The funny thing I always noticed between Street Fighters and King of Fighters is:
The name “Street Fighter” would apply better to King of Fighter’s characters because of characters like: Terry Bogard, Kyo, and Iori (look a lot more casual).
The name “King of Fighters” would apply better to Street Fighter’s characters since they are fighters from different parts of the world.
This is just an opinion that doesn’t have to be taken seriously. I like the names to the respective games the way they are.
Terry, Mai, and Iori. Maybe Yuri. That’s basically KoF-fandom in America. The only thing missing is good online play so that the “fans” never have to leave their houses and can fap in peace.
People over here play/like KoF for the characters, not the gameplay. The best turnout you’ll get for a KoF tournament is at an anime convention and sadly the players there will probably be more skilled than most of the people who post on SRK and pretend that they play KoF for gameplay reasons.
I remember in 1992 the arcade I visited had both Samurai Spirits 1 and Street Fighter 2. I remember I tossed more coins to Samurai Spirits. same with world heroes 2 later on
Other arcades had other Western fighters (MK 1-4, Primal Rage, Killer Instinct etc). There were also a few SNK games (Double Dragon, Art of Fighting, Last Blade 2, World Heroes2) but I never saw any KOF game though I am sure there must have existed somewhere.
In relation to Western fighters, especially Mortal Kombat 3, they were very low in popularity.
Perhaps because they were too Japanese anime looking while Street Fighter, though Japanese, looked much more Western in design in comparison.
You have to consider that in Europe and Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries, the anime craze took place much earlier than North America so players felt more familiar with the design.
There was even a game for the Amiga (Fighting Spirit), developed by an Italian company and looking very similar to Neo Geo fighters, even blatantly copying them. Still it was a quality fighter.
Also One Must Fall 2097 for the PC had a selection of players resembling anime. It was another great and innovative fighter, though just for the PC
Then after 2000 came the demise of the arcades where I live, so talking afterwards about it seems irrelevant. there are just a few large malls with few arcade (they change the machines once every 3-4 years) and during summer in small tourist villages with old games. even there they are nothing when compared to 15 years ago.
Did not Capcom attempt this 10 years earlier with the Street Fighter EX series, that transition to semi-3d? Why was it a failure then, yet it met with success in 4? Were the players not ready at that time for that transition?
I think the SF EX series was pretty much a perfect storm of badness:
Its 3D was pretty ugly, so eye candy people wouldnt like it.
It’s gameplay was similar to SF, so non-SF fans wouldnt like it. (contrast with VF1, which also had ugly 3D but was new and different enough in gameplay to attract those looking for a change.)
It was competing with normal SF as a side-franchise (and by a different company, no less), rather than next sequel to the main series.
It had fairly different cast. We saw how well that worked out with SF3.
SF4 manages to avoid most of those pitfalls. Whilst I dont like its art style, the graphics in that game are quite pretty to those who can stomach the art style. It’s gameplay and cast is very similar to SF2, and it’s a properly numbered sequel made by Capcom.
If SF4 had come out around the time of Tekken 2 / VF2, say, with 3D graphics on par with Tekken/VF2, and gameplay/cast similar to SF2, and was called SF3, then I’d wager it would have done very well indeed.
All BR arcades I’ve been to had both KoF and SF/MVC, and KoF always had more attention, except at times when MvC was the hot new thing. Weirdly enough, SF3 never picked up on arcades over here.
The fanboys who like the characters/story tend to like KoF '97 more, probably for the nostalgia value, while the best players are usually playing '98 or 2k2.
What the hell kind of logic is this? Have you even played the final build? Never mind. Dunno why I’m trying to question the clarity or logistics of someone with “BasedGod” in his sig and “SWAG” under his avatar.
we have the ability to learn more about games we normally wouldnt have access to, and theres stuff like roms and whatnot for emulation play. maybe i should have said “theres no reason for a game to be unpopular due to location restrictions” to be more clear
ive been playing a fuckton of KOF13, on my iphone and other ways. its not the final console build but its still a good game
You need to learn some geography Mexico is in north America brother not in south America… I am one of the best players in my contry on the king of fighters and I have played all different street fighters and you guys think that the world is the United states of america you post tells me that you do not mind other places. Starting form the fact the you do not consider mexico part of north america. You guys have no idea of what KOF is like and the difficult that it is to play the game and the match ups are harder than sf why because there is no balance some characters are really really strong and it took me 10 years to develop match ups. The game is awesome and I will tell you guys what contries play the game even more than sf. Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Ecuador, Chile, Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico, Japan (it was at the same level of popularity back in the day), Korea, Tawian, China, Singapoure. The contries I mentioned are top contries playing the game you guys play SF fine but what makes me mad is your comments you have no idea of what kof is like and you guys say that the game is a waste of time you really do not know what you are talking about. The game is good it is just another game and you even dare to compare the game to MK that is not even a match that game bacame alive again with mk 9. You live in america fine but there is a world out there.
anybody that has a SF background that doesn’t take snk titles like samurai shodown, king of fighters, and fatal fury seriously are really doing themselves a diservice.
kof series are truly awesome. awesome indeed.
you’ll be missing out if you have a SF background and avoid kof for whatever reason.
right now, i kid you not…i’m addicted to snk.
these past 5 months i’ve been really getting into KoF98UM, SSVI, and KoFXI…and i’m having a total fucking blast.
yeah i had a fatal fury sega genesis game, and played SS2 back during SF CE era. but in those days i never really paid snk titles much mind.
but lately, the more i play KoF and SS6, the more i enjoy it.
to the point i’d rather play KoF 98UM than SFA3 of 3rd strike.
i find KoF much much more enjoyable than SF these days.
and more satisfying. tbh
hell i even ordered KoF 2k2UM like yesterday. i’m that hard up on KoF.
kof rules.
everybody in the u.s.a should give the series a chance.
kof popularity in america is low qnd maybe to non existence because people never heard of the game or saw their friends playing it. while it is very popular in asians and hispanics culture. but now is changing eversince kof xiii came out. i think someday we will see another snk vs capcom title coming up! as for my opinion i dont like the new street fighter 4 so much. game mechanic is so slow and booring. i like the previous installment of sf better. maybe just me
