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Farewell to SNK
pliew writes: "There's a good article over at classic gaming with a reader's digest version of the history of SNK. I'm sure all readers here have at one point experienced video games on the neogeo console."
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I must have bought versions of Samurai Spirits for half a dozen platforms. It has been really sad watching SNK fall into obscurity over the last few years. Especially with the comparatively shallow games of Capcom continuing to rake in the bucks.
Takahashi Rumiko made beats! DON, taku, DON, taku. . .
See you at the crossroads...
python -c "x='python -c %sx=%s; print x%%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))%s'; print x%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))"
I think I like Penny Arcade's response too it more, though.
Clunky box. Cartridges too large. Price too high. Game selection very limited.
Who is really surprised that it died?
As for SNK, they will truly be missed. Even if you didn't enjoy their arcade games, there is no doubting their impact in the gaming industry.
I mean... Osama wars???
karma capped
Change is good. (evil grin of survivor of 70% layoffs :)
<^>_<(ô ô)>_<^>
I remember playing their arcade games a few years ago. Though most of the games were pretty crappy, IMHO, I really liked the idea of having several different games in one machine. Anyone know if these multi-game arcades caught on with any other companies?
Will all the SNK games be public domain, legally emulated on M.A.M.E?
Will we be seeing more Mai Shiranui Hentai ?
YESSS!!
Oh, I meant, how sad!, no really!
Kilroy was here!
I still find it interesting how the NeoGeo still has games coming out for it (how long this will last, I am not sure), like The King of Fighters 2001...
[Ok. I didn't really have anything to say, but SNK meant a lot to me as far as video game companies go. I still prefer fighting games with 2-D sprites over newfangled 3-D ones...]
This has been a lousy day.
;)
Since I can't speak much about George (tho I loved his Wilbury's and Beatles work) I *do* have this to say about my first time - with the Neo Geo that is...
The first time I saw the Neo Geo was actually in a 'mom and pop' type store in the early 1990's. The two things I first thought where:
- WOW look at the graphics, features and gameplay!!!(and)
- HOLY $**7! Look at the price tag!
There it was.. US$750 and the games were going for US$150 each. This was *not* my idea of what to pay for a console gaming system. But it was a very impressive system, nonetheless...
When I heard about their pocket game system that would work with the Dreamcast I *hoped* this would save them.. I knew they were in trouble when the Dreamcast was cancelled.
Now.. they're just a footnote in Game Console History.. *snif*.
I suppose for both George and SNK I can say the same thing...
Still my guitar gently weeps...
Polymorphism -- It's what you make of it.
I still play Samurai Shodown 2 in mame, probably the only way SNK will ever live on. Support your local MAMER today.
Why is it that I have been playing video games since the Atari and have never heard of the company SNK? I've never heard of any of those games before. It's amazing that their company could survive that long being that unpopular.
They should have done what Sega did to survive. Switch to game development only.
Neo Geo came out with the first version of the famous Bomber Man. I will miss that game.
________________
All my sig are fjdklafjkldafjkldafdaklf
Had it been priced at a more reasonable price, say $200, they would have taken a huge financial loss on the systems, but more than made up for it by beating the SNES and Genesis in the market at the time.
My $.02.
My first memories of the NEO-GEO were as a prize given away on "Video Power" (boy do I miss that show). My next memories were that of having World Heroes at our convenience store (boy, do I hate that game).
It was really such a bittersweet thing. Bless with a solid platform that put more games into the arcade than any other in history, but (with some exception) cursed with a cart system that drove prices through the roof for anyone but try uber-gamers)
It will be missed.
"You're never ready, just less unprepared."
No mention of Crystalis, one of the best (only?) action RPGs for the NES. Zelda was good, but Crystalis was different in that it actually had a storyline with dialogue, something USA gamers wouldn't really see again until Final Fantasy 2 for SNES. At the time, it was surprising to see the game coming from SNK, whose past games were nothing like it (read: Ikari Warriors).
I was always hoping SNK might do a follow-up version for Neo-geo.. oh well.
I remember my younger years in arcades playing Fatal Fury and Samurai Showdown. I even remember playing Ikari Warriors on C64. I always thought the NeoGeo was expensive though... from the way this article sounds SNK wasn't exactly the best run business.
Pfft... they're gone because they sucked and they were stupid. Cry me some crocodile tears...
Potato chips are a by-yourself food.
