The NeoGeo console family’s fate continues to be one of the saddest gaming stories of the 90s to me. Entering a market utterly dominated by Nintendo and its contemporaries, the plucky SNK might have had better chances of survival slathering their heads in gazelle-flavoured ketchup and popping their heads into a nearby lion’s jaws. Needless to say, the charming assortment of home systems and handhelds failed to make too much of a dent, with high prices and technical shortcomings ultimately being their downfall. By the time they were putting out a CD based add-on (the death knell of many a 90s console) the writing was probs on the wall. Even so, a pretty avid cult following has formed over the years, and many of the family’s better titles have seen a second lease on (digital) life via the likes of the Wii Shop and Steam.
Unitron updated
Such is the case with Biomotor Unitron, the first RPG for the NeoGeo Pocket Color, released in 1999. As GamesPress reports, it’s available now on the Switch, for the reasonable cost of $7.99. They’d charge you more than that for a sarnie in some places. Per the report, the game “lets players experience an epic sci-fi fantasy world and battle mighty enemies as the humanoid battle robot Unitron.” In the course of your adventure, you’ll “explore dungeons to acquire various materials; these dungeons change their appearance every time a pilot enters them. A Unitron’s shape changes according to the pilot’s level – new weapons can be developed by synthesizing materials and parts, so everyone can create their own Unitron!” See, Sonic Forces? Not an original idea. Ol’ Unitron here was doing it before the turn of the millennium.
Feel free to check out the game’s trailer below:
To sweeten the deal, included are a multiplayer arena mode (though the original NeoGeo’s trading feature is not implemented) and the original game’s instruction manual, faithfully scanned in.
Will you be picking up this blast from SNK past? Let us know!
Via, GamesPress.
