@@UselessRecords Thank you, it makes me so proud to be Mexican. The fact we literally beat Japan at their own game is incredibly cool. (Also, could my original comment be pinned then? I'm sure most people would find it funny/surprising.)
it cant be stated enough the impact the characters had on me as a kid. I decided to pick up comic art because of the art on the Neo Geo cabinets. Magical times. Everyone in the block would come to gather and see who was the baddest on the block.
Mexican here, another element to add that’s missing from the broader discussion is how modded/MAME multi-cabs with full button configurations helped to carry over things between titles. You would get so much bang-for-your-buck play being able to try out combos between titles that you’d be at the machines all day carrying over skills vs Namco or Capcom games that needed dedicated machines or had too much mechanical variation between games. Add the larger roster and early representation/appreciation for our homeland and you got our hard af earned pesos first every time.
One important detail that you didn't mention, because I'm from Chile and I was hoping you would mention it. The arcade scene was HUGE in the kids of 1987-2000 because all the arcades we had were cheap. In the USA, one game was 25 cents, but in south america/Mexico you could buy 15 playing tokens for 25 cents. The games were pirate but arcade operators kept a steady and fresh selection of arcade games and we finished the games and kept playing the next day. The Vs. games kept us hours and days inside these centers because there was nothing better to do after eating and watching TV. The PlayStation era brought back in full force the fighting night parties between friends that you mostly met at the arcades and as NEOGEO was emulated, we just kept wanting to go back and play with pals.
In Argentina too, Arcades were super cheap like 10 credits for 1 dollar at the time (late 90s) and in someplaces they even had promos like 25 credits for 2 dollars or something like that, also the most populars were 24/7 open and filled with chinese, koreans and locals who played Kof, Virtua Striker, Virtua Tennis and all the classic arcades of the time.
It is very interesting when you realize that the popularity of arcade was still quite high in Latin American countries, even if in other regions or countries these were almost not seen on the streets anymore.
I remember when I was a kid i flew over to mexico to visit family, i was suprised to see how many arcade there were in the small towns. I went there looking for MVC1, and instead i found KOF everywhere. sometimes more than half the arcade cabinets were just different iterations of KOF and other SNK games. Then I stumbled onto KOF2002, and saw the intro. I was hooked, K', Iori, Kyo, Terry, they all looked so cool to me I wanted to know more. Came back home couldnt find anything until CVS2 came out for home consols. I immediately bought it just to play with some of the KOF players.
I have a similar experience bro although i already had gotten introduced to kof and when i went to my familys pueblo our neighbor had bought one and man i loved playing it over there
SNK: *creates South American team (aka 2 Brazilians and a character that might as well be Brazilian) to acknowledge those fans* SNK: *Removes South American team from the very next game*
I'm from North Africa and KoF was very popular during the arcade to ps2 era (which extended all the way to 2014 or so here). Kids might not know Iori or K9999 now, but everyone who plays fighting games here most likely has KoF as their favorite. Not to mention it's also still the strongest fighting game scene here, the esports tourneys even gets sponsored by companies!
(I do truly apologize for the essay comment lol) TLDR: SNK in my experience was never really all that popular. The only people you would see who know SNK are usually those who go to arcades and like fighting games so much they dig deeper and not limit themselves to popular games. Keep in mind Fighting games are a niche genre backed up by arguably one of the smallest gaming communities. From my experience.... Anything SNK wasn't really that popular unless you were in the arcades and liked fighting games that much that you would play other fighting games and not just the most popular ones (Street Fighter, Tekken, Mortal Kombat, and Virtua Fighter to a degree). I say that because judging from SNK's poor sales of their home parts since like Neo Geo AES. So much so videos like Smash Bros video that gauge the popularity of each character in Smash Ultimate saying "Couldn't find any sales data of Fatal Fury", you start to notice they always port their games on more affordable consoles late in that said console life span (KOF games on Dreamcast for example, along with PS2 and Xbox as well). The most popular they seem they ever got here in America was when Capcom VS SNK 2 came out (and of course the first game but not too many talk about CVS1 since CVS2 came). Arcades were pretty much dying by that point and Neo Geo was done with. At least the AES was. All SNK had left in hardware was the Neo Geo Pocket. Not too many people knew of the Neo Geo Pocket so a lot of us missed out on SNK VS Capcom Match of the Millennium for Neo Geo Pocket and with Neo Geo AES lack of sales and SVC Chaos' reception, and above information stated (releasing other ports at late timing and arcades dying), you already know what happened there. By the time games like KOF99 Evolution came out most already moved on to the PS2 since that was one of the huge things that made Dreamcast irrelevant. Same when KOF11, Neo Geo Battle Coliseum, KOF2006 (Maximum Impact 2), KOF98UM and KOF2002UM released on PS2. By 2004 (or 2005 in America) PSP came out and more people were paying attention to that than PS2, and then 2005 Wii and Xbox 360 came out and a lot of us moved on to that. And then 2006 PS3 came out and many moved on to that despite the pricing. They did manage to arrive on time with KOF12 and 13 in 2009 and 11 respectively, however games like Tekken 6, Super Street Fighter 4, Marvel VS Capcom 3, and Mortal Kombat 9 overshadowed those games along with the anticipation of Street Fighter X Tekken (which flopped sadly) and Tekken Tag 2 (which also flopped despite good sales).... Even tho that game's marketing was ass and too many people weren't aware of that game during it's development, but you best believe people wanted a new game by that point and it took a short GameFly commercial to help the people be aware it exists. 2016 hits and KOF14 drops, barely saving SNK and one thing that definitely helped keep them alive, Terry Bogard joins the battle in Super Smash Bros Ultimate (Tho personally I think Kyo, Psycho Soldier Athena, or Marco Rossi should have been chosen but thats wishful thinking lol). Most reception outside of Mexico, LatAm, China, and Mid East was pretty poor among the NA audience. Along with the more "passionate fans" getting angry at the fact that majority of gamers not knowing Terry let alone SNK. So I think that would explain why some of us always say its so popular in the above places I mentioned rather than in North America. And Possibly Europe excluding France as I heard the French loves SNK too.
This explains why there were primarily KOF machines in all the Mexican supermarkets, laundromats and any place of business that could have cabinets when I was growing up. Holy crap. 😂👌
shortly after xv came out, like within a week, I went to a spot in brooklyn for a tourney and it was heavily hispanic area, I'd say half the people in the tourney didn't speak english. But way more interesting, they also didn't seem to have played xv, they were all 98 and 2002 etc. players (there are cabs for both at brooklyn arcade iirc) But of course it didn't matter if they'd played xv before, they wrecked me as expected since this is my first kof game. It's my favorite place to watch people play. it's so interesting! great video!
