It’s still crazy to think that SNK’s Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui are joining M. Bison and Elena in Street Fighter 6 via the Year 2 Character Pass. In some ways, it feels like a collaboration between Capcom and SNK was foreshadowed as far back as Evo 2022 when posters of Street Fighter and King of Fighters characters were depicted together.
As it turns out, Capcom and SNK were in fact in talks about just that. The two decided that “This will be a good way to give them a little taste,” according to Street Fighter 6 Director Takayuki Nakayama.
Of course, it’s been over 20 years since Capcom vs. SNK 2, and there’s still no sign of Capcom vs. SNK 3. This recent collaboration suggests that something like that could be in the cards in the future.
Plenty of fans have also been wondering if we could see Capcom characters guest starring in future SNK titles. It would seem like this would be the logical next step with Terry and Mai guest starring in Street Fighter 6.
In a recent interview with Famitsu, Street Fighter 6 Producer Shuhei Matsumoto and Director Takayuki Nakayama talked about all of this and more. As always, our very own Nicholas ‘MajinTenshinhan’ Taylor provided translations for us English speakers.
Famitsu: I don’t think many people expected Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui. Please share what was the initial trigger for this Fatal Fury crossover.
Nakayama: Two years ago, at Evo 2022 when the event was held for the first time in a few years, we did some celebrations together with SNK and handed out some posters featuring both companies’ characters. Capcom’s designer drew the SNK characters and SNK’s designer drew the Capcom characters for 2 poster designs which we shared around.
Famitsu: So that was foreshadowing back then?
Nakayama: We were in talks about the collaboration right around then, and in our talks with SNK we decided “This will be a good way to give them a little taste.”
Matsumoto: And from that beginning, we talked about “What can we do in our respective games.”
Nakayama: Both sides want fighting games to get more hype and wanted each other’s titles to have more people interested in them. I’m personally looking very much forward to SNK’s upcoming Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, and since I really want fighting games in general to get more and more excitement I wanted to do this collaboration.
Famitsu: Looking at the reaction from Summer Game Fest 2024, it looked like this was a big success.
Matsumoto: That made us happy.
Famitsu: So are we going to see the reverse, with Capcom characters added to one of SNK’s games in the near future?
Nakayama: They cheerfully lent their characters out to us for this collaboration. We’re still looking over our options so I can’t say anything for sure, but I think the possibility is definitely there.
Matsumoto: For a more personal anecdote, when we did the motion capture and voice recordings for Terry, some SNK staff actually came as well. We spend a full day discussing the subject of “what actually is the Rising Tackle”? Both Capcom and SNK are situated in the Kansai region, and we always get along very well.
Nakayama: Even though this collaboration was asked for from our side, they were very cooperative in the development of it.
Matsumoto: So we’re getting Terry and Mai, but what’s the reason for picking specifically those two?
Nakayama: I really wanted to emphasize “Fatal Fury” itself and I think that the best way to do that is by having Terry and Mai. We have a lot of old SNK staff at Capcom, and they really gave it their all for them. Also, the original creator of Street Fighter, Takashi Nishiyama-san, also took part in the development of Fatal Fury, so we feel that the roots of both series are the same. Street Fighter and Fatal Fury are like brothers, so I think those ties run deep.