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How popular is SNK in Europe?

Oscarzx n

Oscarzx n

Member
May 24, 2018
2,992
Santiago, Chile
It's well known (and confirmed in the last few days) that SNK is not especially popular in the US, but they are in Latin America, Japan, China and Korea, maybe Even more than Capcom in some of those places (I'm from Chile and SNK is Indeed very popular among gaming circles, but it's not nearly as popular as Mexico or Brazil ).

However, what about Europe? I think that they are decently popular in Spain but I have no idea about the UK, France, Italy, Germany, etc. If you are from Europe I would like to know how popular SNK is in your country.
 
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Kaban

Kaban

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,502
I grew up in Belgium, and remember SNK cabinets being around some of the arcades. They're the only reason I know who Terry is, so they made their mark :P
 

Vault

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,668
fighting games in general have never been that popular
 
Platy

Platy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
27,841
Brazil
Oscarzx n said:
not nearly as popular as Mexico or Brazil ).
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MarcelRguez

MarcelRguez

Member
Nov 7, 2018
2,418
KoF and their fighting games, not so much, but Metal Slug used to be everywhere in Spain in the late 90s
 
Antony

Antony

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,684
PlayStation Home
Had always heard of them and their games in England. Had Fatal Fury on the Mega Drive, owned a Neo Geo Pocket. They seemed relatively well known.
 
Raijinto

Raijinto

self-requested ban
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
10,091
I don't think I've ever heard/seen SNK anything IRL in the U.K. TBH I barely know much about them even on here, though I'd admit that I wasn't even alive when the Neo Geo came out and I'm not big into fighting game aside from Smash so I haven't exactly sought out FF and the like.
 
Robin64

Robin64

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,630
England
Quite well known here in the UK, but the Neo Geo stuff was super expensive so very few people had it. I think like one person at my school had a Neo Geo and he was from a rather wealthy family.
 
Jaded Alyx

Jaded Alyx

Member
Oct 25, 2017
35,602
Robin64 said:
Quite well known here in the UK, but the Neo Geo stuff was super expensive so very few people had it. I think like one person at my school had a Neo Geo and he was from a rather wealthy family.
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Basically this. I used to see Neo Geo/SNK stuff all the time in games magazines and I remember how expensive it was. But my friends were all aware of SNK and series like Fatal Fury and Samurai Shodown even if we didn't play them.
 
actthafool

actthafool

Member
Oct 27, 2017
303
Never really saw their cabinets over here in the UK, to me Sega and Namco were king.

I remember playing a ton of Metal Slug when on holiday in Spain and on the Greek Islands. So maybe they were more popular on the continent.
 
Robin64

Robin64

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,630
England
Oscarzx n said:
That Pizza is impossible to eat.

Well in Latin America I'm pretty sure almost no one had that, it was a niche product for millionaires, they were popular for their Arcade titles.
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Yeah indeed, but arcades themselves weren't that big here. Pretty much only a big city or a seaside town would have them.
 

Deleted member 1102

Account closed at user request
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
13,295
Not sure about the UK as a whole but I'm pretty sure I'm the only person I know in life who knows what SNK is, and all my friends are life long gamers.
 
Kraq

Kraq

Member
Oct 25, 2017
813
I didn't know SNK existed until the Smash leak.

I've never heard of any of their characters either, aside from Mai.
 
Dr. Mario

Dr. Mario

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
14,042
Netherlands
Not particularly. After inflation the average Neo Geo game was pretty much €500 here in the Netherlands (530 guilders) as far as I remember.
You could infrequently find them in the arcades (but it was mostly capcom, sega, konami and namco), and arcades completely died out after the Playstation/N64 were released.
 
monmagman

monmagman

Member
Dec 6, 2018
4,126
England,UK
I'm in the UK.....what is SNK,lol......I've seen it mentioned in some Nintendo thread headlines over the last few days....no idea what it stands for.
 
Dache

Dache

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,135
UK
For the UK, they weren't a household name like Nintendo or Sega. I doubt 95% of people knew that the AES existed, and of those that did, only 1% could ever afford it because it was never officially released anywhere in Europe so you had to rely on rare import shops for it that charged even more.

There were MVS systems around in the arcades, so Metal Slug and Puzzle Bobble were sort of common (I remember playing both at my local sports centre), but they were almost always in generic JAMMA cabs instead of the US's iconic SNK Big Red cabs, so the SNK name wasn't very prominent aside from the occasional Neo Geo splash screen on attract mode.
 
Orioto

Orioto

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,716
Paris
Beyond a niche hardcore KOF crowd i don't think it's ever been mainstream in France.

Now people are serious about not knowing about SNK before the smash addition, really ?? come on..
 
ev0

ev0

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,438
monmagman said:
I'm in the UK.....what is SNK,lol......I've seen it mentioned in some Nintendo thread headlines over the last few days....no idea what it stands for.
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I think it's...Super Nintendo Kompany. That's the only way some nobody like Terri Blowhard can make it into Smash right
 
Calverz

Calverz

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,586
I live in UK and im 33. My only knowledge growing up was the neo geo pocket and metal slug in an arcade machine. That was about it.
 
1upsuper

1upsuper

Member
Jan 30, 2018
5,489
Orioto said:
Beyond a niche hardcore KOF crowd i don't think it's ever been mainstream in France.

