The Public Mind

  • Reading time:1 mins read

Not long ago, the fans were screaming and retching over Nona‘s art. They demanded that Playmore use any more familiar and palatable else. Now SNK has hired Falcoon, the fan favorite. And now people are starting to murmur how “normal” Falcoon’s art looks in comparison, and how they prefer Nona even if his style is kind of weird.

Sheesh.

Mass opinion is an odd and fickle creature.

I think I’m beginning to appreciate silent film more than spoken. In a sense, it takes more skill to tell a compelling story with nothing but pictures. And in so doing, you’ve achieved pure cinema. Once dialogue comes into the picture, you begin to cross media with theater. Acting tends to become more staid. Visuals aren’t as important anymore. Everything starts to bland out a bit.

Perhaps the reason Hitchcock was so good with imagery in his later pictures is tied to his background in silent film. His early stuff, as a whole, isn’t great. Still, what you learn early on tends to stick with you and influence you for the rest of your life.

I Can See Your Moves

  • Reading time:5 mins read

I’ve just replayed ’96, and I’ve got to say that it’s the most intriguing in the series aside from 2001. It’s where everything came together right, for the first time. And SNK had to revise just about everything they’d established in ’94 and ’95 in order to make the game.

It makes me wish all the more that 2002 had been a concluding plot chapter for the NESTS era, as it rightfully should have been. The pattern would be complete, then.

’99 established the new gameplay system, with the strikers and all. It was nice and original, and a good idea. 2000 was almost the exact same game (as ’95 was to ’94), only with the rough spots polished away. Just as ’96 revolutionized the early series, 2001 revolutionized the later series. ’97 took what was established in ’96 and didn’t add much to it in terms of gameplay — but rather expanded it and used it as the backing mechanics for an orgy of plot exposition and drama.

Then ’98 — the first dream match — was almost the same game as ’97 (just compare the selection screens of the two!), only with an extra nine characters (every left-over non-boss character from ’94-’96 aside from Eiji), “classic” versions of most of the main characters (with their pre-’96 move lists), and a bunch of extra animations and interactions and energy added in.

That makes ’98 more or less “’97 DX”, in its structure. And at the same time, it’s a kind of a compilation of everything KoF up until that time. Not unlike the upcoming Street Fighter II compilation for the PS2. Aside from all of the characters and character versions above, it also has both major game systems up to that point (“Advanced” and “Extra” — which correspond to the pre-’96 and post-’95 engines). Basically, however you like your (pre-NESTS) KoF, ’98 has it. All it lacks is plot. But it’s got extra heaps of charm to make up for the loss (if you’re familiar with the characters).

That could have been the case with 2003, for the series’ tenth anniversary. 2002 would have put to use the refined system introduced in 2001, and cleanly finished off that plot arc. 2003 would have been the ultimate KoF dream match, covering the whole history of KoF — or at least everything that’s happened since ’98. Every major non-boss character. Every major game system. At least two distinct move lists for most of the major characters.

Then 2004 — the first Atomiswave game — could be the start of the next plotline. A nice clean beginning, on new hardware.

But, no.

Anyway. To illustrate, the pattern goes more or less like this:

[1a] [1b] [2a] [2b] [x] [1a] [1b] [2a] [x]
’94 ’95 ’96 ’97 ’98 ’99 ’00 ’01 n/a ’02

[1a] defines a new game system. It’s a rough draft. A little awkward. A few obvious problems to work out. Still, by virtue of its new ideas it’s got some energy and life to it.

[1b] is the refinement of that system. It’s the edited version, more or less. Most of the overt kinks have been knocked out. Problem is, it’s almost the same as the previous game. The game is nice, but one is left waiting for the point.

[2a] is the second draft. This is a total overhaul of the system introduced two games earlier. While the previous game was merely a revision, the goal of which was to fix the obvious problems in the first incarnation of the game system, this game scraps the earlier system altogether and rephrases the original ideas in a far more elegant form. This is more or less what they tried to do two games earlier, but hadn’t quite figured out how to express yet.

[2b] is to [2a] as [1b] is to [1a]. More or less. Now that they’ve finally got the system down, they don’t really have to think about it anymore and can just use it to tell an interesting story.

[x] is where we clear out the closet. Tally what’s been accomplished so far, while we figure out what to do next.

The NESTS saga never really got either a [2b] or an [x]. And it needed both, in order to work satisfactorily. Instead, it got abbreviated by a train wreck.

As you can both gather and imagine anyway, it’s the “a” chapters which do more for me. Especially the revised ones, where SNK (or Eolith/Brezza) figured out what they wanted to say. The “b” ones tend to bore me a little (particularly the “a” ones), since they’re creative resting periods. It’s all just futzing. And honestly, polish tends to annoy me. I like things rough; it leaves the character in. EDIT: (Of course, some things manage to combine both roughness and polish at the same time! HOW CAN YOU LOSE!)

Hell. I might as well post this, while I’m here.

