SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy

SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy
Nintendo Switch cover art
Developer(s)	SNK
Publisher(s)	JP/SEA: SNK WW: NIS America
Director(s)	Kaito Soranaka Tatsuya Hayashi
Producer(s)	Yasuyuki Oda
Designer(s)	Hiroya Kobayashi Hayato Konya Misa Hirayama
Artist(s)	Yusuke Amono Naoto Abe Eisuke Ogura
Composer(s)	Mayuko Hino Minori Sasaki Naoki Kita
Platform(s)	Nintendo Switch PlayStation 4 Arcade
Release	September 7, 2018
Genre(s)	Fighting
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy^{[lower-alpha 1]} (officially written as SNK HEROINES ~Tag Team Frenzy~) is a fighting game developed by SNK and published in Japan by SNK and worldwide by NIS America for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in 2018. It will also be available as an arcade game at a later date. The game is fan service oriented and based on a 2v2 tag-team gameplay system.

Gameplay

A fight between Mai Shiranui and Kula Diamond. The top health bars belong to the characters fighting, the others to the assistants

As the game's title suggests, SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy is a versus fighting game where each player uses two characters per fight but the players also choose an "Attacker" that serves as the playable character as well as a "Supporter" that assist the former.^[1] In contrast to other fighting games, it is impossible to defeat the enemy with a normal move, necessitating the use of a finishing move called the "Dream Finish".^[2] A move button can protect the character, while items are included for further gameplay features.^[3]

The game offers a story with different dialogues occurring depending on the characters fighting.^[4] Each character has additional costumes;^[5] cosmetic items are available to the players if they wish to change their characters' visual appearances. There is an online mode alongside an Spectator Mode where players can see other people's fights.^[6]

Plot

Several days after the previous The King of Fighters tournament, which ended spectacularly, a few of the female martial artists suddenly fell unconscious. Upon waking, they find themselves in a strange mansion, even Terry Bogard who much to his shock, has been changed into the form of a woman. The female fighters and Terry must fight their way home, but are confronted by a mysterious mastermind, who is predictably none other than Kukri, with defeating him from initiating his grand plan on the kidnapped female fighters and gender-swapped Terry in his castle within the pocket dimension he created is the only way for them said kidnapped fighters to return home.

Characters

• ^§ : Female version of a character who is male in previous appearances
• ^G : Guest character
• ^B : Non-playable boss character

Development

Following the success of SNK's The King of Fighters XIV fighting game, SNK already had plans to make a sequel, The King of Fighters XV. However, they instead decided to develop a more light-hearted game solely focused on female fighters. Game Producer Yasuyuki Oda stated that while initial mentions of the game made the mechanics sound more simplified than previous games, the team also worked highly in a complex system which would attract experts in the genre. The game is also one of SNK's project with Nintendo for a long time. However, the game is also being developed for Sony's PlayStation 4.^[8]

The gameplay was designed to be completely different from the one of The King of Fighters XIV due to its distinctive features. In order to promote the game outside Japan, SNK made a partnership with NIS America to gather attention in the West.^[1] The sexualization of female characters was made on purpose, although Oda stated that characters like Mai Shiranui have received this reaction in many other games. Nevertheless, the team worked in order to make member from the cast retain their original characterization despite the change of looks.^[8] Due to negative feedback from BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle's use of downloadable content, the company intends to avoid having these types of marketing for the released game that will be released on stores.^[4] Similar to a previous game, SNK Gals' Fighters which used only female characters with the exception of the male crossdressing fighter Iori Yagami as "Miss X"; the SNK staff received feedback from many fans they want Miss X within the game but still could not say he would appear in the game.^[1] SNK also stated one of the playable characters would surprise the fans.^[9] Producer Alan Costa stated the team is confident in how the game will be localized for Westerns following issues with the localization of Ys VIII.^[10]

The game will be released for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in mid-2018,^[11] with the aim of equivalent graphics and performance across the two platforms.^[3] The limited edition for both consoles will include extra material, including an artbook, a two-CD original soundtrack, a shirt and a cap.^[2] An arcade version of the game is also planned.^[12]

Reception

SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy received a mixed critical reception upon release. Mikhail Madnani from God Is A Geek rated the game a 7/10, praising its "unique" gameplay and competent online.^[14] Miguel Moran of The Sixth Axis awarded it a score of 8/10 and likewise praised the games "wildly different" battle system that "creates a whole new style of mind-games and combat-planning".^[15] Ben MacRae from outlet Crash Landed rated the title a 3/5, praising the art and animation but criticized the "empty stage design" and "lack of unlockables".^[16] Chris DeVisser from PlayStation Universe awarded the title 4/10, critical of the "simple combat system" and lauding it a "weak entry" in the SNK fighting game history.^[17]

Notes

References

External links

• Official website
• Official Japanese website