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GameSpot Recaps 25-Year History of SNK

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the celebrate-the-glorious-neo-geo dept.

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "GameSpot has offered up an amazingly in-depth history of SNK -- the company behind such classic games as Ikari Warriors, Fatal Fury, and King of Fighters, as well as the NeoGeo hardware system. The 39-page retrospective covers nearly every aspect of the company's 25-year history and includes an annotated list of key SNK titles, trivia, insider interviews, hardware comparisons, screenshots, promotional art, and more."

16 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. Good old times... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    They simply made _THE BEST_ 2D fighting games, ever.
    They were unique and stylish, as always.. SNK shall live on! :)

  2. wow by shadowkoder · · Score: 5, Insightful

    To think a game company could consistently make and evolve a series of games for 25 years is impressive. My hats off to them.

  3. 2 words... by The+Beezer · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Baseball Stars

    Some argue it's still the greatest baseball game ever made. I'd say it's at least the best one made in the 20th century.

    1. Re:2 words... by Cruciform · · Score: 5, Funny

      Samurai Showtime?

      That's a disturbing image...

      Kick, one two! Slice, one two! C'mon you hussies, you want to be in "A Chorus Line" or what?

      HAI!

  4. Always loved SNK games by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Some of the best games of all time have been on SNK systems or by SNK. The Metal Slug series is still fun to this day; few games hold up so well for so long. I remember playing Magician Lord for hours at the local pizzeria as a kid, while the Street Fighter 2 machine was always occupied. They didn't know what they were missing out on.

    SNK still makes great games. Garou: Mark of the Wolves was a revolutionary 2d fighting game, excellent in every aspect.

  5. Licensing. by adun · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Surely the wealth of talent that is/was SNK hasn't been depleted. Has no one considered tapping into them as a development house? Granted, their forte is the 2D fighting game, but the creativity and originality infused into those games is something that can be applied to any genre. With the crap being shipped out of studios these days, you'd think the more savvy publishing CEOs would be on top of this.

  6. Crystalis ruled by Innominandum · · Score: 5, Informative

    I think Crystalis was one of my favourite Nintendo games. It also never seemed to be very popular either. Maybe the company is cursed?

    1. Re:Crystalis ruled by Bendebecker · · Score: 4, Informative

      It may have not been too popular not becuase it wasn't a great game but becuase it was so damn hard to find a copy of it anywhere. I eventually found it in a used bin about 2 years after I first heard about it from a friend. It is a must for any RPG player. Saying you have never played Crystalis is like saying you never played the orginal Final Fantasy - instant sign of noob. It still has one of the greatest stories I ahve ever seen in an RPG. When you realize that what it was competeing against was The Legend of Zelda (a game with next to no story) just amkes it all that more impressive an accomplishment. Simply put: it rocked.

      I can still hum the tower music and whistle the cave theme...

      --
      There's a growing sense that even if The Future comes,
      most of us won't be able to afford it.
      -- Lemmy
  7. Neo Geo Advertisements. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I scanned in a few of the Neo Geo advertisements and promotional material a while back. Propaganda is fun.

    http://xodnizel.net/neogeo/

  8. I remember the NeoGeo by 88NoSoup4U88 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    somehow, the standard controllers that were given with the XBox on their launch seems very small compared to the original joysticks you got with the NeoGeo.
    The NeoGeo actually felt like bringing the arcade coin-ops in your home , allthough it has never reached any recognition over here (the Netherlands).

    1. Re:I remember the NeoGeo by badasscat · · Score: 4, Informative

      somehow, the standard controllers that were given with the XBox on their launch seems very small compared to the original joysticks you got with the NeoGeo.

      Well, that's probably because they were, but you can't directly compare them. The Neo Geo AES shipped with arcade joysticks, a fundamentally different type of controller than MS's (and the rest of the current industry's) gamepads. SNK also made gamepads for the Neo Geo systems and they were about the size of a Sega Genesis or Super NES pad (which means smaller than the Xbox gamepad).

      I always loved the aesthetic design of the Neo Geo AES and its controllers, though. They're these sort of monolithic black slabs, very large but with subtle curves that make them look a lot smaller than they are. The system itself is so sleek that I thought it was about the smallest system I owned, until I stuck it on a shelf with the rest of my collection and discovered it's just the opposite - as large as an Atari 5200, much larger than a PS2, as deep and wide as an Xbox (though not as tall - unless it has a cartridge in it!). It's truly about the pinnacle of industrial design in the game console industry.

      The NeoGeo actually felt like bringing the arcade coin-ops in your home , allthough it has never reached any recognition over here (the Netherlands).

      Well it didn't get any recognition here (in the US) either. It's one of those things that nobody bought at the time but now that the company's got such respect, everybody claims to be major fans. It's really a bandwagon thing. But there are still relatively few of these systems out there and they're still quite expensive, so I have to always scratch my head at the sheer number of people claiming to have these vivid Neo Geo memories these days. I suppose the arcade machines were more ubiquitous but the home systems were never particularly popular. (I acquired mine through trade; I could have never justified the cost otherwise.)

      Oh, and the Neo Geo AES didn't just feel like bringing arcade coin-ops home, that is in fact what you were doing. The home carts were exactly the same as the arcade carts except for the pinouts (in fact adapters exist to let you play the arcade carts on a home machine - they just adapt the pinouts). There's no technical reason why the pinouts were different, either, it was strictly so SNK could charge more for the home carts, as the arcade carts were quite cheap - the idea being to make the money in arcades on the machines themselves, whereas at home it was just the opposite.

  9. Gotta hate Gamespot on this one.. by mrseigen · · Score: 4, Funny

    One of the most mainstream gaming review sites in recent memory is now doing a heartfelt article on SNK? I don't buy it for an instant. It'd be like IGN doing some actual research before they publish something (their "Nintendo DS" articles with web message board joke images springs to mind).

  10. Gabe says it best by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "...see you at the crossroads"

  11. They forgot to mention one early game by AtariKee · · Score: 5, Informative

    Sasuke Vs Commander, which was SNK's first color machine.

    --
    "You're getting brutal, Sark. Brutal and needlessly sadistic."
    "Thank you, Master Control"
    -Sark and the MCP
  12. IT SURE DID! :D by solios · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Man, I love that game. I still own my second copy, though the box is pretty worn out. Got it for cheap at Ames in the middle of nowhere. The game was fun- like, easily as much fun as The Legend of Zelda or The Secret of Mana. I put it up there with River City Ransom on my list of favorite NES games.

    And for some reason, they never made a sequel, never made a SNES version, never made anything similar. :|

  13. Re:Metal Slug influence for Duke Nukem? by BackwardEngineer · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, see, Duke Nukum was released in 1991, while Metal Slug wasn't released until 1996. However, if you are talking about Duke Nukem 3D, which was also released in 1996, albeit January 29th, you still could not say that Metal Slug X, which was released in 1999, was its its influence.

    Same with the characters. Marco (one of the two guys you could pick in Metal Slug X, and the only character in Metal Slug), was invisioned way after Duke Nukum had been released.

    So, either Duke Nukum influenced the Metal Slug series, or there was no influence at all.