Back when I was 10 or so, everytime I was in the local game store which had a NeoGeo on display we'd always oogle the thing. It was the system every kid wanted, but could never afford. Sometimes there would be that rich kid in school who you would hear rumors like "I hear he's got a NeoGeo"..
-
SNK survived mostly because of their arcade business. With the fall of the arcades, companies whos business relies on the arcades are dying.
SNK made very good arcade games, but good games arent enough to by profitable when you compete with Sonys and Microsofts.
Sega seems to be in the same situation SNK was in, and that Atari was in before SNK.
Can Sega survive on games alone? SNK couldnt do it, Atari managed to do it just barely, while Sega has good games, will people buy them?
IF people didnt buy them for Dreamcast Segas own system, will they buy them for PSX, Xbox, or Gamecube?
I dont know
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
What is a wren?
A bird.
I didn't know one kid that owned the console. So unless all slashdotters were rich kids, you can't be expecting many here to have experienced the console.
Do any of you remember the old NES game Athena.
Was there an end to that game? I could never figure it out. I even tried using the game genie but I couldn't figure out any form of an ending.
And Ikari Warriors! Wasn't that SNK? ABBA select start or something like that to continue as many times as you wanted. I'd always get a couple hours into the game and get stuck in a wall or something (multiplayer mode).
They had a lot of great games on both consoles and arcade machines. Most of them can be emulated, but it's sad to see a fun company die.
Magician lord was one of my first arcade games that I really got into.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
They didn't mention KOF throughout that whole articles, I think this is what SNK was known by in the last few years? I actually didn't like KOF as a game, but the characters, environments, music and general feel are unparalleled in any other fighter....you can feel it in Capcom vs. SNK (although it plays much like a Street Fighter).
That game would have to be one of SNK's worst.
Their port to the NES of this rather classic arcade game was messed up. IIRC, you had a gun, four lives, and baddies ambushing you from everywhere. Sure, you could get into a tank - until it ran out of fuel. It was nearly impossible to dodge the flying bullets and IIRC, you died with one shot.
You thought CONTRA was hard? Ikari Warriors makes Contra look like Barney's Hide 'n' Seek in terms of difficulty. Levels are ridiculously long, to the point where the music is like sandpaper to your ears. If you didn't know the continue code, the game was IMPOSSIBLE to beat on a normal NES. And, to further insult the player, they made the continue code 'ABBA'
I actually slogged through this game. I fought through wave after wave of pallet-swapped enemies, entrenched machine guns, grenades..
I got to the third level, which consisted of cyan platforms and black water or oil. I slogged through it, and as I approached the end, I took a wrong turn and wound up at a dead end. See, SNK's programmers had learned how to make the screen scroll UP, but not how to scroll the screen DOWN.
so I was stuck there.
I still have the cartridge. It glows with an evil red aura.
very true...
He's spent a lot of time trying to figure out the perfect way to say this tripe. :-)
I think SNK was a dream for a lot of people back when it came out late 80s. Unfortunately, 500 bucks for a home system and up to 250 dollars per game was waaay out of many people's budget mine included. However, SNK built the system to last, and last it did. I just bought Mark of the Wolves for DC, one of the greatest, last, and largest of the SNK games. The mvs cartridge will still run on hardware that is 13 years old. I found one of my really old gamepro magazines, and they have a picture of the old home system. (right next to a pic of the 'new' sega genesis) I'll never forget how I felt looking at that machine, and that feeling never went away.
Goodbye SNK, goodbye terry bogard
Ikari Warriors- Cool game, until the one time my friend ruined an attempt to finish the game by advancing the screen and trapping me when no enemies were left. :-(
Samurai Shodown- One of the reasons I bought a 3DO.
Their ridiculous home system- Way overpriced when it was new (I seem to remember seeing it for sale in a Babbage's, for ~$600-$700), friggin' gigantic cartridges you could kill someone with, and great controllers. Too bad you couldn't make a game last for more than a minute, unless you were normally as twitchy as Beavis on a sugar-high. I kept my Neo Geo system for about 2 months, before re-selling the entire package back on eBay where I bought it from-- the games were just too ridiculously fast-paced to be enjoyable.
~Philly
back in the early nineties i saved my allowance for several months just to afford my NES and Zelda - Genesis and Sonic the Hedgehog tried to persuade me otherwise, but NeoGeo didnt even enter my head.
Ave Molech Setting
Well.. I do know that we haven't seen the very last of the King of Fighters series, yet. Another KOF game called 'King of Fighters EX: Neo Blood'.
