The Mugen Fighters Guild - Why is KOF Popular in the Latino Countries?

MattDeRac

Why is KOF Popular in the Latino Countries?

#1 March 14, 2016, 02:26:35 pm

I found something about the King of Fighters Fandom, Why is the series so popular on the Latino countries like Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, Argentina and other countries that are Latino/Hispanic related? I mean there's nothing wrong with it I just found it weird that it was never explained why KOF is popular over there and never never popular on the US or Europe, I get it for Asia too but why mostly the Hispanic countries? It's like the Street Fighter series and Mortal Kombat that are very popular around the world but they never seem to heard of King of Fighters before.

Can anyone explain why The King of Fighters is only popular on Mexico, Brazil, Spain and Portugal? Because I don't get why it's only popular for them, I'm thinking that the King of Fighters series needs more popularity on the other countries like US, Europe and Australia. But to be fair they do have a good taste, But again, Can anyone explain?

Negi Springfield

Re: Why is KOF Popular in the Latino Countries?

#2 March 14, 2016, 02:39:06 pm

Sunglasses at night

This is a rather interesting question that I think deserves discussion. It's something i've been wondering myself.

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Ethereal

Re: Why is KOF Popular in the Latino Countries?

#3 March 14, 2016, 02:54:30 pm

Dead Weight
Where'd all the motivation go?

Perhaps because NeoGeo MVS cabs sold like pancakes over there, so KoF was easy to get into. Maybe even easier to get into than SF, as there's usually guaranteed to have at least one person playing.
How could I know? I'm not Latino, I'm just restating what some other Latino KoF fans say...

Big Meme

Re: Why is KOF Popular in the Latino Countries?

#4 March 14, 2016, 02:56:33 pm

IPPEN SHINDE KOI!
TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT THAT SNOUT!

Well, certain animes (Dragon Ball, for example) are popular in those countries, so there could be a connection.

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The 100 Mega Shock!

Re: Why is KOF Popular in the Latino Countries?

#5 March 14, 2016, 02:57:38 pm

MAX 330 MEGA PRO-GEAR SPEC

I think some of it comes from the Neo-Geo being a relatively affordable, popular arcade machine that you could swap out game cartridges for.

Niitris

Re: Why is KOF Popular in the Latino Countries?

#6 March 14, 2016, 03:05:30 pm

That and the preference for fast games. KoF didn't really blow up until 96 when they added running and whatnot.

Noside

Re: Why is KOF Popular in the Latino Countries?

#7 March 14, 2016, 03:55:59 pm

NINJA COP SAIZOU

We like to play KOF so much that using our hands was kinda boring so.......

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Bastard Mami

Re: Why is KOF Popular in the Latino Countries?

#8 March 14, 2016, 05:14:38 pm

what's been said before, neogeo cartridge machines everywhere, since they predate kof for a decent amount of year, so once kof started getting popular in the big arcades, it was relatively cheap to just buy a kof cartridge and put it in your local arcades to make more money.

the arcade scene had the advantage of back then a gaming console would cost around 1000 pesos while playing kof would only cost one peso and it being a third world country you'd get a lot of people who were not being able to afford a gaming console anyway; and the cherry on the cake ? gaming consoles were still underpowered for those kind of games, lol.

Last Edit: March 14, 2016, 05:30:45 pm by Bastard Mami

Foobs

Re: Why is KOF Popular in the Latino Countries?

#9 March 14, 2016, 05:15:56 pm

90's Kawaii
:thinking:

Iori Yagami

Bea

Re: Why is KOF Popular in the Latino Countries?

#10 March 14, 2016, 05:35:37 pm

MUGEN Grandma

MvS was pretty easy to pirate, so you got lots of bootleg carts for cheap out in the wild that served the local arcades.
And they being carts, it was pretty easy to replace them in your arcade cabinet.
CPS1 was also easy to pirate, so it was fairly common out there as well.
That was not the case with CPS2, so CPS2 games had far less reach in poor countries, since it was much cheaper to stock your arcade with bootleg MvS carts instead. Which led to more people in those countries playing more KOF, since SFA and VS games were a luxury not all arcades could afford to have, whereas any hell hole would have a KOF machine with a bootleg cart running.

