Rarest Neo Geo AES Games (& How Much They’re Worth)

Summary

• SNK’s Neo Geo AES cartridges are rare and highly priced due to unique arcade-perfect hardware.
• Valuable titles like Metal Slug X, Rage of the Dragons, and Samurai Shodown 5 Special can reach up to thousands of dollars.
• The EU releases like Metal Slug, Kizuna Encounter, and The Ultimate 11 are among the rarest Neo Geo games, priced over tens of thousands of dollars.

The 1990s saw lots of companies try and get into the console market to compete against Nintendo and Sega. Big or small, they each tried to carve their own niche in the market, though few succeeded. For example, SNK wanted to bring their arcade games to people’s homes without having to compress them to fit into another console’s dinkier hardware.

So, they made the Neo Geo Advanced Entertainment System (AES), which was basically their MVS (Multi-Video System) arcade hardware stuck into a black box. As such, it offered arcade-perfect games, but at a high cost. The machine cost $649.99 ($1,505 today) on release, the games cost up to $300 ($645 today), and they’ve both only gotten rarer since. Prices are taken from PriceCharting.com, except where noted.

Where the Game is Cheap, But Its Box and Manual Aren’t

With Metal Slug being one of the series SNK loves to promote, for better (New releases! Anthologies!) or worse (tacky tower defense tie-ins!), one would think their AES cartridges might be cheaper. However, its sumptuously detailed sprites demand a lot out of the hardware. Getting it all uncompressed and without missing frames can come at a high price, depending on its condition.

For example, Metal Slug X was a revision of Metal Slug 2 that removed the slowdown and added new power-ups, levels, enemies, and more. In Japan, it’s easier to get hold of than MS2, costing just $18 for a loose cartridge, and $40 for a complete box. The North American release isn’t so bad to find loose either, costing $30. But complete boxed copies go for $5,000, and $10,000 for new ones, making it the second most expensive MS game American players can buy.

9

Rage of the Dragons (JP)

Late Neo Geo Release Becomes the 2nd Rarest Tag Fighter on the Hardware

As a result of its high prices, people tended to rent the Neo Geo AES more than buying it, since that was a more affordable way of seeing what its home games were like. SNK did try to make a more wallet-friendly version via the Neo Geo CD, which ended up having worse loading times than the Saturn or PlayStation due to its reading mechanism. It wasn’t fixed until they released the Japan-only Neo Geo CDZ.

Even then, not all SNK’s published games reached their CD machines. Rage of the Dragons, a tag-based fighting game based loosely on the Double Dragon series, only hit the MVS and AES. US AES cartridges go for approximately $3,000, while its Japanese equivalent is worth $6,600 complete. Luckily, QUByte updated the game and released it on digital storefronts for the more affordable price of $19.99.

8

Blazing Star (JP)

Space Shooter Goes for Galactic Prices

Shmups went from being about the joy of shooting to the joy of awkwardly shuffling around a mess of bullets being blitzed out by a moeblob. Bullet Hell games have their fans, but what if players want to be the ones raining down destruction instead? Yumekobo offered an answer in the form of Blazing Star, a horizontal shooter a la R-Type that served as the sequel to their 1995 blaster Pulstar.

Players can get different shots depending on the ship they chose, and whether they pressed the button, hammered it, or held it down for a charged shot. The game was very pretty to look at, but that wasn’t going to be enough to save the genre back when it was released in 1998. It did get a US MVS release, which costs $250 loose. However, collectors will need $3,775 to import a loose AES cartridge from Japan.

7

Samurai Shodown 5 Special (US)

The Neo Geo AES’ Swansong Release Ends Up Being a Mess

After 14 years of service, SNK’s Neo Geo hardware was officially discontinued in 2004, with its last release being Samurai Shodown 5 Special. It was an upgraded version of SS5 that brought back all the series’ bosses as playable characters, rebalanced the gameplay, and upped the violence in its new fatality-like Overkill moves. The series has always been bloody, but this would take it into Mortal Kombat-like territory. This proved to be a bad move when Japan was rocked by the Sasebo slashing incident 1 month before SS5S was due for release.

So, the game was delayed by a few days to tone the violence back down. But it was so hastily done that it caused some bad bugs, meaning SNK had to recall the game again to fix them. By this point, when the developers came up with the more improved Samurai Shodown 5 Perfect, SNK just shelved it instead. Now all versions of SS5, with and without blood, are in the Samurai Shodown Neo Geo Collection. It’s only $20 or so, but if players want a piece of gaming history, they’ll need $8,000 for a complete boxed cartridge of SS5S.

