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SNK
have been around for a while. Although they never quite managed
to attain the same status as Sega, Capcom, Nintendo or even
Konami, their name is very firmly engraved at their side.
They are fondly remembered for their string of arcade cult
classics of the 80s, and of course their powerhouse
Neo Geo console during the 90s. But what makes them really
stand out from the competition is their cunning, daring, 'dark
horse' approach to the games business: they are a risk-taking,
challenging, pioneering, and sometimes downright stupid bunch
- and that's what makes them such an entertaining and endearing
act to follow.
Make no mistake: SNK are a truly fascinating game company;
an enduring source of quality gameplay, style and concept
design with a colourful history to boot. |
Original 'Shin Nihon Kikaku' logo |
Shin
Nihon Kikaku ('New Japanese Project') first set up shop in
July of 1978, in a small office block in Yaenosato, Higashi-Osaka.
Riding the crest of the late-70s electronic entertainment
boom, the company's initial purpose was to design and produce
various components for amusement park games and jukeboxes.
When bat-and-ball 'Block Games' suddenly became all the rage,
the young firm opted to spend its maiden year providing its
own range of 'Micon Kit' cabinets to meet the rapidly increasing
demands of the nascent videogaming industry. |
Ozma Wars (1979) |
Vanguard (1980) |
The
phenomenal success of Taito's Space
Invaders (1978) convinced founder and president Eikichi
Kawasaki to concentrate all of his young company's resources
into this new form of entertainment. The first fruit of their
labours was Ozma Wars
(1979), an 'invader clone' that profited reasonably well from
the table-top videogame craze of the late 70s.
Follwing a few other middle-of-the-road titles, SNK finally
got their first taste of success with Vanguard (1981) - a
sharp, slick and super-fast shooting game that presented colourful,
multidirectional levels and a ship that could fire in four
different directions.
The game was a massive success. Alongside Konami's Scramble
(also 1981), Vanguard literally set the standard for every
shooting game to come, and the sheer popularity of SNK's title
in both domestic and export territories enabled their foreign
operations to begin, with SNK's US offices opening in Sunnyvale
CA, in October 1981. |
Athena (1986) |
Ikari (1986) |
SNK's
output during the early 80s could be considered wobbly at
best, but by 1985 a distinctive style of tough, tight, and
edgy arcade-style gameplay started to rear its ugly head:
ASO (1985) T.A.N.K. (1985) and
Athena (1986) are all superb
efforts, that each remain cult classics to this day; but the
real turning point for the company was Ikari
(1986) - a harsh, violent, rough-and-tumble revamp of Capcom's
Senjo no
Ookami (1985) featuring 2-player co-operative gameplay,
rotating joysticks, and a lot of casualties.
Ikari was a massive hit for SNK, and it remains a landmark
title to this day. Its phenomenal success in the arcades gave
way to high sales on home computer formats. The tables had
suddenly turned - so by the end of '86 the trading name of
'Shin Nihon Kikaku' was dropped in favour of the more worldy
'SNK', a second Ikari game, Dogosoken, was released in the
arcades, and the original Ikari found itself a comfortable
new home on the Nintendo Famicom. |
Baseball Star (1989) |
God Slayer (1989) |
SNK
had anticipated the potential of the home market, and the
Nintendo Famicom
in particular, signing up as a third-party licensee for Nintendo
back in 1985. By September '86 they were ready to make their
entry into the industry, releasing a classy conversion of
their arcade shooting game ASO.
The Famicom version of ASO was
a success the world over, and SNK went on to produce a string
of profitable arcade conversions developed either in-house,
or by their sub-label KAC. They even managed to conjure a
few original productions of their own: Baseball
Star (1989) became a massive smash hit in the States,
while God Slayer (aka 'Crystalis') is a truly inspired little
adventure game; and a surprisingly good effort given that
it was SNK's first venture into the genre.
There's no place like home, eh. Yet to all extents SNK chose
to ignore this maxim and kept focusing primarily on their
arcade output, releasing a flurry of top-quality titles as
the 80s drew to a close. Psycho Soldier (1987), Guevara (1987),
Datsugoku (1988), and Genshi-Tou
(1989) are all highlights of this period, and great illustrations
of SNK's distinctive style: tough, unforgiving, and razor-sharp
gameplay - one single mistake and the game will swallow your
coin in a heartbeat.
