exodus I do think knowing about “something related to snk” is an easier ask than kof specifically.
I mean if we go worldwide the answer is obviously KOF thanks to China alone. But I assume we discuss the United States here.
â‘ I am not familiar enough with how popular culture from Central and South America typically permeates and corrupts itself among the US latino population (I assume it becomes its own thing?) but KOF had so much cultural imprint in Mexico and many South American countries that I would assume it remains a known IP somewhat? I am not sure these people would know about SNK, on the other hand.
② KOF is also the most common IP for games and crossovers on smartphones so that must help. Next IP is Metal Slug. (edit: speaking among SNK’s intellectual properties, specifically.)
③ Not sure which demographic was impacted the most but Metal Slug Anthology was a colossal success on Wii in North America. Maybe tons of young adults have good memories of Marco and Tarma.
â‘Ł The other big question is how much Terry in Smash changed the landscape of SNK fandom, among a generation for which SNK fandom means something completely different as any Google search will painfully remind you.
Obviously tons of kids have discovered Terry and the Neo Geo thanks to Smash. Let’s assume a natural decay of X amount of people not giving a damn where he comes from, I am sure at least a bunch of these kids have suddenly found out about SNK and Fatal Fury through the game, popular Youtubers like Maximilian Dood, etc.
Despite Sakurai’s honorable efforts, my gut feel is those adventurous kids who got interested to check out old people stuff have registered KOF moreso than Fatal Fury, but this was certainly the first time many of them heard about “SNK”.
One thing I wonder is how much this new generation, which is constantly bombarded with nostalgic reboots and branding (probably once a month in Fortnite), has incentive to find out more about this stuff. They have access to more pop culture than ever thanks to the Internet and social media. And it is now so easy to catch up and become cognizant of such cultural memes that I assume they just come and go and you have to become super selective what your brain’s available memory space larps on or not.
For instance, tons of people in the United States became interested in Fire Emblem thanks to Smash Bros Melee. But that was one of the few genuine mysteries in the game, catching up on Fire Emblem’s history required more effort, and that generation had fewer distractions to forget about the catching up (also: Gamecube players, so probably way less shit to do and think about than the average Switch kid, no offense).
I am not sure we currently live in the equivalent cultural context where Terry’s presence alone, despite being in a game at least five times as popular as Melee, will push kids to investigate about Terry and the games he comes from (moreso than than the forty other boomer IPs in the game). And the curious kids will have access to this information so easily and thoroughly that I assume most of them will bin it in their memory rechute within the next six months.
I lost track of the point I was trying to make so that’s enough rambling…