It’s a shame too. I think Final Tuned was a good example of how VF can be appealing. Watching that game at high-level is a treat.
Substance is a nice base, but it’s hard to sell a house with no carpet, wall paint/covering, or plumbing. Simply functional isn’t enough for the average player.
Well, I’m really not much of a fighting game expert. I’ve had an on-again off-again relationship with the genre, and the beginning of 2013 saw me fell serious about playing this genre, although I have a more consistent track-record with Smash, as in itemed, gimmicky Smash, but I’m digressing!
Thing is, I have played a few Fighting games that are off the beaten path, namely Double Dragon (Neo Geo) Sonic the Fighters, and Powerstone.
I can’t really think of too many meaningful words to say, so I’ll just post some videos here.
KOF XI:
KOF XI is the superior brother of 2003 ( Bad game, don’t play it). The game is a pretty unique take on the KOF gameplay style as it allows the players to pick three characters, use them and switch them out mid-fight. The player can select a leader of their team, by being a leader, a character has access to their leader only super, which are usually very powerful and can really change the course of a match.
KOF XI is personally one of my favorite KOF’s (It’s tied with 98, both are slightly above 13). The game was actually pretty popular back when it first came out from but the scene in the USA wasn’t particularly good overall from what I hear, it was pretty well played in Asia and in South America. The game’s balance was an some of an issue, mostly due to KGO and the fact that some moves do literally no damage (Terry’s Buster Wolf in KOF XI is probably the weakest version of the Buster Wolf, especially if you break it from Power Dunk).
Overall, it’s a really fun but slightly broken version of KOF that’s like Marvel in the sense that:
-You can actually tag the KOF characters out mid-fight
-You have the three Gods, who are laughably broken characters and if you want to be competitive, you generally need 1 to 2 on your team. The KOF version of MSP is KGO (Kula/Gato/Oswald).
- It has DHC’s (kind of).
Why they’re broken:
Oswald hits like a truck, has some pretty easy combos imo and is a great partner to have on any team. He’s a strong comeback character and is usually put on the back. Remember, if you’re using Oswald, use his Ace Combos, it’s big and easy damage.
Kula is just solid, she can bully people into the corner, gains a ton of meter and her damage is out of this world. Her damage is really high and many players put her first as she actually doesn’t need to use the large amounts of meter she gains to do damage. Her frame traps are godlike and if you love corner pressure, she’s the one.
Gato is a solid character who is good at opening people up. His palm cancel from Garou is still in the game, so he can gain meter in 0 seconds flat. His Leader Super is probably the best in the game as it’s a free guard break if the opponent blocks and it can lead to massive damage if it hits. Basically, if Gato’s in front of you, on the ground, with 2 meters, you just lost a character most likely.
Despite this, the game is balanced in the sense that if you have 1 or two of these Top Tiers on a team, you can basically put whoever else you want on a team and do pretty well. For example, ET uses Gato/Oswald/Ramon (mid tier character), Poongko used (Iori/Gato/Kyo) but he also messed with a bunch of characters and Top Tier/Top Tier/ Terry was a really popular team in Japan. (I would argue that despite the Buster Wolf damage nerf that Terry is really good.)
The SBO videos of it aren’t that exciting imo, mostly because Kaoru (KOF God from Japan) literally bodied everyone pretty easily during the tournament (including a famous Mr. Madcatz Mago himself). But it here some pretty cool videos of the game in action to get you started. The game is dead (it’s still being played in Japan but the skill level isn’t what it used to be, but they did have a tournament last year for the game in Brazil).
(Poongko vs Unknown Player)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIuz1nN8JuA
(SBO Finals, Kaoru went ham)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=QhnxS0kjRLY
( Murican KOF XI, shout outs to Tone and RJ!)
Brazilian KOF XI fun
If you ever have a chance to play this game, I suggest you do!
The only thing I liked about XI was Ryo and Eiji. Other than that… meh. I really hated how they made blowbacks into a separate button, and the games movement felt very slippery compared to older KOF’s imo. I also think Dream Cancels were the dumbest addition ever.
Chaos Breaker, Shin Koihime Musou
To be honest, I like the blow back button. I actually have my KOF XIII controls set to mirror KOF XI.
Ryo was soooo good in XI! He felt so unique and solid, he’s my favorite version of the character. Eiji was boring to me imo, a definite top tier but I didn’t like how he played.
The game’s movement is a bit loose, I agree. The characters seem like they slide when dashing. However, I think if SNK made a KOF XI UM, buffed the weaker characters, fixed the movement and fixed some of the damage, the game would be really good.
Dream Cancels are stupid fun imo. You can get just DUMB levels of damage off of them(especially if you rock Gato or Oswald) the game is an imperfect, fun mess, I think that’s why I love it so much. It has that mixture of dumb, broken but fun that I love.
Naruto: Clash of Ninja (Series)
Tekken is popular everywhere but the U.S. It’s still popular here, but the hype leading up to it’s U.S. release fell waaaaaay short. Easily the biggest drop off of 2012. Much like the ‘general’ gaming populace can’t approach fighers, a lot of 2D players don’t know how to break down 3D and get overwhelmed.
The lack of a solid release schedule has hurt it THE most. It’s hard to keep a community when the latest revision is a question mark on release outside of Japan. Hosting 3 official tourneys in the span of 2 years is awesome though and is a nice gesture, and we did get the latest and last revision of Final Showdown(ver.A rev.1). Still have a ways to go though.
