SNK was one of the absolutely greatest fighting game developers during the 90’s and provided countless classics to their own arcade and console hardware, the Neo-Geo. But they were still just one part of the genre boom during the decade. Every developer worth their salt threw their, well, salt into the ring and tried to make their own Street Fighter contender. Since the Neo-Geo was an accessible and relatively cheap platform and also had a built-in audience from SNK:s own games, several third party developers focused on fighting games for the system. And as it turns out, some of them were pretty damn great. Let’s take a look at all of them.

ADK:
Originally a splinter division of SNK which formed a separate company, Alpha Denshi. They were still very much involved with the development of the Neo-Geo and became one of the most prominent third parties. When ADK folded in the late 90’s, SNK eventually bought the rights to their titles.

World Heroes – World Heroes 2 – World Heroes Jet – World Heroes Perfect

The World Heroes saga mirrors Street Fighter 2 pretty well. The first game was one of the more original clones. Instead of a contemporary OR a historical setting, World Heroes features time travelling heroes from all of history. The ninjas Fuuma and Hanzo are your generic Ryu and Ken clones, but the series also has some notable characters like the masked witch doctor Mudman, the weirdo sorcerer Rasputin and the fascist cyborg Brokken (inspired by Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure). The female knight Janne also later appeared in SNK Heroines. Besides a fairly interesting cast, the games also regularly feature modes with stage hazards. None of the games are super great but Perfect is quite decent and worth playing.

Buy on: Get Perfect on Arcade Archives/ACA (Switch, PS4 or Xbox). The rest can be safely skipped.

Aggressors of Dark Kombat
This early experimental fighter is much less notable than World Heroes, having left barely any mark on the genre. Unlike pretty much all fighting games, this one plays on a beat’em up like stage where you can move in all directions. It also has some famously complicated super moves, including one where Kisarah breaks her opponent’s heart by making out with her boyfriend. Yeah. Besides Kisarah who turned up in Neo-Geo Battle Coliseum, the rest are completely forgettable generic street dudes, and she’s basically just your typical schoolgirl. Oh, and Fuuma from World Heroes is here. Slightly notable for the unique gameplay but only worth playing for genre scholars.

Buy on: ACA, if you really have to.

Ninja Master’s
Possibly ADK’s best fighter, this is a Samurai Shodown clone of sorts. The sprites are noticably smaller than your average Neo fighter, but make up for it by each character having weapon AND unarmed movesets. This was also ADK’s last fighting game and there’s some refinement and depth here. The cast isn’t super exciting but if you’ve already explored Samurai Shodown AND Last Blade, you can dig into this.

Buy on: ACA (not on PS4 though).

Data East:
They released a wide variety of games including notably Karnov and the Joe & Mac series, but they struggled to make any real classics. This mediocre fighter remains one of their best, sadly.

Karnov’s Revenge/Fighters History Dynamite
The sequel to Fighters History, which famously was the Street Fighter clone so blatant that Capcom tried to sue Data East. Although they lost, you can kind of see their point with super obvious Ryu, Guile, Zangief, Chun-Li, Sagat and Vega clones in Mizoguchi, Ray, Marstorius, Feilin, Samchay and Jean Pierre respectively. The gameplay is super generic with the one unique feature being ”armour” that you can knock off the opponent, although said armour is usually just some accessory. This game added a few more characters but it’s still a rather small cast with 13 in total including the boss Karnov, who made a guest appearance from his own original series.

Buy on: ACA, if you really have to.

Hudson:
Famous for Bomberman and the Bonk games, and for being pretty much the only first party developer for NEC’s PC Engine range of systems, before being bought by Konami in later years. Besides the PC Engine Mini and various Bomberman games, Konami has basically done nothing with their IP.

Kabuki Klash
This is a spinoff from Hudson Soft’s Tengai Makyou RPG series, also known as Far East of Eden. The other games were never translated, but they have a pretty neat anime style and some fun characters. Kabuki Klash is basically a more light-hearted Samurai Shodown with gorgerous sprites which remind me of Martial Masters or Asura Buster, two non-Neo Geo fighters that are similarly forgotten by time. Since Hudson was absorbed into Konami there hasn’t been anyone bothering to make a re-release, and as a result this is one of the games I’d most like to see again. From what I remember, it was fun but not spectacular.

