Tatsuhiko Kanaoka

History

Tatsuhiko Kanaoka, who goes by his pseudonym Falcoon, is a well-known Japanese character artist and designer. Falcoon drew attention as a self-taught fan artist whose work was extremely polished. While he took inspiration from a number of anime and video games, he seemed particularly fond of fighting games, drawing characters from the King of Fighters, Tekken, Street Fighter, and Guilty Gear series among others.

Falcoon amassed such a following that soon SNK took notice, hiring him in 1998 shortly before becoming SNK Playmore. He went on to lend his talents to a number of King of Fighters games, drawing character art for the most part. He is perhaps most famous for his alternative character designs for the Maximum Impact series, designing new costumes for many of the revered characters in SNK's stable. This was notable because many of these characters had not seen official redesigns in over a decade, and due to the generally poor reaction to its gameplay, this ended up being one of the biggest draws of the game. He is somewhat divisive in the SNK fan community. Many praise his detailed artwork, while others criticize it for being overwrought and out of sync with past SNK designs.
 
Perhaps due to the suspension/cancellation of the Maximum Impact series, Falcoon left SNK Playmore sometime in 2008 or 2009.