MAME Review

Marvel Super Heroes

2009-07-19T11:21:00.000-07:00

THERE OWNS MY HERO

Ever noticed how consensus reality is full of pressing issues of immense proportions? For example: is there a God who honestly gives a BEEP? Or, would it be the Incredible Hulk or would it be the Amazing Spider-Man emerging victorious if the two were doing honest battle against each other? This here 1995 Capcom delivery Marvel Super Heroes aims to address some of those pressing issues via ruthless efficiency, putting a solid selection of comic book characters from the Marvel universe into a flamboyant 2D fray with the superhumanic cartoon anatomy all over the place. As proud successor to X-Men: Children of the Atom, Marvel Super Heroes refines key gameplay mechanics utilized in the aforementioned originator, giving you the interactive comic book collision you were secretly longing for, but - were too afraid to ask for.

Enjoy and Read on!

The great post-apocalyptic personcrusher, Killer Instinct and Marvel Super Heroes do share some similarities. Neither of these games have anything way too direct to do with profound foot fetishism, yet both do come with six action buttons. The most essential trait this here delivery is- and always will be proud to entertain you with, is a refined variant of what Capcom calls the Magic Series combo system.

This method of administering thoroughly researched punishment is based upon the respective relations between the six action buttons and the respective Specials possessed by the different characters. Have I managed to make some room for the sense, too? Then let me deliver that, as the system works more easier than it sounds. The game knows of different kinds of relation patterns established among the offensive basic maneuvers. These are delicate, invisible structures that determine if a certain action may- or may not follow an earlier action in order to form a combo. Utilizing only these basic relations will not take you beyond combos dealing damage via two- or three connections, though. The basic relation pattern your character uses will become the glue you connect maneuvers with, while the true name of the game here is to find and master the possibilities of incorporating more and more offensive moves into streams of ruthless declaration.

Once you are familiar with the pattern your chosen character uses, - there are patterns shared by multiple characters and there are unique ones, please consult the Guide at the end of the article or suffer 999 nervous breakdowns and repeat - you want to introduce different kinds of openers to start out your statement, and, surely, you want to incorporate your Specials into the relatively short base combos that the relation patterns are able to produce on their own. The possibility of incorporating Specials into the combos - is of vital importance. Perhaps you will heed these words if they will be resonated by The Magneto himself!

HAH!, Spider-Man! You OBVIOUSLY fail to see that incorporating
Specials into combos is of VITAL importance. As such: BE CRUSHED!

The Magic Series combo system exhibits sober balance between flexibility and rigorousness, inviting you not only to master potent combos, but to explore if you could bid farewell to a suggested limit via creativity and inventiveness. Marvel Super Heroes encourages you to master the basic moves and to develop new combos via presenting the possibility of taking the fight to the air. Each character is able to produce a Super-Jump, which is a much more pronounced form of spatial alteration of the self than your everyday average TV session would consort with.

Getting airborne with your character is great fun and here is why: while in the air, you have all the time in the world - plus/minus some casual Eons - to decide what form of radical atrocity you will punish the Below by, or, if the enemy has no will waiting around to be sufferer of your verdict, she/he could either prepare some surprises for you, - as you will not see the opponent if you are in the air solo, you will only see an indication of the physical location of her/him - or, the enemy could join you in the skies to wage war with the epic pale cable rainbow behind your back, who - the pale cable rainbow, that is - is a regular mental construct here at Mamereview.

There are good reasons to invite your rival to the skies. First and foremost, there is a particular relation pattern utilizable by each character - see the Guide below - that will punish the airborne opposition via a solid Air Combo that could be finished uniquely on a per character basis. In fact, a whole, related subsystem is included, in which the significance of moves that do send superheroic sitorgans to the air, does become quite relevant. As such: there is an option of going airborne, and, if your opponent is not too keen of doing that, then there always is option of forcing her/him to do so nevertheless.

Definite issues?! What do you MEAN definite issues?!

Marvel Super Heroes is heavily fixated on the concept of Infinity, hence the accessibility of Infinity Specials and Infinity Counters. Do not be as excited as you would be if you were twice the time as excited as I urge you to be not to, as the Infinity system is nothing less nor nothing more than a solid novelty-addition that lets you invoke - !oorgle! - special Specials - !oorgle! - once certain conditions are met. These requirements are simple enough. Noticed the Infinity Bar yet? No? Doh! Then notice the Infinity Bar, please. Noticed the Infinity Bar yet? Yes? Coolness.

Also notice: as you connect with successful attacks, this bar will gradually fill up until you see a number at its top. This number tells you the current levels of the Infinities you are in possession of. Some characters are able to store multiple Infinity levels, while others are capable to store only a single Infinity level. Either way, once at least one Infinity meter is accessible to your character, then you are ready to resonate your Infinity Special. The command for this is the same for all characters and it surely involves some good old fashioned simultaneous button smashing. Nothing too difficult, though. While Infinity Specials usually deliver a massive amount of damage, they become the most effective if used as part of a combo. Infinity Counters can only be used if certain, delicate conditions are met, though my experience shows that you have the best chance of executing an Infinity Counter if you have no desire to do so at all. Hah!

Infinity Gems? Do. Not. Swallow.

Indeed, Infinity Gems are nice additions that will give you and your opponent temporary superpowers if possessed and - then - used. Infinity Gems will be offered by the game each time a First Attack is administered, though each round will give some of these commodities for one- or both of the current fighters. There are six different types of Gems in the game, each coming with a different color and a different name. To use a Gem up, you need to give in the consensus command each characters do rely on to achieve this effect. A certain Gem will speed you up tremendously, - Time - while an other one will make your attacks more powerful - Power. One will give you the ability to shoot projectiles - Reality Gem - and one will grant a skin of granite to you for a short period of time: Space Gem. Well - actually, there is ONE type of Infinity Gem left yet. This commodity gives you temporal invincibility. Naaah! It regenerates your health bar. Naaah! OK, one of these variants does correlate with the truth, trust me. Nice perspectives, yes?

All characters have a Gem they are the most efficient with and there will be extra conditions present on a per character basis whenever a Gem is used. For example: the recovery time of Hulk's Fierce punch will be so short if the Time Gem is used that it is an utter sin to not to deconstruct your rival to a pulp while the Gem invites you to.

You can have more than one Gems in your possession at any given time. To cycle through multiple Gems, you can use the Start button. Or any other ones. But those will not necessarily deliver the same result, mind you. There will be occasions when your rival obtains the Gem which you were so desperately longing for. No problem! Score a Special attack on that hostile sitorgan and its bearer will drop the Gem which is so kind to you. Be aware though! If you are successfully assaulted - oxymoron? - by a Special and you have an unused Gem selected, - though not activated - then the selected Gem will be dropped. Question arises: what if you have more than ONE Gem when you get hit by a Special? And the Question remains a Mystery, waiting to be solved by our Dearest Visitors here at Mamereview.

"Shut the f*ck up with that song already!"

The game has a nice set of neat little extras, like the ability to "Tech-Hit" a throw attempt, by which you can avoid a potential slam. A Safety Roll also is implemented in the game, which is an elegant maneuver that lets you regain your composure after a knockdown in a way that may exhibit potential threat to your rival by positioning you right into attack position instead of the napping position.

The characters in Marvel Super Heroes have a relatively limited set of Special moves, yet, fortunately all regular moves are suitable to be connected into a certain Special move. This will give you an increased level of freedom to invent combos, though forming- and executing more advanced maneuvers will demand definite PPP. That is practice, patience and precision, my precious. I would tell you to consult the Guide at the end of the article for more information, and, hell, I will, too! Please consult the Guide at the end of the article for more information. As you already have seen by now, instead of delivering Specials on their own, Marvel Super Heroes invites you to form and press emphasis on incorporating moves - including Specials - within suitable connector moves, hence forming more complex series of actions.

Marvel Super Heroes remains a solid delivery to this day, one which captures the Marvel comic atmosphere with a strict and conscious hand, yet does not fail to deliver the good old Capcom Cheesiness Factor, proudly relying on the usual, incomprehensibly bad voice acting and pink music of riskless silicon thrills. The game includes Capcom's Trademark Terrible Announcer whom you hear in every single installment the company was gracious enough to produce, but, what is even better than this, is the fact that the respective names of the Special moves will thoroughly be exclaimed upon Special move introduction! Iron Man's Proton Cannon is not suitable for anyone under the age of 1 000 000, and, from then on: it is pure fun, anyway.

Recommendation:
Marvel Super Heroes Guide

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Bio-Attack

2009-07-06T12:54:00.000-07:00

INTO YOUR FESTERING HEART

Bio-Attack is yet another- and a quite literal system shock from an era that had little if any considerations if the audience will be able to reach the - probably non-existent - end of the game. As Satan of Saturn does, Taito's 1983 effort delivers endless fun - hah! - and related, good old quality frustration of myriad subtle alterations, inviting you to establish the highest score possible in a game environment that offers tints of an inventive variety.

Yet, this is no joyride my friend, as this here proud retroshock remains wise enough to know that no lifeform with physical characteristics is likely to survive the mayhem unleashed herein. Think you can handle this Bio-Attack? I think you can. Have a go and let me invent a sinister smile behind your shoulder secretly, silently. You see - you should be able to deliver 100.000 in Bio-Attack with me and my loathsome mate standing behind your back, as these are the exact traits that define the Champion. If you plan to BE one: you MUST BE able to handle the pressure. Can't see what I am getting at? I'm getting at the delicate braincells, as does this here baby via amazing determination and ruthless efficiency. Enter the -

Bio-Attack!

Enjoy and Read on!

The game unfolds in a human nervous system and you must eradicate the viruses present in this environment. You control - take your pick - an average spaceship or an average tiny nanobot. OK, let's get liberal here: you control a tiny nanobot spaceship. Bio-Attack brings numerous focal traits to the table, all of which make it one of the more memorable deliveries, and, without a doubt: one of the hardest games ever to entertain consensus.

First and foremost, the projectile of your nanobot spaceship covers the tremendous width of one pixel while traveling away from your shuttle, thus you need quality precision aiming - redundancy? - to bring proper punishment - oxymoron? - upon the viruses. The game uses rather smart behavior patterns to control the meanies, though the other chunk of the challenge is the natural- and necessary result of the sheer number they will harass the system by. Most of the entities are able to shoot projectiles at you, alas!, a good thing that you can Robin Hood those shots to be the definite nanobot in your imagination - AND to cause all the ladies in the vicinity to fall at your feet in honest awe and endless appreciation. One of the effects is not guaranteed, though.