🤣🤣🤣 Back in the 90's in México Kof use to be the unofficial national sport, each time I entered the arcade store some one always was defeating Rugal, Goenitz or Orochi, in that days use to be a Kof Machine in every drugstore even in the same block. I really miss that days. 😌
I'll never forget how i got into SNK i remember playing it at my local movie theater and the first thing i saw was King of Fighters and seeing someone playing Terry and instantly became my main in every king of fighters game as well metal slug and the soccer game
I've been a fan from the US since around 2020, and its so cool learning about how KOF really captures hearts worldwide. Fits very well for an international fighting competition! I hope it gets its strong footing in the US soon that it never had before, even if 15 isn't my favorite.
@@neonthunder3261 Oh shit I expected it to be Terry in Smash like most people I've met haha That's pretty rad, I got into fighting games last year on a whim so I've been exploring more of 'em, mostly SF and GG but I wanna get more into KoF, glad you're liking them
KoF wont become a big brand in the u.s because it doesn't belong to the american arcade culture, and that culture is still a decisive factor in the american fgc today even decades after the death of arcades in the u.s. Because the fgc is a an extremely traditionalist community. So the veteran fg brands that made an impression in the u.s in the 90s arcade golden age are the more popular ones. For some reason SNK never made any strong roots with fgs in the u.s in the 90s, so their presence in american fgc culture is very weak. That's why it was never an Evo game until the event become more open to other games and more commercial since 2011. And Evo was founded in 2002. It's easier to make hype for something like Killer Instinct (much smaller brand but that made an impact in the u.s in the 90s) than KOF. For example Virtua Fighter didn't make a strong or at least long lasting impression in the u.s, and that resulted in the game losing presence in their scene compared to TK and SC. But in Japan it still has a fairly active competitive scene. VF also will never become popular in the u.s like TK. The only "exception" I can find here is Guilty Gear, that became more popular than ever with GGST, but just because it's a tricky example. It's a veteran fg brand only if you count it as a brand born in the 90s... but it didn't debut in the arcades, and that's an important difference. GG got in early Evos, when no SNK had place there. It had a small presence but it that's better than literally nothing.
One of the best things about growing up by an Air Force base in SoCal was the local arcade fighting game scene kicked all kinda ass. Kids from Mexico, the Philippines,and Korea who have just immigrated taking names and quarters to Air Force brats coming back stateside after being in Okinawa and the Luzon for a few years where monsters on these games. Capcom was popular but seen as the “casual” players fighting games,the real competition was always at the big red cabinets in the back. I was very surprised that SNK wasn’t big in the rest of the USA when I started visiting family all around it,cuz it was huge in my town. Especially KoF and Fatal Fury. Hell even World Heroes was pretty damn common. Seriously tho,SNK brought us all together as KoF and FF where the games we ALL loved. No Capcom or Mortal Kombat snobbery lol. They where popular but didn’t have our heart like SNK did. Probably the only part of the country you could of said that.
Great explanation on the KOF influence all over the world. Especially in most underfunded and fairly low resource countries. 5/5 definitely looking for an extended analysis on KOF series Tekken SF and other FGC titles.
I was a former KOF Player from 2007 - 2012, Arcade versions weren't that exciting except for PS1 and PS2 versions, I mostly played horror games onward, this 2023 I only came back to check online on KOF 2002 UM, I got bombed fast by combos and can't even move a single muscle since I play on dual shock on PS4 and they're on arcade sticks. Yes it is true, judging by my experience with a loss of 12 without a single win, Mexicans are really gods of KOF. Hats off
KOF ALSO PLAYED IN INDIA IN 90S AND LATE 20S NOW VANISHED BUT AGAIN KOF TAKING PLACE IN INDIA. SO IF YOU ASK WHICH FIGHTING GAME IS POPULAR IN INDIA SO THERE IS TKN KOF SF MK
I picked up my first KoF about 15 years ago. It was the '98UM for the PS2. The selling point for me was it's 64 character roster. After playing arcade mode for a little bit, I remember thinking "This game kicks ass! Why doesn't anybody play it!?"
One thing to note about the MVS system: It consisted of 4 different variants. There was the Single-Slot, the 2-Slot, the popular 4-Slot and the 6-Slot (which in my neck of the woods was pretty rare).
Can I just say, Thank you for acknowledging how niche or obscure SNK is in many Western territories. Along with making this video as not too many I seen in America and around the world online until now knew of KOF, let alone SNK's existence until KOF15 (And here I am hoping the new Fatal Fury/Garou game doesn't kill the franchise thanks to the Terry Shills).I have seen many SNK fans, particularly those who are American gamers from the arcade day who i would assume are almost hitting 40s now (30s at the time), always being so in denial about the lack of exposure SNK has. Especially in North America and Europe (excluding France. I heard the French loves SNK) I remember when Terry got in Smash Bros and majority was like, "Who the hell is Terry frickin Bogard". And so many fans were so upset by that they made either ageist remarks about younger gamers, insult older gamers who never heard of SNK (let alone Terry), and try to act as if SNK, hell, Terry and Fatal Fury specifically were that popular by saying things like, "There is NO REASON why you never heard of Terry", "If you're over 25 and never heard of SNK/Terry, then I have lost all respect for you.", "SNK isn't that popular except in Mexico and China!? You're kidding me right?" So hopefully this video will make all these "fans" get a reality check and not let toxic nostalgia warp their version of reality.
My brother used to play Kof 97 like that and one of his mains was Yamazaki, so he would usually dress in all black and keep his hand on his pocket while playing lol, too cringe but cool back then
Great video! Longtime KOF series fan (literally since 1994) from the U.S here. What drew me to the series was the characters and just how cool i thought everyone looked, i love SF as well, but as an 8 year old in 1994 i remember seeing KOF '94 at a grocery store for the first time and thinking "wow man, these characters look so much more "cool" than SF characters, also the fact that you got to pick a TEAM of characters was mind blowing to me. I was already a fan of Fatal Fury so when i saw Terry, Andy, and Joe as one of the teams i immediately picked them. From then on i was hooked man. I absolutely love the series and it's characters, i wish more people in the U.S played the games.
No Wonder why king of fighters is loved in México Also dragon ball is popular And I'm from coeneo, Michoacan (México) The home of the #1 mexican band, Banda zirahuen! Oh man I Could disguise myself as Terry Bogard but in Club América clothes
I'm from South Africa and SNK games we very popular even more popular Capcom games (well in my area at least idk about other areas) even now there are still sill snk arcade cabinets and are still packed with KOF 97, 98, 02 and metal slug games being played in my area , it's also rare to see people other games like STREET FIGHTER or TEKKEN the only capcom games played are Final fight and Cadillac and dinosaurs ( even those aren't played that much)
As a less resourceful company they learned to make the best out of what they got. Meanwhile Capcom jumped to new hardware in a matter of a couple years, because they could do it. But that also meant missing the full mastery of each hardware, as that is naturally a late stage result in a company's development history. Marvel and SF Alpha were kinda early cps2 games, and they just kept being recycled for a couple years before Capcom turned to cps3. And SF3 was an early cps3 game. We never had the chance to get fully optimized cps2 or cps3 games in the sense of optimized late NeoGeo games like Garou MOTW, Last Blade 2 and KOF 2000 (honorable mention to 2003's opening).