And it looks like a new wrinkle is getting added to the plot, could we possibly see additional games in the future from the same team at a different company like say, Capcom?
http://www.gameshark.com/community/articles/315642 p1.html
Gameshark reports that they died a month ago, so you may have just found out about it but they've already been dead a while.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
One must always remeber that you can still play all the classics on one emulator or the other.
DRINK DUFF (responsibly) DRINK DUFF (responsibly) DRINK DUFF
SNK made some of the most kickass games ever, and the NeoGeo hardware lasted a long, long time compared with other things in the arcade. Surprisingly enough, SNK was churning out some great games on it, even towards the end.
Very, very sad to see SNK go down the tubes like this.
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
Who can forget Baseball Stars, which took place in "SNK Stadium", featuring the classic scrolling scoreboard cheer "Hooray Hooray!"
And of course, the bottom feeders of the league were the SNK Crushers. Boy did they ever suck. Even worse than the Lovely Ladies....
grep -ri 'should work'
Ive always wanted one but being 6 or 7 when it was released my rents wouldn't get me one and now thy're gone. sob. anyone got one I can buy? anywhere? I have the emulator with Metal Slug (even now my favorite game, magicians lord, crossed swords, and that monster fighting game (although it always ran slow compared to the others) n-e-one know why?
We seldom regret saying too little but often regret saying too much.
A buddy of mine worked at an EB in Century City (Los Angeles) back in '90 or '91. One night he had to go to Beverly Hills, to deliver seven Neo-Geo systems to the Sultan of Brunei, who had bought them for his kids. True story.
...I find it interesting that there is just NOW an article about this, because SNK declared bankruptcy and went out of business many months ago. Farewell, SNK. I have a tattoo on my arm that says "SNK 1978-2001"...but it was made with a marker, so it won't last long...
Oops!
I'm sure all readers here have at one point experienced video games on the neogeo console.
Are you sure? How can you be sure? What the hell kind of statement is that?
My friends had nintendo's or sega's. I had a turbografx, then the really really luck ones (rich) got a neo-geo for christmas. Those bastards.
I remember walking into my 7-11 (yes kids in those days 7-11's had games in them) and seeing the neo geo for the first time. There was 4 games on it, magician lord, King of fighters, Nam75, and Super Baseball. My buds and I loved vids the way some kids loved baseball. We would buy every game magazine out there, hang out at the flea market trading games and then go home to play games. Games games games. We allways reminised about the good old days when America was the console king with Atari and the 2600/5200/7200. The great debate at the time was nintendo's decision to check games content before we here in america got them. We didn't care if there was a cross in the graveyard in castlevania.
Ok so I proved how deeply emotionally attatched I am to games, let me go on about the neo geo. So there was only 1 kid in the entire east side of san jose that owned one. He never let anyone near it. Our only recourse was to go down to 7-11 to check it out. 4 buttons, cool. Memory card so you could save your place in a game? whats that and where do I get one? Headphone jack? Why were all arcade cabinets built like this one? In terms of sound and graphics, neo geo was top notch.
For awhile there it seemed the neo-geo was going to die into oblivion, but alas a savior came in the form of metal slug. This side scrolling platform shooter showed just what could be done with the system if the artists were given enough time. The attention to detail is apparent everywhere in the game, especially when it came to animations of the different characters. It wasn't just someones helmet flying off when they got shot, their head, and hair flew back as well.
For a time after that, the fighting games started getting really popular on the NG with the release of samuri showdown. All of the sudden out of nowhere came neo geo (about mid 90's) with fighting games that were on par with rival fighting game producer capcom. Even sega's entry into the foray with the virtua fighters series did not get nearly as much play as the neo geo fighters.
15 years later, after being all grown up and looking back.. One of the big dreams me and my buds use to say as kids was, "Wouldn't it be great if we had a game system that could play ALL THE GAMES?!?!!?" I see that mame icon on my taskbar, begging to be clicked.
Unfortunatly this is the reality for the arcade now. PC's have gotten so fast, and so graphically powerful that any system can be emulated to a near %100 accuracy. What did the arcades do in response? They never really did anything, they went about business the old fashion way thinking that things like game houses and home gaming was just a fad that would pass and soon the children would be coming back eagerly slopping quarters down the chute.
