/vr/ - Retro Games

>>2710607
K-Killer Instinct?

>>2710607

Depends on what part of the world you're in.

Neo Geo stuff was pretty dang strong in a few countries

I dunno. I lived in a stupid town. It seemed to me that after SFII died down only the most idiotic fighting games gained any traction. Mortal kombat, killer instinct, primal rage, garbage like that. I believe that at one point the only place that had a king of fighters or real bout Neo•Geo MVS machine was my house. One place had a SFIII machine, then pulled it and replaced it with a Hyper Fighting. Bullshit town. Puzzle bobble everywhere though!

>>2710607

After Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat, it was pretty much Primal Rage and Killer Instinct...And Virtua Fighter in there somewhere.

I loved going to the arcades as a kid in the 90s and talking about video games with kids at school, and I never even heard of Fatal Fury or Tekken until I was a teenager.

>>2710623
Similar to this.

SF2 was what brought fighters to the forefront, and remained hugely popular with its many sequels.
Mortal Kombat came along and was up there vying for #1 position, the sequel was very popular but by the third it was surely dying off. I remember SF vs Xmen was a big deal after the Kombat craze and reinvigorated interest in SF.

Killer Instinct was seen as a console fighter not quite in the league of the bigger guys. Primal Rage to a lesser extent.
Neo Geo fighters were more niche and not as popular among casuals, even seen as SF2 rip-offs by some.
Jackie Chan was pretty popular around my area for a short while and was seen as a SF2 with MK graphics and KI combos.
The 3d games like Virtua Fighter and then Tekken overtook for a while I think towards the end of the nineties and were mad popular.

>>2710607
Depends on where you were and when.

During the 2D era it probably would have gone like this:
>3rd in America = Samurai Shodown (for the first couple games)
>3rd in Japan = Fatal Fury (at least before KOF came out)
>3rd everywhere else = King of Fighters

Once 3D took off Mortal Kombat was in steep decline, so it was actually the 3D games outselling MK and eventually even SF. Virtua Fighter was probably the big one at first, but then it got overtaken by Tekken except in Japan where VF was the king of 3D fighters for a long time.

>>2710607
Honorable mention

>>2710607
I wouldn't put Tekken in the top 5 during the retro years. I mean obviously it's number 1 now, but not back then.

Well I'm assuming it's regional(I lived upstate NY at the time) but the arcade hierarchy was like this:

>SF2=Mortal Kombat >KOF>Tekken >SF Alpha> Virtua Fighter

Arcades fell off real fucking fast where I was. By the 95 or so it was hard to pick the clear winner because most people I knew went with consoles and that market got flooded real fast with rushed beta shit like Clayfighter.

Stuff like Samurai Shodown and Darkstalkers never made it huge where I was and so, unfortunately, I never discovered them til much later.

During the mid 90s a few bowling alleys/movie theatres/ department stores replaced their MK and SF machines with some mediocre pretenders to the throne.

>Time Killers anyone?

StreetFighter II, Samurai Shodown, Mortal Kombat, in that order. Killer Instinct came later, but was less popular than any of these. VirtuaFighter wasn't as popular for some reason until VirtuaFighter 2 and Tekken came out. VirtuaFighter 2, Darkstalkers, SF Alphas, and MarvelVsCapcom were gold until Tekken 3 and Tekken Tag came out. Virtua Fighter 3 was less popular than 2, but had a loyal following. Soul Edge / Blade was briefly in the arcades before going to Playstation. By the time Soul Calibur came out, arcades were dying hard in my area.

KOF was almost as big as Street Fighter (only SFII - the rest was totally ignored) and Mortal Kombat in Brazil. In fact i think i saw way more KOF machines in arcades than both combined and we still have enthusiasts and tourneys even today. People loved SNK arcade shit here (the home console was too fucking expensive to buy)

Funny enough Fatal Fury was very popular here too for some reason, bigger than all the names people remembered here. Stuff like Darkstalkers and Tekken was totally ignored and it was pretty rare to see them around (except for Tekken Tag when it came out but that's barely retro anymore)

>>2710908
ninguém liga pro bostil, macaco

>>2710645
>Killer Instinct was seen as a console fighter
No way, Killer Instinct arcade was hugely popular. More popular than Mortal Kombat for a period of time.

>>2710839
I never even saw Tekken 1 in the arcade but Tekken 2 was definitely the most popular machine at my arcade when it came out.

