Dark Arms: Beast Buster 1999

Originally posted on Facebook on 17 August 2022

Dark Arms: Beast Buster 1999

I bought a Nintendo Switch game called "Neo Geo Pocket Color Selection Vol. 1" which is a compilation of ten Neo Geo Pocket games. Six of them are SNK fighting games, two of them are Metal Slug games, one of them is a golf game, and the last one... is Dark Arms: Beast Buster 1999.

I decided to try it out since it was the only adventure/action RPG kind of game in the whole collection. 

You mostly just explore around graveyards and villages, shooting monsters with guns... except I think the guns are also monsters? You need to feed your guns the spirits of the monsters you slay, and once you feed them enough, they will evolve into different guns. It's really bizarre. I think the guns are supposed to be weird mutated demonic entities, but it's never really made all that clear what's going on in this game world. There's a story of some kind, but it doesn't really contain enough worldbuilding for any of it to make much sense. 

In the game, you run around a top-down 2d environment, solving the occasional puzzles, talking to NPCs, shooting the monsters, and reaching the bosses at the end of each area. It's made more interesting by the desire to level up your collection of weird guns, which encourages you to do a little bit of grinding on the side, which is fun for a while. But other than that, there's not much to it.

There's a bit of backtracking, as you may have to explore the same areas twice, both during the day and at night. And after beating the final boss, there's an extra fetch quest that requires you to visit all the previous areas again too.

But that's okay because the game is really really short. There's like four main areas, and they're not particularly big either. I finished the whole game with 100% completion the same day I started it. There's a monster bestiary and a weapon compendium to fill out, so there is at least something fun for completionists to strive for.

Overall.... well, it was a fun curiosity. I never played an action RPG for the NGPC before, so I'm glad they decided to include one in a collection that's otherwise mostly just for fighting game fans. It was a good time.

I'm definitely a much bigger fan of SNK's previous action/adventure RPG Crystalis, which I also played fairly recently. Crystalis I would actually call a good game. Dark Arms, though... I would say it's interesting, but nothing special.

Currently, there does not exist a NGPC Selection Vol. 2 yet. ... I'm hoping they include the Neo Geo's Sonic the Hedgehog game in Vol 2 if it ever gets made - now that's a great game, and it's one that I've actually played on a real NGPC. 😃