New SNK esports initiative to fund player travel for future events

A newly announced addition to SNK's esports program is aiming to help King of Fighters players make it out to more events around the world.

The "e-Sports Support Program for Top Players" will cover the costs of plane tickets to future tournaments for players who excel at events of the company's choosing. In 2019, SNK will offer support to the three players who achieve the top three placings in King of Fighters XIV at Evo Japan 2019.

According to SNK, the support will last for one year and each player will have a cap on the amount of monetary support they will receive, although that amount was not disclosed at this time. Players will also have the option to bring one addition player with them to events, but the additional cost will count against their overall spending cap. In addition, it's important to note that SNK clearly states only "flight ticket cost" will be covered, so other expenses like hotel, food and local travel will be covered by the players.

The SNK e-Sports Support Program for Top Players is open to all players from all regions, including those who are already sponsored by other teams, companies or organizations.

SNK to gift players with Christmas patch for King of Fighters XIV

A new balance patch for the most recent King of Fighters game will arrive just in time for the holidays.

SNK has announced that a new update to KOF XIV will launch sometime on Dec. 25 in Japan. This means players in North America will most likely get the patch one calendar day earlier, on Dec. 24.

No details of the changes were made available at this time. King of Fighters XIV is currently available for PlayStation 4 and Steam.

KOF XV planned for 2020, Samurai Shodown platforms announced

During SNK's recent IPO conference in South Korea, the company discussed more about its upcoming titles including the next King of Fighters and the reintroduction of Samurai Shodown.

Although it has been more than a year since Yasuyuki Oda claimed that King of Fighters XV "will be a reality," the game is currently scheduled for a 2020 release. Nothing more was said about the title, which is likely in the very early stages of development.

As for Samurai Shodown, the game will apparently be coming to Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Steam in addition to PlayStation 4. According to TeamPowerGeyser on Twitter, footage of the game was shown but recording and photos were not allowed. SNK also announced that Samurai Shodown is currently set to release sometime in the second quarter of 2019.

New arcade location test footage of SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy from Aug. 18-19

With SNK's all-female tag team fighting game nearing its early September release date on home platforms, footage of the arcade version's second location test in Japan has appeared.

Fukuoka-based arcade G-Stage Nanakuma streamed hours worth of SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy. They were one of the four chosen places to be part of the Aug. 18-19 test. Despite the rough game capture, the stream archives did show how Japanese players were treating this game so far. You can find the videos after the jump.

Other locations from the test included Sapporo's MAXIM HERO, Tokyo's Taito Station Ikebukuro West and Kobe's Playground Magical. Location test participants received a special promotional card.

SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy will be available for Switch and PlayStation 4 on Sept. 7, 2018. The release date for the arcade version is to be determined but will be powered by Taito's NESiCAxLive 2 digital distribution arcade service.

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New patch coming to correct King of Fighters XIV update

SNK is readying a patch for KOF XIV version 3.00.

According to translations by Frionel, King of Fighters XIV version 3.01 will fix issues including the body distortion glitch from Robert's command throw and remove the ability for Blue Mary to activate Max Mode on f+B or b+B. There will also be some changes to fellow DLC characters Heidern and Oswald.

Players can find the official changes of the new patch on the Taito website, and translations of the changes can be found on Frionel's Twitter.

Patch notes released for King of Fighters XIV version 3.00

SNK has release the details of the character balance changes taking effect in the new version of KOF XIV.

The 31-page document includes changes for all 54 of the games characters, but while some combatants such as Vanessa received many changes, others like Luong got only one to three.

Readers can check out the complete list on the official SNK website. King of Fighters XIV version 3.00 is currently live, and the new DLC characters Blue Mary, Najd, Heidern and Oswald will be available on April 12, 2018.

Blue Mary, KOF XIV version 3.00 arrive on April 12, 2018

SNK has revealed the last of four new DLC characters coming to King of Fighters XIV as well the release date for those characters and the game's update. 

Blue Mary and her sambo-based fighting style will join Najd, Heidern and Oswald as new entrants to the title when version 3.00 becomes available on April 12. Version 3.00 will also include character balance adjustments, but SNK has currently not made those alterations public.

Readers can watch Mary's trailer after the jump. SNK has provided no details on the cost of the new characters, but previous DLC Rock, Yamazaki, Whip and Vanessa sold for $5.99 each or as a bundle for $19.99.

