SNK
, an acronym for Shin Nihon Kikaku 『新日本企画』 (Japanese for "New Japan Project"), is one of the better known video game companies headquartered in Suita, Osaka, Japan. Besides developing arcade games dating back to 1978 (its very first game, Ozma Wars, was programmed on a reverse-engineered Space Invaders board), SNK is also responsible for the Neo Geo home console, as well as the short-lived Hyper Neo Geo 64 and portable Neo Geo Pocket. The company's legal and trading name became SNK in 1986. It also possesses a unique story of collapse and rebirth: After things started to look bad in the beginning of 2000, SNK was forced to declare bankruptcy in 2001 and sold many of its rights to various companies. Eventually, with hard work and effort, its CEO, Eikichi Kawasaki, eventually gathered up many of its former rights and employees and rebuilt SNK, now named SNK Playmore. Though SNK Playmore focused on revitalizing several of its flagship series during this time (particularly The King of Fighters, Metal Slug, and Samurai Shodown), the period also marked a transition to the company's focus on pachinko machines, both original and based on pre-existing IPs.* Kawasaki was the company's largest shareholder until August 2015, when his shares (along with his wife's) were bought by a Chinese joint venture. In April 2016, SNK Playmore announced that they were changing their name back to SNK, and brought back their old motto as shown above. On December 1, 2016, they changed their legal name from "SNK Playmore Corporation" to "SNK Corporation" to complete the change and rang it in with a fresh new Vanity Plate with a familiar jingle.
SNK is mostly known for its fighting games and was once the biggest rival of Capcom in that field; this rivalry was embodied in the SNK vs. Capcom crossover series. Their fighting game bosses have a reputation for being extremely harder than their rival companies' counterparts, thus making them the Trope Namer for SNK Boss. To casual observers, SNK's 2D fighters were mere imitators of the Street Fighter series, but this is not the case. The combat systems are totally different, with SNK's Art of Fighting series introducing the whole concept of the super special move that would go onto to become a fighting game staple. Also, although both employed luxuriously rich, detailed 2D visuals, SNK's backgrounds were more expressive, and often filled with comic touches. It's also worth pointing out that staff have switched between the Capcom and SNK camps over the years, with original Street Fighter creators Takashi Nishiyama and Hiroshi Matsumoto going on to work at SNK, notably creating the Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters series, while famed illustrator Shinkiro as well as lesser-known Senri Kita* started at SNK but now work for Capcom.
Also of note is SNK's close relationship with ADK (also known as Alpha Denshi), a fellow video game company that would become a third-party developer for SNK from the late 80s onward, having many of their titles published by SNK — often exclusively for their various Neo Geo platforms. After ADK declared bankruptcy in 2003, SNK would buy the rights to their properties and either continue ADK's work, such as with Twinkle Star Sprites, or begin integrating them into their own IPs, as seen with the presence of World Heroes and Aggressors of Dark Kombat characters in NeoGeo Battle Coliseum or the former's Jeanne D'Arc appearing as a DLC Guest Fighter in SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy. A similar relationship existed with that of Saurus, a company established in 1994 as a second-party subsidiary of SNK; though Saurus developed multiple games of their own for the various Neo Geo consoles up until their dissolvement in 2000 (such as Ragnagard and the Shock Troopers series), they also assisted in the development of several other SNK titles and even were responsible for publishing the SNES ports of World Heroes 2 and Art of Fighting 2 (the latter being Japan-only).
Has nothing to do with Attack on Titan (which has the Japanese name of Shingeki no Kyojin), despite sharing the same initials. Fans of the video game company have taken to using the company's new names (SNK Playmore, then SNK Corporation/SNK Entertainment) because of the potential confusion.
