Portable gaming wars....a term gamers are not accustomed to hear. For a long time Nintendo has dominated this market and, through the years, have amassed such a large user base that it has created a very large barrier to entry for competition. All competition for the Gameboy hasn’t been able to last. All this has made the portable market rather uninteresting to keep track of. But the time to strike finally arrived, and two companies have taken advantage of that.

With the release of the colour Gameboy, Nintendo came to a transition period...the release of the Gameboy colour. With its release, Nintendo was vulnerable. This forced people to buy a new portable if they wanted to keep buying new games. So, SNK and Bandai took advantage of this opportunity, and readied their portable offerings. SNK launched first, but with a lack of games, it had a slow start against the newly released Gameboy Colour. But SNK wouldn’t give up so easy. They unveiled another weapon even before the release of the Neo Geo Pocket. At the fall Tokyo Game Show, they showed off a colour version, but with no plans for release.

Bandai has just released the Wonderswan, and it has gotten off to a quick start. Its lineup of games seems to have less appeal to the import market, but high profile third party licenses as well as relatively low prices(I assume advertising as well) helped Bandai get produce a successful launch so far. Although black and white has merit, lacking colour means this machine also lacks a selling point...despite how it could drive up the price. On top of that, the machine seems to be lacking in genres SNK does very well. For this machine to succeed, it must survive SNK’s upcoming onslaught.

SNK has never been the type of company to just give up. The Neo Geo wasn’t exactly a huge hit with consumers. They could have dumped the home version, to stick with the highly successful MVS arcade hardware. They seem to be showing the same committment concerning the Neo Geo Pocket, and that bodes well for fans of the machine, and for the portable market. The original Neo Geo Pocket, while very powerful compared to the gameboy, lacked a colour screen, and was fighting a huge uphill battle, against the established Gameboy, and against Pokemon. Even though it didn’t do as well as expected, SNK had only begun. First, there was the colour prototype at TGS which might have caused buyers to wait. The screen itself, while it has a lower total colour palette, can display a lot more colours than Gameboy’s. SNK also has some of their best games still on the way, like Metal Slug. Perhaps the most important feature SNK can use as a selling point is compatibility with the Dreamcast game console. Of the thre e current portables, Neo Geo Pocket is the only one right now set to have major compatibility between its upcoming games and the games of a major game console.

SNK has a good machine on their hands. All they need is quality third party support, and NGP colour could fare quite well. SNK stated they will release one hundred games a year, and I expect they will as they seem to keep their promises. With many games available, it will probably sell, even if it is at a slow but steady pace. Bandai and SNK have a big fight now with Nintendo, but both have powerful machines, and interesting games. Personally, I’d like to see both succeed, as competition can only make the portable market more interesting, and improve the quality of products produced. The way things are going now, I can see Nintendo losing its stranglehold on the market. All that remains for now is SNK’s launch, will its timing cripple Bandai’s quick success, or will such a close launch date hinder SNK’s sales allowing Bandai to endure? It’s hard to tell at this point, but with the product SNK has, they can pull it off.

- Torture