After a little delay, Tommo and SNK finally released the Neo*Geo X to North American shores. This system, which can be both a portable gaming device as well as a home console, has a hefty price tag of two hundred dollars, but for those that grew up with the Neo*Geo and remember paying that much (or more!) for AES carts, this was practically a bargain, especially when you consider that it comes with twenty games packed in (twenty-one for the gold limited edition). For gamers that didn’t grow up with a Neo*Geo in their household, paying two hundred dollars for a system that only plays twenty year old games probably seems ludicrous. Personally, I fell somewhere in the middle. I love my old AES and have fifty or so carts for it, so two hundred dollars for a portable system that plays the games perfectly instead of being shoddy ports held real interest for me. At the same time, you can buy a lot of old Neo*Geo games as digital titles for systems like the Nintendo Wii, Sony PS3 and Xbox 360, and you can pick and choose the games you get. That made the Neo*Geo X a hard sell. I eventually ended up getting it, thanks to a massive trade-in bonus from Gamestop (all those Wii U launch games + 50% bonus credit), as I could get the system for free. Add in the fact some of the games on the Neo*Geo X have never been released as digital downloads for other systems this generation, and it was hard to say no. On December 20th, the system finally came in, and now it’s time to show you what you will get if you picked one of these up. Of course, the Neo*Geo X Gold is sold out most everywhere, so if you like what you see, cross your fingers that you won’t have to hit up Ebay or some other reseller for one of these.
This is the front cover of the box.
This is the back cover of the box, which shows all twenty games and what you get in the box.
This is the Neo*Geo X Gold Limited Edition. To the left is the box the extra joystick came in. According to Gamestop, this second controller came with my preorder. That’s a nice little bonus, and means my wife can fiddle around with the console version too when I have the portable unit docked.
This is one of the Neo*Geo joysticks. They are as huge as ever. Note they are a USB port, which means they should work with the PS3 and Wii U Neo*Geo games as well. I imported the Neo*Geo stick for the Wii many years ago (for the Virtual Console) and they are pretty much the same, save for the plug-in.
Once you open the Neo*Geo X box, you’ll find two more boxes inside. The one on the left contains the AES docking station, the handheld unit, the HDMI cord and the manual. The one on the right contains A/V cords, the power cable, the Ninja Masters cartridge and the other joystick.
As you can see, these are the content of one of the two boxes. Again, check out the size of the controller compared to most modern ones. HUGE.
Here’s a shot of just the Ninja Masters cartridge for the system.
This is another short of the Ninja Masters‘s case alongside a Lindor truffle to give you a size comparison. As you can see, the carts are pretty small. Not quite PS Vita small, but still quite tiny.
Here are the contents of the second box. As you can see, the portable unit is about the length and width of an AES cart, which is why so many people thought you would place it in the docking station like one. As you’ll see below, this was an incorrect assumption.
A shot of the docking station.
Here is what the docking station looks like when it is opened. You can easily see where you plug the portable unit in for both charging and for play on a TV.
A close-up of the portable unit.
A shot of what it looks like when you have the portable unit plugged into the charging unit. Oddly enough, there’s no light on the exterior to show you that the portable unit is charging or is fully charged up. You have to open the charging unit and look at the portable device itself. A really strange design choice if you ask me.
A shot of the unit next to the Ninja Masters cartridge. You stick the cart in a slot on the right hand side of the portable unit. It doesn’t auto-eject and it’s quite snug, so fingernails are really helpful here. Changing cartridges out will be a bitch.
A shot of the Neo*Geo X handheld next to the PS Vita. As you can see, the screens are roughly the same size.
A shot of the Neo*Geo X handheld unit next to the Nintendo 3DS. Notice how much bigger the screen is with SNK and Tommo’s device. It’s also a much wider unit.
This is a page from the manual for the system. Read it carefully, as it’s VERY important. As you can see, the ONLY way to charge the handheld unit is inside the docking station. You can’t use a regular cord or a USB cable. This is a pretty bad design choice, and it means you can’t really take the Neo*Geo X handheld unit with you if you are going on a long trip. You can’t really cart that massive charger with you, so if I’m off to Barbados or Cancun for a week, this is staying behind in favor of another handheld that I can charge easier.
Finally, here’s a shot of everything you get with the Neo*Geo X Gold Limited Edition. It’s a lot of stuff for two hundred bucks, and quite a few of the games haven’t been released outside the original AES/MVS systems, so for Neo*Geo fans this is a pretty sweet offering.
So there you go! A full unboxing of the Neo*Geo X Gold Limited Edition system. I’ll be back later with a look at all the games that come with the system, along with my impressions of how good the overall package is. See you then!
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