SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy

This article was copied (instead of imported) from the now-deleted Crappy Games Wiki, with some edits.

SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy
Genre(s): Fighting Rating(s): Teen Platform(s): Nintendo Switch PlayStation 4 Steam Arcade Release Date: PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch: September 6, 2018 (Japan) September 7, 2018 (Worldwide) Arcade: October 11, 2018 (Japan) Steam: February 21, 2019 Developer(s): SNK Abstraction Games (Nintendo Switch) Taito (Arcade) Publisher(s): SNK Country: Japan Series: Various SNK games Predecessor: SNK Gals' Fighters

SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy (SNKヒロインズ Tag Team Frenzy) is a fighting game and a spiritual successor to SNK Gals' Fighters.

Not-So Queenly Qualities

1. This game was supposed to be a sequel, but it failed to execute how pointless this game was, not to mention, that it feels somewhat of a hentai or a pornographic fighting game, which explains the pointers below.
2. The main roster looks unfinished because they have only 14 characters (18 characters if counted as DLC), which makes buying this game a waste of money, since there is very little content, even Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, another fighting game, has an incredible amount of content like more fighters, stages, spirits, etc.
   • More insulting is SNK's previous game: KOF XIV had 50 characters since day one.
     • Most of these characters are rehashed from The King of Fighters XIV (Shermie, Janne D' Arc from World Heroes and the guest characters are the exception). The roster could had easily had more characters (fan-favorites, too!) considering SNK's history rather than just rehashing KOF XIV, such as Ángel, Vanessa, Hibiki Takane, Blue Mary, Hotaru Futaba, Charlotte, Shiki, Iroha, Fio Germi, etc.
3. The gameplay leaves a lot to be desired, it's also foolish and dull, and also they are one of the few fighting games where your character (if not all) cannot duck, which is unacceptable in a fighting game, there are fighting games like Street Fighter where you can dodge.
4. Plus, in order to win a match, you HAVE to KO with a super move, which is dumb on its own, but the game makes it more annoying than necessary.
   • The auto meter fill is not fast enough to reliably get a super, especially when your regular special moves consume meter, limiting what you can do at that time.
   • When at 0 health, the opponent will constantly enter stun, meaning that trying to build up anything even resembling a combo to gain meter won't work. This all adds up to just extend matches longer than needed.
5. The story is weird, ludicrous, and awkward; Since the girls were kidnapped by a mysterious man (later revealed to be Kukri) and they are taken to a mansion where they watch everything with security cameras, then the girls wake up with some bikini clothes on and others, and even have a fight tournament with among her friends, it which one would you imagine from this, which in particular looks like it was made by a sick, perverted college student, but at least it's not that disturbing but it's still ludicrous.
6. As an extra kick in the balls, this game completely destroys the characterization of Kukri given by KoF XIV, turning the character from an intriguing and mysterious figure into a creepy, idiotic pervert who is impossible to take seriously.
   • Plot Hole: How did Shermie meet Kula and Nakoruru if she was dead since KOF 97?
7. Awfully forgettable and generic soundtrack, since it seems like it was horrendous J-Pop, they would have made the soundtrack a bit more catchy but it still sounds mediocre, they are so generic you will quickly forget it in your mind.
   • To add insult to injury most of the character songs are weak remixes from their original themes that are actually good by themselves, this is something incomprehensible coming from SNK which usually makes great soundtracks for their games.
8. There are only seven stages to fight on. Blade Strangers with a smaller file size 4GB cart on the Switch version and a lower budget had around 15 stages to fight on at launch!
9. The graphics in this game are terrible, ugly, and unpolished. Although they are colorful, the problem is that it is outdated in particular, as if they were from the PlayStation 2 or Gamecube era or a 3D mobile game despite using the same engine from KOF XIV. The special effects leave a little to be desired, and the faces of the fighters look horrendous and look like they're wrinkled and your eyes bleed after seeing them. Even Fortnite, a Battle Royale video game, and Multiversus, a game similar to Super Smash Bros. (though came out nearly 6 years later) have better faces than this, the backgrounds don't look very beautiful and they are dull to see, compared to other SNK games.
   • To put salt on the wound, Samurai Shodown (2019) a year later looked a lot better with beautiful graphics than this one.
10. They add two pointless guest characters (examples: Thief Arthur and Skullomania) when there's "SNK" in the title, who does that?
11. False advertising: On the Gematsu website it said, An Iconic Cast of SNK's Female Characters! – Choose from a generous roster of female heroines from the SNK universe! Instead, we got a couple of characters from KoF XIV, plus Terry and It's a small roster.
    • Also they made a game as "Canon" when it says "Dream Match" in the trailer, which is questionable.
    • Also they said that the Switch port was going to be 60FPS and showed 60FPS gameplay via the Nintendo Direct only to be the polar opposite. (See GQ#14 for more details.)
12. They put gender-bent male characters (examples: Terry Bogard and it's guest character: Skullomania).
    • However, the gender-bend Skullomania in this game is actually the same as his male version from Fighting EX Layer that appears in his dream if you see the ending.
13. Several girls were nerfed and/or lost moves compared to their KOF XIV versions.
14. The Nintendo Switch version is absolutely horrendous, if not outright the worst version of this game.
    • Unlike the price of the PS4 version, the Nintendo Switch version is unacceptably priced and costing a whopping $50 as the game has very little content, it would have been more appropriate to put $20 or less.
    • Also, this is the only way to get a physical version since the physical copies of PS4 version were released only in Japan and other East Asian countries, though you can import it from PlayAsia.
    • Choppy and unstable frame rate and optimization is poor, as unsurprisingly this horrendous version was made by nothing more and nothing less than Abstraction Games which made the infamous Switch port of Ark: Survival Evolved, no kidding. The game is not only 30FPS, most of it runs at less than 25FPS, at worst 0FPS. It is also worth mentioning that this port is so poorly made, this makes this version absolutely terrible and at worst, unplayable.
      • To put salt on the wound, there are games on Switch like Samurai Shodown (2019) also published by SNK and ported by Safari Games on the same system using Unreal Engine 4 with more demanding PC version system requirements, this version has an awesome optimization and a solid frame rate, since it is mostly a 60 FPS target like a typical 2.5D fighting game would be, and it is much better than this atrocity. Abstraction Games did not even bother to make the Switch port good.

