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Thanks to Insert Credit for its in-depth report on SNK's forthcoming PS2 title, King Of Fighters: Maximum Impact, as "the first 3D fighter of SNK's new age" is rated from preview builds, with the author arguing "it would be considered a respectable contender against Dead or Alive 2 and Soul Calibur." Elsewhere, UK company Vektorlogic are bucking the death of the MVS arcade hardware, and are announcing multiple new MVS-compatible arcade cartridges, including an arcade version of Super Bubble Pop. Finally, and sadly, prolific Neo Geo (and other) FAQ writer Chris MacDonald, aka Kao Megura, has recently passed away, according to forum messages posted by his brother.

Coreyh writes "The just-released King of Fighters 2000/2001 game compilation for the PlayStation 2 has been censored. The content removed from the 2D fighter includes blood, guns, and Mai's 'bouncing.' Apparently SNK Japan is a bit cautious about the USA's acceptance of content. I wish SNK USA had more control over this sort of thing. The content changed seems very mild to me. King of Fighters 2003 has also had a limited Jamma PCB release for arcades around the world this week. Here is a trailer of the opening and gameplay. It has tagging and interesting new characters along with old favorites."

Thanks to 1UP for its feature charting the history of SNK's cult King Of Fighters series. The piece starts: "From 1994 until now and counting, SNK's King of Fighters... has almost as consistent a track record as EA's Madden football, and Madden didn't have to survive the protracted buyout and collapse of its owners." The yearly versions of these Neo Geo-originated 2D fighters are then analyzed, from KOF '94 ("Two dozen characters in a fighting game doesn't sound like much nowadays, but it was a hell of a cast in 1994") through the controversial KOF '99 ("a pretty daring move on SNK's part, delivering a complete overhaul of the series' tested gameplay"), to the present day, where a separate article delivers new details on the forthcoming KOF '03, revealing new rosters and "a tag battle system" for this latest arcade-bound iteration.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a Magic Box article showing screenshots from the bootleg arcade game Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon 2003. Although there are few details on this title, it seems to be a South American-sourced Neo-Geo cartridge that doesn't actually have the actual movie license, but is 'borrowing' its name, along with most of the gameplay of King of Fighters 2001 and a bunch of backgrounds from the Street Fighter series. So many years after the Street Fighter II bootlegs, it's amazing to see people are still 'enhancing' arcade games for cultures where the 2D arcade fighter is still popular.

An'Desha Danin writes "It appears that SNK is returning to the US market for the first time since they closed down its offices in June 2000. GameDaily has the scoop. The article mentions SNK will be showing at E3 with playable versions of Metal Slug Advance and King of Fighters 2001 for Gameboy Advance. Sweetness." Also mentioned are a new version of Samurai Shodown and a 3D version (!) of Metal Slug, so, needless to say, the messageboards on Neo Geo fansites are lighting up over this news.

xonox writes: "Perhaps you heard about the Neo-Geo game console when it came out some 12 years ago. Most people remember it because it was very expensive. Well, after 12 years, it is still alive and getting brand new commercial games for it. It may be a bit of a niche item but still. The Neo-Geo console was essentially the arcade hardware of the same name inside a prettier case. 3 games have been produced this year for the arcade hardware and two of those 3 have been released for the home console. If you think 2d games are cool, then you should check out http://www.neo-geo.com for more information about one of the greatest 2d platforms of all time. I'm picking playability over 3d anyday :)"