SNK Playmore adopting new arcade platform

TOKYO--At the AOU show in Tokyo, Sammy announced that SNK Playmore will be shifting its arcade development platform from the NeoGeo MVS to Sammy's Atomiswave. Three new titles have been announced for release on the Atomiswave: The King of Fighters 2004, Samurai Spirits AW, and Metal Slug 6. No footage or images of the games have been released.

The King of Fighters title that was announced during the AM show last September is also still in development, and its name has been changed to "The King of Fighters NEOWAVE."

“The NeoGeo's games have been played worldwide, but it ran on a 16-bit board that had reached its limits. Producing under a better environment should make the development easier and allow leeway for a higher-quality [game],” commented Youichi Watanabe, chief of Sammy's marketing division. “Within Japan, the AWNET should be able to attract a base of fans in ways that weren't possible with the NeoGeo. In global terms, we should be able to make stable title releases in Asia, Central America, and South America.”

Most of the speaking at Sammy's stage was done by SNK Playmore's chief of development, Kazuya Hirata. Kazuya directed his comments toward three titles that have been announced for the Atomiswave and finished the announcement off with a few words on the NeoGeo platform. Selected quotes from the presentation are below:

King of Fighters 2004:

“As you may know, we've made 10 installments in the King of Fighters series. This will be the 11th sequel,” said Kazuya. “To be honest, this game [series] has been pretty hard to create. We've been adding variations to it, remaking the system each and every time. We've completely remade it when it went into a new chapter in the last game, [KOF] 2003. We're currently in the middle of porting the [game's] system since we're moving to the Atomiswave. We're going to start planning out [for KOF2004], but there's been a lot of ideas that we couldn't do on the NeoGeo, so hopefully we can realize them on the Atomiswave. Graphics and sounds will obviously get better, but we also want to strengthen the gameplay itself. We will be adding new characters this time as well.”

Metal Slug 6:

“Metal[Slug] went through its fifth series, and the next is the sixth release. But we've used up all of our ideas in terms of the action game,” commented Kazuya. “The developers seem to be interested in the [AW]NET, so we're hoping to use it. As the sixth release, we hope to give it an integration of the gimmicks and action elements we've done up to now.”

Samurai Spirits AW:

“Samurai [Spirits] is a game where the characters really stand out. It has a different aspect from the King [of Fighters]. Samurai [Spirits] Zero Special is coming out around April, and we're hoping that it will showcase the last of the NeoGeo [platform],” said Kazuya. “The next one on the Atomiswave will mark the sixth release, just like Metal Slug. And similarly to the Metal Slug, the development team seems like they want to give it all they've done from the past, so there might be some interesting changes. The details aren't concrete enough to be talked about, but it seems like we'll be making some dynamic changes to the characters.”

About the NeoGeo platform and the future of SNK Playmore:

“We've worked with the NeoGeo for 13 years. That's a lot to think about. There have been talks in the past about when we'll stop supporting the NeoGeo, but this is going to be the real end. And that's really an indescribable feeling,” commented Hirata near the end of the press conference.

“We hope to continue developing and to evolve the capabilities [of the Atomiswave]. Other titles are also being considered for release on the Atomiswave.”