KING OF FIGHTERS: SNK CHOSE THE WRONG CHILD

The Popular Characters

What do Terry Bogard, Geese Howard, and Mai Shiranui all have in common? Yes they are DLC characters in some of the biggest fighting games of the past three years, but more importantly all three are main characters in Fatal Fury aka Garou Densetsu. Not only that, Fatal Fury for a time had Capcom scared of losing its 2D crown to this innovative, but often under appreciated title outside of die-hard fighting game fans. During its time in the spotlight Fatal Fury had a manga, OVA, and feature length feature with gratuitous Mai Shiranui fan service. Allow me to explain what I mean when I say that SNK chose the wrong child.

This article will be multiple posts looking at King of Fighters from fan, creative, and business perspective. First, “Why King of Fighters was the Wrong Choice.” Let’s look at my reasoning behind why Fatal Fury should’ve been the first game released from the newly revived SNK.

King of Fighters, King of Choice

One of KoF weaknesses is from its strength, character diversity. Aside from mainstay favorites, many characters are not memorable or viable competitively. KoF XIV excels at giving you the illusion of choice; to quote Howard Moskowitz, “One third of Americans want chunky pasta”. Keeping it brief Moskowitz a market researcher, hired by Prego to discover which sauces to include in their portfolio. Moskowitz surveyed 45 different flavors only to return with one recommendation: chunky.

This applies to KoF, Team South America or Team Mexico. Bandeiras and King of Dinosaurs are separate archetypes in a Fatal Fury sequel. KoF teams are buffered by one mainstay, and anciallry characters. A smaller more cohesive roster would allow more development time for characters and a balanced roster.

Graphics = Greatness

As we all know one of the biggest complaints with KoF XIV was the graphics. Graphics are not the determining factor of a good game, but are crucial in pulling in a new audience. Typical FGC comments like, “I’m glad to see SNK is back, but these are PS2 graphics”. Unfortunately graphics, roster, and art style relegated KoF XIV to side tournaments only two years after release.

King of Fighters – while a great game technically – should never have been a 2-3 year development cycle. King of Fighters should be a celebration of SNK and a culmination of story-lines developed over years through other SNK games like Fatal Fury, Samurai Showdown, and Metal Slug.

Check back next time on FGseen to see why SNK chose the wrong child. I will discuss in-depth what a new Fatal Fury should look like.



August 4, 2019

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