Neo Geo Battle Coliseum

Neo Geo Battle Coliseum (ネオジオバトルコロシアム, abbreviated NGBC or NBC) is a 2 on 2 tag team fighting game for the Atomiswave arcade board. A four-volume manhua for this game was also released.

Story
The official story, as given by SNK, is as follows:

"In February, 2017 of the new Japanese era there is a man trying to rule the NEOGEO World. "I will topple NeoGeo's most powerful warriors and put myself on the throne!" We knew that if he managed to obtain NeoGeo world's awesome power, world domination would not be far from his reach. This man, who sat at the heart of "The Warez Conglomerate" with overwhelming financial power behind him, had already set out on his ambitious path to gain NeoGeo World's power. Those who knew the truth of his intentions were already trembling with fear... As NeoGeo World drew closer to the verge of disaster, a Warez sponsored fighting competition was announced. This event is called "NEOGEO BATTLE COLISEUM". The Federal Government is worried about the situation, and has secretly dispatched its two best secret agents, Yuki and Ai. A world on the verge of eternal darkness… The future of NEOGEO World is now in the hands of the warriors."

Gameplay
The game system of the arcade NGBC, as previously mentioned, is a 2 vs 2 tag battle, regardless to how many players are playing. While the 2-player game system is similar to most tag-team systems of other games, the single player system is unusual.

The game's single play is more like a survival battle, where the player must beat enemies after enemies as long as possible. However, the game gives the player 300 seconds, and when time-out occurs, instead of win or lose, the player will face the boss (depending on how well they perform). Only at this point of time is when time out will determine the victor.

During a single-play, the rule is to defeat ANY member of the team, not both team members. That is, unlike most tag-team systems, but similar to Kizuna Encounter or Tekken Tag Tournament, where all opposition must be beaten in order to win, in NGBC, the player only needs to beat up one member of the team to win, without the need to fight the other member if the former is defeated.

The survival battles are divided into rounds of 3 battles, and after a player manages to clear 3 opponent teams, they are given a chance to use one of the three game services provided:

In terms of control layout, every character uses a control scheme that is akin to The King of Fighters in terms of button layout, cancels and movement options, only with a few functions scrapped.
 * The first is to gain more time. Extra time helps the player to beat more teams, which is so because the game records the number of teams defeated in the hi-score table.
 * The second is to gain full power gauge. This is simply to blow the opposition away as soon as the next battle starts.
 * The third is adding more life. Self-explanatory, especially due to the winning condition mentioned earlier.
 * The fourth is to not use any of the three game services provided above.

Characters
The game features characters from the following titles:
 * The King of Fighters
 * Fatal Fury / Garou: Mark of the Wolves
 * Art of Fighting / Buriki One
 * Samurai Shodown
 * The Last Blade
 * Metal Slug
 * Athena
 * King of the Monsters
 * Savage Reign
 * World Heroes
 * Aggressors of Dark Kombat

Original Roster
The original characters developed for this game are: Original Characters=
 * Yuki, an agent of the Federative Government of New Japan, in the NEOGEO World. He is something of a pseudo-hero, and thinks high of himself, but his personality is kinda goofy sometimes, and also thinks is the best mechanical fighter in NEOGEO World;
 * Ai, other agent of the Federative Government of New Japan. She is a cheerful girl that loves to play the Neo Geo and (especially) the Neo Geo Pocket, and also is the type of person that will ignore her job to play the newest NG Pocket game.
 * Yuki
 * Ai
 * -|Characters from SNK Playmore series=

From The King of Fighters

 * Kyo Kusanagi (in his NESTS style)
 * Iori Yagami
 * K'
 * Shermie

From Fatal Fury/Garou: Mark of the Wolves

 * Terry Bogard (in his Mark of the Wolves style)
 * Rock Howard
 * Geese Howard
 * Mai Shiranui
 * Kim Kaphwan
 * Jin Chonshu
 * Jin Chonrei
 * Tung Fu Rue
 * Hotaru Futaba

From Art of Fighting

 * Robert Garcia
 * Lee Pai Long
 * Mr. Big

From Buriki One

 * Mr. Karate II (Ryo Sakazaki in Buriki One persona)

From Samurai Shodown

 * Haohmaru
 * Genjuro Kibagami
 * Nakoruru
 * Shiki
 * Asura

From World Heroes

 * Hanzo
 * Mudman
 * Fuuma Kotaro

From Metal Slug

 * Marco Rossi
 * Mars People

From The Last Blade

 * Kaede (in his Awakened form)
 * Moriya Minakata
 * Akari Ichijou
 * Keiichiro Washizuka

From Athena

 * Athena

From King of the Monsters

 * Cyber Woo

From Aggressors of Dark Kombat

 * Kisarah Westfield

From Savage Reign:

 * King Lion/Shishioh (hidden character because King Leo is his palette swap and is a unique NPC boss, hence the different name)


 * -|Bosses=
 * Mizuchi: A clone of Orochi created by WAREZ.
 * Neo Dio: An alien form, boss from World Heroes.
 * King Leo/Shin Shishioh: The boss version of King Lion from Savage Reign and Kizuna Encounter. A CPU-only character, he is a palette swap of King Lion featuring one additional move, and is unique for being the only NPC boss to have a name change.
 * Goodman: The real final boss of the game. He uses a flaming whip both as a weapon, and to command a fire-like gorilla spirit (called Saru Ou, or Gorilla King) in a manner similar to an animal tamer. Interestingly enough, he was designed after Igniz, the end boss of The King of Fighters 2001.


 * -|Cameos=
 * Yuki and Ai transform into Atomic Guy from King of the Monsters during their double assault.
 * Marco summons Hyakutaro Ichimonji from Metal Slug during his special attack, also his teammates Eri Kasamoto, Tarma Roving and Fio Germi appears in one of his victory animations.
 * Akari summons Youkai Kusaregedo, Gandara, Earthquake and Nicotine Caffeine from Samurai Shodown, Ryuhaku Todoh and Honki ni Natta Mr. Karate from Art of Fighting, Sokaku Mochizuki from Fatal Fury and Orochi Iori from The King of Fighters during her special attack.
 * Kisarah summons Joe Kusanagi from Aggressors of Dark Kombat during her special attack.
 * Neo Dio summons Neo Geegus from World Heroes during his special attack.

Trivia

 * Most of its assets and gameplay, particularly for Hotaru, Tung Fu Rue, Geese Howard, Robert Garcia and Mr. Big were reused for their appearances in console versions of The King of Fighters XI.