Just got my issue of Arcadia in the mail from this morning, decided to order this issue after hearing some rumours about KOF XIII (which turned out to just be the logo and a little information on the preview event at the end of this month) and the article on Neo Geo's 20th Anniversary.
So anyway the vast majority of the issue is dedicated to all things Neo Geo, and if i'm not mistaken it says on the front cover that this is only the first part.
The magazine comes with a free card for some sort of card based online game, though i have no idea what it is...The artwork for the card is not too bad though.
As soon as you open the magazine you are greeted with a two page spread with a message thanking SNK fans for the past 20 years.
The first article basically explains 'What is Neo Geo' with the companies history, etc (not being able to read much Japanese i can't tell alot of what's going on here).It then goes on to show the Neo Geo catalogue of games (AES/MVS/NGCD/HyperNG64), whilst this is quite a nice section to have a look at it does seem rather 'unprofessional' that some games do not seem to have screen shots...Instead replaced by 'SORRY NO IMAGE'.
(Also don't forget to check out the Neo Geo museum website, which also has a less detailed Neo Geo catalogue.)
Anyway moving on, as well as the articles on various parts of SNK's History, there is also a 'Lady Game Centre' feature on what i assume is something about 'Gaming Idols'. No idea wtf this is all about.There are also two interviews, one with Akio who worked on the design for Metal Slug 1-3, and another with one of the staff members (whose name unfortunately i can't read) who worked on Twinkle Star Sprites, as well as Doki Doki Majou Shinpan.
Also there is some fan art of SNKP characters, as well as some previews of some of the upcoming XBLA games.
Other bits and pieces in the magazine include some stuff on Arcana Heart 3, there's a two page spread with something about Daigo Umehara, etc...
So is this magazine worth picking up? If you can read Japanese then i would say so, if like me you can't then a lot of the information on SNK's history in the magazine you can probably read online somewhere in English. Personally i only picked it up out of curiosity.
You can order it online from Playasia for £11.27 (Just to note, even the cheapest shipping option is about £5), or you can subscribe to Arcadia via Playasia for a slightly cheaper price here. Though the subscription will start from next months issue and not this one.
Japan Centre also sells Arcadia Magazine, though i'm not absolutely sure what the normal price is, the issue i saw when i went in there recently was one of the older ones with the Tougeki DVDs and cost £24.10 compared to the £9.27 (minus shipping) it costs for the same issue on Playasia.
I've subscribed via Playasia myself, so if there's any more KOFXIII or SNK related news in future issues i'll be sure to write about it here.
I'll just finish up this short write up with a few pics from the magazine.
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