Buy on: Neo-Geo AES, or pray for a re-release.

Evoga/Noise Factory/Brezzasoft:
This was a weird collaboration. Mexican developers Evoga entered the scene late and together with Japanese Noise Factory and Brezzasoft (SNK wearing a beard and trenchcoat to dodge bankruptcy lawyers) created two very solid Neo-Geo fighters when the system was barely running on fumes. And one of them was a Double Dragon (Technos) sequel with the serial numbers filed off, and the other was an official fourth entry into the defunct Power Instinct (Atlus) series.

Rage of the Dragons
A solid but unremarkable tag team fighter with a South American slant because of the developer. Billy and Jimmy Lee appear here as the Lewis brothers along with a mostly original cast. The gameplay feels like a simpler King of Fighters, and the sprites look fine enough, but the character designs range from forgettable to just weird. Capoeira mechanic Pupa and her karate pal Pepe are the only ones I’ve taken some liking to. Play this if you really need something you haven’t tried before.

Buy on: re-released on modern systems as Rage of the Dragons Neo which is 99% identical to the Neo-Geo game.

Power Instinct Matrimelee
Now this is a hidden gem if I ever saw one, and one of the system’s best fighters. The first two Power Instincts by Atlus were distinctly weird Street Fighter clones where the idea was that everyone is distantly related to each other (despite coming from across the world) and fight to rule the Gouketsuji clan. Alongside your general cast of karate dudes, cute girls, big native americans and ninjas, you also had the main characters Ume and Tane, two super old slightly evil ladies. The third Power Instinct, Groove On Fight, was a tag fighter set in the future with a new cast, plus Ume and Tane fighting tied together. After all this, Evoga made a standard fighter with really strong gameplay and crunchy, grounded combos that make the game feel kind of like Garou. Noise Factory, true to their name, contributed an AMA-ZING soundtrack, as all of the stages feature live performances by background characters. There’s also four guest characters from Rage of the Dragons. All fight for the right to marry Princess Sissy (or optionally her brother) so that the clan can become royal.

There’s also a JP PS2 only sequel, Bonno Kaihou, which returned two older Power Instinct characters and included a character based on slightly problematic real life person Bobby Ologun, but without the Rage characters. It’s basically the only way you’ll play this game nowadays. There’s additionally an arcade only third game, Matsuri Senzo Kuyou, which adds even more characters but unless you live in Japan, you’ll never get to play it.

Buy on: unless you want to pay $2000+ for the AES version, or track down a JP PS2, pray for a collection.

Saurus:
A minor support studio whose big claim to fame was the Shock Troopers games and some NGPC ports.  They also made a fighter.

Ragnagard
Inspired by the success of Killer Instinct, Saurus made this rather uninspired fighter the year after. Like Rare’s game, it features pre-rendered sprites and since the Neo-Geo runs in 320×224, they look even more awful than you can imagine. Never mind Killer Instinct, this is Avengers in Galactic Storm levels of bad. I haven’t played it in decades but vaguely remember a very bad feeling game. You’re not missing anything with this one, but it is available on Switch at least through ACA if you’re terminally curious.

Buy on: don’t.

Sunsoft:
Sunsoft was one of the best B tier developers on the NES with classics such as Blaster Master and Batman, and some late legendary titles like Gimmick and Ufouria. But they stumbled into the 16 bit generation and mostly made JP only titles, only licensing awful US made games like Aero the Acrobat. The returned for a final hurrah on 32 bit and somehow produced three entirely different but very fun fighting games. The last one was Astra Superstars which wasn’t on Neo-Geo, but check that out too.

