SNK, three letters that to most 90’s children mean one thing - those freaking awesome multi-game arcade units which stood tall in arcades and convenience marts nationwide.

Over the years, the saga of SNK’s arcade and home video game system NEOGEO has seen its ups and downs, to the ridiculously priced NEOGEO home system (with crazily priced cartridges), the beloved NEOGEO Pocket (arguably one of the most underrated game systems of all time, which was shamefully liquidated off in valuepaks later in life), to it’s modern incarnation as a developer mostly creating new King of Fighters games, while licensing off its 90’s classics as downloadable titles.

Well, this December, SNK is back in the hardware game with a new system called NEOGEO X.

The NEOGEO X is a hybrid handheld and home gaming system, featuring 20 built-in classic SNK games.  The standard handheld will retail for $130, with the “NEOGEO X Gold” package, including a dock for television use and a classic NEOGEO 4 button controller will run you $200.

For the hardcore SNK heads, this is a great announcement, but for the rest of us, I show some skepticism - the hardware looks sweet, but it’s ultimately an emulation machine.  Will you be able to download more than the 20 built in games? Will new titles be developed over time? Is it a one shot purchase - and if so, why so damned expensive?  We’re talking 20 year old games at this point - why are we going to drop $200?

That said, I would love to see the niche fulfilled, especially if they offer up more titles over time. What say you, dear reader?

Source: NEOGEO X