Wasabi (Character Designer) – Goddammmmmmn, I’m exhausted! Goodnight. If they come to me now asking for a third game… ugh, I don’t even want to think about it. Kohyan (Planner/Producer) – “ I hate Athena!” That’s what I thought when, right after the first game, it was decided that we’d have to start working on this sequel. We had far fewer colors available then, too. Pixel art was much more crude then: for instance, if her bust was too big by even a single pixel, it would make her legs look too stubby. SNK: Once we started doing conceptual illustrations, we decided on her look relatively quickly: “let’s go with this!” But converting that to a sprite was more difficult. Did you have trouble translating her design onto the game screen? He’s the guy who made the shmup ASO (Alpha Mission), after all. The planner of Athena loves games with “upgrade” systems. SNK: Athena is a game where you power-up your armor as you get stronger, so a costume like that was necessary for the game design. Probably he just loves pretty girls! -Her bikini costume made quite an impression, too. SNK: The idea mainly came from the planner, who had been thinking for awhile about making a game like that.

Back then, arcade games with female protagonists were fairly rare.

Athena snk