Bio-Attack invites you on a journey taking place between vital organs of the human nervous system, connected by the casual veins you will travel through to administer conservative cleansing all over the place. Though a little map is rendered at the right corner of the screen, it seems to me that no logical progress is happening on it while you are completing levels. You will reach the various spots at numerous times, so it seems safe enough to assume that the developers did not expect the players to be able to reach the center of the mind - so why bother modeling it, right? And what does the center of the mind have to do with the condition of the nervous system? Hah! A lot, even a LUT!

Once you have traveled through the consecutive vein, the game will present a sub-mission to you. These sequences are quite hardcore and do deliver elements forged of clever inventiveness, requiring an extremely sharp level of skills. Sk1ll2, even. One of these sub-missions have an affection for All Things Packman and it invites you to clear a maze area of the viruses before the oxygen runs out. This is not yet enough: you need to have a sufficient amount of oxygen (time) to be able to withdraw from the area, as well. Sometimes the walls of the maze will fade away, hindering your progress considerably in case you have failed to make a mental image of the walls. Make a mental image of a Lamborghini and it will manifest, too! That's no secret.

The other two sub-missions are the sequences in which Bio-Attack punishes you rather strictly and elegantly. These sequences are similar to love affairs, as they are taking place in the heart. That was an attempt at offering a joke and I don't mind resonating this as otherwise you may have missed the attempt altogether.

In the first massive minigame, you need to eliminate a mastermind virus, naturally represented by a tiny ball. What makes it a mastermind virus? Easy: first, it is coated by an immense amount of spatial defense which you must eliminate to reach the mastermind virus. Needles to say that the damned thing itself demands a couple of shots to finally withdraw. Secondly, it has very effective bodyguards that are equally good at mocking you- and at kicking your sitorgan around.

The mockery part: you can paralyze the bodyguard creatures for a short period of time with a well placed shot. Or, even with a not-too-well placed shot. The point is to hit them, you feel me? And here is the catch: in case you hit a paralyzed bodyguard creature - then the thing will revive and will continue to harass you. These entities will do their best - which is relatively much, trust me - to organize themselves into effective formations in front of the defense system of the mastermind virus, making your life a pitiful remembrance-attempt sewn of silent, intense suffering. I can relate, baby. And surely, we can talk about it.

So, here is what you will initially do: you will shoot around like crazy, hoping to deconstruct the defense system of the mastermind virus. But you will inevitably hit the bodyguards while doing this and your consecutive shots will revive them if you fail to embed sane TACTICS into your assaults. Strategical movement, precise aiming, shots with meaning behind them - hmmm - and the readiness to improvise all become essential elements in order to survive these sessions.

The other sub-mission is similar in its nature, only this time you are to take out green sinister mastermind anuses. The first mastermind anus comes solo, - self-confidence par excellence - but the consecutive ones will come in pairs. These blasphemous abominations of inconceivable proportions will throw hideous shots of green BEEP! at you and their bodyguards are rather swift and aggressive, coming to you in combined patterns that will give quality HOOOLLLYSHIT! time to all who show honest interest. See the tiny growths at the sides of the organ? Those are actual gameplay elements you can stumble into, more specifically: they are deliberately placed there so there are things in the game environment that you COULD stumble into. These will prevent you from moving horizontally in case the tail of your nanobot shapeship < - admire the typo please - is stuck between them. You can escape from the grip of course, but it is a very effective method to force you to be in touch - BGAH! - with your environment during the session.

Bio-Attack shines considerably with its immensely demanding sub-missions, while it delivers an acceptable form of orthodox-style scroll-action with not too much variety to it whenever you find yourself roaming in the veins. The sub-missions do remain memorable challenges, resonating retro hardcore beauty on decibels no casual fan dares to face without a casual nuclear shelter shielding her/him from it.

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Killer Instinct

2009-04-29T17:57:00.000-07:00

SHOW ME THE ANIMAL

Many do claim that 1994 was an actual date in history with people living their curious lives, having casual fun under morose cable rainbows. Bah! Little if any do these scientific observers know about the favorite interests and pastimes of the violent arcade geek with the well developed affection for all things post- apocalyptic. Killer Instinct scouts out fictional areas conceived in a future that worships violence and finds rampant pleasure observing the twisted beauty it delivers. The game made its debut of aggressive retinaseduction with a visual/modal style vivid and radical enough to solidify the output as one of the most memorable VS installments.

Enjoy and read on!

Killer Instinct arrives by a time that already have seen illustrious franchises and The Lady Kier! emerge. Mortal Kombat, the Street Fighter series, even Sega's Virtua Fighter is available to the public and the style is quite popular by the period. Killer Instinct comes to the arcades as a rather unorthodox machine, sporting a muscular CPU which is steadily supported by a highly secretive hard drive. This storage capacity throws the green light on a massive amount of data, giving - totally and completely blissful - possibility to invoke pre-rendered 3D backgrounds. Increased efficiency to store data enabled the developers to go Nuclear with the detail work, giving you delicious, rather large 2D characters, ready and able to splatter some quality guts around in high definition. Did you believe that? From a technical point of view, an evident, elegant Killer we are talking about, living up to its name right by its debut minute.

Thank God that Killer Instinct sports the most trite - and subsequently most beautiful - post-apocalypse setting the human mind - ok, the sedated sloth mind - could conceive. You know the drill, it is something like:

"... then the remaining survivors are forced to retreat from the surface of this here scorched, sorrowful Earth! Radical entertainment is the only form of mass pleasure, preventing a dangerously hectic society from losing its fragile balance!"

This setting never gets old, because it is beyond being old since times immemorial. The Ultratech Corporation organizes the Killer Instinct Tournaments, toe to toe battles taking place between illustrious participants, all of them having rather inventive characters, background stories and -perplexedly! - consorting agendas.

I find Killer Instinct to be especially strong and brave in its atmosphere, in its modal buildup. The character roster is exceptionally flamboyant, even inventive - creating a spectrum in which you won't find the same flavor or tint of color twice. Got any doubts? Consult the Optional Randompraise of the Killer Instinct Character Roster section then.

Optional Randompraise of the Killer Instinct Character Roster

Spinal is an ancient warrior. At default, he is dead since millenniums, yet now he reigns in sheer skeletal form, revived by Ultratech. Pretty traditional delivery from a storytelling point of view, yet this nice, kind of a classic fictionmodel does a very elegant job of introducing a skillfully outlined past to a skillfully crafted future.

Riptor is a genetic experiment. Hm. A geneRic experiment, you thought? AND a possible tribute to Primal Rage, huh? A modest WOW nevertheless, as commanding rampant T-Rexes was great fun for the whole family in 1994 - we are only one year after Stevie Spielberg's Jurassic Prick!! - and I have a PayPal Donation to make that it remains great fun for the same type of community to this day, as well.

Cinder is a convict, trapped in some relatively crazy existence characterized by a constant self-burning that WOULD consume the flesh - but this man has a SIN so DREADFUL that his spirit forces him to re-experience torment without END, without RELIEF. I confess I made half of this up. Which part is the actual background story of Cinder, you wonder? Yet Another Amazing Reason to be a regular.

Glacius is an ice-alien. Exhibits evident T1000 influences from Terminator 2. Question arises: why would we have any problem with this? Sabrewulf delivers a nice, massive goth impact on the atmosphere, no woman nor man could play as a werewolf in a 2D fighting game prior to this. Let's face the Strange: werewolves are kind of cool, and, according to popular mainstream mythology, - worship redundance, then kill it with ignorance - they shred Vamp butts!

Killer Instinct delivers even when it comes to those popular "BAH! Every. Body. Picks. Them." characters. Some people will tell you that the most popular characters of the game are Orchid and TJ Combo. That is a lie, I think. The most popular character of Killer Instinct is Orchid. Period. Yes, TJ Combo would be the next in line in popularity, but you will never select this muscular brada', as the Orchid with the different outfit color - press up and down on character selection - looks waaay better, yes?

Even when she has the mild Michael Jackson going on.

and now -

The Gameplay

Killer Instinct comes with two health bars, though you won't necessarily believe this until you see the first one being destroyed, just to be replaced by the second, final one. The game comes with six action buttons. If it came with any less, consider yourself an unlucky dudette and demand a flawless model from the factory. If it came with more than six action buttons, then contact the favorite identity of your optional multiple personality disorder, which, I guess, could be even me, huh? Anyway. Three kinds of punches and kicks are available: Quick, Medium and Fierce. Block happens by the traditional way, meaning all you have to do is to pull your sista'/duda' towards the opposite direction the attack is coming from. The first elegant catch of Killer Instinct slowly and surely emerges though.

WATCH!

- How was that again?
- The Shadow of Your Smiiiile - When You ... Were Gooooone ...

In this here game, you can perform a block in the lower region or you can perform a block in the upper region. Doing the two simultaneously would be a nice trick to show off, but, luckily/sadly, no one will be able to do that without cheating. Here is how the system works: an attack aimed for the upper body region will smash a low guard, but will be blocked on an upper defense. An attack aimed for the lower body region naturally will bypass a high block, but will be blocked and will cause no damage if it meets with a successful lower block.

The system of Quick, Medium and Fierce punches and kicks offers a solid basis for the steady pace the game flows at, giving the players an experience of swift tactical warfare characterized by two or three exchanges AND consecutive attempts to introduce Specials and/or Combos. Killer Instinct likes to seduce its participants to be engaged in fervent bloodshed with relative intensity. I have a scientific observation to defend this here latest notion with.

Behold how the characters are moving way faster when they are approaching their rivals. Backpedaling is an option in the game, but a fragile one for escaping. Remains useful for Combos and Specials that require you to utilize a so called "Charge", though. We will observe these Charges later on thoroughly.

