SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy fights onto PC next week
Oh me oh Mai
It's not uncommon for fighting games to make their way to PC these days, but I'm still a bit surprised to see SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy making the hop from consoles. It features most of the leading ladies from SNK's King Of Fighters, Samurai Showdown and Fatal Fury series's, plus Terry Bogard, who is apparently a girl now. It's a lighter, sillier affair than others in the genre, with as much focus in collecting invariably impractical outfits as fighting. The PC version was announced during the Evo Japan fighting tourney last night, and lands next Thursday, February 21st.
It's hard to get away from the sketchier aspects of SNK Heroines. On one hand it's an all-women fighting game with a cast of veteran brawlers. On the other hand, it's literally set in the dream-world of a big ol' creeper who wants to dress the girls up in daft outfits. The characters react differently to each outfit too - sometimes they're cool with it, other times visibly embarrassed. In short, it's a big dumb franchise-mining fetish piece that just happens to be an oddly creative fighting game. The cast of characters is genuinely good and varied, and it does a few clever things in fights.
Most unusually, fights don't end just from draining the opponent's health in this game. You need to land a super attack to finish a round. SNK Heroines simplifies controls, compared to most fighting games. There's Light, Heavy, Special and Throw buttons and just mashing on attacks results in basic combos. You're also kicking ten shades of candy, puppies and sparkles out of your enemies - no blood here. Being a lighter, more casual game, usable items randomly spawn around the play-field to be collected and used. It's all very daft, but self-aware enough to lampshade itself. Not my jam, admittedly, but if it's good enough for Nintendo, then it's good enough for PC.
SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy launches on Thursday, February 21st on Steam. No price or store page yet, though.