When i was younger i got the kof collection for my wii and me and my dad would play it he would tell me that he would play that game for hours and then finally when i went to mexico as a kid arcades where in every corner store and ofc i was on kof whooping ass over there even us mexicans from the us love Kof !
The King of Fighters is my favorite fighting game. I played KoF ‘98 on the arcade soooo much growing up and continued playing the console games as I grew older
What a difference it makes being and american or other nationality with less visa restrictions ,that is one of the reasons why you don't see latin American participants in the Evo tornament and also the fact that there is no sponsored players in other countries other than USA,Japan ,Korea ,china and honkong
I'm in Aus and for all I know it could have only been my town where nearly every arcade cabinet was a Neo Geo cabinet. Never even saw a SF2 cabinet. So I knew all the SNK games like World Heroes and Fatal Fury. KOF is actually my 3rd favourite fighting series after Tekken and Killer Instinct.
Happened the same with anime: Saint Seiya (or Knights of the Zodiac) is brutally popular in Mexico, Latam and China (also popular in France, Spain and Italy but not as popular as in Mexico and Latam), and I mean as popular as Dragon Ball Z, definitely the most popular anime of all time in Mexico alongside DBZ... but other than the countries mentioned above, Saint Seiya is not really popular anywhere else
It looks like KOF became a pop cultural icon in these countries, just like it is at its home. KOF 15 have Shun’li as the main protagonist of Verse saga to give the Chinese a character they can look up to. I would be not surprised as that next main protag is Mexcian, middle eastern, nor Latin. SNK does seem to like to increase their awareness to new consumers, just like Capcom. They are a brand of their own.
While i'm a dumb Guilty Gear Stan (Dizzy for life), KOF is a close second. For 3D fighters though it's Soul Caliber. MvC is always a fun time though if it's not infinite.
On the topic of people creating something that really speak to other cultures/countries; A few years ago I remember seeing a video by a white youtuber trying to dissect the phenomenon of "Black Goku" (Though post Goku-Black its easier to search "African Goku" :V), and was left feeling like the topic could've been done more justice! It's a cool example of a characters themes and struggles resonating deeply with Young Black America in a unique and beautiful way :)
In those documentaries there's not enough information about one of the biggest reasons why it's popular in developing countries, the piracy of these boards, they were cheap, easy to ship (just the board without the cabinet) and they had plenty of games like an emulator, also those hacked versions that added accessibility. Same thing happened in the middle east and china of course. The video talks about some piracy but when it comes to arcades it was a big deal and the only ones who really knew how that worked are the owners of these places from back in the day (because nowadays they just get them from somewhere within the country, there were way too many)
I heard the reason why mexicans love kof is because snk decided to flood mexico with their cabinets since capcom was dominating america. Also kof has been loyal to mexican providing characters base out of mexico 🇲🇽 😊
I'm not mexican, I'm brazilian and here SNK games had the same popularity and passion since the beginning in the 90s. So you can't explain that popularity.
I saw a video that explained that at the time when snk went bankrupt and was saved by playmore many arcades that sold were sent to Mexico and this helped to get up. That's why how to thank snk created the character of ramon
This video doesn't even get close to explain why KoF is so popular in Mexico and LaTam. In short, it's because the Mexican company EVOGA contacted SNK and published SNK games here. You are not even close to grasp how popular KoF really is here, you said like every store had KoF... That's not true... EVERY STREET HAD KOF, like 2 or 3 of them. We had a KoF arcade in out garage so that anyone could go and play and we made a good buck out of it. KoF was so popular, that 97 sold more in Mexico than in the rest of the world... combined. Why do you think that there are so many Mexican characters that aren't sterotypes and appeal to Mexicans? Why do you think they got translated to perfect Mexican Spanish when no company saw us as a market? Why do you think EVOGA and SNK Made Rage of the Dragons, a fighting game released only for Mexicans and Japanese? Money talks.
Arcade Games in Mexico and all hispanic countries were very cheap On USA one credit was 25c and sometimes 50c (new premium games like MK or NBA Jam or House of The Dead or SEGA GAMES were even 75c or a full dollar for a credit) On Mexico, in the 80's and 90's one credit was 50 centavos (half a mexican peso) With 10 mexican pesos (before inflation and devaluation an all that shit) you could buy 20 or even 30 tokens with just one bill! that was the key for the mega hit in arcades, super cheap and accesible There were arcades everywhere! laundries, tortilla shops, pharmacies, markets, flea markets, restaurants, gas stations, arcade parlors, ice cream parlors and even the most incredible places (cantinas and clubs) I remember when i went to vacations to USA and i was WTF why arcades are so damn expensives? they were 10 times cheaper on Mexico Also, PLUS ELECTRONICS SA DE CV was the official SNK distributor in Mexico, SNK NEO GEO games were cheap for arcade owners (Capcom games were also strong, but SNK was the king of arcades in mexico) Capcom machines were almost double and sometimes triple the price of the SNK ones and because Neo Geo had 5 cartridges for one cabinet, on Capcom you were forced to buy 5 different cabinets and thats why SNK defeated Capcom in all Latin Americas in arcade games
The official cabinets came in 1 cartridge, 2 cartridge, 4 cartridge and 6 cartridge models. In America, I saw a lot of 2 slot and 4 slot Neo-Geo cabinets, 1 slot models weren't that uncommon, and the six slot model was really rare. Maybe the 5 slot models you saw were bootlegs?
@@theshape3872 Thank you. It's amazing that Mexican standard was 5 slots. Lot of American arcades bought the cheaper two or one slot models, though the 4 slot was also common. (I also remember one slot Neo Geo machines with a giant screen, though I suspect those were custom conversions.)
Easy answer arcades.... thats yours answer. Compared to USA arcades Mexico and Latam arcades are actually fun and enjoyable with good games. Not old racers or hunting games
KoF wont become a big brand in the u.s because it doesn't belong to the american arcade culture, and that culture is still a decisive factor in the american fgc today even decades after the death of arcades in the u.s. Because the fgc is a an extremely traditionalist community. So the veteran fg brands that made an impression in the u.s in the 90s arcade golden age are the more popular ones. For some reason SNK never made any strong roots with fgs in the u.s in the 90s, so their presence in american fgc culture is very weak. That's why it was never an Evo game until the event become more open to other games and more commercial since 2011. And Evo was founded in 2002. It's easier to make hype for something like Killer Instinct (much smaller brand but that made an impact in the u.s in the 90s) than KOF. For example Virtua Fighter didn't make a strong or at least long lasting impression in the u.s, and that resulted in the game losing presence in their scene compared to TK and SC. But in Japan it still has a fairly active competitive scene. VF also will never become popular in the u.s like TK. The only "exception" I can find here is Guilty Gear, that became more popular than ever with GGST, but just because it's a tricky example. It's a veteran fg brand only if you count it as a brand born in the 90s... but it didn't debut in the arcades, and that's an important difference. GG got in early Evos, when no SNK had place there. It had a small presence but it that's better than literally nothing.