Playing Killer Instinct with a keyboard on a PC on MAME while your neighbor has no idea of this at all, will give you amazing Specials. First of all, be sure to tap around on the direction keys like an accomplished idiot would do in Masterful Manic mode. The effect will be tremendous! Also notice one of the tiny Wonders that Killer Instinct delivers: Fulgore's metal body will collide with the ground via a highly acceptable metallic sound, even upon finishing a jump. This is all very tender AND a nice base to sew sentiments of later on, true? Now let me ask you this:

What do you think will happen if Fulgore's metal body collides with snow, wood or ice on the backgrounds that have snow, wood or ice on them? What do you think will happen then, huh?
Now unto the gameplay mechanics.

Gameplay Mechanics

A Quick kick deals less damage than its other variants, yet it connects before a concurrent stronger kick would do. An orthodox method to punish the newbie in Killer Instinct is to "steal" a row of quick strikes or punches on her/him while she/he is busy introducing Specials. Notice how dramatic the damage dealt by a Fierce kick is when compared to that dealt by a Quick kick.

Specials come in two forms: those that do require Charging movements and those that do not. Charging is quite similar to what you have seen in Street Fighter II, for example. All it takes to perform is to constrain your movement towards the required direction - usually back - then release with the given command to state your Special and/or Combo. In fact, I am tempted to believe that there are no Charge movements in Killer Instinct apart from the "Away" direction - BUT!, since I defy belief with ruthless efficiency, I believe I'll defy to believe that from now on.

MAME Review Killer Instinct Minigame!

Can you spot the ass?

The game partly is about Specials, yet it is massively about Combos. Combos are the bread and butter of what Killer Instinct really is. Each character have a number of Specials that are utilizable to Open a Combo. Combos, as you may have suspected already, are offensive moves you land on your puny rival with rapid succession, giving her/him no time to regain composure. Not giving the time is not identical of not GETTING any, though. We will see into this matter later.

MAME Review gives you:
The not too GTA IV screenshot.

As far as the Killer Instinct Combo system goes, you need to master Openers, Linkers and Enders. And, everything else that do not fall into these aforementioned categories. These cited elements are executed automatically once you give in the appropriate commands, yet the name of the game here is your own readiness and trusty knowledge of implementing possible, additional hits before moving on to the consecutive Linker or Ender maneuver. Thus: the art of playing according to the rules of this system consists of two main ingredients:

1. finding the elements (hits) you could - effectively - smuggle in between the aforementioned categories of Openers, Linkers and Enders.
2. proving that the elements are implementable, merely by demonstrating your crazy Combo on any opposing butt foolish enough to stay in the presence of your amazing skill set of profane deconstruction!

The game monitors all successful Combo efforts and will categorize executed Combos on the fly. The basis of this is a simple, yet elegant naming convention, one which categorizes a Combo based on the number of successful hits it consists of. There are Triple, Super, Hyper ... etc. Combos up to Ultimate Combos, but those are invokable only if certain prerequisites are met. Once you master the Killer Combos of your favorite characters, you could call yourself a competent personificator of those particular participants and you could jump right on to master the Ultra Combos. Do not be afraid: Ultras are but two-three buttons away from you once certain prerequisites are met.

Combos can be broken by the proper Combo Breaker move. Each character have a Special which is suitable to be utilized as a Combo Breaker as well, but, in order to use a particular Breaker Special effectively, you should know what kind of attack - Quick, Medium or Fierce - you want to break the opposing Combo on. If you are new to Killer Instinct and all this sounds like Chinese Mandarin to you, then you are getting close to understand, trust me. The Combo Breaker system is quite similar to the Stone, Paper, Scissors game, yet thorough knowledge of the characters and their Combos will be a must to find/reveal/recognize and PLAY True Fun out of this underlying system, one which invites you to explore depths rarely offered by the genre.

In the Guides this review points you to at the end, you will find extensive information on Combos and Combo Breakers.

The Killer Instinct Dilemma for the Miserable and the Proud

Or: Are You a Presser or Not?

As you will see while you perfecting your Killer Instinct, Ultra Combos are quite easy to trigger: all they require is a flashing hostile health bar and - as mentioned - a combination of two-three buttons once a Combo is being performed. Now, here is the catch and also here is the Killer Instinct Dilemma for the Miserable and the Proud.

Once invoked, Ultra and Ultimate Combos will come to their glorious manifestations as acceptably long sequences of successful attacks. You are pretty much free to sit back, grab a beer and/or a (couple of) well shaped (fe)male knee(s) and enjoy the Ultra or Ultimate Combo you have just stated.

But! If!

You are one of the Miserable and the Proud, then you will not do this. The Miserable and the Proud player of Killer Instinct will push the buttons around in a highly manic manner once the Ultra or the Ultimate Combo is triggered - making absolutely everyone believe that he is a One in a Million kind of player, a Legit Archtalent, a VS Type Fighter Demigod! Absolutely everyone, granted that we are talking about the happy people who have zero idea about the workings of the game, that is. Ultras are nice additions, as they are glorious Finishes you could flatter your best Killer Combos with, yet they also are the Bittersweet Solace of the Lazy and the Incompetent, and THIS - is acceptable.

Just not laugh when you spot a Killer Instinct Ultra Combo Presser showing off the Godlike Skillzzzzz. First of all, it might hurt the feelings, not to mention that the point of the game is to remain Ultra Serious when an Ultra Combo is being guitar-soloed in front of your very eyes.

Question arises though: is it satisfying to push the buttons around like a mad person when your automated Ultra/Ultimate is triggered and plays along safely, regardless of your actions?
The only honest answer for this question is this: you must seek YOUR answer for this question. And yes, I asked Yoda and he confirmed, too. (Yoda is a Presser by the way.)

Leftover

Killer Instinct had no aspiration for being accused of coming short of the cute novelties and good old fatalities the era and the style demanded by the day. The game delivers acceptably yet not too memorably in this regard. Each participants have multiple finishing moves - fatalities, if you will - and all of them could engage the opponent in a brief, nevertheless somewhat satisfying dance session, too. Once you have mastered the ropes and you are in the possession of the "basic" - HAH! - combo set of your favorite characters, the game invites you to explore even deeper waters by mastering the highly secretive Shadow Combos and related delicacies that deliver additional content to the game.

As you may have suspected by now, Killer Instinct brings you a rather sophisticated system with plenty of moves and secrets to discover. The knowledge about the game is vast already, therefore I give you a link which points to the most serious and truthful Killer Instinct Guides the human race has grateful knowledge of.

Killer Instinct Guides for the Arcade version, emulated by MAME

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Satan of Saturn

2008-11-05T04:18:00.000-08:00

EVIL 0.75b

1981. Celluloid molester-, accomplished mindscorcher, Stanley Donen JUST gave you Saturn 3, the science-fiction statement in which Kirk Douglas reveals body parts NO MAN WITNESSES and goes away with his SANITY INTACT!

The facial expressions will invite you to develop fresh-, and way more proper definitions of Epic Endurance, as well. Follow the link < - deliberate repetition as an element of rampantly aggressive marketing strategy - to confirm, and to start finding the first 5 reasons of the infinite number of reasons of which all do tell you that checking out Saturn 3 is no longer an aspect of the known Universe you can safely ignore.

I suspect that the Japanese evildo... developers responsible for the Highly Illegal Space-Time Rift represented proudly by this here gem, have seen, surely MUST HAVE seen Saturn 3. The game speaks the language of Space Invaders, yet exhibits quite a few clever traits by which we must regard the title as one of evident aspirations and - as hinted delicately - immense evilness.

Is Evil the capacity to Harm without Remorse? HAH! The Satan of Saturn LAUGHS at your indecisive fumbling, puny human, being ready to confront you with the True Definition of Evil.

Muhaha ZISSSS, baby!

addendum:
it has come to the attention of the Galactic Sanity Keeper Committee that the embedded Satan of Saturn video, as of the moment of this report, is no longer available. The Committee utilizes all its channels and its stupendous influence - including telepathic willbending and EMP bursts - to solve the matter. In case you see the video, then the Committee apologizes for taking fruity seconds away from the amazing accomplishment you relentlessly work on and call an earthy lifetime. You see: a Committee is a Master at worshiping Minutes, and a Grand Master at wasting Hours.

Enjoy and Read on!

The game gives you - illegally, I'm sure - musical sequences from Star Wars, combine the very planet name Saturn to it, and you have the era's quite effective- and quite relentless space punishment at your fingertips. Satan of Saturn demonstrates sublime deviations from the trends established/outlined earlier by its aforementioned primal inspirator, finding inventive channels to present a solid, fresh take on the genre. The ability and necessity to deconstruct hostile UFOs won't likely register as an idea you and your dog never heard of before, yet the monsters will exhibit multiple agendas and consorting, radically different movement patterns, all of which will accelerate based on the performance you dare to resonate towards the Satan of Saturn.

As far as the multiple agendas of the hostiles are concerned, these are as follows:

1. Destruct Player Butt.

2. Destruct Space Structure that Emits Player Butt.

The latter being the mothership that releases your shuttle each time you start a new level, or in case you have lost a life, but still have at least one left. The hostiles will exhibit immense, even EMENCE interest in killing off your only ally Death Star style, you know, little stuff into the little hole. Most of the enemy patterns - not all though, which is an interesting addition on its own - will incorporate the intention to reach the opening you see on the mothership below you. If you let even one attacker through, then the mothership is toast, and you are toast with it, baby, as there will be no mothership to give you another life. Sad, yes?

Let us conclude via eager nodding of our heads that this is a very elegant method to enforce the player to take risks and master the hostile patterns, as, safety gameplay will result in the UFOs coming through. You know they are here already. You know they are watching. You know they need you. You know that they are communicating with you through the television set. You have seen that all before. The message is so clear, so obvious, so evident! You know it will find you again. It MEANT to.

