The ultimate history of an iconic series.
The history of KOF actually begins long before Kyo Kusanagi first stepped into the fighting arena in 1994.
They immediately began work on two titles that would have a huge influence on the KOF series.
But, as he candidly admits, his own talent was boosted by assistance from a famous sensei.
The Ikari Warriors stage from KOF 94, and a typically lush backdrop for an SNK fighter.
I won 6th place in the industry among the hundreds of arcade games released in that year.
It was highly inefficient.
I was very lucky to be sitting that close to Oyabu-san."
The catalyst for him leaving?
“He picked a handful of people from Irem to join him.”
When Nishiyama joined SNK, Kuwasashi, inspired by the work of a now-famous source, was already there.
There’s a famous director named Hideaki Anno who is now known for his work on Neon Genesis Evangelion.
I thought that the video game industry would also be an interesting place to tell stories.
I applied to a few video game companies and got hired at SNK.
That was how I got into the industry."
The test was mostly design-focused problems, like drawing a background.
Then they’d have some elementary math problems.
That must have been a minimum math ability requirement.
“You see, back then the game industry itself was still quite young.
It was enjoyable, but it was definitely not easy.”
Through looking for work as an artist, I came across game development.
I liked games, of course, but hadn’t initially considered becoming an artist for games.
I really liked Gundam and drawing robots, so I remember really quickly drawing a robot character.
“There were some questions that were typical of Japanese entrance exams.
They also had some questions testing us on our knowledge of video games.
That sort of thing.
That’s what I remember from the entrance exam.
I wrote it out in the assembler language with the assembler program.”
Thanks again to Bitmap Books for supplying the excerpt.
