Neo Geo is a family of video game hardware that was developed by SNK. On the market from 1990 to 2004, the brand originated with the release of an arcade system, the Neo Geo Multi Video System (MVS) and its home console counterpart, the Neo Geo Advanced Entertainment System (AES).
Both the MVS and AES were powerful for the time, and the Neo Geo MVS was successful with arcade operators worldwide. However, while the AES allows for fully authentic versions of games released for the MVS, the high price for both the AES console and its games prevented it from directly competing with its contemporaries, the Sega Genesis, Super NES, and TurboGrafx-16.
Years later, SNK released the Neo Geo CD, a more cost-effective console with games released on compact discs. The console was met with limited success, due in part to its slow CD-ROM drive. In an attempt to compete with increasingly popular 3D games, SNK released the Hyper Neo Geo 64 arcade system in 1997 as the successor to its aging MVS. The system did not fare well and only a few games were released for it. A planned home console based on the hardware was never released. SNK later extended the brand by releasing a handheld console, the Neo Geo Pocket, which was quickly succeeded by the Neo Geo Pocket Color. Soon after their release, however, SNK encountered various legal and financial issues resulting in a sale of the company and discontinuation of the handheld. Despite that, the original Neo Geo MVS and AES continued receiving new games under new ownership until officially being discontinued in 2004, ending the brand.
Regardless of the failure of later Neo Geo hardware, games for the original MVS and AES have been well received. The system spawned several long-running and critically acclaimed series, mostly 2D fighters, including Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, Samurai Shodown, The Last Blade, World Heroes, and The King of Fighters, as well as popular games in other genres such as the Metal Slug, Twinkle Star Sprites and Baseball Stars series. In December 2012, SNK Playmore released a handheld console based on the original AES, the Neo Geo X. As of March 1997, the Neo Geo had sold 980,000 units worldwide. The Neo Geo Pocket Color also has been given praise for multiple innovations, and a very substantial library, despite its short life.
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