3 Count Bout is a 1993 wrestling game from SNK for the Neo Geo. It was built directly for that hardware, a system where the arcade board and the home console were technically identical, so the game ran at home with nothing cut out of it.

Arcade wrestling differs from a fighting game in that nothing is settled at range. Most attacks require grabbing the opponent first, and only then is a hold entered, which changes the rhythm of a match: a brief approach, a struggle for the grip, then a long throw animation. A bout ends with a count of three, which is where the name comes from.

In 1993 the Neo Geo occupied a unique position among consoles. It could display large sprites with a great many animation frames, which matters especially in wrestling, since throws and lifts need far more frames to read smoothly than an ordinary punch does. The record lists a side view and support for one or more players. Two-player matches were standard on the Neo Geo, because the arcade board assumed two control panels and the home version inherited that.

The Neo Geo was an unusual system in this respect. SNK sold the same board in two forms: as an arcade cabinet and as a home console whose games came on large cartridges priced beyond most households. Players therefore knew these titles from arcades and only met them at home much later, in conversions to weaker hardware or through emulation. That gap is why the Neo Geo catalogue was for years more legend than common experience.

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