IF I WAS IN CHARGE OF

April 19, 2024

If you don't know SNK, they are most well known as the game studio behind iconic games like King of Fighters, Metal Slug, and others. They actually used to be a pretty big deal in the 90's, being a big arcade competitor with their cheaper alternatives to Capcom cabinets. They even had their own consoles, both home and handheld called Neo Geo's. Unfortunately, the history of SNK is a tumultuous one full of weird decisions, bankruptcies, and buyouts. If you're curious, youtuber Thorgi's Arcade has made a whole retrospective going through SNK's crazy history of up's and down's.

Well, after the modest successes of their recent games and re-releases (as well as a recent majority ownership; see disclaimer), SNK has ramped up their ambitions. According to top leadership, SNK wants to join the big leagues and become a AAA-developer, branching out to new IPs and non-fighting games. Higher-up Kazushiro Fijishige was interviewed saying, This year will mark the start of develompent on a new IP that carries the grand vision of the creation of an AAA title from Japan." And most recently, there was an anouncement of a collaboration with ARIKA to revamp old IPs.

Now, this isn't new for SNK. They weren't always just a good fighting game studio that outsourced crappy gacha games every year or so. They were in the console market once and produced a wide variety of acclaimed games of other genres like sports, RPGs, shoot-em-ups, platformers, etc. They also made some weird multi-media stuff that were... weird. But the weird stuff is what's cool! SNK can't just play it safe if they want to go big. That's why I'm here to help.

Kenji Matsubara, CEO of SNK, I know you're reading this right now because you don't know what to do to gain mainstream appeal. I heard you're working on an entirely new IP which is great! But in terms of revamping old ones, I've got a 100% SERIOUS list of suggestions that will make SNK a household name by 2030.

FIRST, WHAT WE GOT SO FAR

• PLEASE DON'T MESS UP FATAL FURY: CITY OF THE WOLVES
• The new Fatal Fury game is my most anticipated game of the year! You finally landed on an artstyle that looks great, and most importantly, not like a mobile game. You just decided to put every mechanic ever into the game, which is a ballsy move but I like it. And overall, online response has been good for this game compared to the lukewarm KOF XV reveal. You even have an English dub now, which took long enough. Just please don't mess it up. You got a good thing here. Matchmaking has to work on launch. The single player content has to be more than just an arcade run with drawn gag endings. The tutorial and training mode has to be more than just 5 combo trials and no frame data. Pleeeease, I'm begging you. Don't mess it up. (≖_≖)

• METAL SLUG TACTICS
• It's good that the team at Dotemu knows when to delay a game to maximize quality. But, at least give an update or something. I've been chewing on the same 2 minute trailer for 3 years. Just a peek, please.
• THIS IS AN INTERVENTION! YOU NEED TO STOP WITH THE GACHA GAMES!
• You keep releasing these outsourced gacha games with little quality control. You let them do whatever you want with your characters like having a ad where the star of your new game, Terry Bogard, harass his female peers in what looks like it was made in Source Filmmaker. And then you just cancel 'em after a year or two. You have a problem. We are all concerned. And you need to stop.

Alright, that's the end of my actual suggestions. The rest of this article is satire and just me shooting ideas I think are funny. But, if any of them come true, I'm owed a soda.

REVAMPING OLD IPs

I know some of these ideas are gonna sound crazy! But you have to trust me here. You must do all of these in order to guarantee success.

