Neo Geo Battle Coliseum

''They're all here - warriors from the greatest fighting video games of all time. Only one shall emerge victorious. Let the battle begin! ''

-Arcade Tagline

Neo Geo Battle Coliseum, also abbreviated as NGBC, 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 Playmore, 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 Bandai Namco's 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.

Playable Characters
The game features characters from the following titles: This game is also noticeable for the introduction of several original characters developed for this game, who are the following:
 * 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

The King of Fighters series

 * Leona Heidern
 * Yu G
 * Aya
 * Heavy-D!
 * Lucky Glauber
 * Brian Battler

Fatal Fury/MOTW series

 * Jubei Yamada
 * Marky
 * Hon-Fu
 * Cheng Sinzan
 * Bob Wilson
 * Grant
 * Kain R. Heinlein
 * Freeman
 * Alfred

Art of Fighting series

 * John Crawley
 * Eiji Kisaragi
 * Lenny Creston

Samurai Shodown series

 * Kuroko

King of Monsters series

 * Super Geon
 * Cyber Woo

Ikari Warriors series

 * Ralf Jones
 * Clark Still

Savage Reign series

 * Carol Stanzack
 * Canby
 * Rosa

Other Games

 * Spica (Cool Cool Town)
 * Amp (Cool Cool Town)
 * Yusa (Cool Cool Town)
 * Roddy (Top Hunter)
 * Cathy (Top Hunter)
 * Rocky (Robo Army)

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.
 * While not directly implied, WAREZ may pertain to the real-life software piracy term that became partially responsible for the downfall of the NEO-GEO console platform.