Queenly Qualities

1. The artwork looks beautiful, being done by the same artist who did the character design for KOF XIV.
2. Despite being canon to The King of Fighters series, they brought Shermie back since Verse was defeated from the last game. She will return alongside Yashiro and Chris in The King of Fighters XV.
3. The female fighters' designs look very attractive, creative, and great (especially Shermie, Terry, Love Heart, etc.) and easily stands out from other SNK games of its time, despite the terrible graphics and the aforementioned issue with the faces.
4. Some girls regained moves from previous games (for example: Nakoruru regained her Kamui Risse from Samurai Shodown V).
5. They brought back two SNK characters like Miss X from SNK Gals' Fighters.
   • Jeanne D'Arc from the cult game World Heroes as well who, not counting SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash DS, had not been seen since World Heroes Perfect in 1995.
6. Althrough somewhat lackluster compared to other fighting games you can customize your character with accessories and costumes, just to provide fanservice.

Trivia

• The Heroines version of Leona Heidern also appears in Metal Slug Attack who first introduced in "Begin Training" extra ops event along with a MSA newcomer named "Kelly". Sadly, the continuation of the "Begin Training" didn't happened in this game as well as Kelly neither appeared, nor mentioned.
• Female Terry is often used in merchandise to this day, mainly figures.

Reception

Despite mixed reviews from critics and even users too, everyone have agreed that the game was downright awful and was a major disappointment to the SNK Gals and King of Fighters franchises.

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