When I lived in the Middle East... The only fighting game, that you can get easily "for cheap" was KOF wether that is KOF 98 or 99 or 2000 or 2001... Heck on PS2 I only had one fighting game (a 2D that is) and that was KOF... I honestly don't know why the game was there to start with, because I never thought about it twice, yet all I know is that when I went to the grey market shop, and I asked for a fighting game, I was given KOF options only, and I thought that is the only fighting game there to buy (in terms of 2D) as Tekken was very well known in the Middle East as well for (a 3D Fighting Game). Moreover, because the price was cheap like 10 cents or less, I just got a copy of each 98, and 2000, also 2001, since then I was hooked... I remember in Ramadan, I was playing the game 7 hours straight till down, for the whole month! Fast forward to today, I pre-ordered KOF 15, and I was the happiest person alive when the game came out, what is funny in the U.S. no one knows about the game, or gives a damn about it! A further context as well. The only fighting game in history to add the Arabic language as an option to pick, is KOF. They did that even in KOF 15, with FULL ARABIC support. Yet, I have not seen any other fighting game such as Capcom's Street Fighter 5 take that approach or provide the language as an option at all! That could have changed as time passed, but I know at the start that was not an option, and perhaps till today. KOF, added Arabic characters way before street fighter added (Rasheed) for example, which is most recently been added, or Tekken (in terms of 3D fighting games), when they added Shaheen. Something to look into, Guilty Gear has a huge audience in the Middle East as well, because it had a similar story to KOF, but on gaming PC shops.
Fatal Fury had way cooler characters than street fighter and was a better fighting game than street fighter. Street fighter is has nostalgia value and is a classic and I grew up playing it also. When Capcom vs SNK came out, it was fucking awesome. They need to make a new Capcom vs SNK game immediately!! Way better than the marvel vs Capcom series.
KOF needs to go back to the 98 format. Better graphics and more characters. ULTIMATE KOF. The new kof is making broken combos its main priority vs having a stylistic game. The game is just I need know the strongest super combo and that's it. No more individual fighting style imo
KOF is the game for the poor, trust me. When youre a kid growing up and only have a couple of coins youll rather spend it in kof due to the fact you get a lot bang for your buck.
mexico is a latinamerican country.... . so we are good at kof because we are poor. you can see that in the local tournaments for kof 1998 and 2002 because of the emulators. im from argentina btw.
Growing up, my friends and I always called KOF the "Poor man's Street Fighter" and even though I love KOF now in my adulthood, I guess in a way we weren't far off! lol! But amazing video none the less! Thanks so much!
If you are an american born gamer, that attitude explain a lot about how KOF isn't and will never be popular in the west. In my place history was completely different with all SNK fgs, that are popular since the 90s.
@@carlosaugusto9821 Yes, I'm north American. (From Canada) and I'm El Salvadorian, but I was born here. So I can see that a lot of Latin american players love it, but like I said, growing up it was really the narrative from everything I saw. Honestly I barely (if ever) saw any KOF marketing here in Canada. I never saw KOF sold in the big box stores. Maybe if you really looked. But I grew up in a smaller city in Canada, and KOF didn't have a big footprint at all. We mostly saw it in gaming magazines, and wondered what this rip off Street fighter game was. I know it's wrong to think that now. It's such an incredible game!
It's short for "Latin America", so essentially all the countries that are considered part of that area- the countries of South and Central America like Mexico, Brazil, Chile etc.
When Terry was revealed for Smash Ultimate, the best reactions definitely came from Mexico and LatAm
100%
@@UselessRecords We were all popping for it and it felt like vindication. I honestly don't think anyone loves SNK the way that Latin America does.
We essentially have our own waifu in Ángel Torres. That alone is enough reason.
Honestly factual
@@UselessRecords Thank you, it makes me so proud to be Mexican. The fact we literally beat Japan at their own game is incredibly cool. (Also, could my original comment be pinned then? I'm sure most people would find it funny/surprising.)
Leona is from Latam too
わかる。
@@gustavorodrigues4899 Her village was in South America?
it cant be stated enough the impact the characters had on me as a kid. I decided to pick up comic art because of the art on the Neo Geo cabinets. Magical times. Everyone in the block would come to gather and see who was the baddest on the block.
Mexican here, another element to add that’s missing from the broader discussion is how modded/MAME multi-cabs with full button configurations helped to carry over things between titles. You would get so much bang-for-your-buck play being able to try out combos between titles that you’d be at the machines all day carrying over skills vs Namco or Capcom games that needed dedicated machines or had too much mechanical variation between games. Add the larger roster and early representation/appreciation for our homeland and you got our hard af earned pesos first every time.
Speaking of pesos, what kind of coin does a mexican cabinet take? How many do you need for a credit?
Yes! I wouldn't have known kof if it wasn't for mame.
@@bearman_1826 Back in the late 90s & early 2000s it was $1 Mexican peso per credit which was about 10 US cents at that time
@@Ts-bn6my Interesting. I guess it makes sense that it would be cheaper there.
For me: I was introduced to KOF Via PlayStation especially PS1 with Arranged soundtracks, Arts and boss availability
One important detail that you didn't mention, because I'm from Chile and I was hoping you would mention it.
The arcade scene was HUGE in the kids of 1987-2000 because all the arcades we had were cheap.
In the USA, one game was 25 cents, but in south america/Mexico you could buy 15 playing tokens for 25 cents.
The games were pirate but arcade operators kept a steady and fresh selection of arcade games and we finished the games and kept playing the next day. The Vs. games kept us hours and days inside these centers because there was nothing better to do after eating and watching TV. The PlayStation era brought back in full force the fighting night parties between friends that you mostly met at the arcades and as NEOGEO was emulated, we just kept wanting to go back and play with pals.
I love this detail! I wish I could have found more info on it before recording the video 😭
In Argentina too, Arcades were super cheap like 10 credits for 1 dollar at the time (late 90s) and in someplaces they even had promos like 25 credits for 2 dollars or something like that, also the most populars were 24/7 open and filled with chinese, koreans and locals who played Kof, Virtua Striker, Virtua Tennis and all the classic arcades of the time.
It is very interesting when you realize that the popularity of arcade was still quite high in Latin American countries, even if in other regions or countries these were almost not seen on the streets anymore.
In Peru , KOF 98 was everywhere .