VF get’s “respect” on some forums, but take it to a offline gathering and it’s whole 'nother ball game, lol.
On topic
Any of the VFs from 2-5FS each sequel and, later revisions took huge leaps in one iteration from the next. It’s the series that started the 3D fighting. From 3 onward is where the series really took off as it introduced mechanics that always keep you in the game, because of how defense works. It’s an active affair with both players trying gain the upper hand, so the flow from offense-> defense->offense, isn’t a stop-n-go affair but constant manipulation of the sticks and buttons like you would see in a combo from one player.
VF2 can be picked up on XBLA and PSN, and is the game that really got people to notice 3D fighters. The port is gorgeous as long as you set the window to 16:9.
VF4/VF4:EVO is on the PS2 and gives you an awesome tutorial that walks you through the mechanics of VF4. Teaches you the defensive option selects like ETEG, flow charts for characters, hit-checking exercises, combos and overall fundamentals that can translate to any fighter. The Quest Mode in this one even breaks down your playstle statically to show you you’re good points and areas of improvements. Even comes with a special 10th Anniversary edition of VF1, and a ton of cool unlockables (like a guy doing the harder moves and combos with one hand)
VF5:FS is the latest version you can get on PSN and XBLA is the one being played. The community is small, but die hard. Outside of VFDC you aren’t going to find a lot of discussion though.
VF5 - is a disc release that is different depending on what system you have. ver.B was released on the PS3 with no online play, while the latter ver.C was only released on the 360 with online play, and much better design that lead to character buffs. Super cheap and a good way to see how big the jump from VF5 to VF5FS is in just about everything, 'sans the universal fundamentals.
VF3 - there is a Dreamcast port but it’s terrible and rushed. Better of finding it on the PC through ‘other means’ a shame, since this is what gave birth to the Virtua Figther it is today. The Dojo Mode is great and has features like Frame Data on moves in real time, and you they have a recording feature that has 3 blocks so you can create 3 different scenarios and play them back in order or random, to practice your speed and reaction timing
Cool Side note. The designer of VF 1, Seiichi Ishii, left Sega to work at Namco and did Tekken 1 and 2. Then left Namco and started the two Tobal games, of which Shoultz mentioned.
Vampire Savior - This is the start of the “anime” games as far as I know.
Samurai Showdown - The 2D series have awesome atmospheres. Slower paced and ‘pokey’ but always good fun.
Yeah I agree on Ryo, XI Ryo is my favorite version of the character next to NGBC. I’ve always been a huge fan Eiji fan though since 95, Eiji was really ridiculous in that game, although I really like him in 98UM more than anything, but I do enjoy his LDM in XI.
I remember reading SNK actually had a UM version of XI planned but canceled it. A shame really. With a bit of refinement, it could of been alot better. Still it’s fun to break out that game once in awhile. I just wish it was easier to unlock some of the characters, those trials were a pain in the ass!
-Vampire Savior
-Samurai Shodown 5 special
-Jojo bizarre adventure
Vampire Savior has been really growing on me. The speed, the high damage, short combos, variety in the movesets, and mostly simple ideas make it great to just pick up and play in my opinion. Its definitely the airdash game with the least emphasis on combos.
The inspiration for the characters is mostly movie monsters and Disney animation and it makes for a great visual style I think. Also the music is really good.
I’m really sad it never got more popular here in the US.
I honestly could never beat Trial 40, but Geese isn’t too good from what I saw and while I like his design, his playstyle never appealed to me so I didn’t care lol.
That’s unfortunate, I would pay $60 for KOF XI UM. Eiji is intense in this game I agree. Who did you run in this game?
I’d run Ryo/Shen/Eiji, with some Trollmoko on the side with the occasional Jenny since she’s pretty much my MOTW main.
Great team, I could never get the hang of Momoko. I run Gato/Terry/ and some random third character being usually EX Kyo, Hayate, Tizoc, Clark or Athena.
HnK brings back so many good memories!! I remember when I first picked up the game in fall 2006 I first used Thouther because he was easy to use. Then I used Shin and Rei more, fucking rei is so cheap with this unlaggable sweep so you can just continue the pressure over and over UGH!!
It also brings back memories of an srk member named Sogeking, who was a godlike HnK player that used to frequent arcade infinity back in the days of 2006-07. Asesome dude, sadly he is gone and I hope one day he comes back.
Samurai Showdown 5 Special was really good (why did only 5 make it to the PS2 -_-) and Tenka was fun, but it is a tragedy what happened to the series with it’s last Soul Calibur style clone …
Fatal Fury Wild Ambition. 2.5D FG. Solid mechanics. Had Duck King and Ryo as secret characters. Everyone is competive except Raiden because his damage is meh and tick throws arent that tight, at least not in the playstation port.
Game has a counter hit system, juggles, links, an emphasis on fundamentals, and plenty of options on offense and defense. Nothing feels super cheesy and damage is fairly high so solid play and mix ups can lead to 50% life combos.
In some ways it feels like SF4 done right. Everyone feels unique and fun and several different styles are viable. The game never truly got off the ground because it was for the Hyper NEO GEO than later ported to PSOne
Houto No Ken (FiST of the NorthSTar);
Gentlemen, feast your eyes on God
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQPnJqtIMxo
Watch the first one, then, if you haven’t died of dehydration from how moist your panties got, here’s a little bonus match
The 2 vids bring back memories!!!