General SNK/Neo-Geo Thread Version 2.0

Making a new SNK thread since the first one is too old to be restarted, so here goes.

First order of business: Is it true people say KOF XIII happened in 2010 due to "In the year 2010" being said in the intro?

This thread needs life.

Sorry, Rugal ain't got shit on this amount of greatness.

edited 23rd Oct '14 8:05:48 PM by Nikkolas

What I can say about SNK is, they had great fighters and really bad beat-em-ups.

Heh, yeah. The only good Neo Geo beat em up is Sengoku 3, and even then, that was Noise Factory, not SNK.

SNK's spritework was actually really incredible back then, some of the old KOF levels are still jaw dropping even today. I forget which KOF but it was this rainy one(at night I think) that looked awesome. Also can't forget 96's memorable boss team level. Though KOF 13's stages still look amazing so they haven't lost that careful attention to detail. My favorites from that game are the Temple and Southtown.

I think they should bring back the teammates chilling in the background next KOF...that was pretty rad especially with their help tendency depending on their relationship with the teammates.

On the subject of SNK music, I present this masterpiece:

Also, Moriya is so so badass.

edited 23rd Oct '14 10:58:18 PM by Vertigo_High

There's a Tumblr post going around with a bunch of backgrounds from Mark of the Wolves, Last Blade, and Last Blade 2. They truly did have a bunch of really talented artists working for them.

Still do, actually. XIII's stages are no slouch either.

The temple having an echo effect and an actual prayer chant is really badass.

I'll be honest, I feel like SNK kind of has the edge over Capcom on background/sprite design although Capcom has a superior animation team.

The only thing I still kind of like about Street Fighter are their stages. I really dig the glow in the dark skatepark stage in... I think Street Fighter 4? I dunno. The series's new direction otherwise just isn't my cup of tea.

But SNK.

Metal Slug's team might be completely separate from anything KOF or fighting game related, but I can't fathom there being another run and gun kind of game with better or more fluid animation than the first three or so.

Metal slug's animations and artwork are so good and still have that SNK grit to its style.

I like Robo Army, Mutation Nation and Sengoku 2 : (. Won't try to defend Burning Fight and Sengoku, tho.

Gunforce 2.

edited 24th Oct '14 4:00:42 PM by Glowsquid

Wouldn't be so bad if they didn't all have the same villain: Some old scientist dude with no eyebrows.

I swear to goodness I'm not trying to be snide or condescending, but there's a very distinct difference between smooth gameplay, and smooth animation. Gunforce looks incredibly stiff and lifeless in the animation department, even if it plays smoothly.

Judge for yourself though.

Sengoku 2 didn't have any balding scientists dude. It did, however, feature a sword-wielding Hitler (?) : D.

I'll fully admit I was mostly thinking of that stage 2 robot enemy death animation when typing that. The rest of the animation is indeed not anywhere as good as I remember it being.

No offense taken. I'm dumb.

SNK in it's prime was legendary. King of Fighters 97&98, Real Bout Fatal Fury 2, Mark of the Wolves, Samurai Shodown II&IV, Last Blade 1&2. Even it's lesser titles had something to offer; Art of Fighting 3 had unique gameplay for a 2D fighter and animation that is still amazing to this day, while Kizuna Encounter had some nice music, tag-team gameplay, and Kim Su Il&Rosa. And on top of what SNK themselves put out, they had a slew of 2nd party titles published under them as well; World Heroes, Aggressors of Dark Combat, Ninja Masters, Galaxy Fight, Waku Waku 7, Voltage Fighter Gowcaiser, Double Dragon, (the fighting game, not the Beat-Em-Up,) Breakers. (And SNK owns the rights to Fighters History these days, so there's that too.) Not all of these were classics by any means, but if anything, they helped sweeten the pot.

What made SNK so amazing was the presentation. The gameplay was still good too, and got amazing by the end of the 90's, but back when SNK started getting into fighting games with Burning Fight and Fatal Fury, the fighting engines were kind of lackluster. But even then, at least with Fatal Fury, there was still a spark of genius there. The combo-system and plane-switching system would lead to greater advancements down the line, some of the characters introduced here would go on to become some of SNK's best, and the music still kicked ass; Geese's theme, anyone?

I believe SNK themselves said once that they were trying to treat their characters like real people — like actual human beings instead of just 1-dimensional videogame characters — and it shows. From the character profiles, to how they appear in the games themselves, many of these characters could actually work in other media if given the chance. Even the voice acting for the characters, especially for the time, is surprisingly good, and really helps give them life. And then there's the music. Whenever I hear the LB soundtrack, I always say to myself, 'This is for a fighting game? ' And I don't meant tha in a bad way at all; it's just that good. Though of course, their other tracks are no slouch either. Even their early stuff is kickass. Again, Geese's f'ing theme.