Well, where were we? Oh, yes! We covered the first portion of Satan of Saturn, that being the
segments in which the Planet Saturn spills UFOs at you to question your integrity and/or to eradicate your only ally in this game, the mothership. These initial attempts usually consist of six- or seven rushes you need to survive, - preferably by killing all the baddies, yes - then comes the second sequence that consists of an entirely different kind of rush: bombing. Two fleets will go for your sitorgan, one from the left, one from the right. Not all of them will drop bombs, but finding out (experiencing) which one will and which one won't, is the natural, effective field of operation of these great segments. A bad reaction to an incoming bomber is a good demise watched by the bomber hostiles. If you are the Bad Enough Dude to overcome the bombers - which, as it seems to me, are easier sequences than the first periods - then the game, instead of telling you to

GO *+,:@#!! YOURSELF!,

tells you ,to:

the GO TO THE SATURN screenshot

Letting you know that this is something the game considers a personal matter between it and you from now on. Saturn, according to the representation delivered by this here retroid delicacy, is a pretty hostile place. These sequences will reveal your pilot, I assume?? Not sure, really. You control some weird looking stuff, that seems pretty defendable, though. The game will put you against some crazy spacebugs, moving rather fast and unpredictable. They molest consensus from top to bottom with a perplexed enough intention of eating you up alive! Shooting is their thing, too. So, it's quite challenging, but, at the same time, rather refreshing to - "lure" the living BEEP! out of them, naturally. The spacebugs have the ability to teleport back to the top of the screen once they reach the bottom. In case you emerge triumphant against the spacebugs, then representatives of the Ultimate Defenders of Saturn will put you against a new kind of despair! If you ever saw a mosquito on radical recreational drugs, then you will face this challenge well prepared! If not - then you WILL! Meaning: you will see them.

Once the mosquitoes are out of the picture - literally, you feel me!? - the game tells us that it is time for the new pattern. These new patterns are the effective levels of the piece, and, according to my subjective, nevertheless scientific observations, they mostly mean a gradual increase in speed, affecting both the movement of the hostiles and their projectiles. This is how the game goes: three sequences to take part in with a gradual increase in speed. Where does the hinted Evil come in then? HERE:

See my amazing score of 99480 even the Satan of Saturn is completely baffled by?? Don't worry, I am not a Cosmic Immortal, or at least I fail utterly at noticing it so far: this score is the result of saving the game constantly, and reloading it when my ass got fried. I did this to see what the game has to offer at its end, and, here is True Evil: the game has NO end. The developers - I think, quite correctly - thought that no human being will be able to reach 100.000 points in their game, so, guess what: once you reach 100.000, the counter resets and you are free to wage your war on against the Satan of Saturn. And NO, I don't think the game could go any faster than it already is by the time you reached 100.000.

Does this take away something from the piece? Evidently, and here is why: I think you can get away with infinite gameplay if you are free to score - but, resetting the counter to zero after a certain point takes all aspirations away from continuing on. Heck, a

YOU REACHED 100.000, NOW GO GET A LIFE, NERD!

would have been awesome, I think. Without this, the Timeless Laughter of the Satan of Saturn still rings in my ear once I see an arcade cabinet from behind, but, the Laughter stays absent when I watch political debates.

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Fatal Fury 3

2008-10-14T01:47:00.000-07:00

GOOD KICKS COME IN THIRDS

Fatal Fury 3 - Road to the Final Victory is the fourth installment of the series, as this particular title comes to you as the direct follow-up to Fatal Fury Special, the actual third statement of the franchise. Do not exhibit the Special Turbo Edition 2 Fear yet, though.

While the cited Special variant of Fatal Fury, essentially speaking, is an improved version of Fatal Fury 2, it also sported trends - even hidden! trends - that made it both an extremely popular delivery, AND an output SNK chose to develop further on. Following the 1993 Fatal Fury Special that offers a subtle, yet quite cunning blend of existing SNK games, the firm gives us this here third episode in 1995. Fresh territories, approached from familiar paths - seems like a legit method to settle crisp elements you could offer consecutive blends with in a future of perspectives and sweet responsibilities, right? Perhaps we will see whether such an idea occurred to SNK, as well.

Enjoy and Read on!

Fatal Fury 3 offers a set of the more recognized characters the series has by the release date of this effort, along with five newcomers and a highly confidential number of mysterious main meanies. Since each classic- and fresh characters are fueled by the mutual desire to weigh in as memorable sprite-imprints at the end of the sessions, let us see if they exhibit convince power we must count with.

The core system utilizes quite a few of the focal elements that fueled the previous Fatal Fury installments. A primal trait of the series is the ability - or, even need - to molest opposing entities on multiple planes. Fatal Fury 3 keeps this particular tradition intact, even refined, now giving you a Front, a Middle and a Back plane to wage war on. Characters are able to switch between these Planes by consensus commands, and, as with the previous Fatal Fury titles, your palette of executable actions is deeply dependent on the Plane you standing on at the moment.

The Plane system always was a neat trait in the series, now is the time to devote steep attention to the more complex implementation Fatal Fury 3 delivers the method with. Now each character has a rather robust set of quasi-Specials specifically tailored to Plane-Based combat. These maneuvers do come via different attack types and you surely could assault multiple body regions with them, while switching Planes still remains a safe method to leap out of the way of most attacks and even Specials - granted of course that you happen to be a Bad Enough Dude and swift enough to do that.

The K.O. Move simply NEVER gets old - because it IS old already.

While blocks and Throws all do use the same methods you already could familiarize yourself with via the previous Fatal Fury statements, there is a nice set of nifty Specials that are massively context sensitive. A good example would be Geese Howard, who now is a playable character. Geese is Master, even a Masta of countering attacks with quite satisfactory Throws, yet, you need to invoke these Specials in the right time, AND in the right context to successfully state them. An example: Geese must be attacked by a Special to make his Dragon Throw invokable.

Fatal Fury 3 introduces a semi-coarse, nevertheless fresh addition in the form of its combo system, inviting you to master the respective chain attacks of each character, usually made out of four- or five consecutive hits. Surely, you can stop a chain any time you like, but, naturally, the main idea is to perform your combos all the way through, dealing sentimental quality damage in the hostile organic structure in front of you. This early, and, as such: quite significant implementation of a combo system is one of the most important traits this sequel brings to the fray, regardless the fact that it is not of a supercomplex character yet.

It seems to me that the - sorry about that - special Specials became a little more tricky to pull off, the main reason being the more precise rhythmization you must give SOME of them in with. A circumstance that becomes quite noticeable when dealing with various Desperation Specials, as we will now see.

While Command moves and the "common Specials" are easy enough to invoke, some of the Desperation moves have a tendency of occupying the identical button commands as a certain Special - or even Specials - of your character relies- or do rely on. The factor to decide whether you unleash your stock-Speciality or your Desperation - is entirely dependent on the precision of the tempo you give the command in with. Cool design, huh?

Well, it IS, and it ISN'T, because:

1. Desperations ain't too easy to pull off, thus you will be satisfied when you managed to do them, but -

2. Desperations ain't too easy to pull off, thus you won't exactly be satisfied when you invoke a stock-Special instead, which uses the same initial command as your Desperation.

To put it shortly, you have supersteep chance of assaulting good old air molecules with a Special instead of your Desperation move - until you master the tempo required to introduce the Desperation, that is.

Hon Fu - left - is one of the 2 entities whom I would cheerfully kill with ANY instrument you could name - Origami Flower, Plastic Soldier, Toothpick: all included.

We must hastily take care of a pretty dangerous and highly illegal timeleak in the fabric of the Universe, so let me remind you that certain conditions MUST be met before you could demonstrate your Super Desperation Special, let alone your Hidden Desperation.

The first one is the easier to pull off: once your lifebar reaches the critical state which it reacts to by intense flashing: you are free to deliver the Super Desperation, even in rapid succession, if you can. Hidden Desperations though require you to invite them in the round that is about to decide the outcome of the battle: the invitation itself happens by pushing all the action buttons you can find, - meaning the buttons of the keyboard/interface you playing on you know, it's not like you need to push all the action buttons in the known Universe AND Beyond - including the Start button once you see the GO! text appear on the screen. On a standar keyboard layout, that would be:

Left SHIFT+
Left CTRL+
Left ALT+
SPACE+
1

If you gave the command in successfully, your character's name will turn bright green and you will be free to resonate your Hidden Desperation once your lifebar starts to flash. One Hidden Desperation/round, though.

Can you find the Hidden Desperation on this image?

Inviting the possibility to rely on the move is not the most difficult part though, quite the contrary: the invite command is but the introduction to Hidden Desperations. These moves are definite PITAs to demonstrate, as they are usually composed of three individual command chains that require extreme precision to sew together, thus making the Hidden Desperation a finalized- and successful attempt, forming before your very eyes as you give in these complex chains. Sadly though, in my opinion, the hardest part is NOT to keep the chain, but to START it at the first place.

Trust me, french kissing a cobra on amphetamine - meaning: it is the cobra who is on amphetamine - is a much more manageable task than giving the Hidden Desperation in to a CPU enemy in Fatal Fury 3, mainly because the difficulty it poses to introduce the first chain. Surely, it's not Near the Impossible - like skiing through a revolving door is - yet the game gives you blatantly shallow chances to shine via your ultimate delicacies, I would say.

The output has some cool, yet quite minor supportive elements you can play around with, these are invokable K.O. moves and Send to Background moves, spiced up by much less satisfactory "unique attractions" that you can utilize only on one- or two maps. Like a Ceiling-Fatality, a definite "Uhuh, So What?" vibe for the whole family.

Characterized by the stable Fatal Fury traditions that do arrive to you with a more complex Plane- and an inventive Combo system, this here 1995 installment of the series certainly registers as a solid effort, with but the extremely fragile Hidden Desperations to cast a pseudo-shadow on it. An integral delivery nevertheless.

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related recommendation:
Fatal Fury 3 Guide

Mars Matrix

2008-10-06T11:15:00.000-07:00

SINGULARITY BLISS

Instead of the casual information apocalypse this here planet enthusiastically looked forward to in 1999, Takumi gave you Mars Matrix, a solid Bullet Hell effort to celebrate all the years starting with the digit "2" - AND beyond.

Published by Capcom and demonstrating pretty much all the colors and shapes the conservative Anime Mind could conceive by the day, Mars Matrix arrives to smash all your preconceptions about orthodox projectile sizes and their corresponding speed. Face the Bubblegum Shooter, and sink those extremely vicious teeth into it - be aware though that this effort will : Bite Yer Butt Back.

Enjoy and Read on!

The most curious thing that is about to assault your grateful senses is Mars Matrix's rendition method. The effort comes in a standard aspect ratio, which is something to be mildly perplexed about, considering that similar titles usually do arrive via the classic narrow screen realization, see Battle Garegga or DoDonPachi, or Bolo Yeung, who is BUT mildly related to our current session, though.

