Chances are, you've seen a Neo-Geo machine in your local arcade or pizza place. Allowing owners to slot up to six games into a single cabinet, the MVS arcade version of the Neo-Geo platform proved quite popular back in the day. On the other side of the spectrum, the home console, or AES, turned out to be too expensive for the masses, despite the perfect arcade quality of the games.

The reason for the high prices of the AES was because it had the exact same hardware as the MVS. The two were one in the same. The only thing preventing people from putting AES games into the MVS system was the different-shaped cartridges. You could still, however, use a memory card to play a game in the arcades and then take it home to pick up where you left off.

The Neo-Geo platform was released in 1990, and it was only as recently as three years ago (almost to the day) when SNK stopped making games for it. For the 14 years of its existence, we were treated to games like Metal Slug, Samurai Shodown, The King of Fighters, Baseball Stars, Strikers 1945, King of the Monsters, The Last Blade, Super Sidekicks, and a host of other memorable series. The Neo-Geo is best known for its fighting games, though, and it's fitting that the launch of the system on VC is marked with three games from some of SNK's top franchise fighters.

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The Art of Fighting series features the Sakazaki siblings, Ryo and Yuri. The story in this game is that Ryo discovers his sister Yuri is missing and he needs to brawl his way through fighter after fighter trying to locate her. The game you get to play along the way is as simple as modern fighters get. You have one-button access to punches, kicks, and throws. You can perform a two-hit weak-strong combination attack by hitting the throw button after a punch or kick. You also have the ability to pull off Street Fighter-style special moves, although doing so will drain a special meter located under your health bar.

Out of the initial offering of Neo-Geo games on Virtual Console, Art of Fighting is probably the worst one you could get. The gameplay is so basic and limited, you'll feel handcuffed and not really able to pull off a strategic victory. The large, scaling sprites made this an impressive game way back when, but over time it hasn't held up very well. Nine bucks is also a pretty steep price, considering you could get Street Fighter II Turbo for a dollar less. In short, don't download Art of Fighting even if you are an avid Neo-Geo fan.

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World Heroes could almost pass for a parody game. It's a blatant imitation of Street Fighter II, right down to the twin main characters being practically identical and sporting fireball, dragon punch (with an actual dragon!), and hurricane kick moves. There's also a huge wrestler with a spinning tackle, a guy with extending limbs, and a girl who can bounce on the opponent's head. It's all executed competently, but there's nothing special at all about this me-too fighting game. You can get the actual Street Fighter II (or better yet, Turbo Edition) on Virtual Console, and it's not only superior to World Heroes but also costs a buck less.

The only thing this game has going for it is arcade authenticity, but that's not necessarily a good thing because many of the special moves don't register consistently on a D-pad, having been optimized for an arcade joystick. World Heroes is not a bad game, but don't spend nine bucks on this inferior copycat when the real deal is at your fingertips.

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Fatal Fury is an interesting fighting game for a few reasons. The game is a 2D fighter, but there are some stages that have two planes, meaning there will be times when the opponent you are fighting will duck into the background. If that happens, you can choose to go after him with an attack or wait it out in the foreground. This is sometimes confusing, but still neat to see characters performing a jump kick toward the screen rather than to the left or right. Furthermore, the two player mode isn't a traditional versus match; two players will fight the same computer opponent at the same time. The two-plane action comes into play here by having one player start in the background and another in the foreground. Quirks like that add a little more pizazz to the seemingly basic fighting gameplay.

For the third time, we'll say that Street Fighter II Turbo is a better buy. However, if you wanted to try one of the Neo-Geo games, Fatal Fury would likely be your best bet due to the fact that it's the least similar to Capcom's flagship fighting game. As a matter of fact, the Fatal Fury series eventually turned into SNK's big franchise, The King of Fighters. On that basis alone, you might want to check it out ... but I'm not sure if $9 is a good price point for these games.

Thanks to VG Museum for the classic screenshots.