Why the brand new NEOGEO AES+ console adjustments all the pieces about retro gaming

The announcement of the brand new NEOGEO AES+ piqued my curiosity, not as a result of it’s one other retro console launching right into a crowded market dominated by Evercade’s glorious EXP-R and VS-R consoles, however due to what it’s claiming to be – a remake of the unique {hardware} at a silicon stage, no emulation or simulation, with all of the bells and whistles which means for followers of traditional video games.

Plaion’s pitch leans exhausting on ‘re-engineered ASIC chips’, a phrase that sounds dry till you realise what’s being implied right here: this isn’t emulation, not even the more and more accepted FPGA route a number of the finest retro sport consoles take, equivalent to Analogue, however one thing nearer to a bodily reconstruction of the unique {hardware}, its behaviour, quirks and character. It additionally means the NEOGEO AES+ helps backwards compatibility with unique sport cartridges from the ’90s.

Why does this matter to me personally? I cherished the unique console. I selected to purchase a NEOGEO AES again within the ‘90s over a PlayStation (I got Sony’s console a couple of years later, bundled with Ghost in the Shell no less), and there’s all the time been a reverence that follows the SNK’s premium console, not simply because it was costly or uncommon, however due to what it represented, which for me, was a machine constructed to ship arcade-perfect artwork and gameplay into the house, uncompromised, and people impossibly detailed sprites nonetheless really feel hand-touched immediately.

NEOGEO AES+ is rebuilding the outdated tech fairly than emulating it, and the excellence issues, particularly in case you care about how retro video games really play and look. I cherished NEOGEO video games as a result of they have been peak 2D animation, designed around specific output quirks, scanlines, timing, even the way colours bloom on a CRT. Strip that context away, and you don’t just lose accuracy; you lose the intent and feel of those classic games like Samurai Shodown II, Pulstar and my personal favourite, King Of Fighters ’95.

The NEOGEO AES+ is, at least on paper, trying to step past the FPGA tech offered by Analogue and the emulation of Evercade and Ant Stream, offering another tier of authenticity where the retro tech can be remade and re-released, as I owned and played it back in ‘94. Whether that holds up under scrutiny is another question entirely, because this “hardware-faithful reimplementation” is the kind of phrase that invites as much scepticism as intrigue, and rightly so, but I’m ever the optimist, and frankly, the NEOGEO AES+ looks fantastic.

The old-as-new approach includes everything from the ‘90s, including the original arcade sticks, game pad and memory cards as well as launch games on cartridge, including: Metal Slug, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Pulstar, The King of Fighters 2002, Big Tournament Golf, Shock Troopers, Samurai Shodown V Special, Twinkle Star Sprites, Magician Lord, and Over Top.

This doesn’t feel like nostalgia exactly, and not preservation either, but rather an insistence that the way retro consoles were made matters just as much as what they ran, that the design, circuitry, and all are part of the art. And the new NEOGEO AES+ won’t be cheap either, which continues the old console’s reputation. The difference now over then? Backwards compatibility, which means there’s a catalogue of carts to dip into, and they won’t cost $300 / £200 as they did back in the ’90s.

The new NEOGEO AES+ launches on 12 November for $249.99 / £179.99, the white NEOGEO AES+ Anniversary Edition prices $349.99 / £269.99 and comes with Metal Slug. A ten-game Ultimate Edition will promote for $999.99 / £899.99 (in addition to NEOGEO AES+ Arcade Stick, wi-fi NEOGEO AES+ Arcade Stick, wi-fi NEOGEO AES+ Gamepad, NEOGEO AES+ Memory Card).