The core buildup is straightforward, presented in a fluent, flamboyant manner. You spend your quality time in this game by dodging the absolutely, I mean like: abbbbbsssolutely obscene number of incoming hostile projectiles, something to create rather solid focus-related fun in front of the crystal clear parallax scroll the game chases you on.

While the general tempo of the gameplay is not particularly difficult to keep up with, - exclude those Boss Fights now, baby - an awareness of the layout of the hostile units AND the inherent patterns the attack waves will come in by, will be: crucial. The less versatile mode you play Mars Matrix by, the harder it gets, and this weighs in as a primal trait of precious propensity. Let us see into this in detail.

You will rely only on a single attack button during the game, yet, depending how you handle this particular function, you can execute multiple forms of offense. Tapping the button will give you the good old projectile foam, while a short hold-and-release results in an abrupt, yet highly effective burst characterized by IDP. (Increased Damage Potential, why, what were you thinking?)

You can see a nifty little meter on the bottom left corner of the screen, - or, if you can't, then it is likely that we are discussing different outputs here - once this gauge is full, you are free to release the - please check chair and hold on to it - Singularity Cannon!

This particular baby will suck in every single hostile projectile on the screen and will throw them back at the enemies, eradicating all forms of mechanized existence in front of you. Behind you. Around you. Well, you could say:

Hey, this is a peace of quality cake, gimme the Singularity Cannon, like: FAST!

Sure, there you have it. Tend it, feed it, lick it, keep it. But, some pointers to be aware of: as the meter might have implied that to you already, Mars Matrix uses a nice balance system to prevent a superrepetitive reliance on the Singularity Cannon, though it is generally safe to say that you are free to lead a gameplay which is deeply dependent on the undoubtedly magnificent space-warpa' thing.

- Singularity Cannon ZISS!!, Baby!
- OK.

In my opinion, though the less you use the Singularity Cannon, the harder the game becomes, it is a SIN to overdo it. Be sure to check out how well - or, how miserably, har! har! - you perform without this Ultimate Device of Destruction. Following the Golden Rule of Shoot'em Ups, Mars Matrix always WILL offer the Gap you can slip through to attain good old survival, and the need of finding these in those extremely dire situations are the moments the game truly shines by, I would say. (Thus, I do say, too.)

You will have to deal with some highly elaborate RPG elements in the game as well, just substitute the expression "supercoarse" instead of highly elaborate. Offering two kinds of spaceships to play within, Mars Matrix will deeply reward you in exchange of collectible Golden Cubes. You will see an Experience Bar in the upper left corner: this gauge fills up as you collect these Golden Extras, slowly depleting when it does not get any content to bite unto. So, you want to feed it, thus attaining the next Experience level, which gives you more effective weapons AND slightly more stable hair on chest. For Ladies: how about more precisely defined calves? Me would dig that.

Each level concludes by quite demanding Boss Fights. As long as you have no conception about what to anticipate from the later Main Meanies of the game: then you will have a whole new series of redefinitions of the highly delicate term: immense suckage.

The key here, of course, is to remain the Relentless Screensaver - HAH! - who always finds the method to overcome obstacles by, let that be even the All Time Fav Insert Keyboard/Joystick Into Monitor Display Special. As a charming delivery fueled by memorable outbursts of an extremely foul temper, Mars Matrix gives you powerful tools to survive, yet, also delivers the question along with it:

Chickening Out Already, Singularity Boy?

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Battle Garegga

2008-09-10T00:00:00.000-07:00

RESTLESS LIMITER

1996 greets consensus with Battle Garegga, a Shoot'em Up statement by the 8ing and Raizing corporations. This title of considerable fame and well harvested notoriety introduces and sports quite a few unique traits, hardly seen anywhere else in the genre so far.

I think sober - yet mildly redundant - debate could be formed whether to regard Battle Garegga as a classic Shoot'em Up delivery OR a Manic Shooter similar to the great Gap Finder DoDonPachi, and here is why: Battle Garegga can be played in a way to make it as Manic as you have ever seen - yet you will want to handle this baby with great care and respect instead, because, believe you me, Battle Garegga will destruct human butt mercilessly once the organ in question starts to think that the Sun shines out of it.

Enjoy and Read on!

The game offers and dictates a pleasant initial pace, one which by it's easy to get carried away and render rampant destruction. As you will soon see: rampant destruction is something you will likely want to avoid in this game, though. As for the basic elements and circumstances Battle Garegga brings to the table, there are four selectable ships coming to you in multiple variants, each sporting a different kind of Secondary Punishment capability.

Collectibles can give you both multiple levels of Options - mobile devices to offer supportive fire - and heavily concealed access for weapons of manic mayhem and inherent, good old scenery destruction of acceptably sentimental qualities. All Stages do come to their respective Conclusions via well presented Boss fights, yet these face-offs are supersensitive to the performance of the player who just arrived to take part in them. Indeed, Battle Garegga is Highly Responsive to Players, as we will see.

The game offers a whole lot to destruct both in scenery and in hostile incoming vehicles, yet, once you give in to your secretive (?) weapon psycho, our notorious subject matter Battle Garegga will persistently inquire if you happen to have yet another trick up your sleeve. The output is not too shy at all, not when concerning the edge of its questions, not when we witness the arsenal it offers. Atop the evident ability of upgrading your initial equipment to messengers of senseless anger and/or incomprehensible armor penetration, your Secondary weapons will be collected as invokable Maximum Bursts of the corresponding weapon type. Was that a "huh?" for you? Nothing too difficult, really: once you collect a certain number of Bomb icons, those little images will turn into a Big-A*s bomb which will give you the aforementioned Maximum Burst upon release. In case you decide to stack your Secondary Verdict for a while, you can go for yet another of the Big Bombs/Maximum Bursts, simply by collecting Bomb icons further on. As for the Optional devices: there can be a maximum of four of those around you, but you can organize them into different, nifty formations via the third button. Battle Garegga has some secret formations - invokable and collectible when certain conditions are fulfilled, see Below - in store for us, as well.

Question quickly becomes evident: why not deconstruct all that can be deconstructed? The answer comes to us via Battle Garegga's invisible, yet ever-present Rank system. As a secretive, silent, yet painfully aware mathematical entity, this algorhythm is your worst, even worstest rival in the game. The Rank system keeps track of pretty much all aspects the output invites you to explore or to rely on. How much you shoot? How powerful your shots are? How often you release your Secondary weapons? Or, do you prefer to STACK them? How many Options you keep around your ship?

All these questions, and many more are being eagerly monitorized by Battle Garegga, in fact, the Rank gets higher with each shots you release, even better/worse: with each frame (!) you survive. If your perform masterfully, a point will come, from which on Garegga will hate your guts quite passionately and will punish it by exhibiting near-impossible challenges. The solution is to keep the Rank system from increasing beyond manageable challenges, yet the most effective method for this is to die. Whether on purpose, or by - bleheh - accident. The less life you have in stock, once your butt is fried: the greater the decrease in the Rank will be. As such, Extra lives are evident musts to go for, yet you should be aware that different regional variants of the game deliver Extra lives at different Score requirements.

Minor, nevertheless important methods are existent to keep the Rank system at relative, yet much needed peace. As a general rule, you don't necessarily want to destruct all, you don't want to shoot the naked air, you don't want to collect all Power Ups, especially not if they no longer mean instant benefit to you beyond Points. Though Autofire is available, it is something Battle Garegga is especially fond of being enraged at. You can program the Autofire, by the way: buffer in some crazy-ass shots, and your Autofire will remember the rate you stated. Keep in mind though that the game hates this classic function, and will start punish you thoroughly if you decide to rely on it constantly, trust me.

Medals and Options do play a significant role in the game, too. What was stated concerning destruction, enjoys its merits concerning collectibles. You don't want to rush on all stuff that is present on the screen at any given time - especially not incoming shots. Sorry, not all jokes do need to work, otherwise, how could we appreciate one which is capable to? Be aware that letting certain collectibles to get away will grant access either to items of more significant scores, or to more versatile tools of magnificent mayhem.

Since this particular subsystem AND the Rank method at the core are rather complex and sophisticated elements, I would urge you to consult the massively thorough, pretty much scientifically detailed Guide I gratefully deliver at the bottom. The Rank method also makes a rather unique experience out of this charming delicacy, offering a gameplay that invites you to implement strategy beside the natural readiness of Gap Seeking and to render a trusty, steady period of Proper Eradication. Question no longer is if you can utilize all tools to dominate the game - question is if you can utilize proper tools to stay alive in the game.

Battle Garegga invites, and, later on, even demands a different approach than most shmups do popularize, yet it delivers its unique experience by speaking the consensus dialect you, as Player, will be thoroughly grateful for and familiar with. Oh, the One and Only Sentence you absolutely MUST write down when you offer an opinion about Battle Garegga: it is hard to differentiate hostile projectiles from resultant junks and debris! Wow. What an acurate observation. Indeed it is. Yes. No doubt. A part of the game, you know. All in all, Battle Garegga weights in as evident, brave classic, inviting you timelessly to show it your awesometacular one credit run.

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related recommendation:
Heavy Duty Battle Garegga Guide

Bad Dudes VS Dragonninja

2008-08-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

A BAD ENOUGH DUDE

Proprietor of one of the most hilarious titles of videogame history, DataEast's 1988 effort Bad Dudes VS Dragonninja emerges as a statement of solid rivalry towards the era's flamboyant Beat'em Up traditions. While our present subject matter isn't afraid to borrow its basic gameplay mechanics from the 1984 classic Kung-Fu Master and its direct descendant Vigilante from 1988, the output's primal agenda is to ride with the well defined modal waves established by Double Dragon one year earlier.

A copycat then? Far from it. This retroid delicacy possesses both a tremendous global charm AND the most memorable Mission Briefing you'll ever see in a Beat'em Up. Got doubts? You are about to lose those utterly ma'man, as the Bad Dudes, Blade and Striker are Back in Town - and they are about to dominate hostile ninja assets of the midsection character as they make their way to save the President of the United States from the Gruesome Clutch of the Dragonninja! Are! You! a! Bad! Enough! Dude! to present their amazing skillset with intact convince power?

Enjoy and Read on!

