SNK has a brand new trailer for The King of Fighters 15, showcasing not one but two fighters coming to the roster. These are Ralf Jones and Clark Still, whom one may also recognize from the Metal Slug series. Check out the trailer below which showcases their various moves along with a colorful Metal Slug background stage.

Ralf Jones is touted as the more hot-blooded and relies on quick punches, explosions and flaming punches to defeat foes. Clark Still is more reserved and relies on grapples and throws to best opponents (as showcased by how easily he manhandles Ralf). Both fighters are part of Team Ikari alongside Leona Heidern, which is the sixth team confirmed for the title thus far.

The King of Fighters 15 is out later this year, though its platforms have not been revealed. Stay tuned for more details and character trailers. In the meantime, check out Team Art of Fighting’s Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia here.

Ah, Metal Slug, now there is a name I imagine many have not heard for a good while. The series was once a prolific one and has seen a multitude of different releases and re-releases over the years, but has since been dormant for quite some time now. But it looks like it’s planned for a grand return, and one that is very soon.

As reported by Inven, SNK CEO Jeon Se-hwan announced that new games in the franchise was planned. One of those were for consoles and aimed at the older crowd who are probably more familiar with the franchise, and a mobile title aimed more at younger audiences that will be developed by Tencent’s Timi Studio and is described as a ‘card-type sidescrolling game.’ This lines up with statements near the end of last year that the franchise was being considered for a revival. The surprising thing is that it seems the company is looking to release both of these titles this year, with the mobile title apparently over 80% done.

SNK’s Samurai Shodown revival seemed to be quite the success last year, so hopefully they can strike again with Metal Slug. While it’s a far different genre than Shodown, I would say it’s equally beloved by its fans.

SNK is making quite the comeback. Samurai Shodown had a triumph return this year with a new reboot, the King of Fighters series is continuing on a steady basis now, and Terry Bogard is coming to one of the biggest crossover titles in history, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. But there’s another non-fighting gaming franchise the company is known for, which may be getting its time to return soon as well.

Speaking with Twinfinite, SNK Producer Yasuyuki Oda said that there’s internal discussions in SNK to bring back the legendary hardcore sidescrolling shooter series, Metal Slug. He didn’t offer any specifics, but said that right now it’s all about modernizing the game, as well as evaluating whether modern players would take to the game’s infamous and unforgiving difficulty level.

He said: “Nothing is decided at the moment, nothing has actually been started, but we’re definitely in the phase where we started talking about ‘let’s bring it back. We want to bring it back.’ The fans want it.

“On whether we’d do the one-hit kill, there are still a lot of discussions about that, but I like the idea of maybe bringing two modes, perhaps with an easy mode with a life gauge.

“But there is till a lot of talk going on internally about that. We want to make sure we do it right.”

There hasn’t been a brand new Metal Slug game since Metal Slug 7 in 2008. There’s been various remakes and re-releases since then, but it’s been well over a decade since an original title came out on any platform. Hopefully, the unique series can have its big return soon.

Publisher SNK has mostly been out promoting the upcoming Samurai Shodown, the latest in the long running franchise, but it seems they have ambitions to come back to the mainstream in a big way beyond that. Today, they announced (via Ruliweb, translation by DualShockers) that they want to release at least two games a year, starting in 2020 with a new Metal Slug and the already announced King of Fighters XV.

That’s not all, however, as the company reported the NeoGeo Mini was a big sales success, and that new NeoGeo consoles are coming as well- the NeoGeo 2 and 3. But they apparently won’t be only retro boxes like the Mini was (similar to the NES/SNES Classics Nintendo released), but are said to be original hardware that are successors to the original NeoGeo platform.

It’s not entirely clear what that entails, but they did say the NeoGeo 2 would be a “semi-open” platform, implying the console could have some PC-like infrastructure. No dates or time frames were given for when we’ll see either piece of hardware.

For those that don’t know, the NeoGeo was a platform released opposite the Genesis and the SNES. It was a more high-end alternative that focused on trying to deliver authentic arcade experiences at home, but due to its expense, it never managed to get into the same sales league as Sega and Nintendo did with their hardware.

In the report, they also said Samurai Shodown was already profitable due to its large preorder numbers, and the company’s last game, SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy, sold 300,000 copies across all platforms.

SNK is a company known for a lot of classic video game franchises, such as Metal Slug and The King of Fighters. So right about now, a lot of people must be very excited about what they’ve got planned next, because it looks like they’re working on a new project- they’re teasing this upcoming title with a new countdown site.

Even the link for the site has the words “snknewgame”, so there’s no doubt regarding what it’s all about (not that there should have been any doubt). However, at this point there’s no way to know what exactly they’re teasing, so your guess is as good as mine.

As you can see in the countdown site, we can expect to know more about their new game on September 10, which is just a week away. There are also the words “A new dawn rises…” displayed below the date. It’s likely that more information about this project will also be revealed at the upcoming Tokyo Game Show, which will begin on September 20.

Any guesses on what exactly SNK might be teasing? Let us know in the comments.

Shinobi

Of the many franchises that Sega has deigned to keep alive, Shinobi has been criminally left out. It’s a shame because in 2002, the developer had a chance to beat Team Ninja’s Ninja Gaiden to the punch with high paced ninja action and ultra violence. It unfortunately buckled under an (ironically enough) insane difficulty, lack of depth and poor level design. Shinobi 3D in 2011 attempted to reignite the 2D side-scrolling magic of old but it just couldn’t match the brilliance of the old-school Shinobi titles.

The game comes out on December 23rd, 2009. Stay tuned on GamingBolt.com for more news and updates.