Survivor League '94

**Survivor League '94** was the first game of the Survivor League series, and was released on October 25, 1994 on the Data East ARM6 arcade hardware. The game was ported to the Super Nintendo CD in Japan and North America, and the Sega CD (via Mega Booster) in North America and Europe in 1995. A Game Boy game based on Survivor League '94 was also released.

## Development

In an interview with veteran developers of the series -which included former SNK employees C.A.C Yamasaki and Mitsuo Kodama- they claim that while at SNK, their prototype version for Survivor League was going to be a side-scrolling beat 'em up titled *Survivor*. In this version, it would only use core characters from the *Art of Fighting* and *Fatal Fury* series, specifically allowing players to play characters like Robert Garcia and Terry Bogard for location testing. However, the idea was eventually abandoned. Since they were attached to the idea of the two series cross-over, they eventually agreed to make their idea into a fighting game. Characters from *Ikari Warriors* and *Psycho Soldier* games were also added in spirit of other gaming genres considered for their final product. The concept of a three-man team was one of the ideas kept from the side-scrolling version.

Initially, Toyohisa Tanabe's, the flagship director, original plans were to add newer characters to aim towards the younger and newer audiences as his assertion was that the *Art of Fighting* and *Fatal Fury* fighters only appealed to adults. He would also allow the developers to make their own original character for the series based on their strong desire. For example, he would agree to include characters such as Benimaru and Chang to add an off-beat variety to the cast, which he
previously deemed to be too serious before. Although the game's primary focus was to create a dream match between *Fatal Fury* and *Art of Fighting* (respectively basing SL on *Fatal Fury Special* and *Art of Fighting 2*), the main protagonist of the game was to be Kyo, a young martial artist with flammable powers. However, the new bosses at the then-newly merged SNK Takara were against the idea as they insist that the game should be a full-fledged company crossover fighting game. .

Unhappy with their SNK Takara's decision of making their project a full crossover, Tanabe and several other developers left the company and took their idea and their characters (minus Rugal Bernstein) to Data East, who showed interested in their idea. Although Kyo was developed to be the main protagonist of the franchise, the game's primary focus was to create a dream match of Data East titles *Bad Dudes Vs. DragonNinja*, *Bloody Wolf*, *Diet Go! Go!* and *Fighter's History*. These contradictory ideals eventually lead to the concept that the player decided who the "true" protagonist was for this year. Kyo's role in the series was emphasized in the following year.

## Gameplay

Similar to SNK's *Neo-Geo Fighting Coliseum*, the game includes elimination battles between teams of three people. If one of the members is defeated by one of the other team's members, the next member will come in to fight the winner, and will go on until all three members of one team is defeated.

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## Characters

.Old Characters (from earlier Data East franchises):

* Jim Blade - From *Bad Dudes Vs DragonNinja*
* Theo Striker - From *Bad Dudes Vs DragonNinja*
* Ralf Snake - From *Bloody Wolf*
* Clark Eagle - From *Bloody Wolf*
* Asina Alameya - From *Diet Go! Go!*
* Sue Genso - From *Diet Go! Go!*
* Ray McDougal - From *Fighter's History*
* Makoto Mizoguchi - From *Fighter's History*
* Samchay Tomyamgun - From *Fighter's History*
* Liu Feilin - From *Fighter's History*
* Ryoko Kano - From *Fighter's History*
* Liu Yungmie - From *Fighter's History Dynamite*

New Characters:

* Tacoma Garcez
* Cage
* Heidern
* Choi Bounge
* Chang Koehan
* Chin Gentsai
* Heavy D!
* Lucky Glauber
* Brian Battler
* Regal Burnstein
* Kyo Kusanagi
* Benimaru Nikaido
* Goro Daimon
* Saisyu Kusanagi

## Teams

* Japan Team (A.K.A Hero Team): Kyo Kusanagi, Benimaru Nikaido and Goro Daimon
* Mexico Team (A.K.A Bad Dudes Team): Jim Blade, Theo Striker and Tacoma Garcez
* Brazil Team (A.K.A Bloody Wolf Team): Heidern, Ralf Snake and Clark Eagle
* England Team (A.K.A Women Fighters Team): Cage, Liu Feilin and Ryoko Kano
* Italy Team (A.K.A Fighter's History Team): Ray McDougal, Makoto Mizoguchi and Samchay Tomyamgun
* Korea Team (A.K.A Kim Team): Liu Yungmie, Choi Bounge and Chang Koehan
* China Team (A.K.A Diet Go! Go! Team): Asina Alameya, Sue Genso and Chin Gentsai
* U.S.A. Team (A.K.A American Sports Team): Heavy D!, Lucky Glauber and Brian Battler