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Mgbenz

Re: Why is KOF Popular in the Latino Countries?

#11 March 14, 2016, 05:56:58 pm

Yes, very easy to pirate. Our local arcades still has those "-in 1" machines with multiple Neogeo games in them.

Zzyzzyxx

Re: Why is KOF Popular in the Latino Countries?

#12 March 14, 2016, 06:04:27 pm

I hate coding helpers.

Not to mention, playing in a game center in any Latin shopping mall is ridiculously expensive, even if you're playing something as old as KOF'95.

I really have my doubts whether price is the only factor, though. I mean, why only KOF and Metal Slug and not other equally good Neo Geo games like Last Blade 2?

Is it hard to pirate CVS2? This didn't impede MSH, XvsSF, and MvC from being popular around here.

The 100 Mega Shock!

Re: Why is KOF Popular in the Latino Countries?

#13 March 14, 2016, 08:19:19 pm

MAX 330 MEGA PRO-GEAR SPEC

I don't think Naomi or Atomsiwave protection (most 2000s Capcom/SNK/Arc Sys fighters) were cracked until this decade or the very late 00s. Also those machines were a slightly higher-spec Dreamcast so a nearly 10 years on the Neo-Geo pricing wise.

Last Edit: March 14, 2016, 08:23:23 pm by The 100 Mega Shock!

no1wammy

Re: Why is KOF Popular in the Latino Countries?

#14 March 14, 2016, 08:25:27 pm

Host of the Wammy Radio Podcast
Wammy Giveaway

Being an American of Mexican descent (Michoacan, stand up!), I should know this. But to be perfectly frank, I don't. I have asked fellow players regarding the King Of Fighters fad, and they say it's just better than Street Fighter. I was so good at the Capcom series that one of the men invited me to try out KOF2001 for the first time. My first team was pretty obvious - Mai, Mary, Kula and Angel - and I most definitely sucked. But I practiced, got better, and learned a lot from it.

Going off on a tangent, I can tell you of my experiences with arcade games at Mexico in general. The first time I went to Mexico in 1989, there was a cabinet that housed 250 Nintendo games in one single cartridge (this one by NTDEC). A player would insert coin, select a game (some of which were hacked clones anyway), and be given 10 to 15 minutes of play time. When the minutes were up, the game automatically paused (done at the arcade hardware level), and the player would either insert coin to continue, or wait for the arcade to reset itself, then the player could choose a different title.

Sometime in early 2000, the gaming industry in Mexico came up with the idea of housing multiple arcade games into a Windows-formatted hard disk, achieved entirely at the DOS level. Unlike the NES multicart idea, this new edition would allow players to select an arcade title, then insert coin when prompted and then play a proper uninterrupted game. This was perfect for getting SNK games and Capcom games, in addition to some obscure adult titles, into one single cabinet. I was able to play Killer Instinct this way.

lui

Re: Why is KOF Popular in the Latino Countries?

#15 March 16, 2016, 12:00:34 am

Mgbenz said, March 14, 2016, 05:56:58 pm

Yes, very easy to pirate. Our local arcades still has those "-in 1" machines with multiple Neogeo games in them.

Don't forget all the broken buttons and joysticks that come with them bc of some guys who take tekken 6 too seriously!

FeLo_Llop

Re: Why is KOF Popular in the Latino Countries?

#16 March 17, 2016, 10:55:19 pm

¡Ni p*ta ni santa! ¡Digo!

I'm from Spain and I barely knew about KoF till I was like 16...and some of my friends were SO freaky about games.

They cared more about Cammy's ass than the whole KoF saga.

PS: I don't want to start a flamrwar, but Italy is also a Latin country, as Spain and Portugal. They three are in Europe.

I swear there was something cool here!!