- When Crystal Dynamics were working on the Samurai Shodown port, they were told by SNK to "dumb down" the port so that it wouldn't compete with the Neo Geo versions.
- Specifically, they wanted Crystal Dynamics to remove the scaling, and/or cut 1-2 characters.
- However, Crystal Dynamics didn't do so, and intentionally put out what they believed to be an arcade-perfect port in defiance of SNK.
- This angered SNK quite a bit (I think the exact word was "pissed") and, as a result, a contract that they had to port another Neo Geo game (King of Fighters? Fatal Fury?) was nullified. Ergo, no more SNK games for 3DO.
The thing is, I can't find this interview/feature/whatever-it-was anywhere. I've looked through my search history, but can't find it. Nor have any Google searches paid off.
The only possibility I can think of is that maybe it was attached to this big Naughty Dog feature, and then later redacted for some reason. As that article says, Naughty Dog was being wooed by Crystal Dynamics to use their Way of the Warrior engine for Samurai Shodown. But I could swear that what I read was specifically a Crystal Dynamics retrospective that mentioned this.
I also checked a few different forum posts that talk about Gregg Tavares's revelation that the original Neo Geo version of Samurai Shodown resolves a clinch using a RNG, despite the fact that the game tells you to mash the buttons. I feel like I found this Crystal Dynamics feature around the same time.
I also think ewhac and gammadev allude to the possibility in one of their Let's Play videos, but I don't think I got this factoid from them (did I?).
Does anyone know what I'm talking about, and where I read this? I'm beginning to wonder if I'm imagining things!
![Shocked :shock:](./images/smilies/icon_eek.gif)