There’s a nice roundup of all versions of Jojo on hardcoregaming101 for those who don’t know exactly the differences between the numerous versions. Too bad there isn’t an unofficial translated version of the jap DC game. I’d really like to see more Vs games with something similar to “stands”, it sure was a winning concept to pass that idea from comics to vg.
As for Warzard, you stole the words out of my mouth: it is underrated, some see it as experimental, but being released in 96, in fact it was using a concept seen in two earlier games: Monster Maulers (93) and Metamoqester (95). A limited number of playable fighters battling in “versus style” giant non-playable enemies. I wonder if there is a consensus as to consider monster maulers and metamoqester 2d fighting games due to their specificity, but they sure are underrated as well.
Cool thing Capcom made two Warzard nonplayable enemies finally playable in “Capcom fighting jam” !
There’s a LOT of games like that, that are supposedly relatively good but then disappear. Like Aquapazza, Chaos Code, and uh…Xuan Dou Zhi Wang…or whatever that Chinese KOF-style game was that I have NO IDEA whatever the hell happened to it.
What I’ve been wondering about lately with VF is how is it that a series with a even worse stigma surrounding it (DOA) can actually gain good traction in Cali and parts of the East Coast while VF seems like it can’t. It it simply because the latter series has seen new releases 95 and 5U, which helped make it a staple in WNF)? Greater support from the developers (which I don’t think is the case, considering that both have official tournaments and that Sega’s been doing it longer)? Or is one community just more aggressive when pushing their game over the other (I will give it to the DOA guys that they do put out alot of content for their game)?
I believe he means that the games should play in 2D.
IIRC, SNK was supposedly looking for talent to help them put out 3D graphics that looked like 2D animation. That seems to be the trend these days, first with Xrd and now with Sega’s Blade Arcus.
The VF situation is easy to understand if you look at the series history holistically.
VF 1 and 2 were big flagship Saturn titles we all know the Saturn was a huge massive failure. to the point where its arguable that unless the DC did PS2 numbers it wouldn’t have saved Sega from the spot the Saturn put it in anyway (basically that’s what happened).
Few people know about the Saturn even fewer owned one. There isn’t a big huge core franchise fanbase that’s going to always nostalgia trip over the game like other fighting game titles have.
Sega would do well to reboot the whole franchise or scrap the vf name and launch a new franchise. Most people see VF5 and think “iv’e never heard of the other 4 they must have sucked” Theres no point in attaching yourself to that branding when the only game that was successful in the home console market was vf4 and that was a decade ago.
I still say that if Bernie Stolar wasn’t so stupid, the Saturn would have performed better.
The Virtua Fighter series isn’t advertised well enough. Casuals don’t wanna play it/don’t know the games are out there and FGC people are usually playing something else.
The Tekken franchise, in comparison, had Sony helping to put word out there for the system (The PS3 had a trailer of Tekken 6 running back when videos of the PS3 were first being shown), and Namco got also got a random Snoop cameo for no reason.
The biggest reason it failed was its price. 400 bucks. That might not seem much to kids today with how much recent consoles cost, but back then it was unheard of (aside from Neo Geo, 3do, systems only owned by kids with trust funds). PSX and N64 were much cheaper.
Anyways Virtua fighter was popular in the arcades, I mean it was the first 3d fighter. So people who were around back at the time of Saturn would be familiar with it anyways.
quality of the graphics should never have more emphasis than the quality of the overall game. If using 3d models allows for better balance because tweaking the moves is simpler, better patches, easier updates to a new build, improved networked matchmaking
eplay everyone should be up for that even if it means “worse” graphics.
dbz
aruto games look fantastic coming from a 2d realm to existing in 3d models. If it can look that good for dbz
aruto, I’m sure capcom\snk can use the same process for their games. Its just for w\e reason, Capcom\snk don’t do a particularly great job on 3d models for fighters. Imagine ryu\ken from their alpha drawings rendered into 3d models done properly like in the dbz games. Those alpha sprites have that anime feel to it and I really think it would look fantastic if done properly.
the difference is that naruto and dbz have unlimited animation references and battles from the TV shows and movies. game developers can easily copy those moves and render them in 3D.
Capcom should hire some animation artists from their other franchises like RE and DmC to work on SF. Results would be as good as VF and Tekken. Cant believe they insist on those models for so many years.
I hope someone that does the DBZ games does the models for a capcom game.
Vsav deserves to be mentioned because despite it being a capcom game, despite it having one of the most publicized faces that make it into ALL of their versus games and hasn’t missed one yet (Morrigan), its still a niche title. Even now on GGPO i am lucky to find someone to play with because the 10 people that do play it decided to sign on to ggpo and GO FUCKING AFK.
Why in the hell would you want the team behind the animations of DmC, a game with the most bland mocap that can’t even dream to achieve what the original DMC had?
+1 for the Samurai Shodown series, but especially 5S. Solid game, great atmosphere, and the number of cool characters is staggering. But the series as a whole doesn’t get enough love despite the fact that, IMO, it’s the best thing SNK has ever done (and yes, I mean better than KoF, which is good, but not as good as SS.)
Hyper Fighting doesn’t get enough love either. I like ST and all, but I think HF was really the last great SF2 game.
BlazBlue is another one. Great game, but I think because of how anime it is, it’ll never be anything more than niche, at least here in the US.
Although not the most visually attractive game compared to other 3D fighters at the time (Tekken, Virtua Fighter, Street Fighter EX2, Mortal Kombat 4, etc.), Fighters Destiny was and honestly probably still is, the most technical fighting game I have ever played. I can’t even really put into words how much of a pain in the ass it must have been to program all the different possible outcomes from a simple jab in that game. Seriously, look it up. It’s not exactly an arcade style fighter compared to SF, but for 1998, it was insane. Counters, specials, a whole point system to determining an outcome… It was almost the closest you were going to get to an actual Mixed Marital Arts match at the time. I wouldn’t be surprised if Capcom and SNK took note of Fighters Destiny, seeing as Garou Mark of the Wolves and Third Strike both came out shortly after Fighters Destiny hit the scene, incorporating parries and more technical fighting mechanics than previous entries. Of course, this is just speculation.
A close second I would think have to go to Power Stone. I’m not even sure if this site would even consider Power Stone to be a fighting game, but everyone on my block growing up used to compare it to Street Fighter and it was really the first “party” fighting game. I haven’t seen too many other party fighters in awhile, other than Smash Bros. and Guilty Gear Isuka on Steam, both which are heavily debated as to whether they are actually fighting games but, we won’t get into that.
The few main things I remember about Fighters Destiny is some guy named Abdul, a clown, and a ninja that for whatever reason had a move named “Phantom Weed”.
