SNK, the Japanese company responsible for the Metal Slug franchise as well as The King of Fighters series is teasing their next new title. Late yesterday saw the emergence of a webpage on SNK’s official website featuring a countdown for September 10th, 2018. Along with accompanying text that reads “A NEW DAWN RISES…”
There are no real indicators to what this mystery game might be, but it could possibly be the next installment into the Samurai Shodown series. And I’ve got a bit of information to act as the backbone for this particular theory too.
Hidetoshi Ishizawa, the lead game designer for The King of Fighters XIV issued this statement in an interview back in 2016, “In the future, I want to get back to intellectual properties we have, like Samurai Shodown and Metal Slug.” Yuji Watanabe a game designer for SNK even stated this, “I also want to create a new Samurai Shodown, and I’d like Ishizawa to make it.” You can peep the original source for these two quotes right here.
This next tidbit is bit petty, but may nonetheless shine a light on this upcoming announcement. The official Twitter account for the Neo Geo World Tour (SNK’s global fighting game tourney) retweeted the teaser. Not necessarily a confirmation whether this upcoming announcement is a fighter… Though not invalidating the chance that it is either.
New SNK game announcement coming soon! Let‘s speculate what it is https://t.co/q9O6Yol6ag
— Neo Geo World Tour (@neogeoworldtour) September 3, 2018