how come when i think of KoF, i think of it like soccer?.. apparently popular all over the world but in Canada and USA…
i just got back from vietnam and hong kong and checked out the cool arcades there. all the arcades are full of kof machines. you always see kof figurines, kof posters, etc all over in the market. can someone explain why this awesome franchise is mad popular all over the world but in north america? in my opinion, i think it has to do something with the emulation online, for free kof gaming. or maybe the arcade scene in america died.
if u have been in HK you should have seen how many KOF cabinets they have! There is an arcade which has more than 10 cabinet for kof 2k2 and 2 for kof 98 linked (yaumatei).
Especially in HK & CHI , KOF is really “famous”, i think more than SF and others fighting games… the problem is that in KOFxii is too expensive (5HK$ for a play) and so ppl dont play it so much.
But i think north america is better than where i live (italy) where there are no arcades…
KOF just never took off here in America…America grew on the Street Fighter and other games and Capcom made their impression first and it’s always been that way…it’d be like trying to promote Street Fighter in Mexico…hahaha good luck with that one overall…KOF is always gonna get more attention.
Me too…I just can’t take 95% of the Capcom games more seriously…so I just decide to stick where my heart is rather than dabble in games that don’t occupy my attention.
It’s the same in the UK too, i think the scene for KOF here in London is probably the smallest compared to any other game. Which considering the fact we are lucky to have 98, 02, XII all in the same arcade is fairly confusing. (We used to have 98UM here too until the manager decided to sell it -_- )
The scene for KOF98 about 10/11 years ago was really big though, but when the main arcade here closed down (Namco Wonderpark) unfortunately the player base died down too and doesn’t seem to have ever really picked back up again.
I think that plus the strikers arc was never really popular here, along with players getting old and not enough fresh players coming in just made it really stagnate.
XII has helped pick things up again (still not alot of players, but better than before), and hopefully once that comes out on console here it’ll pick up even more.
Doesn’t really help that ignition doesn’t seem to have given us a release date for here yet =_=
Most definitely. I played ST for YEARS before I even heard of KoF. I do enjoy the KoF games a lot, but I’ve never had a playstation so I’ve only been able to play in arcades from time to time. I’m really pumped for the console release of xii though. Hopefully things will pick up, because I think the fight system is a LOT more interesting than SF, as much as I do love it.
yes, hk and vietnam was the same. they had like 10-15 kof 2k2 cabinents lined up with people going at it with a pile of tokkens. some serious shit goes down. lol i clearly remember in hk and vietnam, the top cabinets are kof and maximum tune 2
I definitely think it’s because the U.S/Canada regions were weaned on Street Fighter and the Marvel Universe.
I may be wrong, but aren’t the MVS machines that could hold 3-5 games including KOF cheaper than buying one Capcom Cps-2/3 cabinet with one game making it ideal for arcade operators in poorer countries? That could be a reason why SNK titles are more popular around the world.
SF will always be big here, but that barely matters now. Hell, 2D fighters are barely what they used to be. Just you watch as how SFIV falls off the radar once Tekken 6: BR comes by. Like I’ve said in the past, the reason SFIV is doing well is due to it’s “Flavor of the Season” appeal. With the serious lack of games lately, SFIV has been REALLY lucky to get interest from the non-hardcore SF crowd.
Thankfully with the amount of exposure Shane has given KOF and the awards it’s gotten, maybe we’ll get some more interest in this franchise.
SF4 definitely isn’t a flavor of the _____, people like it because it’s SF and its done pretty well (Ultra’s are one of the big things bridging the casual vs. hardcore gap).
I don’t think we’ve had a drought of games lately either, plenty of good stuff has been out the past few months (KZ2, RE4, Halo wars, etc).
2d fighters aren’t what they used to be because companies either stopped making them or haven’t been keeping up with tech as much as other genres (SNK has been happily releasing old neogeo style stuff). This year the genre’s getting kick start again with 3 different companies all coming out with games relevant to todays market… hopefully it starts a trend.
Finally, as much as I like Tekken, there’s no way T6 is going to have mass market appeal like SF does. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a SF fanboy (more into KOF) but I just can’t see T6 developing the hype SF4 had going for it ever since the first trailer hit.
The Guilty Gear series was the best looking 2-D fighter for almost a decade but it hasn’t achieved anything near the popularity of Capcom’s Marvel VS. or the Street Fighter series here in the U.S, so I don’t think graphical tech has been a big factor in 2-D fighters decline. Quite honestly I don’t think Blazeblue or Kof 12 are going to be that big despite awesome new graphics(Prove me wrong America, prove me wrong.)
I think for whatever reason, the U.S/Canada region can’t get over Street Fighter. Look at all the hype for the re-release for Marvel vs. Capcom 2. A decade old game with psone style 3-d backgrounds terribly clashing with jaggy 2-d sprites, yet despite it’s graphics tons of people are looking forward to it. Not even Capcom’s other fighting series could gain a foothold here(Darkstalkers, Rival Schools, Star Gladiator).
I believe the whole reason why 2D fighters have declined in popularity has simply been we’ve been getting more people into the gaming scene as a whole, but 2D fighters never got any simpler. They just kept getting harder and harder to play which didn’t seem like it for experienced players, but for new players it was like getting thrown into the Grand Canyon and then told to free climb out. It seems like a retardedly impossible task so why attempt to do so in the first place? Sure there are crazy people who will try anyways just because they can, but most people won’t.
for some reason the west (north-west europe & us) has a fondness for shitty fighters. its probably cause fighters aint that popular and most people that buy the fighters are scrubs and suck at the games too. just look at some of the popular games, mvc2, ki, mk? shit like that wont do good in any eastern country, mainly cause when it comes to 2d games they know quality.
now for tekken, damn that ish. tekken probably shits on any other fighter out there by such a large fucking margin that they probably sell more of each tekken than all the other fighting games combined for that year. tekken aint bad, but it really aint that good.
p.s. theres people who do know good games, im from north west europe as well. been into quality fighter since 91, into kof since 94 (the year i bought my neo, yay). well into kof since 95 id say, in 94 SSII was probably by far my most played game.