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Najd shows off her mysterious powers in new King of Fighters XIV trailer

SNK has released a new gameplay trailer for the fan-designed Najd, who will be part of DLC coming to King of Fighters XIV in April 2018.

A college student by day, Najd uses her special powers to protect her fellow citizens at night. From the short trailer, it seems Najd has a counter of some kind as well as a fast-moving flying knee attack. She also has three different supers.

Readers can check out the trailer after the jump. Najd joins Heidern, Oswald and one still-unrevealed character as part of the second wave of KOF XIV downloadable content in April 2018.

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Heidern reporting for duty in King of Fighters XIV

The leader of the Ikari Warriors will make his return to the KoF series in spring 2018.

Heidern will be one of four new characters, along with Oswald and Najd, that will be released in April 2018.

He returns to KoF as a playable character for the first time since King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match. He retains many of his classic normal and special attacks including Moon Slasher, Cross Cutter and even Backstabbing from 2002.

Readers can check out Heidern's trailer after the jump.

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The King of Fighters: The Orochi Saga coming to PS4?

The collection of five games spanning the initial years of The King of Fighters franchise looks to be headed to the PlayStation 4 in the near future.

PS4 trophies for the collection, which included KOF 94-98, have appeared online with specific missions for players to complete in all five games. Normally when a trophy listing appears for a title, an announcement of the game is not far behind.

While nothing is official about the collection at this time, it seems most likely that it will be a emulated version of the compilation's PlayStation 2 release from 2008. The Orochi Saga does come at an odd time, however, with KOF 94-98 currently released under Hamster's Arcade Archives NEOGEO banner and King of Fighters '97 Global Match coming in spring 2018.

King of Fighters '97 Global Match coming to PC, PS4, Vita

At Evo Japan 2018, SNK announced that King of Fighters '97 will be coming to model platforms with online play.

The King of Fighters '97 Global Match will be a port of the classic game to PlayStation 4, Vita and PC with no changes to the core gameplay.

While few details about the port are available at this time, Code Mystics handled the PS4 releases of Garou: Mark of the Wolves and Samurai Shodown V Special so it's possible they will be working on this title as well.

The King of Fighters '97 Global Match is scheduled for release sometime in spring 2018.

Pick a card: Oswald joins King of Fighters XIV

First teased by SNK in December 2017, Oswald will be coming to KOFXIV as an upcoming DLC character.

Oswald is a professional hitman who assaults opponents with playing cards. He has previously only appeared in King of Fighters XI as a playable character.

According to PlayStation Europe, Oswald will be one of four new DLC characters—along with original character Najd—coming to KOFXIV in April 2018.

Readers can check out his debut trailer after the jump, and those attending Evo Japan will get to try out Oswald during the event on Jan. 26-28, 2018.

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SNK announces King of Fighters XIV 3.0, character reveal at Evo Japan

A new update is coming for The King of Fighters XIV, and players at Evo Japan will be the first to try out a new fighter coming to the game.

The new update, and a brand new inclusion to the title, will be playable at the SNK booth during the event. It is not clear at this time how expansive the update will be or who the new character is, but the inclusion of a playing card in the announcement image points to someone like Oswald.

If that is true that will make two new characters coming to KOF XIV. Also coming to the game will be the original character "Najd," who is the result from a design contest earlier in 2017.

Data miner released for King of Fighters XI, NeoGeo Battle Coliseum

New tools from Vans have been designed to help players learn more about the inner workings of two of SNK's team-based fighters.

The miners for King of Fighters XI and NeoGeo Battle Coliseum provide hitbox data for characters in the games as well as more detailed information like sprite timings and velocities. 

Vans has released a 20-minute tutorial video, giving players a guide on the information his tools reveal, how to use that data and other resources for players. King of Fighters XI and NeoGeo Battle Coliseum have similar systems, so the data miners will work the same way for both titles. 

Players can check out the tutorial, which includes a link to the data miners, at YouTube.

FightCade 2 enters closed beta, supports over 3500 games

The next major version of the popular online service for classic fighting games and more on emulator reached a new point in development: beta access.

FightCade 2 is currently in closed beta for members who registered back in 2014, the same year the original version premiered. Newer accounts will be able to gain access in the future.

This version of FightCade has been designed from scratch to support over 3,500 games. FightCade 2 still allows players to play against each other in popular games found on the original including Super Street Fighter II Turbo, The King of Fighters '98 and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. Using a version 0.2.97.42 of the FinalBurn Alpha emulator, FightCade 2 is now capable of providing support for a variety of arcade boards and home platforms such as the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive and NEC TurboGrafx 16/PC-Engine.

