by [name redacted]
I don’t know if this report even went live on the site. If so, it’s buried in the infrastructure. If not, well, that sort of thing happens at Insert Credit HQ. Either way, it’s here now.
Although my Wednesday plans called me to ask Akira Yamaoka stupid questions, on Wendesday Brandon called me to accompany him in asking SNK slightly less stupid questions.
We walked a dozen blocks, to a hotel decorated like a Roman bath. The door to the room was ajar; inside milled PR representative Michael Meyers, ensuring all was in place. On the enormous television to the right, the Xbox port of KOF: Maximum Impact; on the reasonable television head, the PS2 port of Metal Slug 4. On the coffee table to the left, a stack of DVD cases, the spine lettering on their temporary sleeves unified in all save size. Amongst these sleeves were The King of Fighters ’94 Re-Bout and Samurai Shodown V, and the new and unfortunate cover for Maximum Impact; to my recollection, all the sleeves were emblazoned with the Xbox logo.
While Brandon was drawn to Metal Slug, I asked of Michael Meyers questions that Brandon and I would again ask each subsequent person who entered the room. His attention wavered, Brandon switched televisions; we both inspected Maximum Impact. The build was incomplete; story mode was impossible to access, and the game froze twice. As such, I cannot say whether all pieces were in place. Although lacking in drama, the changes I noted are both obvious and welcome: the load times are so improved as to render the loading animation almost comical; both the analog stick and the D-pad are enabled; an “Xbox Live” option appears on the menu screen; and three voice “styles” are now available: American, Japanese, and European. We chose the last option; the game locked. We chose it again; again, the game rebelled. Alas. After I beat Brandon with K’ and Leona, we moved on.
The King of Fighters 2002 is also a clean port; as with Maximum Impact, it seems the same as the PS2 version, save faster loading, an online option, and analog support. Brandon asked after the Neo-Geo pad and stick; he wants to see them sold here. Michael Meyers said they’re thinking about it. They’re shopping the idea around, to see if any joystick makers are interested. The big question they have is how much demand there is in North America; hardware is pretty expensive to produce. One concern was the huge “Neo-Geo” written on the controllers, which they were afraid might confuse some people — particularly retail shops — into thinking they were made for the Neo-Geo home system. We suggested, in unison, they could just rename them the “SNK Stick” and “SNK Pad”. They shrugged. Maybe.
Brandon offered to just buy the stick they had sitting on the shelf. Meyers laughed.
Somewhere in the middle of this, three or four other people came into the room, amongst them Ben Herman. We settled down on the couch, to unload the questions.
Brandon again offered to buy the stick. Herman laughed.
The deal with Samurai Shodown V Special is that they’re not bringing it over right now; for the time and resources they have at the moment, it’s just not different enough from SSV. Maybe they’ll bring it over in a couple of years, when they start to work on the budget releases that Herman keeps referencing. This time around, though, they just felt they had better things to do. Herman said that Samurai Shodown V had been balanced somewhat, for competitive play; with the Live! support, he figured that was enough of a draw.
As for why the game is on the Xbox, part of it is the old SCEA thing; part of it is that the matching service they use in Japan isn’t available here — so if they want the games to work online, Live! is really their only option.
FOOTNOTE 1- My take is, it feels like Sony rejected the SSV two-pack on the grounds that the games weren’t different enough, and that’s what led SNK to move SSV to the Xbox and not bother with Special. They no longer needed it to get SSV in Sony’s door, as that proposal was denied. So yeah, I can see how they might shrug and move on to more pressing issues. They tried; now they have newer games to think about.
On the Live! note, Metal Slug 4/5 will not have an online cooperative mode; the options are the same as in Metal Slug 3. A shame; I guess that’s nothing SNKP USA really has control over, however.
Noise is working on a Gameboy Advance port of Metal Slug 1; it seems they weren’t absorbed into SNK Playmore after all; in fact, they’ve even moved out of the main SNK building.
They intend to put out ’94 Re-Bout as a full-price release (“full price” in this case meaning thirty dollars); Michael Meyers explained the reason they left the title alone was that the Xbox has only existed since 2001. It’s old enough that at this point it doesn’t just seem old; it seems retro. They aren’t sure what they want to do with the marketing. Herman said they’ll have something ready by E3.
We spoke of the hat, and how well that worked as a gimmick for Max Impact (they’re doing it again for the Xbox version); Herman observed that people were selling the hat on eBay for sixty dollars, when for ten dollars less they could have gotten the game with it. I suggested they include one of Kyo’s gloves with Re-Bout. Brandon liked the idea; Herman didn’t. Oh well. I’m sure they’ll figure something out.
The three-packs (online-compatible compilations of KOF’95-2000, scheduled for release in Japan) are definitely out. For one, Herman was a little weirded-out that the second pack included KOF2000, since he’d already released the game in the US, albeit without online play. I suggested that it wasn’t on the Xbox yet; he replied that the three-packs weren’t, either — and they would take effort to port. Besides, he felt like he’d already covered this ground. As before, he decided he has newer games to worry about; things that have never been released here. Maybe in a couple of years he’ll do something nice with a budget compilation. Not now, though.
Same with Rage of the Dragons and Matrimelee. The latter, Herman said, is definitely out; Atlus has a claim on it, and it’s just too complicated to think about. He isn’t even really sure who has the rights to Rage of the Dragons now. Again, he’s not saying they’ll never get released; just wait a few years. We’ll see what happens.
I asked whether they thought Twinkle Star Sprites would actually sell here. They weren’t sure. Maybe. No one in the room was really familiar with the game; they were all surprised when Brandon and I described it as one of the best games ever. Furthermore, they knew only as much as we did about the PS2 version: mainly, that it’s being made, that it’s got a new subtitle, and that some of the illustations are new. They can’t say much until they know what the game is.