SNK Is Reviving One Of Their Old Non-Fighting Game Video Games, With Arika

gameranx.com:

SNK has announced that they will be reviving one of their classic video games. But, there’s a catch.

As reported by Video Games Chronicle, the revival won’t be for one of their fighting games. SNK also confirmed that they are working with Arika for this video game revival.

Video Games Chronicle points out that SNK’s most successful non-fighting game video game is Metal Slug. While objectively true, this is a terrible guess for that game revival. SNK already revived the franchise, with new games across different platforms having just released or in active development.

Specifically, there are two mobile games that released within the past three years, and an upcoming strategy game called Metal Slug Tactics. And the same thing can be said of Magical Drop. While we can’t entirely rule out more Metal Slug or Magical Drop games in the future, SNK must be thinking something else.

And that something else is that they should be able to make money out of their legacy IP. In particular, they may have seen an opportunity to revive one of their older games to take advantage of a modern trend.

Now, SNK is best known for the Neo Geo, but they have been making games since 1978, and have dipped their toes into every genre possible. We’ll rundown our own ideas on what older franchises SNK may be thinking of reviving.

Ikari Warriors – the Ikari Warriors franchise were a series of top-down run and gun games, featuring two Rambo types called Ralf and Clark. Ralf and Clark are both playable characters in the King of Fighters series, but those versions of the characters were a drastic retooling. A new Ikari Warriors game could switch genres from run and good to a first person shooter with a military theme. They could even retell the wild story from Victory Road with this new format.

Magician Lord – Magician Lord is a side-scrolling platformer with a fantasy theme. It won’t take that much to modify this game idea to make a new Metroidvania style game.

Puzzled / Joy Joy Kid – now this one