Neo Geo Freak

Neo Geo Freak (ネオジオフリーク) is a game magazine published by Geibunsha for fans of SNK games. The magazine's serialization began on March 1995 and ended on November 2000, around the same time when the original incarnation of SNK closed its doors. Many of the staff members transferred to Gamest or Arcadia, both of whom report regularly on fighting games. It receives a minor revival in the March 2005 edition of the Torimanga magazine with "Neo Geo Freak" being used as the title of their articles for SNK Playmore.

General

The magazine catered to the fans who wanted to know more about the games that were released. Special interviews with the creators and development information was included in their articles, inviting fans to subscribe for the "extra benefits" of the magazine's contents. The magazine's most popular sections were the "Character Corner" snippets, which featured the select character with sketches, concept information, and other info that wasn't released on any other media. Additionally, the magazine also published short stories that have yet to be passed on to any other medium. Some official art was made exclusively for this magazine; a good handful of the artwork was later compiled in several artbooks.

They are best known for being one of the three magazines to decide the fate of the members to the Special Team in The King of Fighters '97. A poll was conducted by each magazine, which entreated fans to vote by mail for the character they wanted to have in The King of Fighters. Neo Geo Freak's winner was Billy Kane. The two other magazines that participated, Famitsu and Gamest, selected Ryuji Yamazaki and Blue Mary respectively. The special team created by the magazine's staff was a team of fire wielders: Billy, Kyo, and Mai. Players of the Japanese ports of the game can view an image of this team for their ending, and cannot be seen in non-Japanese versions.

The magazine also featured several special interest articles for its readers to take part of. One of them was the "SNK Gals Club" which was dedicated only to the women characters of SNK. The club released video tapes, stickers, fold-out posters, and artwork for its members. The concept of the club was later developed into a gag-parody game for the Neo Geo Pocket Color, SNK Gals' Fighters. Another point of interest was their fascination with the multiple cameos of Ryuhaku, leading to the popular in-joke of the magazine, "Where's Ryuhaku?".

Their main mascot character for reviews and other news about SNK was Joe Higashi.

The magazine is currently defunct, apart from its brief revival in 2005.