Neo Geo Pocket Color Was Actually Awesome

The battlefield of the handheld gaming market in the 90s and early 2000s was littered with the corpses of handheld devices that tried—and ultimately failed—to compete against Nintendo's Game Boy. While some of the competition actually had great hardware, Nintendo's software lineup was just unbeatable. Well, mostly Pokemon and Tetris.

Among these competitors was the incredibly short-lived Neo Geo Pocket line of handheld consoles. While this little-machine-that-could was discontinued after only two short years on the market, it had many redeeming qualities that its fans (myself included) cannot stop obsessing about, and a software library that makes me wonder what else we could've gotten from SNK if the device had stayed on the market for just a few more years.

The Neo Geo Pocket Color was the farthest thing from a one-trick pony.

~Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/163qrzj/24_years_later_and_im_still_obsessed_with_the_neo/

That Unmatched Form Factor

The Neo Geo Pocket Color has a form factor that just won't quit. The rounded corners and rectangular shape keep the device looking modern and eye-catching, even by today's standards. The screen is a pretty good size and everything on screen just pops with color. The NGPC (Neo Geo Pocket Color) in particular was slimmer than the original model and had much improved sound.

While the buttons are pretty standard, the Neo Geo Pocket Color was well-known for its control stick. That 8-directional stick is incredibly useful in the many fighting games available on the system, and produces such a satisfying click with each directional input. This stick was wildly unique to the NGPC and isn't something that you'd see on handhelds at the time.

Like any great handheld, the Neo Geo Pocket Color has some sweet color variants. The normal black and gray-blue look totally fine, but SNK produced some beauties with the blue camo and blue stone patterns, as well as the transparent yellow, blue, and white consoles. I'll always be a sucker for transparent electronics. If they had produced an atomic purple or neon green Pocket Color, you can bet that I'd own several of these and cuddle with them every single night.

~Source: https://downstab.com/highlights-from-the-last-seven-years-of-collecting-video-games/

Solid Software Library

If there's one thing that the Neo Geo Pocket Color was crowned the king of, it's fighting games. Back in those days it was hard to find a good fighting game on handhelds. You'd see ports of popular fighting games on Game Boy or other systems, but they often ran horribly and just weren't fun to play. The NGPC had versions of King of Fighters, The Last Blade, and even Samurai Shodown that were fast-paced, had lots of cool unlockables, and they had plenty of gameplay depth thanks to that sweet, sweet thumbstick.

The Neo Geo Pocket Color was the farthest thing from a one-trick pony. It was also home to some great puzzle games, RPGs, sports games, shooters, and even an excellent card game featuring characters from Capcom and SNK. With just two years on the market, SNK managed to nail the lineup for NGPC exclusive games. SNK went above and beyond ensuring that the library was all about quality over quantity.

Other Awesome Stuff

The Neo Geo Pocket Color had the awesome ability to connect to the Sega Dreamcast for some cool exclusive features. By connecting your NGPC to your Dreamcast with certain games running, you could unlock new characters, stages, or spend points earned in the Neo Geo Pocket Color version of the game to then unlock new content in the Dreamcast version.

There is no region-lock on the Neo Geo Pocket Color—meaning that you can pop your imported cartridges into the console and play them with no hassles. The system also has an on-board language system, so it would display those imported games in whatever language you have set for the system itself (if the cartridge supports that language).

What also put the Neo Geo Pocket Color far ahead of its time was the clock. The system used a small battery to power the clock inside the system, and with that you had a built-in calendar, alarm, and even horoscopes.

Why Did it Fail?

It's no secret that the Game Boy annihilated its competition back during those times. Pokemon and Tetris alone were enough to catapult the system into the millions of sales it would eventually see. While the Neo Geo Pocket Color initially sold very well, there were a number of factors that dogpiled the system into discontinuation.

• Lack of communication between SNK and third-party developers

• Low retail support

• Strong competition in both the US and Japan

• SNK's bankruptcy

Overall Thoughts

Despite only lasting two years on the market, the Neo Geo Pocket color had made a gigantic, lasting impression on handheld gaming. With a library of games that has more quality than other handhelds of the time, incredible hardware build quality, and being jam-packed with futuristic features, the NGPC deserved far more time to cook in the market and build more of a fanbase. Obviously with SNK's bankruptcy, that was impossible. But I would love to have seen much more from this system.

I can't even imagine what kinds of games we would have gotten for the system in just one more year. Possibly a port of Shock Troopers? Heck, we almost got a metroidvania-style Magician Lord on Neo Geo Pocket Color, but that was canned in 2000. Maybe we could've gotten a Harvest Moon port that used the built-in clock for a day/night cycle.

It's ironic that the NGPC was basically partnered with the Dreamcast. Both consoles were discontinued years before their time should've ever come. It's such a shame.

SNK FOREVER.