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Let's get two points down before I start this rant:

1) I love the NEOGEO. The only reason I never owned an AES machine was its stupidly high price — $600 may as well be a million at eleven-years-old — but those MVS cabinets you'd find at every 90s-era arcade, pizza joint and McDonalds topped my list of favorite arcade machines alongside Street Fighter II Turbo Hyper Fighting, Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game.

I dropped easily more than a hundred dollars into King of the Monsters 2, Blue's Journey and World Heroes Perfect.

2) I fully grasp how the modern DLC economy functions. Companies with beloved intellectual properties can make a mint repackaging their decade-old hits either in the hopes of snagging nostalgic lifelong gamers, or generating new fans who've heard good things about said classics, but until now had no way to legally experience them.

That said, when my email box caught a missive detailing SNK's upcoming PlayStation Network-exclusive NEOGEO Station, I wept softly for the once-great console maker.

Hit the jump and I'll explain why.

The NEOGEO Station is a downloadable content hub on the PlayStation Network that essentially catalogues all of SNK's classic NEOGEO titles in one place, likely with fancy artwork around the borders. This, in and of itself, is a pretty solid idea. The problem comes in when you see SNK's pricing scheme.

Come December 21, when the Station goes live, the 10 titles initially available will each set you back $8.99, assuming you purchase them for the PlayStation 3. PSP owners who opt to download these classics to their Sony-brand handheld get a bit of a price break, and only have to shell out $6.99 for games like The King of Fighters '94, Samurai Shodown and Metal Slug.

Superficially this pricing scheme isn't all that heinous, and roughly approximates what one would expect to pay for these games if they were to appear on the Xbox Live Arcade Marketplace. Longtime SNK fans however, may notice a problem here; In 2008 SNK published the SNK Arcade Classics, Vol. 1 compilation — a disc which includes every game on offer from the NEOGEO Station, with the exception of Baseball Stars Professional (though Baseball Stars 2 is included in the compilation), Super Sidekicks (though the compilation has Super Sidekicks 3), and Alpha Mission 2 (sadly, all two of you Alpha Mission fans are straight out of luck on this one) — for the PlayStation 2, PSP and Wii.

If I recall correctly, the compilation originally retailed for $39.99 or less depending on its platform, but has since been driven into the bargain bin (presumably by underwhelming sales). Within the last week I have seen the PSP and Wii versions at my local Fred Meyer store, each marked at a non-sale price of $14.99. The PlayStation 2 version, of which the store had literally dozens, was (very slowly) selling for $9.99.

On the other hand, this is <b>totally</b> worth $15.
  • SNK
  • On the other hand, this is totally worth $15.

Time for some math kiddies: If you were to log onto your PlayStation 3 at some point post-12/21 and download every single game initially available from the NEOGEO Station it would cost $89.90. If you opt to download the entirety for your PSP the total drops to $69.90.

Those figures are a whole lot higher than $14.99, and you won't even walk away with as many games!

I don't want to kick SNK during its decade-plus streak of being down, so I will give the company the fact that there is no SNK Arcade Classics, Vol. 1 for the PlayStation 3. Thus, people who only own the PS3 may find the NEOGEO Station their sole opportunity to play these games. However, I wonder how many people who might have any interest in decade-plus old NEOGEO games only own a PlayStation 3.

If they only own a single console, lifetime sales figures suggest that it's far more likely to be an Xbox 360 or a Wii, and even those who swear lifelong fealty to Sony most likely own a PSP alongside the behemoth black machine they keep at home.

Recap: Unless you're stuck in the tiny slice of PS3 owners who owns no other gaming machines — maybe you just needed a quality Blu-Ray player? — buying SNK's old games via the NEOGEO Station is just not worth it.

You'd be better off mailing the money directly to me. In return I'll tell you all about how awesome I used to be at 3 Count Bout.