6

Stakes Winner (US)

Galloping Up the Price Range

For something a little lighter, Stakes Winner is an arcade horse-racing sim where players pick who they think will be the next Secretariat, and then try to win as many races as possible. It mostly involves measuring out the horse’s stamina, as one button controls the reins for small bursts of acceleration, and another whips the horse to get a big burst of speed for a bigger stamina cost.

It’s simple to grasp, but tricky to master, even with the power-ups that turn up on the course. The game didn’t exactly excite arcade-goers on either side of the Pacific, but it’s become one of the rarest Neo Geo games to get in the US. Collectors will need $7,000 for a loose cartridge, and over $10,000 for a complete box. People who just want to check it out can buy it digitally for $5.

5

Magical Drop 2 (JP)

Puzzling Prices

The original Magical Drop was an intriguing competitive puzzle game. It’s like Puzzle Bobble, where players have to match as many colored ‘drops’ as possible to earn points. Only instead of shooting them, players grab the lowest drops from a stack, then chuck them back up elsewhere to form combos. Magical Drop 2 improved things by letting players match its Special Drops, alongside new Rainbow Drops that match with all colors to really rack up the points and put pressure on their opponents in the Vs mode.

The game did reach US arcades, but its home ports were exclusive to Japan. This includes the AES version, which is currently the most expensive Japanese AES game on the market. If people don’t have a spare $12,000 to import a loose Japanese copy, they can pick it up digitally for $7.99 on PSN and Xbox Live.

4

Neo Turf Masters (US)

Putting Others In Their Place

Tired of having little to do, a bunch of Irem employees left the company to form Nazca Corporation. This small company didn’t last long, but it left a lasting legacy by creating some of the best-animated games around. The biggest was Metal Slug, while the most unlikely one was Neo Turf Masters, an arcade-based golf game.

It was easier to pick up than its contemporaries, as players could set their power and angle with one button, then pick which shot they were going for with another. But it was also tricky to master thanks to its course design and wind effects. People can find it online for a cheap price, but if they have $30,000 to spare, they can pick up one of its complete original AES cartridges.

3

The Ultimate 11/Super Sidekicks 4 (EU)

Soccer at Sky-High Prices

Most Japanese companies don’t end up moving into Europe until their product catches on well in North America. Nintendo let Mattel handle the NES in Europe for 2 years, before finally establishing their own European branch in 1989. NEC’s TurboGrafx-16 flopped in the US, so its European launch was canceled, with just a few people getting some PC Engine consoles instead. So, the Neo Geo AES had no hope.

Still, SNK gave it a try with a limited release, offering a few EU conversions of its games before they called it quits. These have since become some of the rarest games ever made, let alone on the Neo Geo. Anyone seeking out the EU version of Ultimate 11/Super Sidekicks 4 will need at least $35,000, and $45,000 at most. Though they first have to find one going for sale, and due to its scarcity, the game rarely appears on the market for sale.

Blowing Up in More Than Just Price

Still, as lush as Neo Turf Masters looks, it was still a golf game. One of the quietest sports around couldn’t compare to the explosive bombast of Metal Slug. It was a run & gunner full to the brim with personality, where its sprites do more than shoot or die. So, it’s no wonder SNK chose to acquire Nazca Corp and its IPs soon after its release.

It was often too much for its early ports to take, as its PS1, Saturn, and Neo Geo CD releases suffered from terrible load times. Rich people in the 90s could’ve spent the equivalent of $650 today on its AES release to avoid all that. But nowadays, they’ll need $3,300 for a loose copy, or $60,000 for a complete cartridge. Anything physical copy going for less than that is likely to be a bootleg.

1

Kizuna Encounter: Super Tag Battle (EU)

The Holy Grail of Neo Geo Releases

The rarest of those few EU releases is Kizuna Encounter: Super Tag Battle. On its own, it’s a sequel to Savage Reign that introduced tag battling at around the same time as X-Men Vs Street Fighter in 1996. However, unlike that game, they’d swoop in from a set tag area, limiting tag combos to a few assists and set moves. It played fine, though it lacked the wow factor Capcom’s Marvel-based fighter had with its OTT moves.

It’s fairly easy to find in different SNK compilations, and its US AES cartridge is hard enough to afford at $5,000 for a complete box. But if people suspect their cartridge is one of the (reported) 10 EU copies in existence, they can earn up to $50,000 by putting it on the market. That is, if it is a genuine EU copy and if they can find a buyer eager enough to pay that much for it.