Design-wise, they also developped a shamelessly violent streak,
and a keen fondness of the military and the movies. Ikari
is clearly inspired by Rambo, a Schawarzenegger lookalike
stars in Mechanized Attack (1989) and SAR - Search and Rescue
(1989) is swarming with creatures that look almost exactly
like H.R. Giger's Alien.
By the end of the decade, most if not all major game companies
had turned to the home console market for supplementary profit.
This is where SNK really stands out from the crowd: they are
the only house who went in the complete opposite direction,
opting instead to focus all of their resources on a new, dedicated
arcade hardware system. |
MVS Cabinet (1990) |
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The
Neo Geo MVS (Multi Video System) was launched in April 1990
as a high powered, user-friendly arcade cabinet that can run
multiple game catridges. Different games could be selected
at the push of a button, allowing for a large selection of
software available in a single space.
If anything it was a very brave manoeuvre for a company of
SNK's moderate size. But yet from an arcade operator's point
of view, the MVS was a godsend: it saved space, expense, and
setup time.
The 'Memory Card' feature was also a great innovation: with
the aid of a small 2kb RAM storage card (sold separately)
the player could save his or her game position, then return
later to continue from the point they decided to save at.
This was particularily useful for Sports games like Baseball
Stars Professional, in which each game was determined
by a time limit.
MVS machines began popping up everywhere: shopping centres,
street corners, and even hotel rooms in the form of a luxury
'Hotel Neo Geo' model, now a very sought-after collector's
model. Suffice to say that all of this exposure spurred a
very high interest in the luxury Neo Geo brand. |
NAM-1975 (1990) |
It
also did help that the original batch of Neo Geo releases
(NAM-1975 and Magician
Lord in particular) were of a very high standard. Customer
feedback was overwhelmingly positive - so by the end of 1990,
in a characteristically bold move, Kawasaki decided to enter
the console market head-on by producing a home version of
the hardware, and focus all the company's resources onto the
format.
The home Neo Geo console eventually launched in July 1991,
and it would end up as one of the most enduring formats in
history. (Visit the Neo Geo
page for more information) |
|
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Garou Densetsu (1991) |
SNK's
phenomenal success during the early nineties was distinctively
helped by the popularity of the arcades at the time, and the
success of Capcom games
in particular. SNK seemed to be constantly playing catchup,
be it maximising the success of Final
Fight with Burning
Fight, and of course riding the wave of the Street
Fighter II (1991) phenomenon.
Capcom's masterpiece had single-handedly transformed the industry
overnight, and SNK's Garou
Densetsu (1991) benefitted immensely from its popularity.
SNK's game initially lagged quite a long way behind SFII in
terms of sheer playability, but yet after a few years a series
of sequels and spin-off titles steadily bridged the gap. The
Ryuko no Ken
(1992), Samurai
Spirits (1993) and King
of Fighters (1994) series followed, each of them blossoming
into cult classics, showcasing SNK's unique sense of flair,
innovation, and style.
It was during this period that SNK really began to excel in
the field of character design. As a stark contrast to Capcom's
straight-up 'hero' or 'villain' templates, SNK's characters
are never clear-cut, reflecting a more intense and ambiguous
vision of the traditional videogame hero.
For example, Samurai Spirits' Genjuro Kabigami and The King
of Fighters' Iori Yagami are prime examples: they are both
twisted, violent, and lonely warriors surrounded by revenge,
jealousy, and greed. It's this dark and overwhelmingly human
approach to character design that gave SNK their edge. Added
to this, SNK constantly displayed an acute knowledge of history,
art, fashion and music - although by this time most SNK games
were firmly established in an established genre (2D fighting
games) their designers, developpers and artists consistently
delivered some of the finest game craftsmanship the world
has ever seen. |
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During
this period (1993-1996) SNK would enjoy their peak - high
sales and consistently positive customer feedback allowed
a vibrant 'SNK Universe' to develop, that in turn triggered
a sheer tidal wave of comic books, music CDs, animated feature
films, and even dedicated amusement parks - shrines to everything
SNK have come to embody: distinctive character designs, dark
environemtns, jazzy soundtracks, and crystal-clear gameplay. |
Ironically,
SNK's bread and butter was also their Achilles' heel: as their
games became bigger in size and larger in scope, the spiraling
costs of Neo Geo cartridges terminally hidered their expansion
into the ever-important home market. Not just that - the imminent
arrival of more powerful competition in the form of the Sega
Saturn and Sony Playstation called for a new strategy.