I remember when I was a kid i flew over to mexico to visit family, i was suprised to see how many arcade there were in the small towns. I went there looking for MVC1, and instead i found KOF everywhere. sometimes more than half the arcade cabinets were just different iterations of KOF and other SNK games. Then I stumbled onto KOF2002, and saw the intro. I was hooked, K', Iori, Kyo, Terry, they all looked so cool to me I wanted to know more. Came back home couldnt find anything until CVS2 came out for home consols. I immediately bought it just to play with some of the KOF players.
I have a similar experience bro although i already had gotten introduced to kof and when i went to my familys pueblo our neighbor had bought one and man i loved playing it over there
SNK: *creates South American team (aka 2 Brazilians and a character that might as well be Brazilian) to acknowledge those fans*
SNK: *Removes South American team from the very next game*
brazil here. yeah, because they suck. so bad that are borderline racist. we are always the blanka
They inherited the American (Sports) Team tradiction. Probably.
@@Mateus_Carvalho Don't remind me 😢 We need them all back
This series got me into taking 2D fighters more seriously
I'm from North Africa and KoF was very popular during the arcade to ps2 era (which extended all the way to 2014 or so here).
Kids might not know Iori or K9999 now, but everyone who plays fighting games here most likely has KoF as their favorite. Not to mention it's also still the strongest fighting game scene here, the esports tourneys even gets sponsored by companies!
Remember 2002, or 2005 unique with yashiro's annoying fist or kula. Good times
(I do truly apologize for the essay comment lol) TLDR: SNK in my experience was never really all that popular. The only people you would see who know SNK are usually those who go to arcades and like fighting games so much they dig deeper and not limit themselves to popular games. Keep in mind Fighting games are a niche genre backed up by arguably one of the smallest gaming communities.
From my experience.... Anything SNK wasn't really that popular unless you were in the arcades and liked fighting games that much that you would play other fighting games and not just the most popular ones (Street Fighter, Tekken, Mortal Kombat, and Virtua Fighter to a degree). I say that because judging from SNK's poor sales of their home parts since like Neo Geo AES. So much so videos like Smash Bros video that gauge the popularity of each character in Smash Ultimate saying "Couldn't find any sales data of Fatal Fury", you start to notice they always port their games on more affordable consoles late in that said console life span (KOF games on Dreamcast for example, along with PS2 and Xbox as well).
The most popular they seem they ever got here in America was when Capcom VS SNK 2 came out (and of course the first game but not too many talk about CVS1 since CVS2 came). Arcades were pretty much dying by that point and Neo Geo was done with. At least the AES was. All SNK had left in hardware was the Neo Geo Pocket. Not too many people knew of the Neo Geo Pocket so a lot of us missed out on SNK VS Capcom Match of the Millennium for Neo Geo Pocket and with Neo Geo AES lack of sales and SVC Chaos' reception, and above information stated (releasing other ports at late timing and arcades dying), you already know what happened there. By the time games like KOF99 Evolution came out most already moved on to the PS2 since that was one of the huge things that made Dreamcast irrelevant. Same when KOF11, Neo Geo Battle Coliseum, KOF2006 (Maximum Impact 2), KOF98UM and KOF2002UM released on PS2. By 2004 (or 2005 in America) PSP came out and more people were paying attention to that than PS2, and then 2005 Wii and Xbox 360 came out and a lot of us moved on to that. And then 2006 PS3 came out and many moved on to that despite the pricing.
They did manage to arrive on time with KOF12 and 13 in 2009 and 11 respectively, however games like Tekken 6, Super Street Fighter 4, Marvel VS Capcom 3, and Mortal Kombat 9 overshadowed those games along with the anticipation of Street Fighter X Tekken (which flopped sadly) and Tekken Tag 2 (which also flopped despite good sales).... Even tho that game's marketing was ass and too many people weren't aware of that game during it's development, but you best believe people wanted a new game by that point and it took a short GameFly commercial to help the people be aware it exists. 2016 hits and KOF14 drops, barely saving SNK and one thing that definitely helped keep them alive, Terry Bogard joins the battle in Super Smash Bros Ultimate (Tho personally I think Kyo, Psycho Soldier Athena, or Marco Rossi should have been chosen but thats wishful thinking lol). Most reception outside of Mexico, LatAm, China, and Mid East was pretty poor among the NA audience. Along with the more "passionate fans" getting angry at the fact that majority of gamers not knowing Terry let alone SNK. So I think that would explain why some of us always say its so popular in the above places I mentioned rather than in North America. And Possibly Europe excluding France as I heard the French loves SNK too.
Great to hear that you loved kof
This explains why there were primarily KOF machines in all the Mexican supermarkets, laundromats and any place of business that could have cabinets when I was growing up. Holy crap. 😂👌
I wish america shared this love for the series, I am alone in my love for this series
shortly after xv came out, like within a week, I went to a spot in brooklyn for a tourney and it was heavily hispanic area, I'd say half the people in the tourney didn't speak english. But way more interesting, they also didn't seem to have played xv, they were all 98 and 2002 etc. players (there are cabs for both at brooklyn arcade iirc) But of course it didn't matter if they'd played xv before, they wrecked me as expected since this is my first kof game. It's my favorite place to watch people play.
it's so interesting! great video!
🤣🤣🤣
Back in the 90's in México Kof use to be the unofficial national sport, each time I entered the arcade store some one always was defeating Rugal, Goenitz or Orochi, in that days use to be a Kof Machine in every drugstore even in the same block.
I really miss that days. 😌
arcades in mexico would get pretty packed if there was a good KOF match. i definitely love this games thanks for the video.
as a mexican I can atest . All my homies play kof. im literally the only one that does not and i get shit for it lols
I'll never forget how i got into SNK i remember playing it at my local movie theater and the first thing i saw was King of Fighters and seeing someone playing Terry and instantly became my main in every king of fighters game as well metal slug and the soccer game
I've been a fan from the US since around 2020, and its so cool learning about how KOF really captures hearts worldwide. Fits very well for an international fighting competition! I hope it gets its strong footing in the US soon that it never had before, even if 15 isn't my favorite.
damn i wonder what happened around 2020 that got you interested in the series hm
@@ghhn4505 covid, street fighter 3, and meeting people on discord who told me KOF was cool
2003 was the game that got me hooked
@@neonthunder3261 Oh shit I expected it to be Terry in Smash like most people I've met haha
That's pretty rad, I got into fighting games last year on a whim so I've been exploring more of 'em, mostly SF and GG but I wanna get more into KoF, glad you're liking them
@@ghhn4505 GG I could never really get into, but I've been having a blast with '95 lately.
KoF wont become a big brand in the u.s because it doesn't belong to the american arcade culture, and that culture is still a decisive factor in the american fgc today even decades after the death of arcades in the u.s. Because the fgc is a an extremely traditionalist community. So the veteran fg brands that made an impression in the u.s in the 90s arcade golden age are the more popular ones.
