HARDWARE REVIEW
The Neo Geo Pocket Color was basically an upgrade in hardware terms, to the Neo Geo Pocket. The main feature of it was the fact that now it could display colour games, as well as play any of the black and white ones which were released before it.The hardware itself looks exactly the same though. The control stick is still very well made and very responsive, as are the two buttons. But I do not like the fact that there are just 2 buttons. The Neo Geo arcade and home console machines have 4 buttons, and games like King of Fighters took full advantage of this. With just two buttons, most games don't play as well as they could. For example, the Metal Slug games on the Neo Geo Pocket Color require you to press the OPTION button just so you can switch from normal gun firing to grenade throwing. This is annoying and could have been avoided if they just stuck two extra buttons onto the console. The screen for the console is quite good and has a very clear display. The console can display quite a few colours on screen at once and the games look a lot better graphically than games on other hand held systems, mainly the Game Boy Color. As for the games, the Neo Geo Pocket Color has quite a few great games. Games such as Sonic Pocket Adventure, Metal Slug second mission, Match of the Millennium and Samurai Shodown! 2 should be bought straight away if you get this console. If you want to play fighting games on the move, you should get one of these consoles. The battery life is also very good. To play games, the Neo Geo Pocket Color requires 2 AA batteries and you will get many hours of play when you use a new pair. This is because, like the Game Boy consoles, the screen isn't back lit. So you'll have to have a good light source near you when you are playing this console to see the games.