Authorized by SNK Genuine and newly developed by Tencent TiMi Studio, the side-scrolling action shooter mobile game "Metal Slugg: Awakening" has been launched! For a while, I don't know how many people "returned to Yeqing".
And the well-known heroes of "Glory of Kings" Tachibana Youkyo, Nako Lulu, Fire Dance, and Charlotte are also popular characters on SNK. Last year (2022), there was also a mobile game "All-Star Fight" authorized by SNK online.
So have you ever wondered, what kind of company is this SNK? Why did he authorize to go all day? Next, Jiujiu will take you to briefly understand this game company~
New Japan Planning Co., Ltd. (the predecessor of SNK) was founded in 1978, the company has a certain experience in semiconductor technology and software development, and making arcade games is also a matter of pushing the boat (look at this thing quack to earn coins who is not impressed).
Unlike the current mention of SKN and thinking of "fighting", in the beginning the company was actually mainly shooting games. After that, it gradually entered a period of steady development and became one of the most popular game companies of that era.
Like most game companies, SNK found itself too monolithic after the initial phase had stabilized. Coupled with the company's several years of experience in arcade console software and hardware, they also began to gradually seek innovation in various aspects (whether it was gameplay or hardware development).
At that time, the mention of "innovation" was often a double-edged sword, and no one knew whether the new gameplay would be loved by players, and no one knew whether their innovation would be welcomed by the market. But SNK did it later, and shocked the entire Japanese arcade game world!
If you want to divide SNK into a stage, 1978~1986 can be said to be a time when excellent works are frequently prosperous.
In recent years, SNK's most acclaimed games include Mad Crasher, IKARI WARRIORS, and Athena, which Jiujiu considers the most important.
The follow-up to "Athena", "Super Warrior", also created SNK's signature character at that time, Athena Asamiya (also one of the most popular characters in the early days of The King of Fighters).
The game "Super Warrior" is a game that focuses on and will continue to be mentioned below.
As an episode, in April 1986, New Japan Project officially changed its name to the familiar "SNK" company.
The letters S, N, and K are the acronyms for the name Shin Nihon Kikaku. At that time, even they did not know that in the future, SNK will gradually become a totem for martial arts enthusiasts.
In the same year that the name was changed in 1986, they also had a big job, a big job enough to bankrupt themselves... That year, SNK executives took great risks and added a self-developed sound chip to the game's substrate that had no similar product at the time.
So what is this sound chip used for? It is used to play the theme song sung by a well-known Japanese idol singer... (Worthy of your SNK!) It is with this sound chip that the heroine "Athena Asamiya Athena" in the game "Super Warrior" (released in 1987 and the sequel to the Athena game) can be transformed into a popular idol singer.
The combination of game characters and songs caused great popularity at the time, and it was funny that Athena Asamiya was a Japanese high school girl with superpowers. (Never provoke Chinese crossers, Japanese high school students, American homeless people)
To say that the most valuable value of an IP or a company is to accompany a generation to grow up, just as 4399 accompanied our childhood.
SNK was still popular after "Super Warrior", and then SNK (its IP: Legend of the Hungry Wolf, Samurai Shodown, The King of Fighters) and Capcom (its IP Street Fighter) ushered in a prosperous era in the field of arcade fighting games.
The "New Year" King of Fighters who came out once a year was stronger from generation to generation in 94-98, and SNK at that time really had his hands in his pockets and did not know what an opponent was. (The IP of "Metal Slugg" was won by SNK after acquiring Nazca~)
The successive success of arcade games also made the former SNK completely free himself (I would float if I wanted me), because the president used to work in cafes and real estate, and SNK's series of magical operations were immediately staged:
The construction of themed arcade halls across the country and SNK theme parks that have been completed from the beginning, these projects that have nothing to do with game companies are almost all lost (rather a loss).
Of course, these losses are still not worth mentioning compared to that, SNK because of the unprecedented success of its arcade machine, the company also put the entire focus on the arcade machine.
But the times are about to change, just as SNK executives once talked about adding self-developed audio chips, the home console market brought by Sony and Nintendo will soon completely shred SNK's bet on the biggest arcade game...
To give an inappropriate example, if you live in an ancient era, some rough tools may not be easy to use at first, but you insist on using your hands to plan, even if you plan, you can't stop the coming of the tool age.
SNK once chose the right direction, so it can be regarded as a totem by countless fighting players, but at the new intersection of home game consoles, he went wrong, and the former arcade overlord could not match the changes of the times after all, and was slowly squeezed out of the center of the stage.
Of course, Sony, Nintendo's handheld home console war is also very exciting, and in the end, Nintendo has become the handheld hegemon.
Home game console is Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo three parts of the world, Sega once bet on Saturn home game console was the company's hope, but because of the defeat to Sony PS, Sega broke his arm and completely withdrew from the home console market.
SNK's early home game consoles were almost exclusive to local tyrants because they were too expensive, so they did not make waves in themselves, and they were not at all comparable to other brands.