Wolfman Rock

  • Reading time:1 mins read

I have rediscovered that Terry Bogard is supposed to be 35 in Mark of the Wolves.

Aha.

His birthday is March 15, 1973.

Aha.

So. This seems to concretely support the other convoluted-if-logical reasons I’ve been going by, to conclude that Mark of the Wolves must take place in 2008 and that the (canonical) Real Bout tournament was held in 1998 (in between KoF years).

As an effort to build up my informational self-reliance (and thereby cut down on the irritation of searching for data), I’ve been building up a database of the vital statistics for every character in the modern-day SNK continuity. (I’ve most of the KoF and FF characters logged at this point.)

Do you know Kim Jae Hoon’s special talent? I do! (It’s reciting pi to the 27th decimal place.) How about Lawrence Blood’s favourite dish? (Beef stew.)

Oh, this is all so very useful that I feel I shall burst!

tension

  • Reading time:1 mins read

At the end of KoF2000, I expect Zero to address the winning team:

“I’m sure you’re all wondering why I called you here today…”

And that’s the major problem with the game. The only really big one, but enough to keep it from the top tier.

Kof, Please

  • Reading time:1 mins read

by [name redacted]

Where is KoF’03?

I surely can’t be the only one who’s wondering; usually the roster and some hints of the gameplay mechanics are announced by mid-July. And yet, at the time that I write this, SNK Playmore has yet to even confirm that the game is in development, or for which platform it might be intended.

To add to the mystery: when I asked SNK NeoGeo USA Consumer president Ben Herman about the game at E3, he was oddly hesitant. After a few false starts, he said only that it would “make sense” if there were a King of Fighters this year (aside from the 3D one). He wasn’t willing to comment further, but he looked pretty darned unsure to me.

So. What’s going on with this series?

( Continue reading at Insert Credit )

The King of Fighters 2002 (DC/Playmore)

  • Reading time:1 mins read

by [name redacted]

I don’t like The King of Fighters 2002. I don’t consider it in the spirit of the series, or more broadly in the spirit of SNK. Especially after the tremendous success of their previous collaboration, I’m pretty surprised — and saddened — that Eolith and Brezza managed to devise such an inane follow-up.

( Continue reading at Insert Credit )

He’s not OK?

  • Reading time:3 mins read

Well! I just got my copy of KoF2002 DC.

It’s got really nice packaging. I’m surprised, as the cover art — in recent Playmore style — is only so-so. I don’t know who their new promo and cover artists are. I don’t know why they persist with pushing this stuff on their poor fans when they’ve got Hiroaki, Tonka, and Nona on the bankroll. What, are they all too busy drawing K’ / K9999 doujinshi? Where are they?

So. The packaging is highly decent. The game is… more polished than it is in its more-familiar-to-me emulated form. All of the voice samples and sound effects have been resampled at a really high rate. The music isn’t arranged, nor did I expect it to be. As with 2001, its samples seem of a higher quality than before.

There seem to be a few nice extra modes, though I’ve yet to unlock them. Then there are King and Shingo, again whom I have yet to find.

The reason? I’m still apathetic.

This game… just isn’t that great. Especially not following 2001, which — while a little scuzzy at first glance — is by far one of the best fighters I’ve played.

The engine seems solid enough. But… the game’s just been thrown together. No interaction amongst the characters. They all just… happen to be in the same game. As if the compromised cast listing were really that rosy a start. No solid, coherent world. Barely any intro animations. Terry vs. Andy? Nope. Kyo vs. Iori? Nope. The hell?

And I just miss the strikers, frankly. It’s sad that there’s not even an option for them. The game feels outdated. Frustrating. Incomplete.

Hollow is my word. That works.

I wonder what happened to all of Terry’s move names.

I got it to support Playmore, and to complete my collection. And because it’s for the Dreamcast. And to assuage my emulation guilt. All… some variation of posterity, rather than actual desire.

I don’t think I’m going to play it much.

Dum dee dum.

Ah well. I presume that Playmore is taking the series back internally, this year. Those who once were Brezza, then were part of Sun, which is now SNK NeoGeo, are technically responsible for the grunt work on the past two games, but Eolith has supposedly done most of the design. We’ll see what SNK has to say — officially — about the new Dragon Power story arc. I do hope that it’s novel. I’m not sure I can take another mediocre KoF. One is sad enough for a lifetime.

Fungaloid worms

  • Reading time:2 mins read

I’ve been sitting here for over twelve hours, playing with MAME. It initially began as a quest to find and play the Castlevania arcade game. While it is pretty… not-good, I did get me-out a hefty basket of insight on Simon’s Quest.

I’ll let your imagination play with that for a while.

It only took a few plays to fill me as full of Haunted Castle as I wished to be filled. So, I took to seeing what else MAME happened to support. This was the first time that I’d really paid much attention to the program. It used to be a practical nuisance, last it was high on my radar.

Now, though, it… kind of works okay. It’s still not got some features that I’d like, but it makes up for them in how comprehensive it manages to be. You’ve got your Art of Fighting 3 right next to your Asteroids and your Rolling Thunder and your obscure Japanese porn Mahjong.

