Metal Slug is remembered as an SNK game, but SNK did not make it. Retro Gamer put it plainly in 2007: the game “was not created by SNK but rather a little-known group called Nazca, formed from ex-Irem members”. Nazca made two games for SNK’s Neo Geo in 1996, a golf game and a run-and-gun shooter about a tank. SNK’s founder liked the second so much that he bought the studio before the year was out.
Fast facts
- Founded: 1994, according to Japanese trade-press reports cited by Wikipedia, by former staff of Irem.
- Base: Osaka Prefecture, Japan (Wikipedia gives Suita).
- Games: Neo Turf Masters and Metal Slug, both 1996, both published by SNK for the Neo Geo.
- Ended: bought by SNK in 1996. The team went on to make the Metal Slug sequels at SNK.
Out of Irem
Nazca’s staff came from Irem, the Osaka company behind R-Type. In 1993 Irem released In the Hunt, an underwater shoot-’em-up with a submarine, and Wireframe names its team as Nazca’s founders. Then Irem stopped: Retro Gamer reported that its management “ordered all game production to be abandoned in 1994”, and Irem did not restart until a new company took over its development team in 1997.
When the team left is where public sources disagree. Wikipedia, citing the Japanese trade paper Game Machine, dates Nazca’s formation to 1994, after Irem cut back its game development. Wireframe’s 2019 history of Irem instead describes “an exodus of talent around 1997, as a team of developers who worked on the shooter In The Hunt left to form their own studio: called Nazca”. The 1994 date fits the rest of the record: Irem’s games had stopped that year, and Nazca’s first two games were on sale in 1996, before Wireframe’s date.
Retro Gamer‘s review of the Metal Slug Anthology traced the family resemblance between the two companies’ games. Irem titles “like Undercover Cop, Gunforce 2 … and Kaitei Daisensou” (the Japanese title of In the Hunt) look like Metal Slug because the same people drew them. It credited the sprites and animation to an artist known only as Akio and the backgrounds to one known as Susumu, and said the lead designer of Undercover Cops at Irem, Meeher, became one of the lead designers at Nazca. A Capcom programmer, Hamachan, joined after working on Street Fighter Alpha.
Metal Slug
Metal Slug reached arcades on SNK’s Neo Geo MVS hardware in 1996, and the home Neo Geo version followed; Retro Gamer dates that release to 24 May 1996 and credits it to Nazca. The player runs and guns through a cartoon war, freeing prisoners and climbing into the Metal Slug, a small, agile tank.
In a 1996 interview in the Japanese magazine Neo Geo Freak, later translated into English, the developers described how the tank became the game’s centrepiece: “That was when we hit upon the idea for the tanks. Then, once we made them jump, crouch, and move around, they started to seem like living creatures.” They wanted “everything on screen to be immediately and easily understandable, with just a glance”, and said that “the thing we probably paid the most attention to was making sure all the characters felt alive.”
Bought by SNK
SNK was struggling in 1996, and Metal Slug sold slowly outside Japan. SNK’s founder still wanted the team. Retro Gamer wrote that Eikichi Kawasaki “liked the game so much that he bought the company”, in order to secure the sequels. Wikipedia, citing Game Machine of 15 October 1996, has Nazca becoming an SNK subsidiary that year.
The team’s work continued under SNK’s name, with Metal Slug 2 in 1998 and further sequels after it. For the rest of that story, see Metal Slug and SNK.
Sources
- Mike Bevan, “The making of R-Type Delta”, Retro Gamer issue 51, 2008, p. 71: Irem’s game production abandoned in 1994.
- “Remembering Irem”, Wireframe issue 18, July 2019, pp. 50–51: In the Hunt’s team leaving Irem “around 1997” to form Nazca, later known for Metal Slug, published by SNK.
- Retro Gamer issue 34, 2007, Metal Slug Anthology review, p. 86: Nazca “formed from ex-Irem members”; the Irem titles that resemble Metal Slug; Akio, Susumu, Meeher and Hamachan.
- Retro Gamer issue 39, 2007, pp. 76–77, Neo Geo history: Eikichi Kawasaki of SNK; SNK’s difficulties in 1996; Metal Slug “made by Nazca”, released to arcades in 1996; Kawasaki buying the company; the game’s slow sales in America and Europe.
- Retro Gamer Collection vol. 2, 2008, p. 244, SNK history: Kawasaki “bought Nazca in order to secure the sequels”.
- Retro Gamer issue 116, July 2013, “retro diary”: Metal Slug released by Nazca on the Neo Geo home console on 24 May 1996.
- “Metal Slug – 1996 Developer Interview”, Neo Geo Freak, October 1996, translated by shmuplations.com (web, secondary). https://shmuplations.com/metalslug/
- Wikipedia, “Nazca Corporation” (web, secondary): formation in 1994 and SNK subsidiary in 1996, citing Game Machine (Japan) no. 470, 15 April 1994, and no. 528, 15 October 1996; location in Suita, Osaka; Metal Slug 2 in 1998. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazca_Corporation
- Wikipedia, “Neo Turf Masters” (web, secondary): developed by Nazca, published by SNK, 1996. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo_Turf_Masters