>Southeast Asia
>KoF > Street Fighter >>>> SamSho, World Heroes and other shit >>>> Mortal Kombat
I dunno, maybe because of some censoring or stuff I almost never saw MK cabinets wherever I go. VF also wasn't that hot, and by the time we get 3D fighters it's all Fighting Vipers or Soul Edge, though almost nobody plays those machines (they queue for Time Crisis).

In my country it was Street Fighter 2 - Mortal Kombat - Samsho around 1993

Mortal Kombat begun to lose popularity with the third one
Then it was Kof- Street Fighter Alpha - Killer Instinct around 95

and in the late 90s it was Marvel vs Capcom - Kof- Virtua Fighter 2.

>>2710917
Yeah, see, that's the thing, you're gonna find TONS of people arguing as to whether the definitive retro Tekken was 2 because roster and moveset variation, or 3 because gameplay balancing and mechanics.

If everyone could figure that shit out we might be able to present one of them as a possible entrant in the top 5.

The waters are also muddied by virtue of the fact that pic related qualifies as /vr/ by having a 1999 arcade release date, and was CLEARLY the best Tekken for quite some time, but not really insanely popular within the /vr/ timeframe that OP is implying.

>>2710607
Those are some delicious thighs, though.

>tfw I've only seen one SF2 machine in my life at some skating rink
>can't remember ever seeing another fighting cabinet
>everyone I go now it's just Pacman or a racing game

I guess my town didn't really have any arcades, but I went to pizza places a lot and still never remember seeing any fighters.

>>2711181
Honest question, how old are you?
I'm 32 and SF2 machines were ubiquitous in the early 1990's, from arcades to video rental places to small corner stores.

>>2710607
>probably Mortal Kombat was second most popular

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

nigga please.

Second was KOF

Mortal Kombat was only second briefly when it just came out because the graphics wowed people. part 2 was popular too. but everything after that, mortal kombat wasn't even in the top 8.

>>2711189
Also 32, they just didn't have them near me. The one at the skate place had a line a mile long so I never even got to play it. I mostly remember playing Golden Axe and Spy Hunter at the pizza places though, and once the TMNT beat em up at one. Beyond that I don't have much of a recollection of arcades.

>>2710607
> no Fighter's History remake with playable Ox

>>2710908
>Funny enough Fatal Fury was very popular here too for some reason

I believe it had to do with the price and availability of the Capcom vs the SNK machines in South America, or at least that is the story I always hear.

>Tekken was totally ignored

Maybe I lived in a weird neighborhood, or you're talking about arcade only. Because everyone I knew with a Playstation had Tekken 3.

>>2711268
SNK had a weird relationship with brazil, kinda like Sega in the old days of the SMS but with less support and local developers

Their fighting games have the huge amount of brazilian characters around, and they're not monkeys like Blanka or all fight in a jungle so that kind of helped

>>2711308
Brazilian characters in SNK games?
Richard Myer, Bob Wilson, Marco Rodriguez (Khushnood BUTT)...

Two capoeira practioners and one Kyokugenryu black belt. Unless you're counting the Brazilian Team in KOF 94, but Ralf and Clark are American and Heidern is from unknown origin.

If anything, South Koreans and Mexicans got more love from SNK character designers

>>2711349
Also Pupa Rodriguez. Four brazilian playable characters. More than any other company around. And thousands of side characters with plot relevancy (well, as relevant as plots are in fighting games anyway) like Heidern's family and Adriano

Sure, capoeira and martial artists, but that's hardly offensive as characters in a fighting game (specially compared to green giant monkeys) and look around and see how other game companies treated brazilian characters

Just as a comparison Capcom is the second place and they made fucking Blanka (also Sean, a brazilian black guy that loves basketball). That gives you an idea of how much SNK did and how little the other

>>2711367
and later Capcom retconned Blanka to be a Japanese boy who got stranded in Brazil.

>>2711308
>>2711349
>>2711367

It's kinda funny that companies think like that (like capcom now making an arab character for SFV to appeal to arab players) when people just end up liking the same popular characters everyone else likes. I mean, no one cares about those characters mentioned, no one is going to play them just because "they're Brazilian like me!". People here were obsessed with the usual Terry, Iori, Mai, Rugal, etc.

