NEOGEO AES+ pre-orders are surging and sparking FOMO

The base model offers a 1:1 replica of the original '90s console, including the processor and internal electronics, ensuring its 100% backwards compatible and feels like the iconic game console.

The white Anniversary Edition is the same console, in white. This also comes bundled with one of SNK's greatest games, Metal Slug.

The iconic NEOGEO Arcade Stick featured the same tech found in '90s arcades and was designed to work with SNK's classic fighting games. The stick comes in wired and wireless models.

The white Anniversary of the Arcade Stick for those who want a second peripheral for their special edition NEOGEO AES+.

One of my favourite game pads of all time, the NEOGEO Gamepad was never bettered in my mind, especially for fighting games and retro games, as it features unrivalled microswitches instead of the traditional d-pad.

Proving its 1:1 retro credentials, you'll need a NEOGEO AES+ Memory Card for saving game progress, high scores, and settings across your games – this isn't your modern PS5 with oodles of game saving space on console.

The white edition of the must-have NEOGEO AES+ Memory Card for saving game progress and those all-important high scores for bragging rights.

One of my favourite shoot 'em-ups of all time, Pulstar was created by former members of the R-Type dev team and so feels like a '90s rival of the classic shooter.

There was a niche trend in the '90s for isometric racers (Blizzard cut its teeth in the genre with Rock 'n' Roll Racing), and Over Top, by designer Takashi Egashira, was one of the better ones, but it doesn't push NEOGEO as much as other games on the console.

While I have a soft spot for Samurai Shodown II, this release, Samurai Shodown V Special, has a larger roster and more complex ideas that have inspired many games, including Guilty Gear. It was also the last official game released on the NEOGEO AES, in 2004 (true story, sad times).

I love the Fatal Fury series, particularly the Real Bout entries, but Mark of the Wolves dragged the series forward, closer to King of Fighters and Street Fighter III in its technical gameplay and ideas. A must-have if you pre-order NEOGEO AES+.

This game took the Ikari Warriors eight-way shooter template and adds bells and whistles that give it its own sense of personality, not least because you can choose routes through the game and swap characters for health gambles and different abilities.

You need Metal Slug on day one of your new NEOGEO AES+, as it remains one of the best games ever made, regardless of 'retro' status. It's worth playing just to experience the rich, detailed pixel art and animation, as it was meant to be played on a NEOGEO console.

I personally love KOF '95, but The King of Fighters 2002 is a good place to start, as this fighter rewinds the series back to the 3-on-3 bouts and visual design of the '90s games. It's widely regarded as one of the best fighting games from SNK.

Made by Nazca, the same team behind Metal Slug, and as such has some lovely, detailed pixel animation. The game features a slightly easy (accessible?) control system, but some devilishly tricky imagined course layouts.

A weird shooter that drags together disparate trends of the '90s – bullet hell shooter, puzzle fighter - into one two-player game. It's a shooter, but played in split screen, with combo kills damaging your rival and various specials, boosters and more flung over the screen to your opponent.

The other game from Takashi Egashira at launch, Magician Lord, is a ludicrously difficult side-scrolling platform shooter in the vein of Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Shinobi and Rastan, but did I mention it's horribly hard? If you're pre-ordering this one, definitely invest in a memory card for saving progress.