SNK News At The TGS

SNK Overall

SNK Booth       SNK's booth was fairly huge, perhaps even more than the last TGS of 98 fall. This time around, their portable game titles filled up about 50% of their booth, compared to the 75% or so from last time. A fairly big presentation stage was available at their booth- this was to come in handy later.       SNK Booth    DreamCast had its version of KOF98- "The King Of Fighters -Dream Match 99" on display. This will be SNK's first title for the Dreamcast.   While there have been screen shots of the game released in published media in the past, apparently they were not truly that from the DC version. When presented at the TGS, KOF99 was only 30% complete. Only 6 characters (Kyo, Benimaru, Goro, Leona, Clark, Ralf) were playable, stage backgrounds were not yet complete (ie: objects were missing, like the  cat in Spain stage), the power bar was still in a facelift construction, character faces did not appear on the side of life bars, etc. However, it is still too early to make any decisions on the game, Again, animation movies are scheduled to be inserted to the game as well.  KOF99 for the Dreamcast is Scheduled for release in June.            KOF R-2 KOF-R2 and a series of other  NeoPocketColor titles were available for play. The animation seemed smoother than its prequel. It has not yet been announced how the game will affect KOF99 when connected to the DreamCast. Rugal was not available as a character, and is perhaps hidden.           FFWA    Fatal Fury Wild Ambition for the Playstation was also playable. The game seemed very much complete. Both playwise and graphic wise, FFWA seemed no different from the arcade Neo64 version of its self. There is a new opening move available for the game starring Geese. SNK's promotion video hinted a "New Game Character" other than Touji and Tsugumi. It is not clear whether or not this points to Xiangfei.          KOF98 For the Playstation (3/25) was also available  for play. Loading time took from 8-20 seconds depending on the situation, but the graphics and frames seemd of good quality.  The dual shock can be selected for both attacking and being hit, allowing the player to "feel" the game.        Last Blade PSX ver opening movie SNK had in presentation a series of lineups for the home system such as Last blade for the PS, Athena for the PS and a remake of Metal Slug- Metal Slug X. However the most unique title for SNK's lineup was a game called "Koudelka".      Koudelka can be best described as a BioHazard/ResidentEvil-like game with a setting flavored in stereotypical European style. The game presented a fairly good quality of polygon characters, and similar to BioHazard (Japanese version), all the character dialogues were talken in English with the subtitle at the bottom, except that everyone spoke with an English accent. The game seemed to involve a number of women (perhaps witches) and had a distinct dark feeling, with characters such as a Hunchback who lived over 600 years.      Koudelka was only presented in the form of big-screen video, with no mention in paper. In the video credits, it was revealed that SNK did not in fact produce the game- likewise to a number of past SNK games, another company worked on production and SNK is the retailer.

SNK vs Capcom Emergency Conference

What was perhaps one of the greatest announcements made in any private booth during the TGS was SNK's announcement of their rumored game, SNK vs Capcom for the NeoGeoPocket Color.      This is the first and only official announcement made by either SNK or Capcom up to this date.     However, since the news was released on public opening day of 3/20 and not in the press day on 3/19, only 2 press were seen at the emergency conferencing on 3:00 PM of the same day. This conference was opened for anyone to participate and listen, and ask questions at the end.  The Madman was there front row listening and taking photos of this interesting occasion. Ok, so make it 3 press.      The SNK vs Capcom conference     The SNK vs Capcom conference was held at the SNK booth's presentation stage on 3/20, 3:00 PM JST. While a swarm of game fans were crowding the area, the same was not the case for the media, despite there being some special room at the very front of the stage for press to take shots.     The briefing consisted of 5 people on the stage, and 2 below.   On the stage were 2 SNK producers, 2 Capcom producers [Okamoto(Bio Hazard, etc) who did most of the talking and Funaki(Street Fighter Zero, etc)], and the stage conductor.      Below the stage was SNK's head rep of publicity Takatsu, and one other man whom I could not identify. Takatsu was often referred from the Capcom producer's side to see if some subjects were OK to mention or not.           The following information was mentioned at the conferencing.   "SNK and Capcom are thought to be very unfriendly to each other, but that is utterly.... true!"   -That was the first comment made on the relations of the two companies by Okamoto.   However, SNK's side revealed that ever since the decision of Capcom to make Rockman for the NeoPocketColor, both sides has been talking for future planning in games.      Capcom's Okamoto became aware of rumors floating around the Internet of "SNK vs Capcom" which begun by the announcement of their participating to the NeoPocketColor, and seeing what the fans truely wanted, this started as the beginning of negotiations to make the game into a reality.      It did help that one of SNK's producers (who was on stage at the time) used to work with Okamoto back in Capcom before he moved to SNK.        Since the project has just begun to take shape, not much information on the game was adamant. Capcom's side was seen confirming some points with SNK at the time of the meeting- suggesting not everything in the project was in fact, intact. But the game(s) are currently scheduled to go as follows.. Note that most of the points mentioned during the conferencing was meant towards the fighting game, and not the card game.    1- First, a card game will appear in the summer. Later in winter, a fighter game will be available.      2- SNK and Capcom are lending all of their lineups of fighting game characters for the occasion. This meaning, any character from both companies can end up in the game.      3- SNK will be taking lead in the project, with some directing from Capcom on the side.      4- The game engine is scheduled to be made by SNK.      5- Likewise, the game system is also scheduled to be based on SNK games of the past, but will be adopting good systems from Capcom as well.         Q&As-   After the briefing, listeners were allowed to ask questions to the four producers.    When asked for a possibility of "a game on Dreamcast (with SNK and Capcom)", Capcom's Okamoto replied "What, you want us to somehow connect the game to Powerstone? Sure!... Just Joking of course.    Well... since the NeoPocketColor can connect to the Dreamcast... we'll let it up to your imagination for now."    When asked for a possibility of  "a game in the Arcades (with SNK and Capcom)", Okamoto checked with SNK's representative Takatsu for a brief second and answered "No Comment".

SNK Booklet Bonus

While there were scoops on news, since there were no real considerable images/photos for SNK's lineup during this TGS here is a bonus from the Calalogue-   A well done wild done image of Mai Shiranui drawn by SNK's illistrator, Shinkirou.       Click on the image for the full Jpeg!