By Kurt Kalata

As a company, SNK has had one hell of a history. Beginning in the way early 80s, they found moderate success as an arcade developer with games like Psycho Soldier, POW and Ikari Warriors. As the 90s came about, so did the Neo Geo, and SNK developed a lust for fighting games. The years crept on, and while the gaming market evolved, SNK did not. They died at the end of the millenium, only to be reborn a few years later as SNK Playmore. Since then, they've been fighting the good fight, recapturing much of the spirit of the old SNK, even if their output isn't nearly as high. Alas, even though they've been producing some quality titles, not everyone is keen on buying and rebuying installmenets of The King of Fighters and Metal Slug. It's here where some executive must have finally logged on to the internet, and realized that there's an astounding amount of porn based on SNK characters. No company in their right mind would make an official hentai game (although that didn't stop Gainax and their smutty Evangelion calender, but that's a whole different), but instead they did the next "best" thing: they reimagined The King of Fighters as a dating sim. The dating sim is a bit blurry to most non-Japanese gamers, because they're almost never localized. Days of Memories is not a simulation game Tokimeki Memorial, nor is it a straight visual novel like so many erotic PC games that swarm of the shelves of ever on the upper levels of every anime store in Akihabara. Still, the gameplay - if one can call it that - is quite simple. Every day, you wake up and chat with some of your friends. In the middle of the day, you're given a map of the town. Thanks to some kind of crazy super stalker technology, you're given the exact location of each of your potential suitors, where you can drop in and chat. Most of this just involves reading - occasionally there's some minimal user input when you need to respond to a question, but that's about the gist of it. After a set number of days, the game ends, and you're presented with a quiz before you can successfully "win", where you're rewarded with a brief epilogue.Each character usually has very specific win conditions, requiring that you show up on the right time and say the right thing, or else you'll end up with some generic (or worse, heartbroken) finale. The crux of the game revolves around discovering each of the paths, and playing through multiple times to see all of the endings. There are also a variety of special cutscenes triggered by specific events - the goal is naturally to unlock all of them. These would be heavily XXX rated if these were porn games, but most of these scenes are fairly innocuous, with characters showing off a bit of cleavage, with a small number of total cheesecake shots. The big draw, of course, is that each of the games stars a number of SNK characters. Each game stars at least a half a dozen heroines (and, in the case of the fourth chapter, heroes), from a whole ton of different SNK games, including The King of Fighters, Metal Slug, Samurai Shodown, Last Blade, and others. Like many other dating sims, one of the biggest draws is seeing the characters in other outfits - you get to see King in a classy dress, or Mai decked out in full ninja gear, or practically all of them in either swimwear or sailor uniforms. It's also particularly interesting in the way it melds the cast of the Maximum Impact series. Since the beginning of the series, each entry in The King of Fighters had carried some unique distinction due to its artist. This was mostly lost in the Maximum Impact games - even though the characters were designed by Falcoon, one of the many SNK regular artists, all of the ingame and manual artwork were CG renders, leaving them at a great distance from their 2D cousins. One has to wonder how well these flamboyant newcomers would fare in a sprite form (probable answer: pretty well, as least when stacked next to recent characters like Ash), but Days of Memories features these characters - Luise, Mignon, Ninon, Alba - with handdrawn artwork, which is refreshing to see. There are currently eight chapters in the Days of Memories series. Each of these episodes were originally designed for Japanese cellphones, but many have been ported to the Nintendo DS. The first Days of Memories DS release contains chapters one through three; the second release contains chapters four through six. The DS versions include nicer graphics due to the greatly expanded resolution, as well as a slightly better interface, but it's still nothing too fancy.

Days of Memories

Days of Memories

Days of Memories

Days of Memories

This one stars Athena, Kasumi, B. Jenet, King, Mai, Yuri, Leona and Kula, in addition to a new male character, Kyoya.

Days of Memories

Days of Memories

Days of Memories

Days of Memories

Days of Memories

This one stars Hotaru, Kisarah (from Agressors of Dark Kombat), Fio (from Metal Slug), Chizuru, Mature and Blue Mary. There's also a new character at the forefront - Shizuku, a red eyed, white haired girl who works as a bartender.

Days of Memories

Days of Memories

Days of Memories

Days of Memories

Days of Memories

This one stars Hotaru, Kisarah (from Agressors of Dark Kombat), Fio (from Metal Slug), Chizuru, Mature and Blue Mary. There's also a new character at the forefront - Shizuku, a red eyed, white haired girl who works as a bartender.

Days of Memories