Neo Geo, even though they never released new hardware outside of that newfangled 64 bit system, did everything they could to make games that were pleasing to look at, and pleasing to play. It didn't take a 32bit processor and 63 channel sound. Games like metal slug were "designed" and not just a copycat of some other game that was immensly popular.
Well, at least there is one arcade left, I heard King of Fighters 2000 is pretty popular there.
--toq
...but Fatal Fury being "equal to Street Fighter 2 in playability and character development?" Who knew? First off, "character development?" This was Fatal Fury here, not Warzard/Red Earth. Secondly, it wasn't until Fatal Fury 2 that you could actually perform functional link and cancel combos, two features which were implemented in Street Fighter II from the beginning (although unintended).
SNK eventually got fighters down pat, but the first Fatal Fury is just not as good as they make it out to be. It was interesting and different at the time, but not good.
Personally, I will miss them most for Crystalis, Metal Slug, Samurai Spirits/Shodown, and King of Fighters. (Never played Magician Lord, so I can't comment.) I also have to tip my hat to them for getting me hooked on the NeoGeo version of Puzzle Bobble/Bust a Move.
I propose that everyone go out and buy a copy of Fatal Fury Mark of the Wolves for Dreamcast ($30!) in SNK's honor, and use only SNK characters/grooves in Capcom vs SNK 1, Pro, and 2. ^_^
< tofuhead >
It is still the dark of night.
I don't think that article is up to date. SNK america is gone and snk japan is bankrupt but they are stilling making games. Their newest game is King of Fighters 2001. It just came out in the arcades. I also heard that they are making a new king of fighters game called king of fighters ex (someone mentioned this on a post before me) and they are releasing the rom. i took this from madman's cafe http://www.mmcafe.com
According to Enterbrain Inc's Arcadia magazine, the home version ROM of "The King Of Fighters 2001" is scheduled for release next year by Sun Amusement Co. In addition, Sun Amusement plans to release future MVS titles to the home system as well, depending on the movement of the market.
Sun Amusement widely became known to the public since its apparance as the distributor for KOF2001 arcade ROMs within domestic Japan. Respectively, Sun Amusement has also announced to service maintenance for MVS machines in place of SNK, and will continue operation of SNK's Arcade franchise, "NeoGeo Land".
People over here in u.s. may not recognize king of fighters but in asia it is way bigger than any capcom game. Even in Mexico, King of fighters is big. So hopefully they will still be making games in the future.
This isn't exactly a big loss. In many ways, its actually positive, as it shows globally-released consoles and games will prosper over nationally-released ones.
SNK was always a company one step away from the crasses racism in terms of their business and corporate practices on american soil, priced at outrageous levels nearly unaffordable to any but the hardest-core gamers. Their name says it all, even without the testimonials in the article: SNK's full name, when translated, means 'The Japanese Product', emphasis on the word 'Japanese'.
Add to this the fact that Nintendo, Sega, Atari, and later Sony and the PC software market could do things faster and a great deal cheaper, and its no wonder why most people never saw a SNK system anywhere but in the arcades.
SNK's closing should be seen less as a trajedy, and more as a death of a dinosaur.
When the neo-geo came out, one of the criticisms I read about was how, with so much memory in the cartridges, the programmers didn't bother much with optimizing the code for size.
I'm sure all readers here have at one point experienced video games on the neogeo console.
WTF is this?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Sega is in a slightly different situation in that they are now (arguably) the world's biggest third party game development company (EA being the other candidate). This will be a great financial move for them. There are a lot of parallels to IBM. IBM started to lose it's dominance over the industry, and what saved them was, in effect, giving up on certain things.
IBM is now a stablizing force in the computer industry. They don't face as many risks as they used to by having all of their eggs in their own baskets. They've got their eggs in various baskets, not siding with the same company all the time. All they have to do is try to make sure no one gains too much power and watch their stock value climb. Let the others take the risks.
Granted, the rewards for them are smaller this way, but so are the risks, since there is less at stake for them.
This works the same way for Sega. Before, they had to try to push their own console, and compete with other companies in this arena. They had to compete in hardware and software. Also, if they made software for other consoles, they're simultaneously generating revenue for their direct competitors (through licensing fees) and making the appeal of their own consoles (great Sega games) smaller. And to top it all off, they were starting to get a bad reputation in terms of supporting their own hardware.
They don't have to worry about any of these things any more. They just have to focus on making great games. Let the other folks sweat that Microsoft is getting into the game industry. Sega's potential user base is huge, now (with all the different consoles they are supporting). As long as one console doesn't win and create a monopoly, they are on a good course. And they can take actions to prevent this from happening.
