SNK has announced that they will be reviving one of their classic video games. But, there’s a catch.
As reported by Video Games Chronicle, the revival won’t be for one of their fighting games. SNK also confirmed that they are working with Arika for this video game revival.
Video Games Chronicle points out that SNK’s most successful non-fighting game video game is Metal Slug. While objectively true, this is a terrible guess for that game revival. SNK already revived the franchise, with new games across different platforms having just released or in active development.
Specifically, there are two mobile games that released within the past three years, and an upcoming strategy game called Metal Slug Tactics. And the same thing can be said of Magical Drop. While we can’t entirely rule out more Metal Slug or Magical Drop games in the future, SNK must be thinking something else.
And that something else is that they should be able to make money out of their legacy IP. In particular, they may have seen an opportunity to revive one of their older games to take advantage of a modern trend.
Now, SNK is best known for the Neo Geo, but they have been making games since 1978, and have dipped their toes into every genre possible. We’ll rundown our own ideas on what older franchises SNK may be thinking of reviving.
Ikari Warriors – the Ikari Warriors franchise were a series of top-down run and gun games, featuring two Rambo types called Ralf and Clark. Ralf and Clark are both playable characters in the King of Fighters series, but those versions of the characters were a drastic retooling. A new Ikari Warriors game could switch genres from run and good to a first person shooter with a military theme. They could even retell the wild story from Victory Road with this new format.
Magician Lord – Magician Lord is a side-scrolling platformer with a fantasy theme. It won’t take that much to modify this game idea to make a new Metroidvania style game.
Puzzled / Joy Joy Kid – now this one is a deep cut, but it’s a more likely project for Arika to tackle. Puzzled, known as Joy Joy Kid in some markets, is a Tetris variant where, instead of clearing the well completely, you are dropping pieces and clearing lines to free a hot air balloon that is trapped in the bottom of the well. Arika just so happens to have been the developer of the Tetris: The Grand Master arcade games. Remaking this game may mean they can make a new Tetris style game without having to license Tetris.
Baseball Stars – this was one of the most popular sports game franchises that SNK ever made. Their first games on the NES were advanced compared to their peers, but they kept improving this franchise on the Neo Geo. A Baseball Stars revival could help liven up a franchise most gamers have decided has gone niche over the serious simulation of Sony’s MLB The Show franchise.
Crystalis – finally, this action RPG on the Famicom/NES was very advanced for its time, even though it had some flaws. This game was part of the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection. However, SNK could see the potential of bringing the game back as a low budget 2D graphics action RPG, in the same vein as Hyper Light Drifter or Crosscode.
There’s tons of other games that could be brought back in a small or a big way, but whichever title it is, both SNK and Arika have quite the legacy. We look forward to learning what they have in store for us soon.
