It looks like SNK isn’t done with King of Fighters XV yet. Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is in development, Samurai Shodown getting rollback, and their collaboration characters for Street Fighter VI Season 2, aren’t slowing them down one bit. If this was the 90s, we would be closing in on the All-Star romp, that is Dream Match by now for this saga. This is as we would with ’98 and 2002 games did in games past.
The company announced special character DLC development to be shown at Evo 2024 Las Vegas this year. As to who we’re meant to expect, this is still up in the air. With the way Capcom allowed Mai and Terry to join a main Street Fighter game, all signs point to guest characters as an exchange. Perhaps they’ll do something similar to Kazuya, King, and Anna, crashing King of Fighters ’96 in the official manhua since KOF All Stars has several guests there. A Capcom team may not be as skeptical as we could think at this point. Sadly, it only sounds like one character will be joining. A potential Team Shadowloo – M. Bison, Juri, and Sagat – would be great, though.
In an interview with Rooflemonger, SNK producers have expressed that there is more for King of Fighters XV and that SNK is already thinking about the next installment. Rooflemonger wastes no time getting to the heart of this. SNK answers in passing with no hard ideas yet to bring to the interview.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44xZVV_qp8Y&t=994s
A King of Fighters primer
For those new to King of Fighters, the game brings several SNK franchises into one universe, alongside characters specific to the title, to create 3-man teams. On the backs of Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury, and other SNK titles, such as Ikari Warriors and Samurai Shodown, the roster of King of Fighters is made. Most King of Fighters story arcs take 3 games to conclude. Back in the 90s and early 2000s, the games were produced based on years before numerals took over.
In a huge twist, the current saga, which started with KOF 14, is now playing with the SNK multiverse. Samurai Shodown characters have appeared and formed their team. Usually, the roster is built through characters that would most likely exist in their block of time. Samurai Shodown happened in the 18th century. Haohmaru, Nakoruru, and Darli Dagger form their team despite their need for weapons to fight and be out of their own time.
With all these collaboration announcements, Evo 2024 this July may be the next thing to look forward to post the Summer Games Fest for the competitive scene.
King of Fighters XV is available on PlayStation 4 | 5, Xbox Series X | S, and Steam(PC).