For some reason SNK never made any strong roots with fgs in the u.s in the 90s, so their presence in american fgc culture is very weak. That's why it was never an Evo game until the event become more open to other games and more commercial since 2011. And Evo was founded in 2002. It's easier to make hype for something like Killer Instinct (much smaller brand but that made an impact in the u.s in the 90s) than KOF.
For example Virtua Fighter didn't make a strong or at least long lasting impression in the u.s, and that resulted in the game losing presence in their scene compared to TK and SC. But in Japan it still has a fairly active competitive scene. VF also will never become popular in the u.s like TK.
The only "exception" I can find here is Guilty Gear, that became more popular than ever with GGST, but just because it's a tricky example. It's a veteran fg brand only if you count it as a brand born in the 90s... but it didn't debut in the arcades, and that's an important difference. GG got in early Evos, when no SNK had place there. It had a small presence but it that's better than literally nothing.
One of the best things about growing up by an Air Force base in SoCal was the local arcade fighting game scene kicked all kinda ass. Kids from Mexico, the Philippines,and Korea who have just immigrated taking names and quarters to Air Force brats coming back stateside after being in Okinawa and the Luzon for a few years where monsters on these games. Capcom was popular but seen as the “casual” players fighting games,the real competition was always at the big red cabinets in the back. I was very surprised that SNK wasn’t big in the rest of the USA when I started visiting family all around it,cuz it was huge in my town. Especially KoF and Fatal Fury. Hell even World Heroes was pretty damn common. Seriously tho,SNK brought us all together as KoF and FF where the games we ALL loved. No Capcom or Mortal Kombat snobbery lol. They where popular but didn’t have our heart like SNK did. Probably the only part of the country you could of said that.
Great explanation on the KOF influence all over the world. Especially in most underfunded and fairly low resource countries. 5/5 definitely looking for an extended analysis on KOF series Tekken SF and other FGC titles.
Thorgies arcade has a three part 6 hour long kof retrospective.
I was a former KOF Player from 2007 - 2012, Arcade versions weren't that exciting except for PS1 and PS2 versions, I mostly played horror games onward, this 2023 I only came back to check online on KOF 2002 UM, I got bombed fast by combos and can't even move a single muscle since I play on dual shock on PS4 and they're on arcade sticks. Yes it is true, judging by my experience with a loss of 12 without a single win, Mexicans are really gods of KOF. Hats off
What console/platform did you play 2002 um on? I wanna play online but only got the PS2 version
@@derekk.1750 PlayStation 4
@@Dead_on_Arrival. is it available to purchase on PS store? How much is it?
@@derekk.1750$14.99
KOF ALSO PLAYED IN INDIA IN 90S AND LATE 20S NOW VANISHED BUT AGAIN KOF TAKING PLACE IN INDIA. SO IF YOU ASK WHICH FIGHTING GAME IS POPULAR IN INDIA SO THERE IS TKN KOF SF MK
Just got myself a NEO GEO home arcade stick. Brought so many memories back. I’m loving it!
Good
now I understand why the crown prince bought SNK.
I picked up my first KoF about 15 years ago. It was the '98UM for the PS2. The selling point for me was it's 64 character roster. After playing arcade mode for a little bit, I remember thinking "This game kicks ass! Why doesn't anybody play it!?"
One thing to note about the MVS system: It consisted of 4 different variants. There was the Single-Slot, the 2-Slot, the popular 4-Slot and the 6-Slot (which in my neck of the woods was pretty rare).
Can I just say, Thank you for acknowledging how niche or obscure SNK is in many Western territories. Along with making this video as not too many I seen in America and around the world online until now knew of KOF, let alone SNK's existence until KOF15 (And here I am hoping the new Fatal Fury/Garou game doesn't kill the franchise thanks to the Terry Shills).I have seen many SNK fans, particularly those who are American gamers from the arcade day who i would assume are almost hitting 40s now (30s at the time), always being so in denial about the lack of exposure SNK has. Especially in North America and Europe (excluding France. I heard the French loves SNK)
I remember when Terry got in Smash Bros and majority was like, "Who the hell is Terry frickin Bogard". And so many fans were so upset by that they made either ageist remarks about younger gamers, insult older gamers who never heard of SNK (let alone Terry), and try to act as if SNK, hell, Terry and Fatal Fury specifically were that popular by saying things like, "There is NO REASON why you never heard of Terry", "If you're over 25 and never heard of SNK/Terry, then I have lost all respect for you.", "SNK isn't that popular except in Mexico and China!? You're kidding me right?" So hopefully this video will make all these "fans" get a reality check and not let toxic nostalgia warp their version of reality.
That final clip around 7:40 of the Middle eastern guy playing with one hand is insane to me 😭🫢
My brother used to play Kof 97 like that and one of his mains was Yamazaki, so he would usually dress in all black and keep his hand on his pocket while playing lol, too cringe but cool back then
@@ramiel007 what a menace
Great video! Longtime KOF series fan (literally since 1994) from the U.S here. What drew me to the series was the characters and just how cool i thought everyone looked, i love SF as well, but as an 8 year old in 1994 i remember seeing KOF '94 at a grocery store for the first time and thinking "wow man, these characters look so much more "cool" than SF characters, also the fact that you got to pick a TEAM of characters was mind blowing to me. I was already a fan of Fatal Fury so when i saw Terry, Andy, and Joe as one of the teams i immediately picked them. From then on i was hooked man. I absolutely love the series and it's characters, i wish more people in the U.S played the games.
Much love from Mexico brother, plus... RIDGE RACE TYPE 4 SOUNDTRACK BRUUUH!!!!
Can confirm we loved KOF and Dragon Ball. In Michoacan.
No Wonder why king of fighters is loved in México Also dragon ball is popular And I'm from coeneo, Michoacan (México)
The home of the #1 mexican band, Banda zirahuen! Oh man
I Could disguise myself as Terry Bogard but in Club América clothes
¡A huevo!
(Of course!)
I respect your love for the R4 soundtrack. It’s just as good now as it was upon release. No soundtrack has any business being this good.
Ohhhh....I *LOVE* the Neo Geo jingle. Takes me back to being 12 years old at the arcade.
it's extremely popular in pakistan as well
Thank you for 1k views, everyone!
I love reading all your experiences about KOF
"literally named angel " i felt like that called me out well
KoF was insanely popular in Pakistan too among 90s kids who are all grown up with kids and still play KoF.
Respect for the Ridge Racer Type 4 music.
I'm from South Africa and SNK games we very popular even more popular Capcom games (well in my area at least idk about other areas) even now there are still sill snk arcade cabinets and are still packed with KOF 97, 98, 02 and metal slug games being played in my area , it's also rare to see people other games like STREET FIGHTER or TEKKEN the only capcom games played are Final fight and Cadillac and dinosaurs ( even those aren't played that much)
Glad someone made a video covering this! Thanks so much man!!!❤
The Rugal ban at 6:35 😂😂😂
I know why I liked it: Mai Shiranui 😂
It's quite impressive what kind of mileage SNK got out of their aging Neo Geo hardware, especially when compared to much newer CPS2 and CPS3 games.
