It feels a little weird to complain about the value of an Evercade Neo Geo cartridge, when the cost of these games would generally be in three figures each on their original hardware back in the 90s.

Yet there’s no getting away from the fact that three Neo Geo Arcade collections, featuring just six games each, have all been released in quick succession for the Evercade. With some Evercade collections having 20 or more games, it does seem a little cheap of Blaze to split these titles onto so many different cartridges.

That said, the reality is that the licensing costs for Neo Geo games are unlikely to be particularly low. And the general quality of Neo Geo games is really high; we’re talking about some of the absolute best arcade titles of all time, whether you’ve heard of them or not, and they have stood the test of time really well in most cases.

So what’s on the third Neo Geo Arcade collection? Well, in alphabetical order we gave 1991 vertical shoot ’em up, Ghost Pilots, fighting game classic The King of Fighters ’97, run and gunner Metal Slug 3, weapons-based fighter Samurai Shodown II, soccer game Super Sidekicks and VS puzzler/shoot ’em up hybrid, Twinkle Star Sprites.

There’s arguably not a dud amongst these games; Super Sidekicks may be simplistic even for an arcade sports title, but that just made it even more enjoyable for me; I detest how complicated and flashy modern sports games have become. Super Sidekicks just lets you loose with only a couple of buttons needed, for some fast paced arcade action!

Twinkle Star Sprites is an unusual game, best played with another human (the computer player seems ridiculously good, putting up a very stiff challenge!). Ghost Pilots may not be the most fully featured shmup, but it’s a gloriously old school and enjoyable time nonetheless.

That leaves us with three undeniable classics. Metal Slug 3 is another fantastic entry in the gloriously daft military platform shooter series, and it’s well worth your time.

The King of Fighters ’97 is a beautiful fighting game which puts teams of 3 combatants against each other. There’s so much here if you’re inclined to dig into it, and it’s an absolutely phenomenal experience which has aged beautifully, just as many other Neo Geo titles have.

The same can be said of the excellent Samurai Shodown II, which is another gorgeous fighting game with its own unique mechanics and feel.

Overall then, despite misgivings about the small selection of games on here, and perhaps the fact that fighting games have been overrepresented across each collection (which is logical anyway, given that SNK’s Neo Geo library is renowned for the quality and range of its fighters), this does feel like another unmissable arcade collection.

You can buy Neo Geo Arcade 3 from Amazon.

Hi! I’m Jason, and I write for midlifegamergeek.com, every single day. If you’re interested in supporting original, regularly published, human created content (which has never been plagiarised or otherwise copied from the hard work of other writers), you can donate and help me to keep this site running.

Not only do I earn no income from my writing here (though I may earn small fees from affiliate links posted on my pages; as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases from these links), but it seems that my work has, at times, been stolen and re-used by lazy, morally bankrupt idiots.

There’s no pressure of course, but I’d be truly grateful for any support that you could offer – and it’s easy to do so at either of these links: Ko-Fi.com/geekmid or PayPal.

Any donations are truly appreciated – and I also appreciate you taking the time to read my articles. Remember: this whole article was by Jason Brown, and appeared on midlifegamergeek.com. Take that, Skynet!