Text | Game Pizza, author | Dante's Ark, edited | Zhao Ordinary
If you want to vote for the most well-known arcade game, "King of Fighters" must be on the list.
This unfortunate game series has recently taken another fate turn, Saudi Prince's company EGDC spent $430 million to buy more than 14 million shares of Japanese game developer SNK, with an equity share of 96.18%, and completely included IP such as "King of Fighters", "Legend of the Hungry Wolf" and "Metal Warhead". This is the final step in the "Banknote Capacity Plan", and in 2020, the Saudi prince bought a 51% stake in SNK.
SNK in the game industry after years of ups and downs, after the glory of the 90s several times faced poor management, the last large-scale acquisition occurred in 2015, Shanghai Zheyuan Culture for 63.5 million US dollars to buy about 81% of SNK shares, since that year, the country has frequently launched "King of Fighters 98 Ultimate Battle OL", "King of Fighters 97 OL" and other mobile games, as well as "The Fate of the King of Fighters" and other film and television works, through various ways to bring this old IP back to people's vision.
Players may be more concerned about the "King of Fighters" itself than the changes in the capital market, and it is bound to it, there are always smoke-filled arcade halls with flashing screens more than twenty years ago, and they are desperately practicing rubbing moves and expecting the crowd behind them to make cheers.
Now "King of Fighters" has 15 canonical game works, just two months ago, "King of Fighters 15" was released, the official has not yet released the complete sales data, according to the "FAMI Pass" statistics, Japan's PS4, PS5 physical shipments are only 9,000 copies, as a comparison, the same media, the same statistical method, some time ago the hottest "Eldon's Ring of Law" first week sales is 270,000. Although there are still loyal fans, today's "king of fighters" can no longer get rid of the niche status.
With SNK's new capital injection, the future quality of the product is unknown. But even in Japan, the "last arcade pure land", after the epidemic, there are frequent news of flagship store closures, and the youth related to "King of Fighters" is destined to go away.
Favored by Chinese players "King of Fighters 97"
A sentence of "Ready Go" and "K.O." can awaken the dusty memories of countless people, if walking on the streets of the 90s, Kusanagi Kyo's headband, Hachijin-an's red hair are popular youth attire, and moves such as "down front fist" are also "must-memorize subjects" that "King of Fighters" players have remembered for many years.
Domestic players have a very special feeling for "King of Fighters", of which "King of Fighters 97" is the most representative. Until 20 years after the advent of "King of Fighters 97", the fighting game "U League" jointly organized by Douyu and Youtian will still be used as the finale competition, and the peak popularity of live broadcasting can reach more than 800,000.
Just looking at the game itself, the "King of Fighters 97" of that year did have a relatively high quality. Its plot is grand enough to be at the forefront of the entire series, telling the final chapter of the "Great Snake Trilogy", that is, The Three Artifacts formed by Kyo Kusanagi, Hachijin-an and Kagura Chizuru to fight against the reborn "Great Snake" and save the world. In terms of percussion, sound effects, and motion fluency, it has also improved compared to the previous game.
More importantly, "King of Fighters 97" is not difficult to get started, the command input requirements are simplified, and novices can often "rub and release super kills in one mess". And if you want to study deeply, the game also has enough combat skills: eye-dropping, standing back, cheating CDs... Both novices and "gods" can have fun in battles.
However, "King of Fighters 97" is not the best generation in the series, and the e-sports event "Fighting Drama" sponsored by the veteran Japanese magazine "Monthly ARCADIA" has selected "King of Fighters 98", "King of Fighters 2002" and "King of Fighters 2003" as competition items, and "King of Fighters 97" has never been selected. Overseas video blogger Master Fighting Games has invited the "strongest players" from all over the world to participate in the selection, and the "S" ratings include "King of Fighters 98" and "King of Fighters 13", and "King of Fighters 97" is also considered to be only "A" level.
This is mainly because "King of Fighters 97" has some hard wounds in gameplay and balance, and it is a work with a transitional nature. Even if the bug problem is put aside, the strength of the character is very unbalanced. Once the moves of some characters are used, they basically represent the end of the game, and the appearance rate of Hachijin-an is "superior", and another protagonist, Kyo Kusanagi, is even difficult to choose in high-level confrontations.
But these problems cannot stop the enthusiasm of Chinese players. Even if it is not taken seriously overseas, domestic players have invented a series of "default rules" in order to play games with "King of Fighters 97": it is forbidden to float and unlimited combos, and it is forbidden to use hidden characters with too strong performance...
