SNK Gals Fighters: The Queen of Fighters 2000
The best fighter on Neo Geo Pocket Colour
Somebody needs to go back in time and tell SNK to chill out with the fighting games. They've got this relatively new handheld system and they're just power-loading it with pugilism. Neo Geo Pocket Color already had Fatal Fury, King of Fighters (twice), Samurai Shodown (twice) and Capcom Vs SNK, was SNK Gals Fighters really necessary?
Far be it from me to imply it isn't good, though. That's not really something that happened much on the Neo Geo handheld. Bad games, I mean. It was a beast of a machine with a library of remarkably consistent quality, and every day that it has not been alive is a day that has been cursed. I pray to the gods behind the moon that one day we shall see its like again, but we never have. Sorry. I'm sorry. Every time I write about the NGPC, I get like this. It was so good, my friends. You don't even know.
(Dries eyes rapidly) Gals Fighters. It's twenty years old. And it's good, of course it is. It's a little bit, you know, iffy these days. Politics-wise. But I know how angry you all get when I talk about that sort of stuff. You've got a brace of SNK ladies (Mai Shiranui, Athena "Stu's favourite character" Asamiya, Leona, Shermie, etc) entering a tournament to win the Queen of Fighters tournament to win the mysterious K' Talisman, an artifact that will grant them any wish. Because this is a light-hearted game, nobody wishes for world peace, instead asking for things like haircuts and hampster cages. The host of the tournament is Miss X, who is very obviously King of Fighters mainstay Iori Yagami dressed in drag. Told you it was iffy.
It plays great, though. Move lists and inputs have been simplified which may upset purists, but since when were purists worth listening to about anything? It's the fastest, most refined fighter on the NGPC, a system that was absolutely spoiled for them. It's fun and funny, with so much character and content that ignoring it is missing out. The story scenes are genuinely funny, the graphics are fantastic super-deformed takes on the familiar protagonists, and everything's just super smooth with brilliantly responsive controls.
Pretty much as you'd expect from the Neo Geo Pocket Colour, really. It was that good. Don't be like everyone else. Light a torch for the Neo Geo Pocket Color with me. Buy a copy of Gals Fighters. And Metal Slug 2nd Mission. And Sonic Pocket Adventure. And Card Fighters Clash. And (That's enough. Go and lie down. - A psychiatrist)