Through all of this business, something struck me.

I’ve… most recently spent an hour with Centipede when I could have been sleeping. This wasn’t in the plans. After about fifteen minutes, though, it occurred to me what was going on with the levels. Merely by playing the game, I was altering the level design. It couldn’t be helped.

When stage 2 came around, it wasn’t a different stage because of a pre-ordained set of obstacles. It didn’t even rely on a random generator. I made it different, albeit unintentionally. The randomness of my actions was translated, through various side effects, into the randomness of the mushroom field. All I had to do was be there. To exist.

It keeps going on like that. Perpetually. You get the same thing with Asteroids, although with all the moving pieces it’s not quite as evident.

Games aren’t quite so poetic anymore, are they.

Hmm, I say!

EDIT:

According to the KLOV, Centipede was the first arcade game to be designed by a woman (a certain Dona Bailey — sister to Justin, perhaps?).

Curious, curious.

SVC Chaos

  • Reading time:1 mins read

by [name redacted]

SVC Chaos has a nice intro.

It has a very nice intro.

It has an especially nice intro for recent-era NeoGeo productions.

It has Mister Karate in the intro.

I really don’t know what to say about the game itself, though.

( Continue reading at Insert Credit )

SNK – The future is now…again.

  • Reading time:1 mins read

by [name redacted]

Although we’ve got a more in-depth interview tomorrow, I couldn’t resist myself. Almost wholly by accident, I managed to stumble into a lengthy conversation with Mr. Ben Herman, president of the newly-reformed SNK NeoGeo USA. He was unexpectedly responsive, friendly, and open to the obsessive Insert Credit style of curiosity.

In brief, here are some of the most prurient items of discussion.

( Continue reading at Insert Credit )

Break on through to the other side

  • Reading time:4 mins read

Sega claims that SA:DX (now named, in full, “Sonic Adventure DX: Director’s Cut“) has five hours of new gameplay in addition to all of the other additions.

A “mission mode” has been added, for COLLECTING JOY. This is where one unlocks “exclusive items”, “secrets”, and the Gamegear games. Whether this mode is what constitutes the five purported hours of new gameplay, I don’t know.

Personally, I don’t think that the emblem-hunting in the Sonic Adventure games counts as real gameplay. The story mode is the actual game. Being forced to go back in and perform inane stunts under arbitrary limitations just seems like a waste of time and energy to me.

I suppose it’s better that the emblems actually do something now, though. Or maybe it’s not. At least I knew I wasn’t missing anything by not bothering with a number of the more annoying ones.

My patience is really starting to wear thin with such thinly-veiled time sponges; tasks which have no substantial reason to exist, other than so as to keep the player glued to the game for an unnaturally, unhealthfully long time. As far as game design goes, it’s manipulative, lazy, and not at all intriguing. Worse, it’s becoming so omnipresent — even where it just doesn’t belong.

It’s… starting to make me dislike videogames in general, at least as they are at present.

I feel not unlike how I felt a decade ago. My levels of disgust and apathy are being strained.

I don’t intend to give up. That’d be too easy. I did it once before, and in the process, I missed most of a generation. Yet, I’m finding it increasingly difficult to care about a lot of what’s out there today.

The industry is entering a rut just as pathetic as the one of ten years ago. Not as damning as the one of 1984, but…

there’s a pattern here.

I’m starting to think that there really needs to be a shakedown.

For a while, I’ve been watching its approach. The old guard, as it were, is going to have to either get with the picture soon or it’s going to fall apart. The trouble has already long since begun, spreading the fallout of an industry’s greed and ineptitude as wide as possible so as not to choke the largest perpetrators in their own filth. Meanwhile, a new generation seems to be quietly, humbly (for the moment) emerging — far enough away that the garbage isn’t nearly as much of a problem.

The established head of the industry is flat out of ideas. It’s just going through the motions, without any real understanding anymore for why it does what it does. (Sort of like KoF2002, or any contemporary RPG you might choose to pick up.) There’s no foundation anymore. The old-world elite have been doing what they’ve been doing for so long that they don’t even remember why they’re doing it.

The benefit about new blood, from a separate world, is that it doesn’t have these problems; assuming that the newcomers understand where they are to begin with, and that they know what they’re doing, the ground is always still within reach. They can easily trace down to see how things stand. It isn’t so hard to retrace and start over if need be. They’re informed by the ideas of the older generation, but those ideas are adapted in such a way that is relevent to the newcomers in the context which they know most well.

This is, I think, the difference between the two things that Nintendo’s been doing lately.

The way that the apprenticeship thing seems to be going at the moment is that the methods are being taught by rote, for their own sake — rather than as possible answers to more fundamental questions.

But on the other hand, Nintendo is also supporting developers like Silicon Knights and Retro; contributing funding, polish, and advice — but allowing the newer houses to find their own direction.

It’s the difference between following a religion and being informed by its philosophy. Following in the footsteps of your forebears, or being inspired to do your own work by building upon what came before.