Consoles made:
- Neo Geo (1990–2004)
- Neo Geo CD (1994–1997)
- Hyper Neo Geo 64 (1997–1999)
- Neo Geo Pocket (1998–1999)
- Neo Geo Pocket Color (1999–2001)
Games developed:
Fighting games
- Street Smart (1989)
- Fatal Fury series (1991–1999, 2025)
- Fatal Fury: King of Fighters (1991)
- Fatal Fury 2 (1992)
- Fatal Fury Special (1993)
- Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory (1995)
- Real Bout Fatal Fury (1995)
- Real Bout Fatal Fury Special (1996)
- Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers (1998)
- Real Bout Fatal Fury Special Dominated Mind (1998)
- Fatal Fury Wild Ambition (1999)
- Fatal Fury First Contact (1999)
- Garou: Mark of the Wolves (1999)
- Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves (TBA 2025)
- World Heroes series (1992–1995, co-developed with ADK)
- Art of Fighting series (1992–1996)
- 3 Count Bout (1993)
- Samurai Shodown series (1993–1998, 2003–present)
- The King of Fighters series (1994–present)
- SNK Gals Fighters (2000)
- SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy (2018)
- Fu'un series (1995–1996)
- The Last Blade series (1997–1998)
- Buriki One (1999)
- SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos (2003)
- NeoGeo Battle Coliseum (2005)
Others
- Alpha Mission series (1985–1991)
- Alpha Mission (1985)
- Alpha Mission II (1991)
- Athena series (1986–1987, 1999, 2006)
- Athena (1986)
- Psycho Soldier (1987)
- Athena: Awakening from the Ordinary Life (1999)
- Athena: Full Throttle (2006)
- Athena On Stage (2006)
- Baseball Stars series (1989–1992, 1998–1999)
- Baseball Stars (1989)
- Baseball Stars Professional (1990)
- Baseball Stars 2 (1992)
- Baseball Stars (1998) note
- Baseball Stars Color (1999) note
- Beast Busters series (1989, 1999, 2014–2015)
- Beast Busters (1989)
- Beast Busters: Second Nightmare (1999)
- Dark Arms: Beast Buster (1999)
- Beast Busters featuring KOF (2014)
- Beast Busters featuring KOF Deluxe (2015)
- Blue's Journey (1990) note
- Burning Fight (1991)
- Cool Cool Toon (2000)
- Crossed Swords (1991) note
- Crystalis (1990)
- Cyber-Lip (1990)
- Days of Memories series (2005–2009)
- Dragon Gal series (2004, 2013–2015)
- Dragon Gal (2004)
- Dragon Gal: Shura no Yabou (2013)
- Dragon Gal: Souda no Tatakai (2015)
- Eight Man (1991)
- Fantasy (1981)
- Ganbare Neo Poke-Kun (2000)
- Gang Wars (1989) note
- Guerrilla War (1987)
- Ikari Warriors series (1986–1989)
- Ikari Warriors (1986)
- Victory Road (1986)
- Ikari III: The Rescue (1989)
- The Irritating Maze (1997) note
- Kamitama series (2008–2011)
- Kamitama (2008)
- Kamitama ART! Everyone Gathers* (2009)
- Kamitama 2: Super Mikoshi Festival* (2011)
- Kimi no Yusha (2008)
- Kimi wa Hero: Taiketsu! Gotoji Kaijin-Hen (2017)
- The King of Fighters All Star (2018)
- The King of Fighters: Kyo (1998)
- The King of Fighters Survival City (2023)
- The King of Fighters: World (2017)
- King of the Monsters series (1991–1992)
- King of the Monsters (1991)
- King of the Monsters 2 (1992)
- KOF Sky Stage (2010)
- Neo Geo Heroes: Ultimate Shooting (2010)
- Koudelka (1999) note
- Last Resort (1992)
- Mechanized Attack (1989)
- Metal Slug series (1996–present) note
- Metal Slug Defense (2014)
- Metal Slug Attack (2016)
- Metal Slug Code J (2021) note
- Mutation Nation (1992)
- Nakoruru: Ano Hito kara no Okurimono (2001)
- NAM-1975 (1990)
- Ninja Combat (1990) note
- Ninja Commando (1992) note
- Ozma Wars (1979)
- Prehistoric Isle series (1989, 1999)
- Prehistoric Isle in 1930 (1989)
- Prehistoric Isle 2 (1999)
- Puzzled (1990)
- Quiz King of Fighters (1995) note
- The Rhythm of Fighters (2014)
- Robo Army (1991)
- SAR: Search and Rescue (1990)
- Sengoku series (1991–1993, 2001)
- Sengoku (1991)
- Sengoku 2 (1993)
- Sengoku 3 (2001)
- Shinsetsu Samurai Spirits Bushido Retsuden (1997)
- Shock Troopers series (1997–1998) note
- Shock Troopers (1997)
- Shock Troopers: 2nd Squad (1998)
- Sister Quest series (2007–2015) note
- Sister Quest: The Wonder & True Story (2007)
- Sister Quest II: The Magic Sword Knight and the Silver Shrine Maiden* (2011)
- Sister Quest III: The Golden Earth and the Hero of the East* (2012)
- Dai Bouken! Sister Quest (2012)
- Dai Shingeki RPG! Sister Quest (2015)
- Sky Love series (2007–2013) note
- Sky Love (2007)
- Sky Love II: Sky's Reunion* (2009)