It can have a large audience base, which is related to the domestic game environment at that time. "King of Fighters 97" is one of the earliest large-scale into China's King of Fighters games, and what the machine in the arcade hall is equipped with, people can only play what, for cost considerations, the arcade hall is not very motivated to update the game. Arcade bosses are willing to install "King of Fighters", is because of rampant piracy, "King of Fighters 97" with the substrate was born in 1990 MVS, this substrate using cassette design, replace the game only need to replace the cassette, the manufacturer intends to reduce the price, but let the product get the favor of pirates, crack the cassette, the cost is cheaper.
"Street Fighter 3", which has a similar release year, actually has more wide acclaim in Japan, but it uses a new CPS3 substrate, the integrated design cannot replace the game, and the difficulty of cracking is high, and it cannot be widely popular in China.
Compared with the Clear version of action games such as "Dinosaur Kombat", "Famous General", and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the advantage of "King of Fighters" lies in the social attributes of the fighting game, and the onlookers, exchanges, and cheers behind the screen are also part of the game experience.
In the "pre-Internet era", going to the arcade hall "Rub the King" is the best way to meet the social needs of players, and then the popularity of PCs, the rise of Internet cafes, online games will gradually replace arcade games to become the new favorite of young people. However, the PC also brings an "arcade simulator", players who cling to "King of Fighters" can continue their love through pirated disks, downloads, etc., "King of Fighters Alliance", "King of Fighters Black Hole" and other forums provide online discussion space, as well as various online battle platforms for "engagement", which makes "King of Fighters" not quickly become "tears of the times" in the 21st century, but maintained its vitality in a small circle for a period of time.
The big and small events in full swing can also confirm its popularity of that year, and "King of Fighters 97" has driven the first wave of domestic e-sports. In the documentary "Jianghu", Jin Ou, the "Nanjing 02 Champion of The King of Fighters 97", was radiant and pointed at the camera: "People who play "King of Fighters" have cocoons at the roots of their palms, and where the cocoons grow on the knuckles depends on what characters are used. "There are many "city champions" like this in those days.
At the "Fist Emperor League" forum that year, the five masters of "Southeast, South, and Northwest" were also drawn according to Jin Yong's martial arts routines, of which the youngest "South Kid" Zeng Zhuojun long represented the highest level of domestic fighting games. When he was 6 years old, he was exposed to arcades, and when he tried to leave the game hall after losing a fight, he was slapped several times by his father: "Either you don't play, don't waste time, or you play the world champion." ”
"Kid" came to prominence at the age of 12 when he participated in the "King of Fighters 2000 Guangdong Championship", and after living up to expectations and winning the championship, he began to dominate various fighting game competitions. In 2007, the "child" who was still a high school student went to Japan to participate in the "Fighting Drama" competition, and after winning the top 8 in the "King of Fighters 98" project, the host handed him a microphone and asked if he had anything to say, and the "child" domineeringly faced the audience: "Just say one word, I am here to win the championship." ”
In the final, the child defeated the "Zhongshen Cheng Long", who was also a Chinese player, and Cheng Long frankly said before the game: "I hope the child wins me, he is the future of China (fighting game)." ”
In a word, "Kid" later won a number of world championships such as the EVO World Fighting Game Competition and the NeoGeo World Tour Global Finals with "King of Fighters", all of which represented China for the first time, the most recent being the "King of Fighters 14" project of the 2019 Combo Breaker Competition, and he said in a post-match interview that he "will continue to win". But the "future" of the fighting game is still only him, and compared with other popular esports events in China, not many people care about the results of the "King of Fighters".
SNK: Before becoming an "IP dealer"
The birth of "The King of Fighters" is more like a pure business act.
In 1994, Japanese game companies were in different situations, the Japanese version of the FC game console "Red and White Machine" released the last game "Adventure Island 4", and Square, which also maintained a good relationship with Nintendo, launched "Final Fantasy 6", and the next generation of the series was about to "backstab" Nintendo, escorting the 1st generation playStation launched at the end of the same year. CAPCOM is thinking about transformation, and the young man Shinji Mikami has received a "Resident Evil" plan, which will lead CAPCOM's main game genre from "2D fighting" to "3D action" in the future.
Before the storm, SNK was just a midstream company, they did not build a new generation of home consoles or change the industry influence of popular game genres, but more concerned about how to maximize the commercial value of their games.
"The first thing I noticed when I joined SNK was that the office building was very small. At that time, labor laws were not strict, and it was common to spend the night in the office. You can see a little bit of the shadow of the current indie game studio. Taiyuki Oda, the producer of several King of Fighters games, once recalled.