Mrrn.

I can see Eiji Aonuma presenting his game before Miyamoto. “This is how it goes, right?”

Yes, technically…

But… no.

Dated, stiff, and often grotesque

  • Reading time:11 mins read

Shinkirou’s characters look like mannequins. They have no motion or life to them.

Further, they remind me of the art one used to see on the back of cereal boxes in the 1980s.

It’s dated, stiff, and often grotesque.

Shinkirou obviously has technical talent as an artist, but his art just doesn’t seem appropriate to something as vibrant as a fighting game.

Nona’s art has been controversial ever since his work on KoF2001. It’s often strange — but it has life to it. It’s often dark. It’s often a little disturbing. It’s gritty, and yet stylized.

Like it or not, Nona’s work has personality. And on that basis, I’d take it over Shinkirou any day.

I don’t know why Playmore chose to go with Nona for as high a profile game as this, however; I’d have thought that Hiroaki (the Bukiri-One artist, who most recently did the art for KoFEX2 for the GBA) would be more appropriate.

But whatever. I like Nona, if for nothing else than the fact that he’s different. And that so many people complain about his art without much of an attempt to understand it.

Nona’s fine, but yeah — it’s a little weird that Playmore doesn’t seem to be sticking with someone a little less controversial.

From what I’ve read elsewhere (such as The Stinger Report) Capcom doesn’t want much to do with this game. They’re annoyed that Playmore is even going through with it, and perhaps the only reason that they’re allowing Playmore to go forward with it is that Capcom is soon to be leaving the arcade business. Therefore, the game won’t be much competition for any of their upcoming projects.

Furthermore, Playmore doesn’t have a huge reservoir of money. So it makes sense to me that they’d stick with the artists they have on-hand.

However, of the artists that I know they have left — why Nona? I, personally, am very fond of Nona’s art. But I know that I’m in the minority. His art is often not very easy to understand.

I know that Hiroaki (Bukiri-One, KoF2000) is still with Playmore, and I believe that Tonko (Mark of the Wolves, Last Blade) is still around somewhere (given that Nona did the art for Metal Slug 4). Both of them are fantastic artists, and both are immediately appealing to just about any audience.

Plus, Hiroaki’s style is a little reminiscent of Akiman’s — Capcom’s main illustrator ever since Street Fighter 2. Personally, I think Hiroaki is far more talented than Akiman — but they work in a similar manner.

He’d seem perfect for a game like SVC CHAOS.

And who knows — maybe Playmore is using Hiroaki for the in-game art. All we’ve got now is a small handful of character sketches.

If you remember, Nona did the character illustrations to KoF2002 but Hiroaki did most of the in-game portraits and whatnot. I thought that this was a perfect balance.

For all we know so far, it’s entirely possible that they’re doing the same thing here — Nona on the outside illustrations and someone like Hiroaki or Tonko on the in-game art.

Probably best just to hold out and see how things go over the next few weeks.

If nothing else, the logo is very well-done.

* * *

Regarding The King of Fighters 2002 DC:

Buyrite is renowned for just plain false information, but there’s been discussion before about whether Playmore will bother with the extra chracters.

Just about everyone has expressed some consternation about the original MVS roster. King is my favourite character overall, so it figures they’d choose to ditch her (even though she’s been in every other KoF since the series began). Why they chose not to bring back Jhun, where Shingo went off to, and why we’ve got Rugal again (rather than, say, an enhanced Krizalid), I can’t really fathom.

Furthermore, why does 2002 — a dream match — have fewer characters than 2001? 2001 was a standard plot chapter. 2002 is supposed to be a no-holds-barred, over-the-top celebration of all that is KoF. With the game’s wimpy and unrepresentative cast list, it’s kind of difficult to get as excited as Playmore intends.

Basically, they had to cut corners somewhere. After all of the complaints about the backgrounds and music in 2001, Playmore devoted more time and cartridge space to that aspect of the presentation. Personally, I’d take the characters over the backgrounds — though I appreciate the effort (even if I feel it’s misguided).

With the Dreamcast, though, Playmore doesn’t have these space limitations. They can do whatever the heck they want to, really. This is the perfect chance to fix the game (or finish it, depending on how you look at things), and quiet their audience’s moans; to show that they’re really listening.

So there’s the obvious and immediate potential, right off the bat.

There’s a bit more, though, to raise a person’s hopes.

First, this is the kind of thing that SNK and Playmore have done with all of the Dreamcast ports so far.

’98 got a snazzy new anime intro, a 3D background, and other assorted bonuses;

’99 got better 3D backgrounds, a shop system, extra strikers (including Seth and Vanessa from 2000), and a really nice presentation overall;

2000 got a surprisingly-entertaining sliding puzzle and extra backgrounds and music;

2001 got even more levels (including “fixed” versions of all of the original 2001 levels), and a well-designed puzzle battle mode.

So there’s a history of some decent additions, most of which do a good job to fix some of the shortcomings of the games in question (although 2001 really could have used some added music).

