The Last Blade: Beyond the Destiny (Switch)

Powah Dunk | November 12, 2020 | Review | No Comments

The Last Blade: Beyond the Destiny is the latest title from the Neo Geo Pocket Collection and it snuck onto the E-Shop last week. Is this legendary title worth a gander or is it a dull dagger?.

So The Last Blade: Beyond the Destiny is an NGPC exclusive version of the painfully underused series The Last Blade, often considered a spiritual successor of Samurai Shodown, and The Last Blade 2 is in my personal top 10 all-time fighting games.

This version combines the narrative and roster of both Last Blade 1 and 2, cleverly hidden behind in-game unlockables giving this title a little more life than that of previous Pocket Collection titles.

16 characters in total, all lovingly recreated in the iconic chibi style of the Neo Geo Pocket Colour. The stages once again all look fantastic and is something that seems to be attached to the series (case and point Last Blade 2). The use of colours are fantastic, the characters have a 2 colour scheme going on and it is certainly the case of less is more with this one.

The controls and combat are as responsive as ever. SNK had an amazing ability to make a 2 button system still feel close to the arcade counterparts and there is no exception here. Heavy attacks are done by holding the button in and should you want you can even play this one on the touch screen!.

Other emulation options are different NGPC skins, filters for the screen, a digital instruction book, and even a rewind feature for getting rid of those pesky dropped combos.

There is a story mode, 2 mini-games, and multiplayer which is where this game shines. Unfortunately like the other games in this collection, there is no online multiplayer and this is a real miss, ever since Gals Fighter dropped I’ve been itching to play these titles against my friends who don’t live locally.

The asking price may be a little rich for less than hardcore fighter fans but this is another must-play for the SNK faithful. It’s a fantastic and fun adaptation of one of my favourite weapon-based fighters and the fact it’s freely available now is brilliant. It’s a shame there is still no online feature especially in 2020, plenty of single-player stuff to unlock for those of you who don’t have a local spar partner.