SNK has been enjoying a well-earned return to form over the last few years with the successes of 2019’s Samurai Shodown and this year’s King of Fighters XV. A large part of the games’ warm reception was down to their great look and feel, running in Unreal Engine for the first time in the two series’ history. In an interview with Brian Crecente posted to Unreal’s website, the developers discussed the benefits of the engine — and mentioned a third, currently unknown game in the development that is also based on Unreal.
This was corroborated by the official SNK Twitter account later, which tweeted: “Samurai Shodown, The King of Fighters XV, and an unnamed new title all use Unreal Engine.” Naturally, this proved very exciting to fans, many of whom are hoping this signals the revival of another classic SNK series.
Top contenders include a new side-scrolling Metal Slug game, to augment the upcoming release of strategy spin-off Metal Slug Tactics, or the return of the Capcom vs SNK series, a much-beloved crossover fighting series seeing the King of Fighters roster face off against characters from the Street Fighter franchise. Developer Yasuyuki Oda seemingly snuffed out those hopes in an interview in 2018, but perhaps SNK’s successes since 2019 could change the way the wind blows. For now, though, SNK is keeping its cards close to its chest.