It seems highly probable that Playmore will add something worth mentioning to 2002. The only question is what that might be.

The other factor which is getting at least my hopes up is how long the game seems to be taking. 2000 and 2001 were each ported pretty quickly, and released mere months apart from each other. 2002, however, was announced way back in the middle of December — and it’s not to be released until some untold time, this coming summer.

Part of the delay, I imagine, is so as not to interfere with sales of the Neo-Geo cartridge. But the fact is, this is a pretty long wait for what should otherwise be a simple Dreamcast port. Playmore’s got lots of experience with the DC. They know how to do this by now.

So what’s Playmore doing with all of this extra time, then?

It sounds kind of suspicious to me.

On the other hand, this is all speculation.

As for the complete cast for the DC version — all that’s been announced beyond the original MVS release is Shingo.

For the full cast of the MVS version, look under the Neo-Geo FAQs section.

It is my understanding that Shingo was originally intended as a character within KoF2002 (thus the rumors of him popping up in the early public tests), but that Eolith and Brezza removed him in the final version (for whatever reason).

This would make some sense, as his sprite doesn’t appear to be in any of the backgrounds. Just about every other major KoF-universe character makes an appearance, so it seems odd that Shingo isn’t even referenced.

With luck, we’ll see some more characters added back in. It seems absurd to me that a “dream match” game like 2002 has fewer characters than a standard plot chapter. (There are 40 characters + 2 bosses in 2001; 39 characters + 1 boss in 2002.)

Further, it seems pretty ludicrous that the cast manages to be such an awful compromise that it isn’t representative of anything in particular. One of the most long-standing and representative characters (King) is omitted. One of the bigger recent fan favourites (Shingo) is left out. And few of the remaining characters have much of anything to do with each other.

In ’98, most characters had a large number of special introductions and/or endings. It was a reasonably tight group. The characters had reason to joke with each other, to taunt or threaten each other. There was a lot of personality going around.

Now… well, what is this? We’ve just got a bunch of random characters thrown together, with no context at all. It’s so cold.

What’s even weirder is that even amongst the characters who have some obvious connections — their interactions are omitted!

Kyo versus Iori? Nothing.
Mai versus Andy? Nothing.
Terry versus Billy? Nothing.
Terry versus Yamazaki? Nothing.

And the list goes on.

There still are a few random intros in there (Kensou versus Athena), but — well, you get the picture.

This game needs a lot of work — and I’m hoping that Playmore does a decent job at finishing it for the DC release.

The inclusion of Shingo is a good step. It’s very encouraging. We’ll see what else they polish up.

Akaimizu: That’s true, with the alternate characters; I don’t really count them any more than I count the alternate characters in ’98, but it does depend on how you want to look at things.

If that’s the way one is going to measure the game, however, I can’t help but wonder where all of the other alternate characters are which were present in ’98. We’ve gone through two whole eras at this point. You’d think there’d be a lot of history to cover and to try to encapsulate in a Dream Match like this.

But no.

As for that other person:

No, this game is far from perfect.

This has nothing to do with the details, specifically; I bring them up only to illustrate a point.

KoF2002 is by far the least coherent game in the entire series. It is arbitrary; it has no reason to exist, in the form that it has been executed.

It has potential, and certain elements are individually executed very well. The backgrounds are nice. The character portraits are pretty. Some of the characters’ new moves are nice. It’s nice that some of the older characters have finally seen some new frames of animation.

But compared to the direction the series was going in with 2001, it’s a pretty huge step backwards into irrelevancy. This is unfortunate.

I fully intend to pick it up, for the sake of posterity and because I want to support Playmore. But I’m still disappointed on a number of levels.

You would be as well, if you were to pay more attention.

Let’s see if anyone can anyone answer me this:

What is the point of KoF2002, as it currently exists? What does the game accomplish?

Why did this game need to be made?

I can quickly tell you the answer for every single other game in the series, from ’94 up through 2001. For 2002, it’s not so easy.

Try as I might — and believe me, I want to like this game — I can’t understand what its purpose is, beyond simply pumping out another KoF game for the year 2002.

Anything it might feign to hold up as a tangible goal, it fails in — aside from being generally prettier than 2001 in most of the obvious aspects.

There’s no reason for a Dream Match right now; we’ve still got some plot threads unresolved from 2001. But okay, it’ll make Eolith a bunch of money before they hand the development back to Playmore at the end of their contract. So whatever. Let’s make this a blast to remember, as we did four years ago!

In ’98, every character save the Boss Team, Eiji, and Kasumi returned. Okay, and the post-Rugal bosses. But we got Saisyu as a playable character and we got alternate versions (pre-’96; ’96-and-on) of most of the major characters. We got a ton of interaction amongst the characters.

The game had a general air of fun; one big party, where everyone is invited. One big storyline is over with. Now we’ll make the KoF to end all KoFs; the one game which, above all else, is representative of the heart and the history of the series.

We could have had another one of those. That would have been neat. But what did we get?

