Kotaku
By Brian Ashcraft
I'm getting my ass handed to me on a platter. Combo after combo after combo. It's endless. I can hear him giggle as I mash out my moves. Teeth white, he's smiling. I'm up in the air, levitating, then slammed down. He puts down the controller, still giddy. I've lost. But, if you are going to owned in King of Fighters Maximum Impact 2, it might as well be buy the guy that made the game, Falcoon.
I don't remember what floor of the SNK Playmore building I'm on. I've been stuffed into a very blue cubicle with a TV and a PlayStation 2 and given ice coffee. I'm drenched in sweat, and the company's Overseas Marketing Manager Yoshihito Koyama is scurrying around, closing the door to a stuffy hallway. He's decked out in a blue, open collared dress shirt and speaks perfect English with a foreign accent I cannot place.
"There used to be three buildings and a thousand employees" he says.
At nearby Esaka Station, there used to be SNK posters with maps to the company, marking the territory. Koyama-san traveled the globe, selling arcade cabinets of popular fighters like Fatal Fury to the Middle East's super rich. The company was an arcade gaming powerhouse.
"It's very hot, and they need something to do in doors. Princes in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait bought all our arcade games," he says. "They'd always ask for secret moves or tips, but I'd never tell them."
The company continued to define the fighter with games like King of Fighters and boasted not only the most expensive home arcade console with the NeoGeo Advanced Entertainment System, but the most powerful. Cost might have been a factor. Light years ahead of the competition, the super powerful NeoGeo AES carried a super powerful pricetag of $599.
"We didn't expect to sell a lot of home systems. A few crazy people bought them," Koyama-san points out.
Our conversation flowed into the PlayStation 3.
"My first impression is that it's expensive. The PlayStation 2 is good enough. It's small and cheap. For us, for manufacturers, we have to invest in a new system, and the PlayStation 3 is a risk. There won't be enough consoles at launch. Few consoles mean few software sales. We need to wait three or four years. Maybe 2009-2010 is a good time to release a game for the PS3."
SNK knows about risks and about paying dearly for them. The company expanded into the portable business, which was met with moderate success. Lack of hits, widespread arcade piracy and a failed Neo Geo console chalked up red ink.
Crippled, the company was snatched up by pachinko machine company Aruze, who swiftly drove SNK into the ground and put the company's popular game characters on pachinko and slot machines. Eventually it was able to get its IPs back, break free from Aruze and was reborn as SNK Playmore, staffed by 250 employees and headquartered in a single building.
When I arrive at SNK Playmore, I walk right through a white unlocked sliding door. There is a small corridor, then another door which lead into a huge, open warehouse type room. Desks are clustered around the center. King of Fighters pachinko machines are stacked on shelves.
The entire office stops and looks at me. It is dead silent. I swear I can hear a record scratch, a plate drop.
I had accidently walked into SNK Playmore's pachinko division. Awkward confusion subsides, and I'm pointed to an intercom and frosted glass. I am buzzed right in, pass the reception area, which reads NEO GEO SNK R&D. There is no receptionist. It is empty.
A localized copy of King of Fighters Maximum Impact 2 is brought in. The American arm of SNK requested a name change, and Falcoon suggested King of Fighters 2006. I'm busy playing my way through Metal Slug for the PSP.
"The PSP version includes Metal Slug, Metal Slug 2, Metal Slug X, Metal Slug 3, 4 and 5 on the same UMD," Koyama points out.
Impressive.
"And we're thinking of selling it for $39 or $49 in the US. Which do you think is better?"
Which do you think I think is better?
"There's also a Wii version?" I inquire. "How different are the graphics?"
"They are the same. But it's going to be a launch title. We don't know the Wii's launch date yet, but we're think sometime in the middle of November, just before Thanksgiving."
Koyama-san's honesty and lack of b.s. is refreshing. At the start of our interview, he openly said, "I need a new product. I need something I can sell."
What is that product?
"Ask Falcoon," he replied.
Character designer, artist and now game producer. Falcoon is SNK Playmore's resident superstar. His hair is frosted in the front, brown in the back. And he's decked out in game developer casual: jeans and a shirt. He comes with gifts, a handful of SNK schwag just for me.
Falcoon is an SNK diehard himself.
"When I was in Junior High, I first played Fatal Fury," he tells me in Japanese. "Before that I was into sports, but at that point, I felt gaming was a sport. I wanted to win. I went to the arcade and practiced and studied. I want to give players that same feeling."
Falcoon is fresh off producing his first game, King of Fighters Maximum Impact 2. Producing, he says, is a challenge. "As a producer, you have to see the big picture. When I was doing character design, that's all I was focused on. Now, things like budgets and promotion are a concern. But, I like overtime. I like coming in here on Saturday, when it's quiet."
I ask him if he's up for a game of KoF, to which he agrees, telling me he plays it every day.
"You're going to kill me," I say.
"There are tons of players that are better than me."
"But you made the game."
Falcoon's thin and delicate fingers wrap around the PS2 controller and devastates me.
"Do you go to the arcades?" I ask.
"Sure. I go to the game center around here sometimes, study what other game companies are doing."
"When other players see you, they must freak out in fear."
"No. They're playing on a hundred yen coin, which they don't want to lose. I'm playing for fun. They're playing to defend that coin." He smiles.
Next round. I'm Mai. Who's the weakest character, I ask. Lien Neville, he says and selects Terry Bogard. I concede defeat. Quickly.
"I'm thirty. There are a lot of kids that are really into gaming. I'm getting old. You can't do this job forever," Falcoon says. "You move further and further from users and the pulse of what they are into. I need to do as much as I can right now."
If you weren't in games, what would you do?
"Fashion, design," he answers.
We go back to one last game of King of Fighters Maximum Impact 2. Falcoon selects weak character Lien Neville. First round, I win. Second one, Falcoon takes it in a dizzying series of combos. Last one, our health bars drained, I land a series of scissor kicks. I defeat Falcoon.
Heading down the stuffy elevator and out to the stuffier street, I pass several pachinko parlors. Esaka is a gritty Osaka neighborhood, filled with hostess clubs and greasy Japanese restaurants. The perfect backdrop for an SNK game.
I duck into an arcade. Called Navel.
Passing a row of cabinets, I find a King of Fighters cabinet, play through a few rounds. I have a challenger. First round, perfect. Second round, perfect. No contest. I am slaughtered, brutally. Falcoon was being kind. My challenger was not.