Now people are serious about not knowing about SNK before the smash addition, really ?? come on..
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Yeah, it's weird. And still playing up how they don't know about SNK days after the reveal is weird too. Doesn't take too much effort to educate yourself.
 
Jimnymebob

Jimnymebob

Member
Oct 26, 2017
19,721
I never bothered with arcade stuff, and no one I knew had a NEO GEO, but everyone I know had all the PS2 and Metal Slug games on the PS2, along with the Capcom crossovers.
 
Zyrox

Zyrox

One Winged Slayer Corrupted by Vengeance
Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,648
If I wasn't such a big fighting game fan I probably wouldn't have heard of SNK. I'm in Germany. Honestly the few times I've been to arcades and whenever I talked about Fighting Games with other people the most prominent Fighting Game there was always Tekken (I also think Harada mentioned Tekken being very popular in Europe with like half of the franchise's sales coming from here, certainly makes sense to me).

That said, I'm still happy that Terry is in Smash. SNK as a company obviously has a lot of history behind it which makes them and their stuff a very worthwhile addition to the game.
 
monmagman

monmagman

Member
Dec 6, 2018
4,126
England,UK
ev0 said:
I think it's...Super Nintendo Kompany. That's the only way some nobody like Terri Blowhard can make it into Smash right
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Given I've honestly no idea what SNK is or what it stands for I'm guessing it doesn't stand for Super Nintendo Kompany(but it could,lol).....and given I've no idea who Terri Blowhard is but again I'm guessing his last name isn't really Blowhard(but it could be,lol).....your post doesn't really get me any closer to knowing what SNK actually is....but thanks for the response,lol.
 
sibarraz

sibarraz

Prophet of Regret - One Winged Slayer
Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
18,173
Wasn't SNK very popular in Italy? Also, don't know if SNK per se is popular in france, but I always heard that they have a considerable fandom for Windjammers and Breakers Revenge
 
Orioto

Orioto

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,716
Paris
To develop a little more, when i was a kid, in the 90's, i knew SNK cause there was some sort of gangsta/pimp culture associated to it. Like.. It was the hip shit in the neighborhood you know. it was like the scarface of videogame or something lol
 
tzare

tzare

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,145
Catalunya
It was relatively popular, especially while arcades were a thing. Not hugely popular but you could find their games almost at any arcade here in Barcelona. We even had unofficial NeoGeo importer in Zaragoza that had some success selling it and its games despite the high prices.
 
Fright Zone

Fright Zone

Member
Dec 17, 2017
4,115
London
I'm from the UK and I LOVE SNK. Used to play the shit out of SNK machines in the 90s, they weren't hard to find either.
 
Metal B

Metal B

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,396
In Germany Arcade machines were (until 2003 and then only if they are rated for children between 0 and 6 ... so pretty much no action games) not allowed to be played by children and teenagers, since the law put them into the same category as slot machines. That's why we in Germany don't have an arcade culture and all game-series, which got big through Arcade machines, are not well known here.
 
Glass Arrows

Glass Arrows

Member
Jan 10, 2019
1,414
I'm from Brazil but I mostly knew about SNK through Metal Slug. I've never been into fighting games but I was vaguely familiar with King of Fighters albeit that was mostly because of internet acquaintances who were part of the FGC.
 
ev0

ev0

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,438
monmagman said:
Given I've honestly no idea what SNK is or what it stands for I'm guessing it doesn't stand for Super Nintendo Kompany(but it could,lol).....and given I've no idea who Terri Blowhard is but again I'm guessing his last name isn't really Blowhard(but it could be,lol).....your post doesn't really get me any closer to knowing what SNK actually is....but thanks for the response,lol.
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Haha sorry man I'm just messing around.
SNK is an old video game company/arcade manufacturer and SNK stands for something in Japanese im too lazy to look up.
Terry Bogard is one of their premiere characters who is the next character in Smash Bros and some parts of the fanbase are upset about it
 
Damn Silly

Damn Silly

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,231
In the UK and I imagine those looking for their stuff could find it, but they were never particularly big in the public conciousness.
 
Gol

Gol

Member
Nov 4, 2017
774
UK here. I don't think anyone I asked would know what SNK or a Neo Geo was. I didn't know until 2-3 years ago. I'm 25 btw
 
Pookmunki

Pookmunki

Member
Oct 27, 2017
482
Here in the UK during the 90s having a Neo Geo was definitely a status thing - Megadrive and SNES were cool, but the kid with the Neo Geo was the one everyone wanted to be friends with.
 

Deleted member 8791

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
6,383
Most gamers of my generation probs know Metal Slug and King of Fighters but otherwise pretty obscure.
 
Videogamebear

Videogamebear

Member
Oct 27, 2017
120
England here! back in college I knew a lot of people who played Fatal Fury & KoF, Metal Slug arcade cabinets were readily available where I lived and I got to play the first three games including X. I also had a small circle of friends that owned Neo Geo Pockets (myself included)
 
NZerker12

NZerker12

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,556
Growing up in the mid - to late 90's in the UK I had never even heard of SNK. I didn't learn about them until I played Capcom Vs SNK 2. I mainly remember Nintendo, Sega and Playstation being a thing.
 
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