The SNK Thread

[Nester the Lark]

Might as well start an SNK appreciation thread since their 40th anniversary is later this year (July 22), and I've felt like talking about them lately.

First, a bit of news.

I guess the recent leak forced their hand a little. I was starting to think this might be Japan-only since the initial announcement only appeared on SNK's Japanese Twitter account. Check out the Facebook link for more details.

Anyway, I was thinking how lucky SNK is to still be around, and not be bought out or merged with some other game company. (Imagine if they were "Capcom SNK," or worse yet, bought by Konami and never heard from again.) They've managed to survive some hard times, including actually being shut down and transitioning to Playmore. Yet, somehow, they keep coming back.

SNK is one of those things I came to appreciate over time rather than all at once. Of course, being a Nintendo fan made it hard to also be an SNK fan, as they haven't thrown much weight behind a Nintendo console since the NES (although they did support the GBA and DS a bit). Indeed, I bought all four of their Dreamcast games that came to North America.

Last year when I said I hoped the Switch would get support from SNK, I honestly didn't really expect it to happen. At best, I figured they'd float a half-baked port of King of Fighters XIV just to test the waters, and if it did well, they'd continue to support the Switch with more half-baked ports (as per how most third-parties have treated Nintendo consoles for the past four generations). So, yeah, I'm pretty thrilled that SNK is getting behind the Switch the way they seem to be, and I'm looking forward to the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection and, yes, SNK Heroines, because I want them to continue supporting the Switch. Case in point, producer Yasuyuki Oda said if SNK Heroines did well, he wanted to have KOF14 ported over, too. (Fingers crossed for Metal Slug XX.)

Anyway, do you guys have any thoughts about SNK? Have any favorite SNK games? Think they'll do well on the Switch? (If the success of Hamster's Neo Geo releases is any indication, it's looking good.)

[nocturnal YL]

SNK was bought by Chinese investors back in 2016. This actually benefitted us, as it steered the company back to consoles after their earlier efforts to move to pachislot.

SNK had some history with the Wii too, though it's not especially good. Metal Slug Anthology came to mind. I heard that it didn't support 480p display (480i only doesn't play well with my setup), but I can't confirm. At any rate, I don't have this game and now I wish I do.

I can't say I want to see much from them besides more Metal Slug re-releases, especially the underrated NEOGEO POCKET games. I'm otherwise not very familiar with the company.

[Nester the Lark]

I can confirm that Metal Slug Anthology is one of the few Wii games that does not support 480p. Most of its control options have not aged well, either, often requiring motion control in some way or other.

[nocturnal YL]

I think it supports the GameCube controller too?

I played it before, and I was honestly rather amused at how I could throw grenades like crazy by shaking the Wii Remote. Of course, that didn't last long.

[Nester the Lark]

I didn't mind it back then, but it's not really ideal.

And yes, it does support the GameCube controller, but you can only control your character with the analog stick, not the D-pad. It works OK, but it may bother some people.

[Nester the Lark]

Seems that there will be an online presentation for the Neo Geo Mini available on YouTube this weekend.

[Nester the Lark]

So, here's the presentation:



Bullet points:

- It's a standalone unit with a 3.5-inch screen.
- There are two versions: a Japanese version and an International version.
- Includes HDMI output and a headphone jack. Has screen ratio and resolution options when outputting to a TV.
- Includes two ports for external controllers. The controllers are modeled after the pad included with the Neo Geo CD, and is available in both black and white.
- Has 40 built-in games. The game selection is different between the Japanese and International versions.
- The games are based on the home AES versions because they had extra options and features not in the arcade versions.
- Releases this summer. First in Japan.
- Price is yet to be determined.

Random note:

- The cheesy host, Maxwell Powers, is the announcer in King of Fighters XIV.

I still think it's interesting that it's a standalone unit with its own screen rather than a straight plug-and-play device, but I wonder how comfortable it is to play with such a small screen and tiny joystick & buttons. Either way, tho, I'm probably not getting one.

EDIT: Official website

[Nester the Lark]

Here's some footage of the 40th Anniversary Collection.

[Nester the Lark]

Here's a really cool update on the 40th Anniversary Collection. The games that used rotary joysticks are being made to work like twin stick games. Definitely check out the thread for a more in-depth explanation.

I'm really happy they're doing it this way.

[The Qu]

A lot of folks are jazzed about the Neo Geo Mini, and with good reason, but I'm more intrigued by the 40th Anniverary Compilation. I love compilations like this that really introduce me to games I've never heard of.

[Nester the Lark]

New trailer for the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection, which is officially coming November 13.



No new games announced for it, tho. I'll keep my fingers crossed for the NES version of Baseball Stars. I also half-expect it to include Fantasy, since Frank Cifaldi said it was his favorite obscure SNK game. It would also be cool to see Beast Busters, but I'm not sure how they'd handle a lightgun shooter.

[Nester the Lark]

Here's a video showing the features of SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy.



So, I haven't really talked about this game much, because, well, I guess I've been a little mixed on it. I think it looks fun as a casual "Smash Bros"-style fighting game. And yes, it is a "fan service" type of game. I'm not really offended by it, but... it still feels a little creepy and pandering. (Although it does seem tame compared to, say, Dead or Alive, or Senran Kagura).

However, my main concern at this point is actually the character roster. Fourteen characters seems limited for a tag team fighting game. That means that besides the two characters I play as, there are only six other unique match-ups (plus, I assume, a boss). Additionally, 12 of the 13 characters announced so far are ripped straight out of King of Fighters XIV, and not even all of the female characters from KOF14 are being represented here. It really feels skimpy.

SNK has said that they're planning DLC, but considering the base game is already full-priced, it feels like they're holding things back just so they can charge extra to complete the roster.

Unless, of course, the DLC is free. (They indicated in an interview that they were reconsidering how they would handle the DLC after seeing the backlash towards BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle.) Or maybe even if they take a cue from Nintendo's approach and give away some DLC for free while charging for others, that might not be so bad.

But yeah, way back when I said I hoped SNK would support the Switch, SNK Heroines was not exactly what I had in mind.

[Nester the Lark]

Frank Cifaldi shared some original enemy artwork from Psycho Soldier:

He also confirmed that the game will include the vocal theme, both the original Japanese and cheesy English versions.

He also noted that the version of Crystalis shown at E3 was an early build that they did not know would be shown publicly, and that the game is in much better shape now.

EDIT: Oh, and here's a promo video for Crystalis.

[Nester the Lark]

Here's some more SNK history stuff from Frank Cifaldi that I wanted to share/archive.

[Nester the Lark]

So, there's been speculation about this for the past few weeks due to a leaked list of the PlayStation trophies, but the final character reveal for SNK Heroines is... a female Terry Bogard.

...Yeah, I don't know, either, unless it's actually Alice in disguise.