As a less resourceful company they learned to make the best out of what they got. Meanwhile Capcom jumped to new hardware in a matter of a couple years, because they could do it. But that also meant missing the full mastery of each hardware, as that is naturally a late stage result in a company's development history.
Marvel and SF Alpha were kinda early cps2 games, and they just kept being recycled for a couple years before Capcom turned to cps3. And SF3 was an early cps3 game. We never had the chance to get fully optimized cps2 or cps3 games in the sense of optimized late NeoGeo games like Garou MOTW, Last Blade 2 and KOF 2000 (honorable mention to 2003's opening).
Solo no usen pinche Rugal! 😂
When i was younger i got the kof collection for my wii and me and my dad would play it he would tell me that he would play that game for hours and then finally when i went to mexico as a kid arcades where in every corner store and ofc i was on kof whooping ass over there even us mexicans from the us love Kof !
4:25 c'mon now, Garou IS a Fatal Fury game
The King of Fighters is my favorite fighting game. I played KoF ‘98 on the arcade soooo much growing up and continued playing the console games as I grew older
What a difference it makes being and american or other nationality with less visa restrictions ,that is one of the reasons why you don't see latin American participants in the Evo tornament and also the fact that there is no sponsored players in other countries other than USA,Japan ,Korea ,china and honkong
I'm in Aus and for all I know it could have only been my town where nearly every arcade cabinet was a Neo Geo cabinet. Never even saw a SF2 cabinet. So I knew all the SNK games like World Heroes and Fatal Fury.
KOF is actually my 3rd favourite fighting series after Tekken and Killer Instinct.
Happened the same with anime: Saint Seiya (or Knights of the Zodiac) is brutally popular in Mexico, Latam and China (also popular in France, Spain and Italy but not as popular as in Mexico and Latam), and I mean as popular as Dragon Ball Z, definitely the most popular anime of all time in Mexico alongside DBZ... but other than the countries mentioned above, Saint Seiya is not really popular anywhere else
It's not just KoF either, most of the internet's stuff on Metal Slug is in Spanish too
It looks like KOF became a pop cultural icon in these countries, just like it is at its home. KOF 15 have Shun’li as the main protagonist of Verse saga to give the Chinese a character they can look up to. I would be not surprised as that next main protag is Mexcian, middle eastern, nor Latin. SNK does seem to like to increase their awareness to new consumers, just like Capcom. They are a brand of their own.
Awesome video chief, love the ridge racer type 4 music
While i'm a dumb Guilty Gear Stan (Dizzy for life), KOF is a close second. For 3D fighters though it's Soul Caliber. MvC is always a fun time though if it's not infinite.
@1:58 that made me laugh LOL
i remember when i was a kid i went to school and then i went to play at a grocery store in my Town and i played and i chose k9999, kio and rugal
On the topic of people creating something that really speak to other cultures/countries; A few years ago I remember seeing a video by a white youtuber trying to dissect the phenomenon of "Black Goku" (Though post Goku-Black its easier to search "African Goku" :V), and was left feeling like the topic could've been done more justice! It's a cool example of a characters themes and struggles resonating deeply with Young Black America in a unique and beautiful way :)
1:59 la neta si somos
I already got a sleeper hold from Children of the Atom and sucker punched from Tekken 2. Might as well get tazed and stabbed over KOF '98 and '97
Yes I am old. Been playing KOF religiously in the US since '94, which was in my student union in my first year of college.
I really liked this video I like seeing history of games and their impact on other cultures
In those documentaries there's not enough information about one of the biggest reasons why it's popular in developing countries, the piracy of these boards, they were cheap, easy to ship (just the board without the cabinet) and they had plenty of games like an emulator, also those hacked versions that added accessibility.
Same thing happened in the middle east and china of course.
The video talks about some piracy but when it comes to arcades it was a big deal and the only ones who really knew how that worked are the owners of these places from back in the day (because nowadays they just get them from somewhere within the country, there were way too many)
Top quality video ! Cheers
Proibido jogar com Rugal. Sujeito a paulada 🇧🇷
I've seen the merch. It's huge in the Japanese homeland.
Great video, I have subscribed to your channel!
I heard the reason why mexicans love kof is because snk decided to flood mexico with their cabinets since capcom was dominating america. Also kof has been loyal to mexican providing characters base out of mexico 🇲🇽 😊
I'm not mexican, I'm brazilian and here SNK games had the same popularity and passion since the beginning in the 90s. So you can't explain that popularity.
I saw a video that explained that at the time when snk went bankrupt and was saved by playmore many arcades that sold were sent to Mexico and this helped to get up. That's why how to thank snk created the character of ramon
@@yorkxuniverse7315 yeah it was something like that. Any Mexican person I know love king of fighters specially kof 98”
This video doesn't even get close to explain why KoF is so popular in Mexico and LaTam. In short, it's because the Mexican company EVOGA contacted SNK and published SNK games here. You are not even close to grasp how popular KoF really is here, you said like every store had KoF... That's not true... EVERY STREET HAD KOF, like 2 or 3 of them. We had a KoF arcade in out garage so that anyone could go and play and we made a good buck out of it. KoF was so popular, that 97 sold more in Mexico than in the rest of the world... combined. Why do you think that there are so many Mexican characters that aren't sterotypes and appeal to Mexicans? Why do you think they got translated to perfect Mexican Spanish when no company saw us as a market? Why do you think EVOGA and SNK Made Rage of the Dragons, a fighting game released only for Mexicans and Japanese? Money talks.
Bolivia loves KoF as well!!!
Great video but please tell me where is your accent from? I can't figure it out.
Brazil loves kof too really much ❤
Kids will never know the good ol' arcade days.
Dope video
yes every king of fighters videos mostly like from mexican and chinese
Arcade Games in Mexico and all hispanic countries were very cheap
On USA one credit was 25c and sometimes 50c (new premium games like MK or NBA Jam or House of The Dead or SEGA GAMES were even 75c or a full dollar for a credit)
On Mexico, in the 80's and 90's one credit was 50 centavos (half a mexican peso) With 10 mexican pesos (before inflation and devaluation an all that shit) you could buy 20 or even 30 tokens with just one bill!
that was the key for the mega hit in arcades, super cheap and accesible
There were arcades everywhere! laundries, tortilla shops, pharmacies, markets, flea markets, restaurants, gas stations, arcade parlors, ice cream parlors and even the most incredible places (cantinas and clubs)
I remember when i went to vacations to USA and i was WTF why arcades are so damn expensives? they were 10 times cheaper on Mexico
Also, PLUS ELECTRONICS SA DE CV was the official SNK distributor in Mexico, SNK NEO GEO games were cheap for arcade owners (Capcom games were also strong, but SNK was the king of arcades in mexico)
Capcom machines were almost double and sometimes triple the price of the SNK ones
and because Neo Geo had 5 cartridges for one cabinet, on Capcom you were forced to buy 5 different cabinets and thats why SNK defeated Capcom in all Latin Americas in arcade games
The official cabinets came in 1 cartridge, 2 cartridge, 4 cartridge and 6 cartridge models. In America, I saw a lot of 2 slot and 4 slot Neo-Geo cabinets, 1 slot models weren't that uncommon, and the six slot model was really rare.
