SNK surprises with online PS2 lineup

SNK Playmore today announced a slate of online titles, all set to release before the spring of next year, that will play over the MultiMatching Broadband Service, a third-party online solution for the PS2 that launched in September 2003. The service was developed through a partnership between broadband provider KDDI and Capcom. The first game to use the service, King of Fighters '94 Re-Bout, will release this December. Five other games will follow in 2005.

The news came as a surprise because SNK Playmore, only two days before the opening of the show, had announced that the publisher's "future" game lineup, after the release of Re-Bout, would be programmed specifically for online play. By "future," many industry followers assumed SNK meant new titles, not a slate of classic ports.

The announcement that went out today noted SNK's aims in supporting the MultiMatching service. Rather than the in-depth, time-expensive massively multiplayer role-playing games that dominate the online gaming scene in Japan, SNK hopes to provide an online experience that can entertain even with light, sporadic use.

A complete list of the titles that will use the MultiMatching Broadband Service follows; all are ports from the company's NeoGeo hardware.

King of Fighters '94 Re-Bout
King of Fighters '95-'97 3 in 1
King of Fighters '98-'00 3 in 1
Garou Mark of the Wolves
Bakumatsu Roman Gekka no Kenshi 2 in 1 (Last Blade)
Twinkle Star Sprites (tentative title)