In the history of video games, one could argue that the fighting game genre has had the biggest rivalries that endure to this day. Sure, Mario and Sonic are the “classics,” and there are various FPS games that try and boast feats about one another, but the fighting genre has literally created whole franchises in response to others and has attempted to upstage other developers whenever possible. Not only do the dev teams notice this, but the fans do, too. For example, recently, Fatal Fury: City Of Wolves received some attention not only because of the Mai Shiranui trailer that dropped at Gamescom yesterday but because of some musical tracks that will be in the title.
It was revealed that developer SNK won’t just let fans listen to some music from the game’s past, including ones that haven’t been seen or talked about in decades, but they’re getting access to pretty much every musical track the series has produced since the 1990s! You can see the tweet below for proof of that, as well as how fans are calling out a certain other developer and franchise for its lack of doing this:
You have to admit, SNK went all out for this; meanwhile, Capcom has to be forced to do this with its franchise. As many in the comments above noted, Capcom only did the jukebox feature in its latest entry because of fan demand, and even then, it wasn’t the biggest of selections.
So why is that? It’s slightly complicated, as music has music rights. However, there are times when companies just don’t want to put music into the game, and they feel what they have is “adequate.”
As others have noted, this kind of thing can also be seen in something like Super Smash Bros Ultimate. When Masahiro Sakurai tried to get numerous tracks for players to enjoy across multiple franchises, SNK was one that happily gave him all the songs he asked for. In contrast, companies like Square Enix gave him two per character, meaning Cloud and Sephiroth. That’s not a lot in the grand scheme of things, and it highlights how some developers are more “protective” of its music than others. Why that matters is up for debate, especially when honoring the past through music is a classic thing in the gaming industry.
Going back to Fatal Fury: City Of Wolves, this is the first true sequel the game has had in 26 years, making it something that people will want to pay attention to.