>>2711372
>I mean, no one cares about those characters mentioned

Nigga Butt is the best Garou character hands down

I remember seeing KOF everywhere in Mexico. Certain areas more than others though. I would see a lit of SF2 and MvC in the other places

>>2711367
>also Sean, a brazilian black guy that loves basketball

a Brazillian *Japanese* black guy

>>2711370
Has anyone not be retconned into being Japanese in that series? I heard Ken went from full American to 1/4 Japanese, which is just silly. I'm pretty sure everyone now has a drop of Japan in their blood by this point.

>>2711367
>> Also Pupa Rodriguez
I intentionally left Pupa Salgueiro out because Rage of the Dragons is a Noise Factory/Evoga game rather than produced by SNK, but yeah, sure. However, this is literally the first time I saw Sandra and Clara (Heidern's wife and daughter) being Brazilian, even if her names are plausible and common in Brazil.

And I agree with you that SNK usually delivered cool characters to appeal to regional markets since forever (hence the entire Kim clan in KOF/FF/Garou, Angel, Tizoc/Griffon and Ramon in KOF, Pepe in RoTD)

Capcom, on the other side, had ONE job. SF characters are supposed to be stereotypes and they got Yoshiki Okamoto in Brazil to study Capoeira, to develop a Kenyan character. If they really were aiming for the African origins, she should be at least Angolan or something.
So, it's kinda baffling that they screw up big time once, then got so many things right with Hakan, not retro and the Turkish wrestling.

>>2711098
>>2710917

Ill be honest I didn't really give a fig about Tekken till at least 5

>>2711427
>And I agree with you that SNK usually delivered cool characters to appeal to regional markets since forever (hence the entire Kim clan in KOF/FF/Garou, Angel, Tizoc/Griffon and Ramon in KOF, Pepe in RoTD)

I remember when Juri was first introduced to SF people made kind of a big deal about her being the series first Korean.

All I could think was, YAWN

>>2711393
I thought he was 1/2 Japanese (dad is full white). but you might be right.

But yeah, Japanese fighting games are pretty nationalistic. Their other genres aren't, especially RPGs where everyone is white, but their fighting games have always been nationalistic since the dawn of time. Not that i care. It's their games, they can make them however they want. I'll play them if they're good, and i'll trash them if they suck.

>>2711440
Can't believe they didn't have a single Mexican character in kof13. It's like SNK doesn't want their games to sell well

>>2711440
>>2711440
I find it funny how Eolith wanted them (KOF team) to create a "Korean Athena", some idol-like character and we got May Lee, who had so many Japanese references with her Kamen Rider-esque Hero Mode. Yet, she ended up well liked in Korea too (perhaps because her play style was refreshing too).

>>2711456
>> but their fighting games have always been nationalistic since the dawn of time

It's interesting to note Virtua Fighter almost got Kage as the only Japanese fighter at launch, when Yu Suzuki decided to include Akira, a Bajiquán master - the twist being the game's "Ryu-like character" as one of the hardest characters to master.
It took so long for Capcom to add a Korean character, way behind the competition, but took almost as long for Sega to actually have a Karate fighter, who isn't even Japanese.

>>2711456
Could be half, I don't remember. I just know he used to be an American and the latest I've heard is he's Japanese with black hair that dyes it blonde. Who even knows at this point.

>>2711457
Not even mexican and I was mad as fuck when they removed Ramon.

I needed my dose of TAIGA SPIHN and TAIGA RUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODO

>>2710607
>>2710614
>Depends on what part of the world you're in.
This. To summarize:
Japan: Capcom and SNK were the two top dogs before Sega and Namco came along and did their own 3D fighting games.

'Murrica: Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat might as well had been the only fighting games that ever came out there.

>>2711467
Jean Kujo is half-Japanese

>>2711503
Yeah, his name actually reads as ジャン 紅條, with kanji characters. Yet he's listed as French.

And then, we have the Sakazaki family. Japanese, with their names officially written as リョウ/ユリ/タクマサカザキ as if they were not Japanese. Their mother Ronnet doesn't look too Japanese either..

It's kind of complicated, same as Ken Masters being like 3/4 Japanese now, born in the USA.

Remember when Big Boss was Japanese too? I don't know how the average Japanese guy views his country, but from an outsider's perspective you'd think they considered themselves the center of the universe.

>>2711537
>but from an outsider's perspective you'd think they considered themselves the center of the universe.

That's pretty much true to any country's average person though.