If all you have are silver bullets, everything looks like a werewolf.
Not NEO GEO. Baseball Stars and Crystalis were two of the very best titles to come out for that system, and rank highly among my all time favorite video games.
Thanks, SNK for hours and hours of childhood fun.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
I remember that neogeo was 32 bit gaming, back when snes and genisis were 16 bit.
the damn thing was so expensive though.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
You got it, although in a somewhat demeaning way towards Capcom players.
You can't really categorize all Capcom fighters together. At the very least, there are the scrub dial-a-games (all flash -- Marvel), the intermediate games (lotsa flash, but mostly meat -- Vampire, Warzard), the upper-intermediate games (lotsa meat, but with some throwbacks like custom combos -- SFZ), the basic games (few gimmicks, awesome gameplay -- SF2, CvS), and the hardcore games (where you are expected to possess moderate to advanced skills in order to enjoy the game, like SF3). I personally have no taste for 3-D fighters of any kind, and I really dislike scrubby 2-D games. According to the categories I used, I pretty much enjoy their upper-intermediate and basic games, and can enjoy the occasional intermediate and hardcore game -- but only in moderation.
SNK's thing was always upper-intermediate and basic stuff too, always leaning much more towards hardcore than scrubby. Almost all of their 2-D fighters since FF2 rock IMO, because of this.
< tofuhead >
It is still the dark of night.
Did anyone remember how they re-released the neo-geo system as a CD console, I think this was sometime after 3DO, and the thing I remember is that you can plug in the old Controller from the old Neo-Geo the huge one you could kill someone with, those damn thing finally make the system's price within reach of mere mortals, but those damn CD took forever to load....
Capcom hired SNK's 80 best people and bought their franchises. So SNK's logo may be dead, but their people and franchises live on.
Capcom hires SNK.
It wasnt the decline of arcades that killed em it's their own propietary games. When you release a console that only 10% of American kids can even consider affording you'll never make the money to become a corporate super power. Nintendo's consoles were like pizza stores in NY... fuckin everywhere, and cheap. They also couldnt sell their systems at a loss like MS does cuz you cant sell licenses to your own company (duh). It's not like they got to see any of my quarters either, the owners of those coin ops kept em all.
When I think of why SNK failed I think of games that were too good to be affordable. Arcades gave their stuff impact but the home market == longevity. They gave it a hell of a go but (IMO) they put their eggs in the wrong basket.
When I found out that their fantastic home system was gonna cost $600 upfront and $300per game I laughed.
BOSTON SUCKS!
Two totally different games.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
VICTOLY!!!
I remember when I first got Contra I would use the 30 man trick to just get to level 6! Then after about a year of playing it I could beat the whole game including the end boss without dieing. It was actually *harder* with a teammate because you would have to wait up for him.
The following year they released simple games such as Ozama Wars
;-)
Umm! The "Ozama Wars - The saga continues..."
Now I know where Dubya's inspiration came from
Damn, that sucks. SNK made probably my second favorite game of all time, TNK III, which I still play on my C64 to this day (first favorite is Castle's of Dr. Kreep).
Blah...
Casual Games/Downloads
I never did understand the cost of the hardware. As great as it was, nevertheless the technology was incremental over, say, the SNES. In fact, watch the $10 Super FX chip run rings around the Neo-Geo's 68000 in a well-made SNES cart. (Fast multiplier, yeeha!) Yet the system retailed for several hundred compared to $199.99 (and less) for SNES.
A Neo-Geo owner once said it was artificially inflated to make the system a status symbol. I, however, thought it was to prevent cannibalism of SNK's main market--the arcade. After all, why visit arcades if everyone can buy the home system and identical games? In retrospect, maybe SNK would've survived had they focused on home users.
Nevertheless, the cartridge cost was justifiable for quality reasons alone. Great games. Oh, yes, and although Neo-Geo CD has a 1x drive, the massive load time is offset by the 50+ megabit RAM-more than enough for the older games like Ninja Combat. Once you load it, the only interruption is for switching audio tracks. Newer games, though, take so long to load you can eat a sandwich before its done.
Give me Shock Troopers & KoF '97 over Quake & Tekken 4 any day.
What language was this originally written in?
I love seeing games on slashdot, but if any long-winded geek can ignore basic rules of grammar and skip the whole proof-reading process then maybe we shouldn't bother, hmm?