If you are one of the people that registered all those years ago, you can now download either the Windows, Mac OS or Linux builds and sign in. If you notice any bugs during your experience in FightCade 2, you can provide feedback over at the official Discord channel.

The King of Fighters Neowave coming to Xbox One with 12 other original backwards compatible Xbox games

Microsoft's initiative to allow games from the original Xbox to work with their Xbox One systems will begin tomorrow with 13 games; one of them being one of the more uncommon games in The King of Fighters series.

The King of Fighters Neowave was chosen along with more recognizable hits such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Ninja Gaiden Black, Psychonauts and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time as the first set of backwards compatible original Xbox games. These games, and others in the future, are made to work with Microsoft's latest systems, including the upcoming Xbox One X.

According to IGN's Ryan McCaffery, these games have been "enhanced with 1080p resolution, higher and/or smoother framerates, and faster loading times." While there is no direct comparison for Neowave specifically, IGN's article does have some videos showing some changes to other games to give you an idea of the enhancements. Latency hasn't been addressed in the article. Some of these games, including Neowave, had Xbox Live support but due to the service shutting down in 2010, the featured games lack this online ability.

With Neowave being part of this initial run of backwards compatible Xbox games, there are some more KOF and other SNK fighting games that haven't been given the updated treatment yet. The original Xbox also carried other fighters such as Soulcalibur II, Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO, Capcom Fighting Evolution and Street Fighter Anniversary Collection that can potentially come to the backwards compatibility list in the future.

SNK titles discounted on Steam until Sept. 10

Steam is currently running a big sale on its collection of SNK titles through the beginning of September 2017.

The company's most recent offering, King of Fighters XIV, is marked down to $34.95 and its collection of DLC characters now only costs players $9.99. SNK's other offerings, meanwhile, have all seen much bigger markdowns as players can purchase the KOF Triple Pack—KOF XIII Steam Edition, KOF '98 UMFE and KOF 2002 UM—for $10.49 and both Last Blade 2 and Garou: Mark of the Wolves are half off at $4.99.

There are also big deals on SNK's other titles, including the Metal Slug series, Twinkle Star Sprites and more. For the complete list of sales head over to the Steam website.

Yasuyuki Oda says KOF XIV future uncertain, XV "will be a reality"

King of Fighters XIV Director Yasuyuki Oda said he believes that King of Fighters XV "will be a reality" in an interview with IGN Latinoamérica at Evolution 2017.

The answer came after IGN asked Oda and battle designer Hayato Watanabe whether there would be further updates to KOF XIV. Oda said that KOF XIV still has room for improvement, but whether the game will get any further updates is up in the air. Oda held off on denying furture content, saying it is "a possibility."

The pair also talked about balances changes made to the game, with Watanabe saying that he tries to listen to the players before making final decisions. Oda, meanwhile, talked freely about the hardships of adding content to existing titles like KOF XIV or getting new games approved, saying that is it hard to convince the whole company of such ideas. He did say that SNK has new fighting games in the works, but nothing that he can reveal at this time.

Oda and Watanabe also had comments on esports, their favorite characters in KOF XIV and how they approached creating the title. The whole interview can be found in Spanish at IGN Latinoamérica.

King of Fighters 2000 coming to Switch

Another of SNK's classic KOF games will soon be available on the Nintendo Switch's online shop.

According to Siliconera, The King of Fighters 2000 will join KOF '98, '94 and '99 as the fourth game in the series that players can purchase digitally for the Switch when it releases Aug. 10, 2017. It is another selection in Hamster's Arcade Archives NeoGeo line of classic titles.

The King of Fighters 2000 introduces the Active Striker System, a type of assist that not only adds another layer to the game's strategy but also allowed SNK to add cameos of many fan-favorite characters.

Like all the other ACA NeoGeo titles, The King of Fighters 2000 will retail for $7.99 in the U.S.

King of Fighters XIV coming to Steam on June 15

The King of Fighters XIV will be coming to Steam on June 15, 2017, according to the game's listing on the platform.

This comes shortly after the game's Steam version was announced during a presentation in China on May 9.

Preorders for the title are currently eligible for a 20 percent discount, either for the standard version or a bundle including all the DLC characters. Those who preorder will also gain access to the game's closed beta test, which is currently ongoing.