MASSIVE DAMAGE

Greetings, all. If there's one thing I can't stand, its when people call themselves a fighting game fan when they've never even heard of a fighting game developer by the name of Shin Nihan Kikaku, or as it is commonly abbreviated, SNK. Although as it stands, SNK's fighting games are generally recognized as fighters that just aren't as good as say, fighting games made by the leading contender in the genre, Capcom, it can still be easily said that SNK was a pioneer in the fighting game industry with their classic Neo-Geo arcade titles. SNK might have been the company that got me hooked on fighting games to begin with. I remember when I was younger, and I would walk into this arcade and pool hall called Hot Shots that was in one of the malls around here, and it had this weathered, beat up looking Neo-Geo arcade machine in it. It had two of the not so latest but greatest fighting games on it, the first Art of Fighting game, and the very first Samurai Shodown game, along with something called Bubble Bobber I think...moving on. I remember seeing the opening cinematic of sorts in Samurai Shodown time and time again, the image of the main character, Haohmaru, meditating in a forest, then the image of his silhouette suddenly unsheathing his sword and chopping down some small trees on either side of him. It really made an imprint on my fledgling fighting game psyche at that time.

That is until a fighting game called Marvel Super Heroes moved in. It was made by Capcom, and it was very much so open for business. I remembered coming in there at one point and I watched this one guy who was a lot older than me beat the entire game with the unstoppable Juggernaut, and I was just absolutely infatuated with not only his prowess, but the level of detail that went into this game in comparison to the old Neogeo titles I once gazed at in awe.

Years later, I would go on to purchase a fighting game called Capcom vs. SNK 2 before I ever bought an individual The King of Fighters game. It apparently featured some of SNK's most prominent and popular characters in it, and sure enough, I did recognize a plethora of their pantheon of legendary champions, such as Ryo Sakazaki, and none other than Haohmaru himself. However, most of Capcom's fighter's sprites did not look as gorgeous as I thought they would, considering I had already seen half of them in a little known Street Fighter installment called Street Fighter Alpha 3. I was also one of the few people lucky enough to possess one of the rare gems that is a Darkstalkers fighting game, so the character Morrigan's sprite did not look that new to me either. It was not until later that I would see The King of Fighters '99 on a shelf in the then known as Software Etc. store.

SNK's games were not generally released on mainstream consoles like the Playstation, so I picked it up in sheer anticipation of fighting with the giants I had grown so fond of in Capcom vs. SNK 2. Only to realize that the graphics still looked like they had from years ago. The difficulty of the game's final boss, Krizalid, was also astonishing, and really provided a challenge.

So where do I draw the line? SNK's fighting games are every bit as good as Capcom's, they just don't always *look* as good. SNK has been trying to come out of their shell to use the most up-to-date technology to make their games look good, but people seemingly just can't get over the Street Fighter III series of games and how animated Capcom's fighters look in general. And so the myriad of fighting games that SNK keeps producing and churning out will go on overlooked by most of the fighting game following. An unfortunate fate for the only company that is willing to stand up to Capcom.