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SNK is regarded by many as one of the greatest video gaming companies of all time, and certainly one of the most important when it comes to arcade games in the 1990s. The NEOGEO series of hardware and games shaped a lot of childhoods in smoky arcades and many of its most popular games are played heavily in emulators today.
Predominantly known for a host of great fighting games that challenged the likes of Street Fighter back in the day, the NEOGEO is also known for other classic moments in gaming history as well – so much so that I bought myself some original NEOGEO arcade hardware a few years ago just so I could play the likes of Metal Slug and Aero Fighters 2.
In 2022 96% of the company was acquired by Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Electronic Gaming Development Company and now news emerging that SNK is working with ARIKA to bring one of its classic non-fighting franchises back.
Please be Metal Slug, please be Metal Slug. it has been many years since the last Metal Slug game although the existing catalog is still eminently playable either via emulators or even available through Steam.
Other options could be any of the famous shoot ‘em-ups like Pulstar, or even left-field choices like Super Baseball – but surely it’s Metal Slug? As much as Neo Turf Masters was a great golf game they couldn’t pick that instead – could they?
Despite the game explicitly being a non-flighting game, ARIKA has worked on many fighting games previously such as Street Fighter and Tekken 7 and 8– indeed the company’s founder is Akira Nishitani, one of the co-creators of Street Fighter II.
They have worked on reboots of Tetris (99) and Pac-Man (99) as well so have pedigree in taking old IPs and reintroducing them to the masses. We will have to wait and see, but this could be exciting times for fans of classic arcade games.
