Fighting Games Friday: SNK Is the King of Sharing Fighters
One key announcement from the latest Nintendo Direct involved the next character reveal for the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Fighters Pass downloadable content: Terry Bogard from Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters. He was confirmed as part of a trailer that showed several SNK characters who hilariously missed the Smash Bros. invitation, which started as an homage to The King of Fighters ‘94’s intro. The trolling here was so good that it seemed like Smash director Masahiro Sakurai was aware of the Nintendo UK leak and ensuing SNK character guessing game. Terry’s impending arrival isn’t too big a surprise considering he’s essentially the company’s mascot, but there were still several viable candidates regarding who it could be — hence the trailer.
Not much of him was shown, but the short clip provided on the Smash stream after the Direct confirmed that he’ll retain the Power Wave and Burn Knuckle. Ryo Sakazaki from SNK’s Art of Fighting and KOF can be seen in the background, though whether he’s part of the KOF-centric background or is part of another tease (perhaps for a trophy) remains to be confirmed.
Terry joining Smash also wasn’t surprising because SNK has been on a roll with lending their characters to other companies in the last few years, with this simply being the latest example. Since returning from making pachinko and mobile games for years, SNK’s biggest priority has involved making new console games like The King of Fighters XIV and the recent new Samurai Shodown title. But another focus has involved letting their characters guest star in other games to spread awareness and the appeal of the company to other (often more popular) games. It’s worth noting the fighting game appearances.
Smash Ultimate isn’t even the first game Terry is guest starring in this year. He previously joined the cast of Arika’s Fighting EX Layer as a paid DLC character that arrived in March. Terry came with his classic outfit and many of his techniques, and was given normal attacks centric to FEXL’s gameplay system. The combination of the two made him one of the better characters in the game. It helped that he also looked good in it, much better than in any of SNK’s 3D efforts.
The visual upgrade also applied to Terry’s biggest nemesis, Geese Howard, who joined Tekken 7. The team at Bandai Namco included most of his techniques, including projectiles like the Reppu-ken and Shippu-ken, despite being a character from 2D titles implemented in a 3D game. Not that they didn’t have experience; Akuma from the 2D Street Fighter series previously joined the game. Like Akuma, Geese is one of the better characters in the game, which is why he’s been a fixture in several tournaments since he arrived last year.
Also from Fatal Fury, and continuing the above trend of characters looking better in other games: Mai Shiranui guest-starred in both Dead or Alive 5: Last Round and Dead or Alive 6, a fanservice-heavy character in a series known for it. She also continues the trend of the developer, Team Ninja this time, implementing her 2D game-centric techniques in a 3D game, and being incredibly good because of it… in DOA5, anyway. They made sure to nerf her in DOA6 to the point that she’s nigh useless. But since it had Mai, KOF fans had to buy.
(I referenced the “No Mai, No Buy” meme that fans spread around for The King of Fighters XII, the first installment Mai wasn’t included in — though she was previously only added as a bonus character in the console port of XI.)
DOA6 also included Kula Diamond from the KOF series, who fits in better than Mai in terms of her move set thanks to focusing on close-ranged moves. She also feels much better to play than the nerfed Mai.
In a non-Fatal Fury guest-starring role, and one of the weirder crossovers: Iori Yagami from KOF joined the cast of Million Arthur: Arcana Blood, a 2D fighting game from Team Arcana (of Arcana Heart) and Square Enix. Given how most of its characters are overdesigned to hell and back, he doesn’t quite fit in; but that’s part of its absurd charm. He came with many of his techniques from KOF over the years, though his combo properties were adjusted for anime fighting game standards. In exchange, Thief Arthur from the Million Arthur series joined SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy’s cast.
Terry in Smash Ultimate is only one upcoming example here. Haohmaru from Samurai Shodown will join the cast of Soulcalibur VI as part of its second season of downloadable content. His move set will have to be adjusted for a 3D game, similar to Geese, Mai, and Kula above, but his character will thematically fit this game thanks to the Soulcalibur and SamSho series occurring within similar time periods. There’s no word on whether they’ll take inspiration from the Samurai Shodown Sen iteration, a game that took inspiration from the Soul series of titles. He’ll be the second character to arrive in the next season, so it might be a little while before we see him in action.
It couldn’t be more evident that SNK won’t be satisfied until one of their characters has a place in every fighting game, and that’s fine given how well they’ve been implemented. The only major fighting games that have yet to receive one are Arc System Works’ titles and, impressively, Street Fighter V — the latter of which still has yet to receive any guest characters. There are several characters who could fit into the off-the-wall Blazblue: Cross Tag Battle, while some would work in the upcoming Guilty Gear game. If they need any SFV suggestions, I know a guy. (See the banner at the top.)
Well, that, or they can go ahead and make Capcom vs. SNK 3. If only we lived in a better timeline.
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Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
