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If you live outside of South Korea, there's a good chance you've never heard of the Sango Fighter series.
Developed by Taiwanese company Panda Entertainment, it took the kind of one-on-one combat seen in titles like Samurai Shodown and Street Fighter and set it in the context of China's legendary Three Kingdoms period ("Sango" is a romanisation of "Three Kingdoms").
The original Sango Fighter arrived on MS-DOS computers in 1993, and its sequel would follow in 1995. Both games were popular in Taiwan and South Korea, and it's in the latter territory that their legacy is being celebrated in a pretty unique way.
The second game has been selected as one of only 40 video games to be placed in a permanent exhibition in South Korea's Nexon Computer Museum. Commercially popular in the country, it was nominated by several of Nexon's staff for the exhibit, titled “Players: Don’t Die, Keep Up!”
Super Fighter Team gained the rights to Panda Entertainment's software catalogue back in 2009, and it was the company's founder, Brandon Cobb, who got in touch to alert me to this event.
"When the museum contacted us for permission to include the game, we were shocked and thrilled," says Cobb. "It's a huge honour for us, but all the glory goes to the original development team in Taiwan, many of whom are now personal friends of mine. It's the first time Sango Fighter 2 has been officially made available as an arcade unit, for people from across the world to enjoy. We couldn't be happier, and I plan on visiting the museum myself later this year to check it out and thank the staff in person."
Thankfully, you don't have to travel all the way to South Korea to see what the fuss is about – Super Fighter Team has made Sango Fighter 2 free to download from its website.