Bad Dudes VS Dragonninja is more complex than the good old first glance will probably suggest. Controls are simple, yet are supported by firm context sensitivity, meaning certain moves are available only in case particular conditions are fulfilled. We will see into this matter later. Your basic arsenal is seemingly - even practically - limited to an Attack and a Jump button, yet the aforementioned context sensitivity and some variations with the basic tools will give you a more flamboyant palette of maneuvers to rely on. Let us see into these in relation with the basic pace- and character of the gameplay.

The Ideal Place to settle a Conflict.

To put is simply, Bad Dudes VS Dragonninja is about: Bad Dudes and Ninjas, AND a Dragonninja. More precisely: it is about Bad Dudes and a BEEP!load of Ninjas to be found-, and to be dismissed by demonstration of an amazing skill set of martial arts. The screen is ruthlessly, fervently frequented by massive packs of the generic enemies, yet each of them exhibit a different method to punish you. Thus, learning, then preparing for the attacks you will most likely be subjected to in a given moment is one major chunk of the fun here, while, naturally enough, the second portion forms merely by the casual fact that you are not only supposed to defend your butt(s) - you are definitely supposed to punish all others that are fool enough to present themselves with the Bad Dude(s) around.

Your basic punch seems rather scarce. You know why that is? Because it IS scarce. Once there are enemies in front of you though - an occurrence to consort with relative frequency in this here game - you can start a semi-coarse combo of three-four consecutive hits, though being stationary is a risky stance to rely on, for most of the time. Notice that we have just seen an example of context sensitivity. To put is simply: do the combo when you are not approached from different directions. Let us see the other tricks that are waiting to be unleashed.

Charge up the Attack button by pressing on it, invoking the Long Forgotten, and Even Forbidden Technique of The Electrified Fist of Gruesome Atomic Shattering!, even: !!. As results of the firm amount of time it takes to spend in a stationary position to invoke the move, be aware that this particular Special is rather risky to rely on, not to mention that most of the generic baddies will be knocked out cold by a single attack you connect with. Not all, though: more advanced enemies at the later stages will ask for more of the quality punishment, to them, it is a logical method to introduce the Charge Special - you will need excellent timing and an excellent screen position to state it successfully, nevertheless.

NOBODY! Steals our PRES'! - and LIVES!

Try and smash the respective Direction buttons supported by each Actions, inlcuding a combined press of Attack + Jump. Some rather interesting maneuvers will occur, including an unorthodox "jumping lowkick" that comes in handy against the doggies, - in this here game, they are a PITA, no doubt. Your most frequently used weapon will be the Hurricane Kick though, the move quite similar to Ryu's Trademark (?) Special. In Bad Dudes VS Dragonninja, you invoke the maneuver by Jumping either towards Left or Right, then you want to push Attack immediately. It does not work if you simply Jump up. This is a nice, trusty method to connect on multiple enemies while keeping your movement consistent.

Jumping up remains an integral part of the game, as well: Player Characters are able to demonstrate a Jump of Definite Bean Overdose, something which comes rather handy when you plan to evade a massive swarm of baddies you would prefer to loose their usually tight formations up. The High Jump is simple to rely on, just press Up while you press the Jump button, as well. It is also worth mentioning that this is partly the way you switch between the upper-and lower sections of a stage, granted you are on one that has multiple stories to wage war on. To get to the lower section from a higher one, press Down + Jump.

Extras are present, too: knives, nunchakus, and Hate, the Weapon of Mass Destruction. Surely, one of them is absent, or at least I did not notice its evident presence yet. While knives and nunchakus have a different attack range, they will make your Bad Dude turn much more swiftly. Other extras are coming to you in forms of Time bonuses and Coke to re-supply health. Yeah baby, this, even ZIS! is the Coke way. The exact method of picking Extras up is a Riddle begging to be solved by the Dearest Visitor. As for the context sensitivity we touched upon earlier, a further example for this is neutralizing the shurikens on the floor: approach them superclose, then unleash a combination of Down + Attack to get rid of the thing. You can't execute this amazingly satisfying kick though without a shuriken in front of your feet. Yet, in case you CAN: then you are a Badderer Dude than I Is.

Each of the game's seven stages is concluded by a classic Boss Fight, with a Final Showdown coming to you via a surprisingly clever dramaturgical buildup. Like most Beat'em Up titles, Bad Dudes VS Dragonninja is particularly grateful once you decide to play it rigorously, meaning: you refuse to get kicked around, and choose to exploit weaknesses and gaps in the opposition's lines instead. With its now-supercoarse, though timelessly intact presentational values and memorable gestures/lines placed throughout its mere fabric, Bad Dudes VS Dragonninja weighs in as a piece that delivers the hilarious modal cheesiness of the original, One-and-Only Ninjamania of the late '80s. A definite retroid delicacy.

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DoDonPachi

2008-08-16T13:37:00.001-07:00

MIND THE GAP(s)!

DoDonPachi, or, what this Japanese title roughly and playfully translates to: Angry Boss Bee - you know from this point on that you have to play this effort - is a manic sci-fi shooter developed by the Atlus and Cave corporations, also is the direct descendant of Don Pachi, a game that hit arcades and grew quite popular two years prior our delicate subject matter would have had claim rigorous shoot' em up dominance in 1996. This game knows no jokes at all, and has 0 intention pretending it does, hence the consensus decision to regard similar outputs as manic shooters. Bid farewell for relief and pleasant moments of inhalation upon mission completion, and set all your cybernetic reflex-enhancing neurocircuits to the "Temporal Overdrive" position instead, as DoDonPachi is quite the grouchy and elegant game, deeply dedicated to the delicate art of dodging enemy projectiles while still trying to deconstruct hostile alien formations. An immensely demanding title, DoDonPachi guarantees that it will keep your senses and reflexes steadily occupied via a pace optimized for living beings with two pairs of eyes. At least, that is.

Enjoy and Read on!

The game is composed of six levels, delivering an increased difficulty with each section you freshly fly on. Respecting rigorous, yet nice and clean traditions, every level will put you against a Boss fight as a conclusion, though you will need to perform superbly in order to emerge worthy enough to gain the interest of the True Final Boss.

Gameplay is both very fluent and intact, and - this is the bizarre case, folks - wonderfully masochistic, as well. While DoDonPachi is kind enough to let you render relatively peaceful sessions of destruction - great source is the world of videogames if you plan to find exquisite oxymorons - on the first and second levels, those portions are but to get you and your trigger fingers in the mood. Target practice with immense stakes, that is all. From the third level on though, the game gets quite serious: constant survival becomes extremely demanding, yet constant survival is the thing you are looking for and try to master.

You have three selectable ships at your disposal, each with slightly different speed and firing capabilities. Considering the number of enemies you will face on the maps, it is always good to know that the player ships are capable to destruct matter filling out space not just in front of them, but around them, as well. Greet the two little mechagizmos beside the hull: those are called "Option"s, and you can set them either to represent double punishment power, or you can select them to be indestructible against smaller enemy classes.

In this here game, firing occurs in a relatively frequent manner: tapping the attack button will start a burst that can be maintained fluently if you keep on tapping, there is not even need to go Metal Slug Psyhotic this time around, either. Pressing and holding the attack button will unleash the lasers: this is Pure Mayhem Potential baby, never subject your staggering haircut to THIS stream of ruthless devastation. Though relying on the lasers is great fun for the whole family, there are drawbacks you got to deal with. First and foremost, delivering this constant attackfoam slows your ship down, and you won't have too much of a chance - because 0 is exactly THAT much, too - to take out your surroundings at the sides. Surely, the lasers represent impressive punishment power, but you need to introduce the enemy to them in the frontal manner so your cannons can recite a truly warm welcoming.

Bombs are offered and usable, too: use your alternate fire to unleash one of those. Bombs are little helpers you can rely on in case the DoDonPachi experience would prove to be way too much to handle. Whether this will happen or not - you must find out on your own. Suffice it to say that Bombs do clear the screen pretty much 100%, including enemy projectiles that will get converted to collectible Bonuses upon Bomb contact. You can store a maximum of six Bombs at a time. Or you cheat, or you hallucinate. Or both. The Bombs- and five levels of Power-Ups can be obtained by collecting the letters you see flying around: once you reach the maximum Power-Up and/or Bomb level/number, consecutive letters will get you Bonuses.

We have a little no! no! here, as the individual Power-Up states are not represented visually, or at least I did not notice. I am not sure which of the latter two possibilities is the more catastrophic. Either way, once you are on a higher Power rank, your ship deals more damage. A nice minigame is kindly, subtly offered as far as collection of Extras go: they have a tendency to fly around in an easygoing, bohemian way, one that is quite funny to watch, but making it a definite pain in the definite butt to collect them. Simply put: DoDonPachi invites you to take risks if to go for the Extras - and you WANT to go for the Extras, trust me. And now, for something completely different: the game has a truly brilliant soundtrack. Nuclear guitar warfare with pretty solid, complex, catchy compositions - an evident classic.

DoDonPachi will keep your senses relatively occupied, indeed.

A nice Hit system is implemented in the game, quite similar to a combo method: once you deliver a kill, a little meter fills up hastily, starting to count down in an abrupt manner. In case you manage to deliver yet another kill before the meter empties: a Hit combo occurs. You want to keep this meter immensely entertained, as doing that will give you both massive Bonuses and optional means to reach the True Final Monster. Hit Bonuses do not conclude the Extras you can go for. Throughout the game, you will see Bees lying around. It is a nice Bonus subsystem: the more Bees you collect without a death, the more they will worth in points to the maximum of 13 Bees. This subsystem also is an optional method to gain the attention of the Final Boss, for example. For all the other means, please consult the great Guide I link you to at the bottom.

Now is the time to account on the very core- and very grouchy kinna' fun DoDonPachi delivers. This is the Gap Seeker kind of fun. From the third level on, the title will subject you to pretty much obscene enemy onslaughts, there are times when laying down yet another hostile projectile would be near impossible without intersecting an existing one. These immensely vicious waves are results of multiple projectile patterns. Your only way out is through nevertheless, so you are either to find the gap(s), - thus, MIND THE GAP(s)! - or you could always use a Bomb in case you have some yet. But, to be honest with you, I have the impression that the game could be beat without using a single Bomb, though I realize that you either need Superhumanic abilities or a blatant Fortune Boost - or, granted: both of the latter - to accomplish this. I would urge you anyway to try and go for survival without Bombs. You can always use one when you are absolutely sure that otherwise your butt would be dead meat. Dead meat butts are not very efficient here - avoid ending up as one at all costs.