What is 2002, exactly?

Why do we need it?
I’d like someone to explain it to me. Because I don’t understand.

Fire, psycho soldier! Fire!

  • Reading time:10 mins read

In light of the release date (June somethingth) supposedly now being set for the DC release of KoF2002, I’ve some observations to make about the MVS version of the game.

As far as KoF goes, it’s… okay. It feels a little off, but the presentation is very nice. The music is far better than in 2001. Most of the characters have a sizey amount of new animation.

One of the first positive impressions you’ll get with 2002 is how well-synched the intro is to the music. The intro sequence has its ups and downs, and it ends in the anticlimax of an ugly title screen — but there are some neat sequences in there.

Every time you hit the character select screen, your face is bombarded by the words:

THE

KING

OF

FIGHTERS

They scale from inside the screen, toward your face, at light speed, all within about half a second. It’s dizzying, especially if you’re in practice mode and you keep hopping back out to change characters. It began to make me feel a little strange after three or four times in a row.

(Incidentally, Hiroaki’s new character portraits are great, all around.)

Just about every character has more frames of animation, this time around — bringing some of the older characters, in places, up to nearly the level of someone like Angel. Robert’s fireball animation is different. A lot of characters’ standard moves are much smoother-looking. You will be terrified by Kim’s pants. Just a fair warning.

Several of the characters (such as Athena) feel unusually smooth in this game. On the other hand, the game tends to be a lot picker about what it will accept as a special move command. (For instance: if a move requires QCF, it won’t execute if you enter HCF… think about it for a moment.) Further, several characters seem to be missing some key moves from the last several games.

The entire Sakazaki family seems to have undergone some weird changes. NONE of them has a windmill kick anymore — Ryo, Takuma, or Yuri. Yuri no longer has her twirly fist thing from the NESTS era, but instead that — ball of energy, from earlier eras. Her air fireball has to be cast in the air, now — a difficult feat, at times.

Actually, Takuma seems to have lost all of his moves. He can still do a fireball (and his haoh-syoken dm), but there isn’t any projectile. Maybe he still has some other moves, but — jeez. Well-hidden enough.

K9999 comes out in a brown leather bomber jacket, these days. It suits him. He also has a third special move. He’s beginning to feel a bit more complete as a usable character.

Rugal slaughtered me instantly. I was using the NESTS team. I barely hit him. It might just be me, but he seems even cheaper than usual.

Honestly, I miss the striker feature. Most of the characters from the past three games were specifically designed for the striker era. The strikers made up for some of their shortcomings, making the characters generally more balanced and stategically competetive. Now everyone’s just left to fend for his or herself.

This drop back to the old format causes a few other problems. To change stance with May Lee you hit the first three buttons, yes? Well, this command was instituted during 2001, when there was no “charge mode” for the characters as there is in every one of the previous games (in some form or another; it’s split into two separate, less-useful modes in ’99 and 2000).

Now, that “power rush” mode is back. And it’s entered the same way as in the old games. As a result, every single time you change stance with May Lee, you waste a power stock.

The voice acting is typically good (although Terry’s move names — he’s changed them entirely; no more “burn knuckle” or “rising tackle” or “crack shoot”). The sound effects are better than usual.

The music sounds like circa-’97 level material. Most of it is made up of remixed themes from earlier in the series — from ’94 all the way through 2000. The NESTS-era stuff is now all guitary, in keeping with the earlier musical style of the series. (The Burning Team uses a variation of the ’99 hero theme, only transformed from burbling techno into thrashing metal with some electronic overtones.) There are even some voice samples here and there, in the music. The Garou theme, for instance — yes, the familiar one — has been turned into hip-hop now.

The instrument samples are still not of as high a quality as in most of the pre-Eolith games, but the composition is a hell of a lot better than last time around. I like the new (ex-)NESTS theme.

Kyo’s theme is now “Tears”. (I like both Tears and Goodbye Esaka, actually — either would have been appropriate as the NESTS-era Kyo’s theme here.) The Ikari Team is the one from ’94 — the one which sounds kind of like a Faith No More song. Now that King is gone, the Gals theme has reverted to the Yuri theme from the AoF series.

The Spy Team (as I call them) uses one of the two hero themes from 2000. I think it’s the K’ one rather than Benimaru, though — which seems a little weird, as the 2000 Burning theme is really just a variation of the ’99 theme (just as Goodbye Esaka and Tears are both variants of Esaka Forever). But the Benimaru Team — that theme isn’t really attached to anyone.

The backgrounds here are are technically very well-done, if a bit flat and uninspired. There are a good number of successful in-jokes and references.

There’s this one level — the China one — which is getting on my nerves. Whomever you face there, you’ll invariably get the “China” theme (which doubles as the theme for either Kensou or Chin) rather than that of your opponent. Further, while there are only half a dozen stages in the game, the China stage seems to pop up more frequently than any other background in the game. So it’s like you’ve a one in four chance of having that theme pop up, every battle.