Originally known as "New Japan Project", SNK officially named the company's trademark "SNK" in 1986, and became famous in the industry with the horizontal version of the arcade "Athena". CAPCOM's Street Fighter has led the fighting trend since 1987, and Street Fighter 2 has introduced the Combo concept, laying the framework for 2D fighting games, and several versions have sold more than 10 million copies. Seeing such a huge market, president Hideyoshi Kawasaki, who was previously a professional boxer, decided to let SNK enter the field of fighting games.
In 1990, SNK introduced the arcade substrate MVS, which was used until the 21st century. The following year, SNK's first fighting game, Legend of the Hungry Wolf, was introduced, followed by Fist of the Dragon and Tiger for the first time bringing the concept of "super kills" to fighting games, and Legend of the Hungry Wolf 2 was the first fighting game with "Forward Charge" and "Retreat" instructions.
What about fusing the popular characters from the Fist of the Dragon tiger and Hungry Wolf series to launch an all-star fighting game? This is the "King of Fighters 94" project. The female characters familiar to players come from The Legend of the Hungry Wolf without knowing the fire dance, and later the characters in SNK's other games are constantly adding to the "King of Fighters", the more well-known ones are Athena Asumiya from "Super Power Warrior", Kyo Kusanagi and Hachijinan are new characters designed for "King of Fighters".
The game's chief producer, Takashi Nishiyama, who came from CAPCOM, led the development of Street Fighter 1, has considerable experience in fighting games, and the "all-star" power formed by the combination of game characters is also quite strong, and "King of Fighters 94" quickly refreshed SNK's own coin rate record.
After tasting the sweetness, SNK began to tilt its development resources towards the "King of Fighters" series, and until 2003, it maintained a rate of one new work per year. Among them, "King of Fighters 98" deleted the plot, the number of controllable characters increased to 39 people, the balance of moves was corrected, and the gameplay peaked.
But by then the winds of the game world had changed. SNK originally had its own hardware product NEO GEO, which was completely suppressed by Nintendo's SFC when it was launched, and it relied on a series of fighting games to gain a foothold. After the rise of Sony's PS, SNK did not "hold the thigh" in time, and the development of the new host NEO GEO64 and the handheld NEOEO POCKET failed.
After the company's game product line was singled out, the original "Legend of the Hungry Wolf", "Fist of the Dragon and Tiger" and other series have gradually lost competitiveness, and some Japanese media have asked Oda Taizhi whether it is intentional to stop other series, he said, "At that time, our highest-selling boxing champion, can only give priority to the sure."
However, 2D fighting games are no longer the mainstream of the market, CAPCOM launched "Street Fighter 3" in 1999, despite the excellent quality, sales are very dismal, which directly led to the "Street Fighter" IP being hidden for 10 years. The bellwether of similar games is still like this, and SNK's life is even more difficult. At the same time, SNK also ventured into real estate fields such as arcade chains and theme parks, and eventually could not recover the funds supporting the main business of the game.
In 2000, SNK was on the verge of bankruptcy with a debt of 38 billion yen. The company's luck has not completely declined, SNK and the gambling giant Aruze hooked up, Aruze has tried many times to break into the arcade market, has been unable to get out, the year before the merger of SNK its revenue of up to 137.9 billion yen, fully capable of eating SNK.
But then SNK led a dramatic event in the history of the game, using Aruze to achieve the "golden cicada shell". In simple terms, SNK ceded control of the company to Aruze by issuing additional shares and selling shares, and then declared bankruptcy. The debt went to the new owner, and president Hideyoshi Kawasaki registered two new companies in Japan and South Korea, and through measures such as buying back the IP in the auction and recalling old employees, the company was substantially reborn, and in 2003, the company's headquarters moved back to the original building and renamed SNK Playmore.
After this toss, although SNK was resurrected, it was also seriously injured, reflected in the game development that the quality of "King of Fighters" after the new century was uneven, and SNK could no longer maintain the "New Year" strategy after "King of Fighters 11".
King of Fighters 11
In 2015, SNK once again faced operational difficulties, this time with domestic capital, and its decline can be seen from the valuation alone: about 7.9 billion yen bought 81.25% of the shares. One year after the acquisition, SNK removed the suffix "Playmore" in the name of "Returning to the Original Intention", and the company LOGO was also changed back to the style of the 90s, but it is obvious that the "Initial Heart" and the former glory are not easy to find.
The consumed "King of Fighters", the "arcade machine" that is difficult to survive
After SNK belongs to domestic companies, Chinese players can clearly perceive that the exposure rate of "King of Fighters" is rising sharply.