When I heard SNK of America was going under, I bought as many games as I could. They are in general excellent (Bust-A-Move Pocket has saved me on may long flights). Considering the drought of good games that we had during the Game Boy Color years (Olsen Twins Day Planner etc.) the NGPC was a godsend. It sits next to my Game Boy Advance and I play it often.
There is an emmulator called RAPE, last time I checked it did not have sound or controller inputs. Still, you could at least see the title screens of the cool little games that were never translated.
AUGAUUUGCGCACAUAUCUCAGCGAAUGAAAGGGAUUAA
Ok, I can't even remember my source (somewhere on the web) so it may not be reliable and I haven't done any research on the subject before posting this, but... I recently read that SNK has a new handheld system coming out and square is going to be porting many of their final fantasy games to it. Assuming this is true, SNK is far from dead.
---
You have made several grammatical errors yourself, almost all in your first sentence. A more correctly-constructed first sentence would have been: "Besides the myriad of errors in the article, there are typos and things that barely qualify as English." Note that "myriad" is a noun, not an adjective. The words "typos" and "things" are clearly plural. The "E" in "English" should be capitalized. In your final paragraph, you end the first sentence with a preposition.
I believe you also misunderstand the term "to slashdot a site," as you appear to be under the impression that it means "to link to a site in a Slashdot story." Actually, in Slashdot lingo, "to slashdot a site" means "to overwhelm a site's webserver with increased traffic caused by being linked in a Slashdot story, causing subsequent attempts to load the linked page to fail." Such servers may be described as having been "slashdotted."
Last but not least, you should know that it's not considered apropos to comment on another's improper use of English grammar.
Wait.
Oh.
Nevertheless, it may be wise to note that if Slashdot grammar nazis were real Nazis, you'd be Colonel Klink.
This is what happens when you peddle the same game year in and year out, changing chiefly the backgrounds. People finally get, um, tired of it. Doh!
Well thanks for pointing out my errors which, while significant, pale in comparison to those made in the article in question.
A quick check of dictionary.com reveals that "Throughout most of its history in English myriad was used as a noun, as in a myriad of men. In the 19th century it began to be used in poetry as an adjective, as in myriad men. Both usages in English are acceptable..."
Regarding "english" it should be clear from the context that I was referring to the slight spin given to a ball or other object when struck.
I have no doubt I'm guilty of something, but I'm far, far superior to the author of that article. So there.
And your comment - "to slashdot a site" means "to overwhelm a site's webserver" - seems to be rather picked ye olde nits. I'd have to say that both uses are acceptably, as there's no clearly defined usage guidelines. A dictionary.com check reveals no entries for slashdot. Also, since I'm not posting anonymously and you are, I win by default.
Oh dear god, what happened to that last paragraph's first and second sentence? I shall forever hang my head in shame.
I've been tryign to remember that shows name forever!
Man, I've known that SNK is going to declare bankruptcy for a while now and the news doesn't get any easier.
Yes, I bought the neo-geo console system with one of my friends 9 years ago back in middle school. The first game we bought was Samurai Spirits. Good times... good times.
don't get me to gripe on capcom 84 hit combo's that take 25% of a power bar with 3D special effects... that's not what fighting games are about.
I was really hoping for SNK to release SNK vs Capcom on the neogeo console (which was scheduled)... I think some Korean company bought the licenses for SNK's games whereas Capcom hired plenty of SNK's developers and (i think) characters. I'm not sure, I have all this info typed up somewhere... still kinda depressed about... hehe, that's not healthy, thats for damn sure!
Too bad most of SNK's best fighters never made it into the arcade circuit in the USA, long live the Fatal Fury: Real Bout(s), FF: MOTW, Art of Fighting (which was incredible for it's time), Samurai Spirits/Shodown, and King of Fighters.
Capcom may have popularized (and subsequently destroyed) the 2D Fighting genre but SNK made it enjoyable.
sorry, to waste your time in this segmented and jumpy rant, i just had to say something.
"Tread softly because you tread on my dreams"
When SNK appeared with the Neo-Geo, they were smack in the middle of the rush to create Street Fighter knockoffs and at the very tail end of the rush to create platform-oriented beat-em-ups that was in full force for the previous five years. Yes, Capcom was doing the same thing, though they get credit for Street Fighter II in the first place. But anyone trying to pick nits about which company was more innovative or original is missing the big picture. Both were just creating the mass market junk of the time.