In the 1990s, due to the booming home console market, Japan's arcade machine market entered an unprecedented period of depression. Many famous arcade machine manufacturers either disappeared from the industry or fell into a trough. The emergence of piracy and emulators made SNK's life difficult. Due to the lack of support from third-party software vendors and the limited variety of fighting games, the handheld NGP and NGPC caused a huge disaster. In addition, the company overestimated its own strength. After only 6 months, it couldn't wait to launch NGPC after NGP, enter the 3D game industry, launch entertainment venues and other industries unrelated to games. As a result, SNK suffered a huge deficit. However, at this time, KOF2000 was launched.

Usually SNK triggers a new round of fighting craze every summer, but this time, KOF2000 is late! It wasn't until winter that "The King of Fighters 2000" appeared. KOF2000 is the last work of SNK's authentic KOF series, and it is also the last work of Mori Kelou, the character designer of The King of Fighters. It seems that he has planned to say goodbye to fans. KOF2000 is full of familiar figures, and the excellent graphics make people unable to believe that this is still a work using a 16-bit baseboard for more than ten years.

At the end of 2000, SNK’s debt reached 38 billion yen. In order to survive in the industry, SNK had no choice but to let ARUZE, the famous Japanese pachinko industry giant, acquire 51's shares for 5 billion yen and become a subsidiary of ARUZE. However, the arcade market is still sluggish, and SNK's development is restricted by ARUZE. Finally, SNK decided not to sit still and wait for death. In April 2001, SNK applied to the Osaka District Court for "re-registration", hoping to re-register a new independent company under the name "SNK" in order to completely get rid of the shadow of ARUZE. But unfortunately, the Osaka District Court rejected SNK’s application. At this time, SNK was in a rather embarrassing situation: ARUZE executives were furious! SNK immediately applied to the Osaka District Court for "civil rehabilitation procedures", which is bankruptcy protection. If successful, creditors will be temporarily unable to collect debts from SNK, so that the company can get a breathing space. However, on October 1, 2001, the Osaka District Court ruthlessly rejected SNK's application again. "SNK officially declared bankruptcy and immediately sold off all inventory and all entertainment venues under its name to repay debts." SNK has since withdrawn from the stage of history. The last time Master Mori drew for SNK, his name was KOF FOREVER.

From being acquired by ARUZE to going bankrupt, many players lamented this. However, no one thought at the time that this was just the beginning of a "conspiracy" by SNK's President Kawasaki.

Shortly after "throwing itself into the arms" of ARUZE, SNK proposed investing in South Korea. Due to the trust of ARUZE executives in SNK, the request was approved, and SNK secretly established a small company in South Korea (i.e. Later, SNK NEOGEO KOREA), it was Nagano, the head of SNK's sales department, who served as the company's president. SNK also transferred all game copyrights and character portrait rights as well as the "NEOGEO" trademark rights to this company. The second step of Kawasaki's "conspiracy" is completed.

In April 2001, SNK filed for "civil rebirth" with the Osaka Court, but failed and declared bankruptcy in October. When the news came, arcade players were in mourning. However, Kawasaki thought of ways to exploit legal loopholes before going bankrupt.

In July 2001, Kawasaki invested with the capital that ARUZE originally entrusted SNK to invest in South Korea, as well as the funds obtained from outsourcing "The King of Fighters 2001" and "The King of Fighters 2002" to the famous Korean arcade manufacturer EOLITH. As start-up capital, PLAYMORE company was formally established and bought back SNK's office building from the bankrupt original SNK, which had transferred all the character and game copyrights. The three SNK theme parks have also become properties of Sun Amusement, a subsidiary of PLAYMORE.

(It is not difficult to see here that SNK’s so-called “sale of assets” is nothing more than Kawasaki transferring these assets from the left hand to the right hand.) The main former SNK employees have returned to Kawasaki’s account. The first step of the resurrection plan, "Escape from the Golden Cicada", was officially completed. Tens of billions of yen of debt were all thrown to ARUZE.

Here, I would like to mention that due to the great relationship that SNK had with many Korean companies during its rebirth, as well as the erroneous reports of many domestic media, as well as the reasons that will be mentioned later, Many people who don't know the truth mistakenly believe that PLAYMORE is a Korean company, and are repelled by the games it produces.

"The King of Fighters 2001" was released by SNK on the eve of its bankruptcy. It was a game produced by EOLITH, which once caused an uproar among players. EOLITH was not familiar with the functions of MVS, and the game's graphics became extremely rough and the colors were dull. Huang, the music production was rough and unpalatable. At the same time, due to the departure of Senqilou, the style of the new artist (NONO) was very different from before. The character design of KOF2001 changed from realistic to exaggerated style. Systematically, team battles have changed again, from the fixed three players in the first two games with one person supporting them to a player who can freely decide how many people will play and how many people will support them. The quality of the game is very low, and characters such as Bao and Kula have extremely simple infinite connections. Many players are disgusted with EOLITH, and KOF2001 has become the worst game in the series.

In March of the following year, the first game "Metal Slug 4" under the name of PLAYMORE was released. It was produced by PLAYMORE's Noise Factory, which had participated in the production of "Sengoku Legacy 3", and South Korea's Mega Enterprise* **Co-produced and published by PLAYMORE. The production quality of the game is also very poor. There is a huge gap with the previous work, which is known as the highest work in the series. Because of this, players generally expressed dissatisfaction with PLAYMORE.

In the autumn of 2002, after summing up the lessons learned from the disgusting KOF2001, PLAYMORE and EOLITH brought "The King of Fighters 2002" to players. The game has canceled the support system that was widely criticized by players and returned to the past 3 vs. 3 battle mode, which makes people feel like they are back in the KOF'98 era. And the plot is just like '98, it's a big brawl without a story, so in this game you can see the Orochi Eight Masters and NESTS's Kula, K9999 and others performing a good show of "Guan Gong vs. Qin Qiong". The producers have carried forward the SUPER CANCEL system, allowing certain characters to form more and more fierce combos (the biggest beneficiary is Kusanagi Kyo). There is a new "Hidden Overkill" that can be activated when the health is reduced to a quarter and there are more than two air gauges. It is very powerful, but unfortunately most people's uses are useless. The biggest drawback is that the picture is still poor and gray. The music also sounds like a strong plastic smell. Despite this, KOF 2002 was well received in both China and Japan due to its relatively good balance and the large-scale production of the return of old and new characters, and finally saved some face for the embarrassing situation in which the KOF series has been deteriorating since 1999.