Visco Collection (Switch)

Visco are a company that despite being around for years, aren’t exactly a household name when compared to your Capcom’s and your SNK group. QuByte Interactive has been doing an amazing job bringing titles to gamers to show everyone what we are missing, Vasara Collection and Breakers Collection coupled with 2 original sequels in Andro Dunos 2 and Ganryu 2 were a fantastic start and now they are followed up with the eagerly anticipated Visco Collection.

The Visco Collection compiles the following Arcade games. 

• Andro Dunos
• Bang Bead
• Captain Tomaday
• FlipShot
• Ganryu
• Goal! Goal! Goal!
• Neo DriftOut

What you have here is quite a mix of genres with a few Shmups, a racing game, football, a side-scrolling action game, and 2 “Windjammer/Pong” styled titles, unfortunately, there aren’t any fighting games due to Breakers getting its own collection.

The games are all fantastic with the standouts being Andro Dunos which is still a damn fine Shmup though slightly eclipsed by its sequel and Ganryu with its “Shinobiesque” style gameplay splattered with that Neo Geo flair we oldies just love. 

Captain Tomaday does deserve a special mention for the sheer Twin-Bee vibes it gave me, it’s a quirky “Cute ‘Em Up” where a Tomato is taking down all kinds of villainous Veg, instead of shots you fire your hands and it has all manner of Looney Tune style animations as your grippers change into weights and other items.

Goal! Goal! Goal! Is your standard arcade Football affair, as I’m not a football fan outside of a few games like Inazuma Level or Captain Tsubasa I didn’t stick with this one long. Neo Drift-Out is a fun, technical marvel of a Rally Game that I can only imagine blew minds back in the day, not my cuppa but I can see the appeal of this one even for casual fans. 

Finally, we have Flip Shot and Bang Bead, both of these are the Windjammer clones and while decent fun to play with a quirky cast of characters outside of the fact Bang Bead is one of the rarest Neo Geo titles around to the point people weren’t convinced it was released at one point, it just feels a little overkill. 

Game collection aside Visco Collection offers several different tweaks to the visuals allowing you to go for as crisp or as traditional as you can want. Aside from that weirdly there aren’t any dip switch options which seems like a massive omission when it comes to emulating Arcade titles, known for their credit-munching ways.

The main addition here and the one that drew me in is the ability to play the titles online with other people, bar Ganryu and Neo DriftOut. I was itching to give this feature a try for some co-op Andro Dunos or competitive Bang Bead but unfortunately, I was unable to find anyone online due to when we received the review code. Much like Breakers Collection, I can imagine the player base will be a small but dedicated group but it’s worth knowing the option is there for friends to pick up and play. 

Visco Collection is a fun compilation title with some great features and puzzling omissions, worth it for retro enthusiasts, and complies with some curious Neo Geo titles, what more could you want?