The person who created SNK’s biggest fighting franchises has said there’s an interest in “all parties” in the revival of the beloved SNK. Capcom series.
The popular crossover game, in which players from The King of Fighters duke with the familiar Street Fighter combatants, hasn’t had an actual installment since 2003, due in part to the bankruptcy of SNK in the early 2000s and its shift towards pachislot machines.
Capcom released two arcade and console-based fighting games featuring its original rival from the genre in the years 2000 and 2001 as SNK launched portable titles as well as card game spin-offs and an arcade game in the same period.
Talking to VGC, Yauyuki Oda, the creator and producer who has been the driving force behind SNK’s fight game revival over the past few years (he was the director of King of Fighters 16 and created Samurai Showdown, plus this year’s KoF XV), has been tipped to create a new entry within the series’ crossover could eventually be possible.
Oda mentioned collaborative promotional posters that were revealed at this month’s 2022 Evo fighting game tournament featuring the artwork of each of the SNK as well as Capcom games. The nostalgic merchandise was well-received by fans. Oda stated to VGC it “reaffirmed” that the general public is extremely interested in a possible SNK against. Capcom revival.
If he was interested in bringing out a new SNK game that would be a match-up. Capcom game, Oda told me: “Definitely in the future, it’s something I think everyone on both sides, from both sides, is interested in seeing become an actuality.
“Especially after we saw the reaction to the [Evo posters ]… it helped us reconfirm that that is probably one of the most wanted things from the fighting game community across the entire world.”
When asked if there were any specific plans in the works, Oda replied: “We haven’t had a lot of discussions with anyone at Capcom regarding the matter. It may have come up as a speculative comment. But, we’ve got plenty of crossover experience with characters like Akuma as well as Geese from Tekken, Terry [Bogard] in Fighting EX Layer, Terry in Smash Bros., and Baiken in Samurai Showdown…
“But lately, we’ve never really done anything with Capcom including character collaborations. The poster we saw at EvoIn our view was the first step toward possibly something similar to come up in the near future.”
When asked if the fans will be waiting for another 20 years before seeing an all-new SNK against. Capcom game becomes reality Oda-san responded: “20 years is definitely too long for me. We’ll do our best to finish it in 10 years!”
Even though Oda said that no serious discussions took place There have been hints from Capcom’s end suggesting there is interest in a possible collaboration has been spotted. In the past, Capcom was at war. SNK 2 director Hideaki Itsuno said to Polygon that he could “love” to someday create an additional game.
But, Itsuno is currently occupied with the Devil May Cry series and the coming Dragon’s Dogma 2.
“I actually have two ideas for one-on-one fighting games still lingering in my mind,” the man said in the moment. “It’s more of just a matter of having the opportunity to do so, so if there’s anyone that’s willing to give me a development team and a nice budget, I’m more than willing to listen.”
‘A UNIQUE GENRE’
SNK’s Oda is a long-time employee of SNK who has contributed to the creation of Fatal Fury Special (1993) as well as the King of Fighters 1995 (1995) as well as Garou: Mark of the Wolves (2000). Following the company’s bankruptcy as well as acquisition Oda became a part of Dimps where they actually worked on Capcom games like Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter X Tekken.
After returning to SNK about 10 years back, Oda has spearheaded many of the company’s most recent fighting games. He has directed The King of Fighters XIV (2016) in addition to creating SNK Heroines (2018), Samurai Showdown (2019), and King of Fighters XV (2022).
Oda has worked on a variety of Japan’s most popular fighting game franchises, Oda is well positioned to talk about the genre as well as its unique collaboration between creators from different countries.
“We have a really good relationship with [other fighting game companies],” the director said to VGC. “We regularly meet and eat with each other. The majority of times, we don’t talk focused on specific topics however, we do talk about our community as well as the music genre as a whole.”
“There are other genres where you would have a lot of butting heads between IPs and such, but there’s more overlap in the FGC I would say and everyone is happy when a new game comes out.”
He also said: “A lot of the decisions aren’t taken by the developers and are instead made by marketing teams. To a certain extent with no details from the inside, we know the fact that Street Fighter 6 is the hottest thing at the moment, and if we compete in battle with them, everyone will be at a disadvantage.
“Especially for such a game as Evo and Evo, even the fact that there are many different communities that are forming and we’re all on good terms with one with each other and we have a lot of overlap. We’re thinking that we’d like to expand that and expand it further.
“It’s an extremely unique genre I’d suggest. It’s not the only genre in which there’s lots of arguing between IPs and other games however there is more overlap within the FGC I’d say and everyone is pleased whenever a new game is released.”