The necessity and inherent-, though vicious fun of finding gaps in enemy patterns is an aspect of the game that - sorry 'bout that, Ladies - simply loves to break a man's balls. Waves have a pretty decent length to them, so surviving those is not just a matter of dancing skillfully around with your ship, now that you can do that so elegantly, the game will kindly invite you to demonstrate your readiness for 8-10 hellish seconds in the company of Mr. Death - Imminent. It is also worth mentioning that firing your weapons naturally will intersect with incoming hostile projectiles, making it pretty much impossible to see what is going on - so you will need to balance out efficient aggression and efficient evasion with rock solid skills. I don't know about you, but there were times when I died by the VERY LAST projectile of a wave. Oh, you got to LUV those vibes, baby. And there is little if any doubts that you got to love this game, being one which is not afraid to push your abilities to the limit - and beyond.

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related recommendation:
DoDonPachi Guide

Metal Slug

2008-08-04T08:09:00.000-07:00

TRIUMPH OF THE (S)KILL

A supreme representative of the run and gun genre, Metal Slug elegantly assumes you to be a weapon-crazed maniac, thus, you should have no problem whatsoever that this 1996 überclassic lacks autofire. In fact: you should be grateful!

Metal Slug is the kind of game that lacks autofire with a purpose, indeed: if you play this title in the Well Defined Chest Hair Fashion - meaning you focus as much on staying alive as you do on delivering good old destruction - then you will indeed find yourself completely changed into the very specie the game keenly invites you to be from the very start: come, feel the Metal Slug! Give in to the Weapon Psycho you secretly (?) keep around in your gaming psyche! Oh, what do I babble about - you WILL give in to it, otherwise you won't survive here for TWO nanoseconds, trust me.

Enjoy and Read on!

This classic output is a result of an integral collaboration between the D4, Nasca and SNK Corporations, taking you to an alternate universe with an - surprisingly 'nuff - alternate future. An alternate universe you may witness and play in indeed, yet, it is pretty much impossible to miss upon the evident, hilarious WW2-cartoon character the game unleashes with high octane.

The main attractions here are the superbly balanced gameplay mechanics, coming to you on demandingly steep difficulty which though always gives you the means, the paths to rely on- and to take in order to survive: surely, you could be a crazy-ass bionic mobile siege tower of mild efficiency, giving in the consecutive credit after each 5th kill you accomplish - yet the main appeal of the output is the experience it delivers when you put massive focus into your survival abilities.

Essentially, Metal Slug is a long-long foam of subtly presented, pattern-driven minigames that demand pretty much flawless, constant awareness of your surroundings if you are about to present a truly (s)killful session. Yet, mastering these patterns of course is a continuous result of being subjected to the intense assaults the Metal Slug armies and Bosses do unleash on you. Solution is evident: rely on the BESTEST Defense, which naturally is the BESTEST Offense. Finding THAT at each and every section of the game is one immense half of the even more immense global fun the title brings to the table, also it keeps our delicate gray matter and reflexes steadily occupied. As such, do yourself two favors in advance: first and foremost, definitely give Metal Slug a try, and, secondly: when you do that, be sure to play a rigorous game, refusing to get your butt kicked as often as the title invites you to do that.

- III!! WOON'T!! DIIE!!
- AHHAHAHAHAHAA!!

Now, this is really the main charm of the game: as hinted, Metal Slug will give players continuous, though direly strait means to stay alive, yet, spotting and exploiting those are the frequent peak moments by which the piece exhibits furious attacks, casually asking you if you happen to have a conception of staying integral by the very next moment. Be it either way, know that Metal Slug never poses situations that doom you to inescapable death. It just likes to shock you with the impression. Use it to fuel your anger instead, Young Anakin, and deliver your final verdict to the Bosses supported by the Muhaha! of Eradication, that you are to perfect yet.

You will have nice extras at your disposal: a massive chunk of the levels is destructible, revealing instruments of amazing stopping power, yet ammunition for those is rigorously, wisely constrained. You will obtain Heavy Machine Guns, Rocket Launchers and - oh ye! oh ye! - good, old fashioned Shotguns, while the trusty butt-savers you will frequently rely on do come in the form of classic frag grenades: splash damage potential with mild amnesia as possible side effects. Grenades are offered in a similar fashion as weapons are: be sure to keep an eye on the surroundings, since elements you destruct will surely reveal stuff you will be interested in.

The game's title refers to the small vehicles scattered around the levels: these are the Metal Slugs: cute, little, yet quite usable tank-like instruments of destruction. You can occupy them, then fire two kinds of shots of considerable potential, yet Slugs are not indestructible: in fact, three immense direct shots will find the vehicle bidding farewell - you are free to drive the desperate Metal Slug into the enemy, though. To do that, just push your two main attack buttons simultaneously when the vehicle's energy is low. It is also worth noting that the Metal Slug is capable to jump/duck and fire in multiple directions, even better: you are free to offer grenades from beyond the cover of the trusty thing. Directions are of note in one particular regard yet: your hero can shoot downward at the highest steep of a jump, not from a stationary position, though. This gives a fervent visual appeal to the pace, making your protagonist look totally psyched up jumping around madly, punishing All Below.

Metal Slug delivers POWs, as well. They are the Prisoners of War, you can, and, in fact, should release them to obtain the extras they give you. These are weapons or bombs, let alone the Score they weigh in with. A nice trait of Metal Slug is the destructible hostile projectiles: you can stop almost all kinds of anti-blessings with amazing precision aiming, with some exceptions that make rigorous and rather unpleasant sense: some Bosses will deliver Plasma, for example. Not healthy for your butt at all. Not stoppable by your arsenal, either.

As it might have just occurred to you, let me deliver confirmation power: naturally, all levels - there are six of them - conclude with a Boss Face-off. These are encounters of inventive and memorable moments, while their character is heavily dependent on the status you arrive to them by clearing the level of the generic enemies. So, it is important whether you arrive to the Boss with a fully packed Rocket Launcher in hand, OR with two shells remaining in your trusty Shotgun. Indeed, the game definitely recognizes tactics and skills even in this particular regard, making it safe to say that the title is capable to offer different experiences, depending on the arsenal you choose to mainly go for- and rely on on any given stage.

The effective run and gun language the game speaks in is rather straightforward and intense. Staggeringly enough, you have a Fire button with as steep of an effectiveness as your Amazing Cosmic Trigger Finger has, meaning if you can press the button 5000 times/sec as Yngwie J. Malmsteen picks 5000 notes on his guitar by the same amount of time: THEN you will have an Advantage, and the Metal Slug baddies will fear your wrath from the very start. Let me tell you though that you only just imagined that: sad fact is that your Amazing Cosmic Trigger Finger will scream for some relief at the most dire of times, giving you the eternal Metal Slug dilemma of:

How In Hell Will I Survive THIS With Only THIRD Of My Finger Remaining?

And this is the question every player answers for herself/himself, making the game weighing in as evidently timeless run and gun classic. A definite, safe go-for it was, remaining as such with its intense snarl ever since.

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Art of Fighting 2

2008-07-23T09:40:00.000-07:00

A BLAST TO LAST

Art of Fighting 2 remains memorable as one of the most difficult single player experiences you have ever encountered, this though takes nothing away from the sheer enjoyment the piece brings to the table nevertheless. This here 1994 sequel to SNK's highly successful Art of Fighting emerges in arcades as a bigger, meaner and even more colorful statement than its predecessor, giving you the fortunate opportunity to select every character in the story mode, even better: in the long run you may have the chance to face off against Geese Howard, the single Baddestest Dudette the Planet Ever Seen - right after Fedor Emelianenko, of course. With Art of Fighting 2, SNK accounts and delivers all possible standards the era- and even contemporary consensus demands from a quality 2D Fighter experience, resulting in an exceptional title that has the considerable amount of 0 intention to conceal the fact that it absolutely hates, hates, HATES your guts.

Enjoy and Read on!

In its rhythmic buildup and inherent core gameplay mechanics, Art of Fighting 2 remains true to its direct originator, though introducing mild adjustments to deliver a controller scheme which feels more sober than the method the first installment relied on. Previously you needed to "buffer in" either a punch or a kick to invoke their respective stronger variants with the third button, in fact, the same button you used to utilize Throws when your puny rival was at nose distance. While this method is still present in the game, its relevancy have been wisely, and greatly reduced: the form of attack - punch or kick - you buffer in will be invoked by the third button, yet, this buffered variant will always be the weak maneuver, giving you the delicate hint that the third button is now intended to be regarded/used primarily as the Throw command. Though, as we will see, it also is a modifier button that gives you access to two extra basic maneuvers.

As far as the different attack variants go, now all you need to do is to tap the two primal attack buttons either in a rapid fashion to introduce quick, yet relatively weak flurries composed of - amazingly enough - relatively weak punches or kicks, or you can simply choose to tap the button once: now you can see what those flurries are exactly composed of. Pressing and holding the buttons for a split second results in a Strong attack upon the release of the button, though. In reality, the "press-requirement" for the weak attacks are so tiny and supersensitive that it is likely that you will perform Strong attacks for most of the time, yet, this is not the most unfortunate circumstance that is about to haunt you during your stay on this planet, generally speaking.

Modifiers are easy and intuitive to grasp, also, quite similar to the system you have seen in the first installment: offer your Basic attacks simultaneously with the third button, and you will gain access to the particularly useful Uppercut- and Low kick maneuvers.

The Spirit Gauge was one of most famous feature of the original game, surely, it reigns here again without any radical modifications, saved the fact that now it replenishes with time. For those dear cosmo-and ufonaut visitors of Mamereview whom are not yet familiar with the system, I do deliver the following information with keen readiness that the Art of Fighting method consumes your Spirit Gauge each time you throw a Special move, and OH!, you WILL throw those Specials, because you are going to NEED them: BAAAAD, trust me on these delicate assumptions.