- Sky Love III (2011)
- Sky Love IV (2012)
- Senkuu no Kiseki ~Sky Love~* (2013)
- SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash series (1999–2000, 2006)
- Sonic Pocket Adventure (1999)
- Super Baseball 2020 (1991)
- Super Sidekicks series (1992–1998)
- Super Sidekicks 2: The World Championship (1994)
- Super Sidekicks 3: The Next Glory (1995)
- The Ultimate 11: SNK Football Championship (1996)
- Neo Geo Cup '98: The Road to the Victory (1998)
- The Super Spy (1990)
- Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy (1994)
- Twinkle Star Sprites series (1996, 2005–2006) note
- Twinkle Star Sprites (1996)
- Twinkle Star Sprites: La Petite Princesse (2005)
- Twinkle Star Sprites Gaiden: Twin Star Memories (2005)
- Trouble Witches NEO! (2011) note
- Vanguard series (1981–1984)
- Vanguard (1981) note
- Vanguard II (1984)
- ZuPaPa! (2001) note
Tropes present in many SNK games:
- American Kirby Is Hardcore: Compare the American box art and flyers of some earlier releases to their Japanese counterparts. Check out the artwork for Athena◊ and Psycho Soldier◊, for example.
- Audio Adaptation: SNK, mostly prior to their bankruptcy, seemed rather fond of these, to the point that they likely outnumber any other fighter-producing company in volume. Several of their more recognizable fighting series have a few drama CDs to their name, KOF in particular. Most serve to further characterize SNK's rather extensive rosters and add depth to their particular 'verses, but some, such as Neo Geo DJ Station, opt for meta humor by employing fourth wall breaking, Medium Awareness, and large doses of Lampshade Hanging.
- Author Appeal: SNK Bosses and Dream Match Games. This company seems to love making them, especially the former.
- Bittersweet Ending: A number of SNK's arcade games, particularly from the late 80s, ended on a rather dour note:
- In the arcade version of Guerrilla War, despite being defeated, the Big Bad pulls off a Villain: Exit, Stage Left and manages to escape. This is subverted in the NES version where he is killed instead.
- Prehistoric Isle in 1930: The protagonists manage to escape from the titular island and land on a cargo plane, which is destroyed by pterodactyls shortly after.
- SAR: Search and Rescue: The protagonists find no survivors on the ship and are ordered by their superior to destroy all evidences of the events, estimating that the colonist cannot handle the truth.
- Beast Busters: After destroying what seems to be the source of the zombie outbreak, the protagonists see a gigantic alien ship in the skies...
- NAM1975: The Big Bad's plan is foiled, but the hero bitterly notes that while he managed to get out of Vietnam, "the hell continues."
- The Super Spy: After being defeated, the final boss ominously warns that even if he dies, many others will take his place. The player character then launches a monologue about the increase in power of terrorism, while the World Trade Center is visible in the background.
- Cyber-Lip: The heroes are revealed to have been the pawns of an hostile alien race, who engineered the events of the game to get rid of Earth's last line of defense.
- The King of Fighters 2000: Southtown is destroyed by NESTS's Kill Sat. Every team's ending deals with the aftermath of Southtown's destruction.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: Very frequently in earlier releases, which often had a tendency of ruining scenes.
- Boss Rush:
- A lot of SNK's early Neo Geo non-fighting games, particularly the beat 'em ups, liked to make the player fight most (sometimes all) of the previous bosses and midbosses throughout the final level. Games that did this include Burning Fight, Cyber-Lip, Robo Army, Mutation Nation, King of the Monsters 2, etc. Some were more creative about it than others.
- Alpha Mission II had the player fight all of the mid-bosses instead, with the penultimate boss being an amalgam of the previous bosses.
- In Top Hunter, the bosses of the final section, sans the first one, are brand new.
- Gameplay Roulette: Fantasy, one of their earlier games, offers something different for each level.
- Gratuitous English: Some of SNK's characters are rather infamous for it. Terry Bogard is a well-known example, though it's mostly limited to catchphrases.