Whatever happened to the complex pre-’97 stages, anyway? The ones with the intro animations, the multiple levels of scrolling, the unusual perspectives, the interactive background elements? And if there are only three characters per team in 2002, why don’t the non-fighting teammates stand in the background to wait their turn, as in every game up until ’99?

Aside from the title screen (which is blessed with the most ugly, ill-concieved logo in the entire series), KoF2002 has to be one of the prettiest, more well-presented games in the series for at least a few years. This is not to call it coherent, but all of the individual elements tend to show a large amount of skill in their device.

Again, however — there’s… something inherently missing in 2002. It feels emotionally tied together with twine.

There’s something a little empty about this game. Half-hearted.

’98 was a dream match, but it was really vibrant; probably the most fun the series has ever been. The characters had more personality than at any other time in the series. Shingo was around. There were lots of silly little details. There were alternate versions of many of the characters. The game was internally-consitent to a degree that none of the other chapters really have been, with the probable exceptions of ’96 and 2001. It was alive.

I guess one of the key problems of 2002 is a reasonably subtle one — merely that the characters are from all over the place. There isn’t a lot of internal integrity to the roster; many of the characters just don’t really have much of anything to do with each other. There aren’t any relationships going on. I mean, what does Shermie have to do with Billy have to do with K9999? There’s no context for anything.

Peculiarly, even for those characters who do have strong relationships, most of their special intros and endings have been removed. There’s nothing in particular going on between Mai and Andy, or Kyo and Iori.

’98 — you felt like it was a big party of sorts, y’know? Everyone’s invited. Most of the characters knew most of the others in some way — and they had something to say about it. Here — it’s just a bunch of characters thrown together. They don’t seem to know why they’re there.

And a lot of important people have been left out, who might make things more coherent, such as King. Chizuru might help, even if I don’t use her. Or Saisyu. Shingo, definitely.

I mean — there are good characters here. But. One of the intregal qualities of KoF is that internal consistency of the cast. They all support each other. Here, it’s like they’re drawn out of a hat. It can’t just be that these are the most popular, as King is a profoundly popular character.

KoF has a lot of background that one needs to deal with in order to make it KoF.

The problems go beyond merely the emotional depth, however. Frankly, the game also feels little empty to me in terms of gameplay.

I’m used to the striker system now, and four-character teams. This feels stripped-down in comparison. Thing is — ’98 and before? They didn’t feel this way. The first time around, this game system didn’t have holes in it. Now it does. The series has been steadily evolving, and most of the internal elements rely upon each other pretty strongly. By just ripping out the core game system and replacing it with an older variation — you’re setting yourself up for some problems.

It just feels like… there are fewer options now, in terms of gameplay. Even in ’98 you had two play modes, y’know? And before that, there was something new to learn every year.

2002 feels like KoF lite — with most of the soul and energy removed, both technically and emotionally. I find it really difficult to bond with this game.

What’s a little weird about this is that the same team behind 2002 was responsible for 2001 — which I find to be in many ways the pinnacle of the entire series. All it lacked was some polish around the edges. Now we’ve got the polish, but we’ve lost almost everything else which made 2001 great.

I hope Playmore is doing something really special with the DC port. Rumor has it that they’re adding up to fifteen more characters. If so, this could go a long way toward fleshing the game out.

I’m undoubtedly going to pick the game up when it’s released, just for the sake of posterity — but my scrutiny is doubled for KoF2003 (if indeed it’s in production; Playmore hasn’t said anything about it yet). It’s really difficult to assess where things might go from here. What should be even more difficult for the team is that 2003 is the start of a new era. They’re going to have to be unusually creative this time around in order to sell the game as anything but just another chapter of the series.

I know that Eolith and Brezza have it in them. It’s just hard to tell whether they realize it.

“Bnurp, bni-bip, bnurp, bni-bip…” (the Hero Team theme)

  • Reading time:4 mins read

Okay. This port seems to have quite a bit of replay value. Aside from the puzzle and survival modes (each of which has to be unlocked), there’s also a gallery filled with all kinds of locked pictures — several pages’ worth. I’m not sure how they’re freed and if they have any real effect, but — well, there’s simply a lot more to do here than in any of the other DC ports. The only one which is in the same league, at least in terms of unlockable features, is ’99 Evolution — what with the store and the Another Strikers which can be purchased. And yet that port still doesn’t offer as much variety as 2001 has.

It seems that the move list is accessible in every mode. This is good. Even if it’s a little bare-bones.

Also, it seems to me that the music is… slightly arranged. It’s no OST, but everything is at a pretty high sampling rate and there are a few neat phasing effects on top. Generally, it sounds much more well-produced than the original Neo-Geo version. My comment about how it didn’t irritate me anymore? Well, it still stands — but now I know why. It doesn’t sound like screeching, rhythmic flatulence anymore. The music itself still isn’t very well-written, but at least it’s of a respectable quality now. So benig the largely unmelodic trance techno that it is, it now just… disappears into the background. Heck, I actually sort of like a couple of the themes. Kind of. Not a lot, but… well, at least it’s a little better.