• GRITTY OPEN WORLD ART OF FIGHTING
• You're a bit late to the AAA-game space, so you missed out that weird time in the late 2000's when every company was making gritty, brown-grey reboots of old franchises. I think Art of Fighting would be perfect for this. Have Ryo become a disgraced martial artist who has to fight through Southtown gangs. Make it all bloody like the original AoF, but this time he says FUCK a lot. It'll be like the Final Fight Streetwise of AoF, and everyone loves Final Fight Streetwise!
• NEO TURF MASTERS 2K

• The King of Fighters games used to be released yearly but that clearly wasn't a sustainable business model. But you know what is: yearly sports games. EA and 2K do it all the time. So, let's fill that demand for yearly, microtransaction-ridden golf games with a revival of Neo Turf Masters for the modern age. I can even see there being dedicated Neo Turf gambling streamers like there are for Madden!
• THE LAST BLADE SOULS-LIKE

• Sekiro, Nioh, Ghost of Tsushima, Rise of the Ronin... Samurai games are big right now. Though you could go with Samurai Shodown, I think The Last Blade needs some love. Let us fight demons and undead out of Hell's Gate. And the bosses have to be stupid hard. You guys used to be known for having hard bosses back in the day, so this game should make Dark Souls look easy.

• TWINKLE STAR SPRITES 3
• Need I say more?
• IKARI WARRIORS/METAL SLUG BATTLE ROYALE
• Also self explanatory, you can have metal slugs around the map or somethin' idk.
• TWINKLE STAR SPRITES 4
• After the success of Twinkle Star Sprites 3, I just imagine you'd like to get to work on another sequel right away.
• PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR PSYCHO SOLDIERS

• This one isn't even that much of a stretch because you guys already did back for the Playstation: the Japan-exclusive Athena: Awakening from the Ordinary Life was an edgy Resident Evil-like twist on the Psycho Soldier IP. And you know what, sure why not, you gotta diversify. Capcom isn't just Street Fighter, it's also Resident Evil and Resident Evil Remakes make a LOOOOT of money. So, if you want you can just remake Athena: Awakening too and release it for the West. It's guaranteed money. This is a good video that goes over this strange game if you're interested.

CROSSING INTO OTHER MEDIUMS

We can't just stop here. We need to make SNK a household name by crossing into movies, TV, merchandising, theme parks!

• WAKU WAKU 7 NETFLIX ANIME FROM CASTLEVANIA SHOWRUNNER

• The anime-inspired classic Waku Waku 7 should obviously inspire an anime. And who better to take it than Netflix's own showrunner for Castlevania and Captain Laserhawk, Adi Shankar. He seems to be the guy every game company is getting to make edgy adaptations of their game IPs. So idk, maybe he can make a Waku Waku 7 show where uh everyone dies at the end and maybe Rai does drugs. Fernandez can say FUCK. It worked for Laserhawk, right?
• KING OF FIGHTERS 2
• Video game adaptations are really in right now. And, King of Fighters already had a live-action adaptation and it was... something. I think I speak for all fans that a sequel to this iconic movie where Mai Shiranui had electric powers and Iori Yagami was her boyfriend is well-deserved.
• NEO GEO WORLD GRAND RE-OPENING
• The final step to become a household name. You need your own theme park. And you already did at some point. NEO GEO WORLD, home to the iconic, animatronic Band of Fighters.


Aren't those animatronics charming? For real though, I might have to do a whole 'nother rambling session just about Neo Geo World and the little information of it there is on the Internet because it is actually insane.

WHY DID I WRITE THIS WHOLE THING?

Well, besides the legit hopes and criticisms I had in the "First, What We Got So Far" section, I just wanted an excuse to go through some of SNK's amazing, weird, obscure projects from the past. All that weird stuff is one of the main reasons I'm an SNK fan. They were always making ballsy, ambitious moves, for better or worse. Even from their start, you could feel that the staff were full of ambition and love for their characters.

That's why the recent news of them wanting to ramp up production and branch out has me cautiously excited. I want to see what they can pull off. And best case scenario, I would love to see these beloved characters (as well as some original ones) in brand new settings, stories, and genres. I'm not gonna paint this million-dollar company as an underdog, but I am hoping they make something good. And the new Fatal Fury already has me in high spirits. I await what they come up with in the future (and if any of my "suggestions" somehow come true lol).

But seriously, cut it out with the mobile games.