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As the globe gets stuck into yet another thrilling World Cup, I'm pulling out a relevant title for this week's Random Game Saturday – the pint-sized masterpiece that is Neo Geo Cup '98.
Originally released for the monochrome Neo Geo Pocket back in 1999, this is a very loose adaptation of the Neo Geo MVS / AES release, Neo Geo Cup '98: The Road to the Victory, which was created to capitalise on the hype surrounding the World Cup in France.
In fact, apart from sharing the same name and subject matter, the handheld version is a completely different game. Most notably, it employs a vertical scrolling pitch rather than a horizontal one, and the players are more cartoon-like.
There's actually a surprisingly large amount of depth on display, however, making this portable iteration arguably more entertaining than its arcade / AES counterpart, despite the weaker presentation.
Like some of the other early black-and-white Neo Geo Pocket releases, Neo Geo Cup '98 was reissued in colour when SNK launched the Neo Geo Pocket Color handheld.
Neo Geo Cup '98 Plus is the version to get if you're interested in picking this up today (it's included on Neo Geo Pocket Colour Selection Vol. 2), but I personally love the cover artwork for the monochrome original.