Galaxy Fight
This game looks and feels like nothing else in the genre. One unique feature was the removal of stage borders. Every stage just scrolls endlessly, and you can dash around making the fights dynamic. The design is gritty sci-fi with an anime flair, with a small but varied cast. You get your big green dragon alien, your tin-can mecha, your ninja and so on, but also the enigmatic G.Done and the energetic and bouncy catgirl-adjacent Roomi. As a hidden boss you also get Bonus-Kun, a sentient punching bag. This game is a guilty pleasure and I’ve bought it across multiple formats, even though objectively it’s just average.

Buy on: ACA (avoid the Evercade version as it’s the super shitty PS1 port)

Waku Waku 7
Now, this is the more famous of the two. It’s a more standard fighter with an even more varied cast and a more colourful style, but I’ve never really connected with any of them. Unlike Kabuki Klash and Matrimelee it’s readily available, so give it a go if you want something new.

Buy on: ACA.

Technos:
Technos is of course more famous for it’s beat’em ups with the River City/Kunio-kun and Double Dragon series. They were later bought by Arc System Works mostly for the purpose of licensing these series to anyone with a pulse, but in the 90’s they randomly also made two Neo-Geo fighters that were average but interesting.

Double Dragon
This was… Double Dragon 6, or so. The fifth game was godawful and based on the cartoon, but this was actually decent even though it was based on the godawful movie. It plays okay and the cast is okay. Problem is, you’re probably never going to see it again because it includes grainy clips from the movie so nobody can be bothered to figure out licensing for it. Not a big loss.

Buy on: PS1, or maybe just don’t.

Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer
This one is interesting, but not very good. It’s designed by Masami Obari, who famously made Fatal Fury the Movie and also a lot of ecchi anime. It’s a parody of various superhero tropes and the characters are all quite 90’s edgy. The sub-boss is a fusion of two twins into some abomination. Gameplay-wise it’s mostly generic, not really worth paying attention to. It also got a PS1 version if you’re desperate.

Buy on: see above.

Viccom:
Viccom was a company that… existed, very briefly. They have two games under their belt, this one and the later The Eye of Typhoon that released (or maybe not?) on the 3DO. Yeah.

Fight Fever
You know, at some point I must have tried this, but I can’t for the life of me remember anything about it. It’s super generic even going so far as to have a duo of main heroes, although these two are Korean. It’s not available anywhere else and it doesn’t seem like we’re missing much. This game is so bad even the Ebay conversions aren’t super expensive.

Buy on: do not.

Visco:
We’re ending on another fairly prominent Neo-Geo third party. Visco released a lot of games like Andro Dunos, Goal! Goal! Goal! and Neo Drift Out and they’re all… basically just clones of better games like R-Type, Football Frenzy and… Okay, Neo Drift Out is probably better than the alternatives but still not great. Somehow someone picked up their rights so most of their Neo-Geo library can be bought on modern systems, if you should want to.

Breakers – Breakers Revenge
These two were pretty late to the Street Fighter clone race and actually play more like Street Fighter Alpha. The graphics aren’t too bad and the gameplay is decent, but it’s a very generic game overall. One the rare occasions I have played it, I’ve gravitated towards Rila who is a quite muscular female Blanka type which is slightly original, but most of the cast is just old tropes. Breakers Revenge added like one character and the boss playable so there’s no reason to ever play the original, but there’s not much reason to play either. There was a modern port of it a few years back for some god-forsaken reason so anyone can play it. One minor innovation is that the 2P palette swaps actually have different names so technically there’s twice as many characters, but yeah. The generic shoto main Sho (-RyuKen, get it?) actually turned up in Pocket Bravery recently as the publisher also released the Breakers collection.

Buy on: PS4, if you have to.

And that’s all of them! If I were to rank the top games, it would go a little like this:

• Power Instinct Matrimelee
• Galaxy Fight
• Kabuki Klash
• Waku Waku 7
• Rage of the Dragons
• Ninja Master’s
• World Heroes Perfect
• Breakers Revenge
• The rest

But really, aside from the top 3-4 this is a pretty unremarkable bunch. Try them out if you get a chance, but I really wouldn’t break the bank trying to collect the original carts for these. Except for Matrimelee, they are far below the top SNK fighters.