The Neo Geo CD was launched in Japan on Sep 9th, 1994, and
was an immediate sell-out. Games came in the form of a CD-Rom
disc, and sold for a fraction of the usual cost of a cartridge. |
Neo Geo CD-Z |
The
Neo Geo CD was initially met with with positive response,
but it turned out that maybe SNK had been too hasty in the
design of their new hardware. This became more than apparent
upon the release of The
King of Fighters 95 on Neo Geo CD. Owners discovered in
horror that the game had to stop and load each character individually,
between each round. The game loaded so often in fact, that
sometimes it felt like you spent more time waiting than actually
playing. Even for die-hard SNK afficionados, this was a tough
bullet to bite.
The release of a faster 'CD-Z' unit (above) in 1995 didn't
help the situation much, so SNK threw in the towel - and opted
to release KOF 95 on Sega Saturn (March) and Sony Playstation
(June 1996). The Saturn version had to come packaged with
a special RAM catridge to cope with the game's size, and the
Playstation version had to leave almost half of the animation
on the cutting room floor in order to adapt the game.
And so it was. The Neo CD had failed in its attempt to infiltrate
the mass market, lacking the power, versatility, and most
of all variety needed to challenge the more mainstream competition.
It remained, like the Neo Geo ROM format, a 'niche format'
hosting Neo Geo games only, and became the first in a series
of blunders that will cost SNK the ultimate price. |
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|
Dec |
Space
Micon Kit |
aka
'Micon Kit 3' |
Apr |
Satan
of Saturn |
aka
'Zarzon' |
Jan |
Joyful
Road |
aka
'Munch Mobile' |
Oct |
Marvin's
Maze |
aka
'ACW' |
Jul |
T.A.N.K. |
aka
'T.N.K. III' |
Oct |
Dogosoken |
aka
'Ikari II'
'Victory Road' |
Dec |
Guevara |
aka
'Guerilla War' |
Jun |
Kouku
Kihei Monogatari |
aka
'Chopper I' |
Jun |
Lee
Trevino's Fighting Golf |
|
Nov |
Datsugoku |
aka
'P.O.W.' |
May |
|
aka
'Prehistoric Isle' |
25
Mar |
|
aka
'Alpha Mission II' |
24
Sep |
|
aka
'Art of Fighting' |
10
Dec |
|
aka
'Fatal Fury 2' |
14
Dec |
|
aka
'Super Sidekicks' |
25
Mar |
|
aka
'3 Count Bout' |
7
July |
|
aka
'Samurai Shodown' |
16
Sep |
|
aka
'Fatal Fury Special' |
3
Feb |
|
aka
'Art of Fighting 2' |
19
Apr |
|
aka
'Super Sidekicks 2' |
28
Oct |
|
aka
'Samurai Shodown 2' |
7
Mar |
Tokuten
Oh 3 |
aka
'Super Sidekicks 3' |
27
Mar |
|
aka
'Fatal Fury 3' |
25
Apr |
|
aka
'Savage Reign' |
15
Nov |
|
aka
'Samurai Shodown III' |
12
Mar |
|
aka
'Art of Fighting 3' |
20
Sep |
Fu'un
Super Tag Battle Special Edition |
|
26
Sep |
|
aka
'Kizuna Encounter' |
16
Oct |
Tokuten
Oh - Honoo no Libero |
aka
'The Ultimate 11' |
25
Oct |
|
aka
'Samurai Shodown IV' |
10
Sep |
Round
Trip RV |
aka
'Road's Edge' |
5
Dec |
|
aka
'The Last Blade' |
19
Dec |
Samurai
Spirits |
aka
'Samurai Shodown 64' |
13
May |
Off
Beat Racer! |
aka
'Xtreme Rally' |
11
Sep |
Beast
Busters Second Nightmare |
|
16
Oct |
Samurai
Spirits 2 - Ashura Zenmaden |
aka
'Warrior's Rage' |
25
Nov |
|
aka
'The Last Blade 2' |
28
Jan |
|
aka
'Fatal Fury Wild Ambition' |
|
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