released by SNK. Athena was the featured character on a 'Neoprint' photo printing machine for a while. Reception The character of Athena has been very popular within gamers; in the character popularity poll on Neo Geo Freak's website in 2000, she was voted as the tenth favorite character with a total of 1,020 votes. Japanese magazine Gamest ranked Athena at No. 3 in the list of Top 50 Characters of 1994. In June 2018 it was revealed Athena would become a virtual Youtuber retaining Haruna Ikezawa's voice. Athena's transformation into a virtual Youtuber has been noted to be as sign of high popularity of both the character and the company that created her, SNK. In 2018, Athena was voted as the eighth most popular Neo Geo character. Two of the characters from Crystalis are subtle nods to Athena and Kensou; the latter two sages, Asina and Kensu. Den of Geek had mixed thoughts about her character, praising the way she changes outfits in every game and fighting style but criticized her spin-offs and association. Various video games publications have commented on Athena's character, which has received mixed responses. GamesRadar acclaimed Athena and Sie Kensou in their first appearance, Psycho Soldier, for being one of the first characters to have their own theme songs which The King of Fighters would remix multiple times across its titles. PSPMinis found Athena's relationship with the goddess nonsensical and attributes that players would not have knowledge about it if it were not for the internet because the game does not provide information for this. The IGN staff commented that Athena's introductions in the first The King of Fighters seemed a parody of Chun-Li from the Street Fighter series as she wears a similar school outfit. In another review, the writers from IGN noted Athena's skill as an assistant character (named "Striker") to heal characters during fights in The King of Fighters '99 to be one of the best of the game although it has to be used carefully as it is limited. When she was announced to appear in Capcom vs. SNK 2, David Smith from IGN praised her addition to the game but was confused about from what game Athena was going to be based as she has several incarnations. In a bigger note about The King of Fighters franchise, Den of Geek found the relationship between Athena and Kensou as dated because the