>>2711556
I can't imagine people in Latvia think that.

>>2711559
Me neither, I can't imagine people in Siberia or Kirghizistan thinking that either, but they actually do, it's part of the human nature.

>>2711478
Ramon was a little weak in 2000, but when they tweaked his moves and made his personality and voice more louder he became so much fun.

>>2711556
That's only truth to japs and americans though

Not even europeans think they're the center of the world. They just don't care much about the rest. And obviously the rest of the shitty third world countries don't think they're hot shit either. Thinking everything and everyone else idolizes and revolves around then is actually a very fatmerican thing, with smaller proportions to the japanese as in they don't give a crap about the rest of the world and see them as curious little commodities that are fun to see once in a while

>>2711556
Max Payne 3 stars a white guy despite being set in Rio, and for no particular reason. There's no rule saying washed up cops with a violent streak are uniquely american. Hell, most retired Rio cops fit that description.
Lethal Weapon 2 has two LA Cops fighting Apartheid?
the world's foremost experts on paranormal activity all happen to live in New York and operate a ghost-removal service, and all happen to be American Citizens, for that matter? Because no one in England or Germany believes in ghosts enough to do research?

This is just a thing about pop culture: characters come from the same nation as the author, because the author writes what he knows.

>>2711690
>Max Payne 3 stars a white guy despite being set in Rio, and for no particular reason
They wanted to use the São Paulo setting and they wanted to use Max Payne and the mechanics of his games

It wasn't "for no particular reason" at all. They wanted Max and his trademark gritty remarks and bullet-time stuff, but they wanted to get away from the noir film schtick from the first two games so they went to Rio. It's way different than taking a sombrero-wearing brown luchador screaming "viva mexico" and saying HE'S SANCHEZ-SAN 3/4 JAPANESE BORN WHILE HIS MOTHER ATE A TACO BUT JAPANESE BLOOD RUNNING IN HIS VEINS

We had a ton of the first Fatal Fury and KOF machines around here. SF2 was never really popular, Mortal Kombat was very much so though.

Primal Rage was a big deal in media but I don't remember many machines. Killer Instinct was more popular than SF2 but probably not as much as MK.

>>2711268
>I believe it had to do with the price and availability of the Capcom vs the SNK machines in South America
Capcom's arcades are just as easy to find/bootleg down here as the SNK ones are.
The two nearby machines have both sf AND kof.
SF games and characters that aren't SF2 are obscure to casual gamers here in Brazil, but everybody knows a lot of SNK characters and I see casual normies mentioning fucking K9999' (a character I hate) from time to time.

>>2711797
>hating Akira

>>2711098
>pic related qualifies as /vr/ by having a 1999 arcade release date
Ohhhhhhhh yeah! Well shit, argument over.

I still don't know what SNK stands for.

>>2711863
shin nekami kensei

>>2711865
>shin nekami kensei

aaaand google gives me nothing

>>2711863
how about wikipedia?

>Originally called Shin Nihon Kikaku (新日本企画?, lit. "New Japan Project"), the name was shortened to SNK Corporation in 1986

>>2711874
Sweet Jesus, anon.He's just fucking with you

SNK stands for Shin Nihon Kikaku (新日本企画).
Please don't tell me you Google SNK and it returns stuff like "Shingeki no Kyojin".

>>2711881
Actually it gave me a bunch of Tenchi articles and the Shinji Mikami.

>>2710607
How the fuck do you unlock that Ox anyway?

>>2711881
all according to kikaku

>>2711434
You aren't wrong, honestly. 5 was a fantastic step forward, and now we have achieved perfection with TTT2.

>>2711931
Keikaku means plan.

>>2711571
>Thinking everything and everyone else idolizes and revolves around then is actually a very fatmerican thing

But it's true, the US IS idolized by everyone. Get on Interpals and start reading profiles. Everyone from England and France to 3rd wold hell holes is listing US movies, TV shows, and music as what they like. AAA Hollywood movies are famous around the world. You never hear of some major Peruvian movie making it big anywhere.

>>2711946
>>2711931
>>2711865
my sides

>>2711980
How could you not love the culture that gave us this.

>>2711440
May Lee is awesome. love using her in KOF02
and Unlimited Match.

>>2711467

>Guilty Gear just wipes Japan off the face of the Earth in it's backstory.

>>2711234
You can just download the boss hack if you want to play as him.