- Guest Fighter: In The New '10s and The New '20s, SNK made it very easy for other companies to use SNK characters in their games, resulting in constant crossovers from all of their series. This list includes:
- Terry Bogard in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Fighting EX Layer.
- Geese Howard in Tekken 7.
- Haohmaru in Soulcalibur VI.
- Mai Shiranui in Dead or Alive 5 and 6, with Kula Diamond joining her in the latter.
- Iori Yagami in Million Arthur: Arcana Blood.
- Inconsistent Spelling: While many of SNK's titles have multiple examples to their name (oftentimes not helped by shoddy translations), a company-wide instance comes from Recurring Location Southtown/South Town, a fictional American city believed to be based on and/or standing in for Miami (with some touches from a few other Floridian locales like Orlando and the Tampa Bay area) if the in-game maps seen in Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting are any indication. Originally, the former spelling was favored, only for SNK to switch to the latter around the time of The King of Fighters XIV.* Further confusing matters is that there is an officially supported tournament series for KOF XV known as The Southtown Brawl, using the old/original spelling.
- Mascot: Multiple, in fact.
- Officially, it's between Terry Bogard, Athena Asamiya, and Nakoruru. This was even lampshaded in The King of Fighters, wherein Athena had something of a one-sided rivalry with Terry prior to XIII as a meta joke about SNK's mascot revolving door.
- Back in The '80s, there was also G-Mantle and Princess Athena. Humorously enough, the latter is the ancestor (and possible previous incarnation) of the aforementioned Athena Asamiya.
- After the name change to SNK Entertainment, another mascot arose in the form of Enta Girl.
- Additionally, the Neo Geo Pocket had its own, separate mascot in Neo Poke-Kun.
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Nintendo Hard: These guys are probably outdone only by Nintendo themselves, Atlus, and maybe Capcom. Oftentimes they have to up the ante with their signature nasty bosses. - Scenery Porn: A frequent element in their 2D titles. While biased, it should be said that Kotaku's listing of "The Best Animated Backgrounds of 2D Fighting Games" exclusively featured SNK's offerings.
- Shared Universe:
- Aside of a few one-offs (such as Psycho Soldier being a loose sequel to Athena by virtue of its protagonist), SNK seems very keen on linking various series together in one way or another. The list includes Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, 3 Count Bout, The King of Fighters, Savage Reign/Kizuna Encounter, Buriki One, Samurai Shodown, and The Last Blade, many of which feature or are centered around the aforementioned Southtown, though Alternate Timeline/Alternate Continuity is sometimes in play.
- KOF technically qualifies on its own, due to incorporating aspects of several other titles and — as of XIV — implying the entirety of SNK's library may exist within a multiverse.
- Sir Cameos-a-Lot:
- Ryo Sakazaki from Art of Fighting series is known as this for SNK, having more appearances in other titles than his own series (not counting The King of Fighters of course): as a Secret Character in some Fatal Fury games: in FF2/Special and in Wild Ambition (here as Mr. Karate II), as the only known character in the Original Generation roster in Buriki One also as Mr. Karate II (and retuned in NeoGeo Battle Coliseum), and even just mentioned as part of Marco's background story from Garou: Mark of the Wolves (Marco is one of Ryo's students, with Ryo himself appearing in some artworks).
- G-Mantle is a former mascot of SNK predating Terry Bogard (and SNK's fighting game era in general); his only appearances outside of SNK's old ads prior to the original Fatal Fury were the games Blue's Journey, Cyber-Lip, The Super Spy, and Burning Fight. He has since made cameo appearances in multiple games (most notably appearing as a taxi driver in the Fatal Fury intro, King's disguise in Art of Fighting 2, and a Maniac Striker in the console port of KOF 2000) and even has his own card in the SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash series. By the time of The New '10s, the character would seemingly stop making background cameos altogether... only to have a resurgence in the later half of the decade: he's a support character in The Rhythm of Fighters, pops up in the superhero-themed mobile RPG Kimi wa Hero, and serves as the default announcer for SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy (marking the first time in the character's history he can be heard saying anything beyond his usual mysterious laugh).
- SNK Boss: It's not coincidental that this company named the trope, to the point that there is an entire page on this wiki dedicated to the monstrosities brought to life by SNK. It extends beyond fighting games too, as Dr. Muckly and Lieu can attest.
- Super Special Move: As a company that for a long time produced sprite-based fighting games, SNK used these types of specials to their full effect. Examples include Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury, and The King of Fighters.