In 2017, SNK China released an IP operation plan, saying that it would invest content in animation, film and television, literature and other pan-entertainment fields, and the only animation "The Awakening of the King of Fighters" that has been launched so far is the animation "The Awakening of the King of Fighters". More IP adaptation projects are concentrated in the field of mobile games, and Gamma Data's "2017 Pan-Entertainment IP Game Value Research Report" said that the value of "King of Fighters" was released with the advent of the mobile game era, and the overall IP value reached 14.5 billion.
The Awakening of the King of Fighters
The planning of pan-entertainment and a large number of licensed adaptations are in line with the trend of domestic "IP fever" in those years. Only now look at it, there are many games that are crowded under the wind outlet, and there are very few works that can achieve word-of-mouth and market win-win.
Search for "King of Fighters", "Official Genuine" or "Genuine Licensing" games in the App Store there are "King of Fighters Destiny", "King of Fighters World", "King of Fighters 98 Ultimate Battle OL", "King of Fighters 97 OL" and "Soul Awakening: Crazy 100 Consecutive Draws" and many other models, some only from the name can judge the manufacturer's intentions, "King of Fighters World" developed by SHK, adding MMORPG elements, TapTap score 6.3/10, "King of Fighters Destiny" for licensing research and development, the rating is only 4.8/ 10, a high praise bad review bluntly wrote "pay me back".
Frequent harvesting of feelings, feelings naturally depreciated, not to mention that Chinese players pin their feelings on the world view or plot story of the "King of Fighters", but the "King of Fighters 97" with vague picture quality and can be fought.
When the game live broadcast first emerged, "King of Fighters 97" also ushered in a "renaissance" with that wave, and a group of king of boxing masters re-established a connection with the "audience" that was once scattered in the north and south of the river through live broadcasting, and reproduced the social and spectator experience close to the arcade hall online. The peak popularity of the "King of Fighters 97" live broadcast on platforms such as Douyu and Zhanqi can reach nearly one million, so they have opened up nostalgic sections. Head anchors such as Da Sima and Xiao Zhi also played several "King of Fighters" from time to time, and competitions such as "U League" and "Infinity Cup" were held one after another.
Da Sima live broadcast "King of Fighters"
This is more like a short time retrospective, "King of Fighters 97" is after all a game more than 20 years ago, it will not be continuously updated, and no new players will join again, and the live broadcast popularity cannot be maintained for a long time. Taking the larger "U League" as an example, when it was held until the 4th, its prize pool reached 400,000, but there were obvious signs of weakness, and the main planner Ouyang Huabei told the media at that time: "I don't know how long the feelings can exist, but I don't want to leave regrets." The tournament organizers even told him that there were no more requirements for the game, and there would not be too many people watching it anyway.
In the minds of Chinese players, "King of Fighters" is almost bound to the "arcade machine", and the "arcade machine" has long become a very old object, which can only appear in the corner of the old shopping mall, and the only popular ones are the doll catching machine and the dancing machine.
In Japan, the birthplace of Japan, arcade culture is tenacious enough to withstand the impact of the Internet, in 2015, there were 15,612 arcade halls in Japan, and there were also large arcade halls in bustling areas such as Shinjuku, Ikebukuro, and Akihabara.
One view is that Japan can become an "arcade pure land" and its unique monetary structure, the arcade coin price is anchored at 100 yen, and the Japanese people usually use high denomination coins of 100 yen and 500 yen in large quantities, which means that the Japanese arcade industry has a higher "average per-payment" than other countries, and the payment threshold is lower than other countries.
Even so, arcades will still be affected by emerging media such as mobile games, and only a few such as SEGA are still supporting the supply of arcade games, and many arcade halls have essentially become part of the tourism industry for overseas players to visit nostalgia.
The epidemic has greatly accelerated the decline of the arcade industry, and the well-known nostalgic arcade MIKADO has launched crowdfunding during the epidemic, and usually needs to rely on live broadcasting on YouTube to earn advertising subsidies, and the store manager said that "those peers who do business as usual may be very difficult." At the end of 2020, even SEGA, which has dominated for many years, sold 85% of its arcade business, and in January this year, GENDA completed the acquisition of 100% of Sega's arcade subsidiary and announced the replacement of the full line of product LOGOs, that is, the "SEGA" logo will disappear from all arcades and stores in the future.
MIKADO
Last fall, SEGA Ikebukuro, considered a "pilgrimage site" by ACG enthusiasts, ended its 28-year operation, and on its last day, the store was surrounded by water, and a large number of players recorded its closing moments on video.
The store manager led the shouting countdown: "10, 9, 8, 7..." People seemed to have held out for many more years, and finally said goodbye to the arcade era completely.