SNK put so much passion into everything they did, and when they actually put out a game these days that isn't a pachinko slot machine, they still do. KOFXIII may not be my favorite of SNK's titles, but there's no denying the sheer level of craftsmanship and love put into the game. The animation is some of the best to date, not just for SNK, but in videogames in general; the voice-acting and music are still remarkable; and the gameplay is KOF goodness with some nice additions added on. It's just a shame to me that KOF seems to be the only fighting game series that SNK is doing these days. Even Samurai Shodown finally seems to have gone by the wayside. I get why this is the case, but it's still saddening. Still, KOFXIII is amazing nonetheless, and encapsulates just why SNK was, and still is, so freaking good.

edited 25th Oct '14 7:33:14 AM by kkhohoho

It'd be a bitch to try and top this post, so

Would it be a bitch move to follow that up with, "Now, if only they could put that much passion into the translation".

Because let's be honest, half the games on the Neo-Geo are nearly incomprehensible in English.

Wolfgang Krauser's profound words of wisdom◊ on the subject of SNK translations.

But aero fighter 2 might be GOAT for this.◊

This page has a bunch of good ones.

Put fish in you mouth.

I've been watching old SNK arcade playthroughs for art inspiration and I felt I had to say this somewhere.

Somebody earlier was gushing about how brilliant SNK was back in the day, and I really have to echo that sentiment. I'm a pretty cynical guy and I tend to find faults in everything, so I'll be the first to say they were far from perfect at any given time in history, but compared to their competitors, SNK had this spark that you just don't see in a lot of video games, especially not fighting ones.

From the sheer level of work and passion they put into their backgrounds in each and every game (I want to say this came to a head in Real bout Fatal Fury, so King of Fighters, while pretty, doesn't quite have that level of fidelity its sister series has in this department) down to the tiny touches, like the (admittedly ill advised from a balance standpoint, but still hilariously fun) ring out animations in Real Bout, you were getting something with an SNK fighter that you couldn't find elsewhere. It's really sad to see them flounder lately. People look at Street Fighter 5 and gaze in awe at someone being knocked into a bus, but Fatal Fury had done things just as entertaining nearly 20 years prior.

@ kkhohoho

Not only that, they seemed to have been the only ones to care about storytelling in a fighting game, mistranslations aside. Refer to Fatal Fury 1's cutscenes.

Links are down.

edited 13th Jun '15 2:49:30 PM by HallowHawk

So since this thread is here, a random question:

The three sacred treasures that Kyo, Iori, and Chizuru have. What do they do exactly?

I especially want to know about Chizuru's mirror. Is it the source of some of her abilities, like the power to create illusions (such as the illusion of Maki she made during the Ash Saga).

I've been curious for a while, so I wanted to ask anyone who might know.

My only experience with SNK games is Real Bout 2: Fatal Fury Special, but it seemed pretty cool. I liked the way you were able to move into other plains on the combat field. It was something I'd never seen before back then. In an age of 3D games, such a thing has little meaning, but back then, it was unique.

The Three Sacred Treasures (separately the Kusanagi Sword, the Yasakani Jewel and the Yata Mirror) are the source of the Kusanagi, Yata/Kagura and Yasakani/Yagami lines' more supernatural abilities, such as pyrokinesis and illusion creation. Kusanagi fire is ordinary fire, but Yasakani/Yagami fire is able to temporarily "freeze" things (though this doesn't often show up in gameplay outside of one of his earlier D Ms and his EX fireball in XIII). However, the treasures aren't responsible for Iori's flames being blue/purple (that's due to a blood pact his ancestors made with Orochi) or his slashy hands, which is why he's still able to fight in XII and XIII, while Chizuru is crippled due to her powerlessness. When combined, their powers are enough to defeat and seal Orochi.

Ash stole the Yata Mirror and the Yasakani Jewel at the end of the first two Tales of Ash games, taking their powers and adding them to his own (you can see this in action with his Germinal LDM/super and Fructidor NeoMAX in the later Tales of Ash games).

edited 14th Jun '15 4:26:57 PM by DragonGeyser

The Yasakani Jewel is apparently also the source of Iori's maniacal laughter, since Ash inherits that too in one of his D Ms in XIII.

So does the mirror let Chizuru do the illusions?

Yep. And pretty much everything else she does.

Which is how they managed to all but non-lethally stuff her in a fridge after Ash stole it, since unlike Iori, she has no real combat capabilities outside her clones and ability to seal powers.