I notice that the alternate backgrounds are randomly selected in versus mode. In practice mode you can choose which you want to use (out of about forty total, including the remixed 2001 ones), but — I like this, somehow; the fact that they just show up in versus mode. It makes the game feel more full, somehow.

It would be nice if there were a few more options, like being able to set how the compter will tend to use strikers. (Invariably, it will choose three fighters and one striker on its own accord.)

Puzzle mode is… interesting. It doesn’t really work as much like Tetris as it looks. And it follows the same story mode as the team and single games.

Speaking of the story: It’s still all in Japanese. Good thing I basically know all of the endings already.

Whereas the Neo-Geo version felt pretty drab in general, there’s a lot of energy and variety which has been added to the DC port. I still think some more (simple) things could have been done, but — well. All things considered. A bit of work actually went into this port; more so than in the case of any of Playmore’s or SNK’s last few efforts (2000, MotW, Last Blade 2).

Weird thing is, the game doesn’t seem to really buffer its data very well. When character portraits are loaded before each battle, for instance, you can hear the DC’s laser go nuts and you can see the graphics occasionally stutter as the game waits for new data to be loaded. This seems a little shabby, although it doesn’t really hurt anything. I don’t recall any of the previous ports being coded quite this way, although I hear people complain about streaming audio in MotW all the time. (I’ve never particularly noticed any problems.)

Really, there’s not a lot to complain about here. So a few bits of graphical data aren’t buffered well. So they didn’t include any classic music from the earlier games. So the extra levels (even the fixed ones from 2001!) aren’t available in story mode, for whatever reason. And it’s lacking a few minor options. Oh, and again there’s no English option.

These are all more nitpicks than anything. All in all, this is certainly one of the better Neo-Geo ports there’s been for the system. It sort of makes up for most of the big flaws in 2001, and it adds a bunch of other stuff besides. I think the game (already one of the best in the series; just ugly as hell) has been made a lot more palatable in the process. It feels, though… I think this port must have been done by a different team than whoever did the last couple of games. The general style strikes me as somehow different — just as much as the game itself does.

The Five Point Shuffle

  • Reading time:3 mins read

Why did I try to shovel snow while wearing sandals?

So I’ve got my copy of KoF2001. The control is crisper and more responsive than I rememnber. The soundtrack, though otherwise unchanged, seems to contain higher-quality samples than the Neo-Geo version. Somehow it doesn’t annoy me as much as it used to. Maybe I’m just used to it by now? I used to loathe the soundtrack to this game, but now I barely even hear it even if I’m trying to pay attention.

There’s a movelist included, although — for whatever reason — it’s been tied to the taunt button. And it’s only available in practice mode, it seems. And there are not only a large handful of backgrounds from each of the earlier games (’94-2000 — particularly 2000; I think all of the stages are available), but all of the original, crummy 2001 backdrops? They’ve been remixed. They’re not as washed-out. Many layers of scrolling have been added, as has a bunch of extra animation. The painful racetrack level has simply been redone from the ground up. It’s still ugly, but it doesn’t make me feel ill anymore.

Problem is, none of the new backgrounds are available in the actual game. In practice and versus modes you can access any level you like — but in-game? It doesn’t even use the improved backgrounds. You just get the flat, drab, original versions. I don’t get it.

Haven’t touched the puzzle mode yet, as I’d have to unlock it. Not quite together enough to play a fighting game very well tonight, although I surprised myself by getting off a couple of K9999’s tougher DMs (exactly once, each — though on the first try, for the one).

Generally, seems like a decent port. It doesn’t taste the same as the DC version of 2000, though. I find this odd. 2000 seemed a lot like the ports of MotW and Last Blade 2. 2001… I’m not sure. Everything about this game is just a little off. It always has been. But the port follows this trend. Can’t quite place this feeling, yet. Not sure if it’s positive, negative, or neutral.

Is it just me, or does KoF2001 feel really… Korean? I never noticed it before. Neither can I exactly quantify why I say this. Something about the layout, and the design of the new characters, and the general overtone. Something about the exact kind of brightness combined with graininess and… almost disturbing oddness. Not a Japanese oddness, though. This comes from a different psychological place entirely.

Gangs of New York: It was. The Leonardo DiCaprio character was about the only uninteresting one in the movie, and (as the hero) he wasn’t really intended to stand out. Still seemed a little awkward, but I’ll ignore that under the weight of some of the achievements here. A ton of research went into the most throwaway details for this movie. And I was surprised by how large a part Boss Tweed ended up playing.

And now I’ve a better context for the burning of Barnum’s museum.

Kind of too tired to go into more detail at the moment. Lots of good stuff in here, though. Not quite sure about certain decisions and certain choices in editing, but there wasn’t anything which really harmed the effect.

Sometimes exaggeration — as in this case — is needed in order to get the point across. And I think this movie had an interesting and worthwhile point to make clear, in terms of the conceptions we’ve been handed about our history.