highly ambitious game made by people at their very height of their creative powers, throwing in absolutely every idea they had before the lights went off with the bankruptcy. SNKs greatest game, no doubt

This is pretty hard to argue against.

 

[Artdayne]

That's easy.

Amazing game. I'd probably go with this one if only for the exposure that it had relative to Samurai Shodown V Special, which I think is a more balanced game and retains much of the feel of Samurai Shodown II. Samurai Shodown II had so many great features, it's dripping with personality too as the character designs and levels are all amazing.