Maybe the 5 slot models you saw were bootlegs?
@@onlylettersand0to9 5 game slot were made by PLUS ELECTRONICS, the México división of SNK, they were exclusive here
bootlegs started until 2005
@@theshape3872 Thank you. It's amazing that Mexican standard was 5 slots. Lot of American arcades bought the cheaper two or one slot models, though the 4 slot was also common. (I also remember one slot Neo Geo machines with a giant screen, though I suspect those were custom conversions.)
great video!!
Maybe it’s because they’re just great games.
Part of it but not the whole story
Easy answer arcades.... thats yours answer. Compared to USA arcades Mexico and Latam arcades are actually fun and enjoyable with good games. Not old racers or hunting games
Real talk! Mexico has the best damn arcades and to compete the arcades in SoCal had to pretty much emulate them.
KoF wont become a big brand in the u.s because it doesn't belong to the american arcade culture, and that culture is still a decisive factor in the american fgc today even decades after the death of arcades in the u.s. Because the fgc is a an extremely traditionalist community. So the veteran fg brands that made an impression in the u.s in the 90s arcade golden age are the more popular ones.
For some reason SNK never made any strong roots with fgs in the u.s in the 90s, so their presence in american fgc culture is very weak. That's why it was never an Evo game until the event become more open to other games and more commercial since 2011. And Evo was founded in 2002. It's easier to make hype for something like Killer Instinct (much smaller brand but that made an impact in the u.s in the 90s) than KOF.
For example Virtua Fighter didn't make a strong or at least long lasting impression in the u.s, and that resulted in the game losing presence in their scene compared to TK and SC. But in Japan it still has a fairly active competitive scene. VF also will never become popular in the u.s like TK.
The only "exception" I can find here is Guilty Gear, that became more popular than ever with GGST, but just because it's a tricky example. It's a veteran fg brand only if you count it as a brand born in the 90s... but it didn't debut in the arcades, and that's an important difference. GG got in early Evos, when no SNK had place there. It had a small presence but it that's better than literally nothing.
Thank you
When I lived in the Middle East...
The only fighting game, that you can get easily "for cheap" was KOF wether that is KOF 98 or 99 or 2000 or 2001...
Heck on PS2 I only had one fighting game (a 2D that is) and that was KOF...
I honestly don't know why the game was there to start with, because I never thought about it twice, yet all I know is that when I went to the grey market shop, and I asked for a fighting game, I was given KOF options only, and I thought that is the only fighting game there to buy (in terms of 2D) as Tekken was very well known in the Middle East as well for (a 3D Fighting Game).
Moreover, because the price was cheap like 10 cents or less, I just got a copy of each 98, and 2000, also 2001, since then I was hooked... I remember in Ramadan, I was playing the game 7 hours straight till down, for the whole month!
Fast forward to today, I pre-ordered KOF 15, and I was the happiest person alive when the game came out, what is funny in the U.S. no one knows about the game, or gives a damn about it!
A further context as well.
The only fighting game in history to add the Arabic language as an option to pick, is KOF.
They did that even in KOF 15, with FULL ARABIC support.
Yet, I have not seen any other fighting game such as Capcom's Street Fighter 5 take that approach or provide the language as an option at all!
That could have changed as time passed, but I know at the start that was not an option, and perhaps till today.
KOF, added Arabic characters way before street fighter added (Rasheed) for example, which is most recently been added, or Tekken (in terms of 3D fighting games), when they added Shaheen.
Something to look into, Guilty Gear has a huge audience in the Middle East as well, because it had a similar story to KOF, but on gaming PC shops.
It was and is cheap to play, you just throw a quarter and PUM! you are in for a good experience. .
Fatal Fury had way cooler characters than street fighter and was a better fighting game than street fighter. Street fighter is has nostalgia value and is a classic and I grew up playing it also. When Capcom vs SNK came out, it was fucking awesome. They need to make a new Capcom vs SNK game immediately!! Way better than the marvel vs Capcom series.
I didn't even know kof was popular in the ME I thogut I was just tekken street fighter smash and anime fighter s
My name is Angel
kof fans are the better people . its true! look it up
KOF needs to go back to the 98 format. Better graphics and more characters. ULTIMATE KOF. The new kof is making broken combos its main priority vs having a stylistic game. The game is just I need know the strongest super combo and that's it. No more individual fighting style imo
Story and character wise. Kof had far more to it.
KOF is the game for the poor, trust me. When youre a kid growing up and only have a couple of coins youll rather spend it in kof due to the fact you get a lot bang for your buck.
I thought brazil too?
mexico is a latinamerican country.... . so we are good at kof because we are poor. you can see that in the local tournaments for kof 1998 and 2002 because of the emulators. im from argentina btw.
@Dangl's Records at 7:55 to 8:21 what is the name the song?
Saudis own snk let's see them do something with it
Growing up, my friends and I always called KOF the "Poor man's Street Fighter" and even though I love KOF now in my adulthood, I guess in a way we weren't far off! lol! But amazing video none the less! Thanks so much!
If you are an american born gamer, that attitude explain a lot about how KOF isn't and will never be popular in the west. In my place history was completely different with all SNK fgs, that are popular since the 90s.
@@carlosaugusto9821 Yes, I'm north American. (From Canada) and I'm El Salvadorian, but I was born here. So I can see that a lot of Latin american players love it, but like I said, growing up it was really the narrative from everything I saw. Honestly I barely (if ever) saw any KOF marketing here in Canada. I never saw KOF sold in the big box stores. Maybe if you really looked. But I grew up in a smaller city in Canada, and KOF didn't have a big footprint at all. We mostly saw it in gaming magazines, and wondered what this rip off Street fighter game was. I know it's wrong to think that now. It's such an incredible game!
The only fighting game moroccans shine the most at. Too bad there's no huge communities most of them are warriors of shadows.
And Africa
SNK gave me my first gaming waifu, Athena. ❤️
Middle eastern here where I come from tekken is more popular than kof
What country is LATAM? Sorry I'm slow
It's short for "Latin America", so essentially all the countries that are considered part of that area- the countries of South and Central America like Mexico, Brazil, Chile etc.
Why separate Mexico from Latinamerica tho 🧐