The Spirit Gauge with its new replenishment ability is a nice tactical adjustment, and here is why: in AoF1, it was entirely your responsibility to use up your Spirit AND to replenish it by meditating. You can do the same thing here as well: remain still for some moments while making sure that you place the weight of every single atom in your magnificent body on either of the attack buttons. Then your chosen character will meditate to regain her/his considerable potential. Cool design. Notice this, though: now it is partly your opponent's responsibility if you manage to catch her/him with Specials all the time, because either she/he lets you walk around with Spirit energy intact, missing out on the opportunities by which your Spirit Gauge could and - frankly - SHOULD be molested via ruthless, relentless efficiency for the sake of good old frustration, personal enlightenment and closely/scarcely related fighting - OR! - it might be so that your rival is simply unable, or unwilling to interrupt your meditation. Let us notice nevertheless that this new Spirit Gauge is way more sensitive to the actual events that the round greets on the screen.

Taunting is still present and still works in a perfectly funny and trusty method: be aware that you are effectively helpless when you choose to taunt your opponent - a brief moment, yet a significant moment it is indeed, the experienced player is capable to capitalize on your cockyness in the blink of an eye. Naturally, it is never a good idea to offer your mockery lines from close quarters, instead move out of reach and state your verdict from the Safe Distance.

THIS particular taunt was NOT directed from Safe Distance.

While blocking is very traditional, - just move away from your rival - the game sports a rather nice subsystem that lets you escape a semi-successful Throw attempt if you manage to give in the exact command in the exact time while airborne. This way, you will do what cats do best. Art of Fighting 2 comes with Desperation Specials: these are neat combos that do have the tendency to knock your opponent's butt off if they do connect and - logically - fully commence, yet there is the rigorous trade off: you must be very low on Life to rely on them, even more: it is not necessarily worth trying to go for the Desperation Special once a chunk of your Spirit is missing. Generally, it seems safe to say that you want to attempt the Desperation with a full, nice and clean Spirit Gauge.

Art of Fighting 2 comes with nifty Specials and a flamboyant character roster, with the majority of the protagonists being transported- and now freshly implemented from the original effort. There are some nice secrets available in the game which are not even too hard to stumble upon, like the availability of Mr. Big as a playable character - he even has an Endsequence - granted you fulfill one particular condition. Normally, it is still Mr. Big whom you do the Final Battle against, yet, in reality, there is someone even meaner on the secretive scrutinize process out there. Indeed, as hinted in the intro section, Geese Howard from Fatal Fury is featured in the output as True Final Boss, what is more interesting: you will see a younger version of him. Man, this dudette is a fervent S.O.B. to say the least. To reach Geese, you need to dismantle the entire character roster without any rounds going to any of your rivals - that is the steep requirement to gain Geese's interest and making yourself able to face off against him.

Hey, THAT'S a Start!

Art of Fighint 2 is a notoriously hard game when played against the CPU, yet, fortunately enough, the pace and appeal of the piece weighs in strong enough to keep you both extremely busy and interested finding out the proper techniques and means to overcome your adversaries. The game generally: despises you. I have the intact impression - oxymoron? - that the system even cheats sometimes, meaning it hardly takes away anything from your rival's health once you think that you scored big time, while it punishes your butt in a radical manner once YOUR sitorgan gets casually constructed into the pavement.

Time is very well implemented in Art of Fighting 2. This is among the few 2D Fighters I have encountered so far that have a delicate relation to- and dependency on the period that is about to left yet from a given round, inviting/forcing you to adjust your tactics according to your rival's and your own Life bar, as, naturally, the character with the longer bar goes away with the win in a round once the timer stops. Surely, this is perfectly legit stuff, yet the effective pace does have a symbiotic, sane relation to the time that is offered for battle during a given round.

It is especially notable against Geese, for example: the dude is so rampantly aggressive and deals so immense damage that you are sort of OK with stealing punches on his hive to gain the upper hand, then you would surely prefer to stay away from him until the time counts out - escaping from him and offering moments of counter-resistance between the stalk periods he haunts you with is essential part of doing battle against him, AND against the clock. One mistake, and you will find how crude is the meaning of this here saying:

You Are All Over The Place.

As a strong, intact SNK effort to solidify the Art of Fighting franchise, this here second installment remains true to its originator and recognizes its primal appeals via sober understanding and fresh inventiveness. As one of the more serious CPU challenges you can get your hands on and as timeless of a 2D multiplayer collider as you have ever seen, Art of Fighting 2 still delivers its eternal grin to you, and let me tell you that THIS particular grin still looks quite intense and still is perfectly aware of what you are longing for.

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related recommendation:
Art of Fighting 2 Guide

Fatal Fury 2

2008-07-15T05:02:00.001-07:00

SECOND F(r)IGHT

The second Fatal Fury statement is your Direct-To Rivalry Market effort to put up reinforced commercial struggles against Capcom's Street Fighter II, the dominant power in arcades that the first Fatal Fury game could not convincingly compete against. With this here second installment of the Fatal Fury series, SNK changed its strategy significantly, pretty much offering a decent SF2 clone that has keen readiness to introduce some extra pleasantries atop its rigorous dominator.

Enjoy and Read on!

As hinted, Fatal Fury 2 refuses to thread further along the path it started to solidify on via the first output, instead it goes for the SF2 appeals up to the point that there are Specials present in the game invokable as you would play with Capcom's dominant title, even results are identical. A good example is Kim Kaphwan's Flying Swallow Slice, this is the exact trick Guile from SF2 is famous of. Thus, though it would be utterly incorrect to suggest that Fatal Fury 2 would lack its own tastes and unique attributes, this doesn't keep the output from claiming radical liberty, re-introducing solutions offered- and popularized by its inspirator.

This re-introduction of certain, though focal SF2 elements is a very smart move from SNK when you start to think about it, and here is why: SNK copies portions off of Capcom games in a deliberately shameless fashion. What would be Capcom's likely reaction to this? Can they give an answer of sobriety at all? SNK assumes its adversary to follow this particular train of thought:

They Stole From US, So We Shall Start Stealing From THEM, Too!

SNK clearly, cleverly provokes the arcade giant Capcom to do so, inviting the firm to start copying elements the smaller company invented. The moment Capcom falls in for this trick and starts to re-introduce solutions- and features you have seen in previous SNK games, IS the same moment in which Capcom admits that it considers SNK a now-bitter rival and an adversary worth learning from. Something that SNK admitted of Capcom already via copying elements. Now, would you return this "favor" and admit that you are in a serious struggle, or would you move on and redefine the genre once again on-and with- your own fresh inventions?

- WHAT are you DOING here??
- I am TRULY BAD at Philosophy.

The game is set in the same fictional universe as Art of Fighting, though the aforementioned title - AoF, that is - tells of events that took place a decade prior the start-off developments of the Fatal Fury series. The game brings in the magic numbers SF2 relies on. You have eight playable characters, some of them are the original fighters from the first installment, while the others - amazingly enough - are fresh additions. The magic numbers prove to be persistent, as usual, (not to mention that there are NO numbers that are NOT magical) thus Fatal Fury 2 brings you four Boss characters to collide with once you have proved yourself against the playable protagonists.

Let us notice how a development of the future unfolds silently by this point: Capcom will indeed set a foot in front of SNK with Street Fighter II Champion Edition, a title that lets you play as any of SF2's four Bosses. Whether SNK will have a reply to this, remains a question to be answered at a later occasion.

The button layout is a little bit funky on this one when played on MAME - nothing too serious, just a mild mixture here that might claim some time to get used to. Basically, you will find a Kick where you would anticipate a punch and vica versa. The game has two kinds of strikes and two kinds of kicks, while simultaneous pressing of those AND respective directions do give a wide palette of executable Basic and Command moves to the fray. You can even perform Strong Attacks by invoking the Stronger variants of your offensive maneuvers together, this results in a third Basic attack that knocks the enemy to the different Plane than the one you kicked her/his sitorgan on. As you might have guessed already: the Plane system is presented- and offered once again.

Basic attacks and maneuvers are dependent on the Plane system, the trademark delivery this effort kept from its predecessor. The method still gives you two spatial setups to play on: as in the original Fatal Fury, you have a Front Plane and a Back Plane, thus, if your character is on a certain Plane, then certain Basic and Command moves are accessible, while others are not. This method weighs in as a decent minigame to entertain the eyes and the hands, even better, it still remains a reliable way to escape temporarily and re-plan your opposition during this period. All these features were already accessible in the first episode, yet now the Plane method sports an increased tactical potential, giving you the green light to Charge across different Planes. You have respective "Cross-Charge" movements against your rival's respective body sections, thus Fatal Fury 2 certainly delivers fresh sensations as far as the core gameplay mechanics are concerned. And let me tell you this: those are heavily concerned once MAME Review rampantly emerges to ruthlessly scrutinize.

There are maps you won't find a second Plane on, though you will find obstacles on such backgrounds. Maneuvers that will knock your opponent to the opposite plane will drive her/him unto an obstacle on single plane maps.

Fatal Fury 2 lets you interconnect certain Basic- and even Special attack moves to form quasi-combos. These maneuvers can be interrupted any time by blocking the attack, thus, these are not exactly combos in the classic sense of the word, but they are very useful both to pressurize your rival, let alone how happy you will end up as if the quasi-combo quasi: lands, right?

The primal additions you will be shocked by considerably are the Desperation Moves. Especially when I tell you that those additions are present in the game. These Specials are only accessible once your Life reaches its Critical point, an occasion the flashing Lifebar will inform you of.
While Specials are rather straightforward to pull off, the game also makes a versatile use of the mere contexts the game might have to count with. I realize it may have sounded a little bit weird, so let us pick an example for such a context: the game inspects if- and when a character is under attack, and encourages you to do the same - you have Counter moves especially designed to punish an unsuccessful attack, while your Strong Punch will be a Taunt if you perform it while standing far away from the enemy. Taunt does not seem to have any relevant effect beyond the animations though, unfortunately.

Fatal Fury 2 is also among those rare 2D Fighters that let you crawl forward in an utterly inept ducking position, though this may prove useful against certain projectile attacks - just don't believe it will.

The output suffers but from a couple of minor flaws, even those are of presentational nature. Like - highly subjective - inconsistency in the impact certain backgrounds will likely have on you, as some of those are totally neat, while some look - surely, it is highly subjective - somewhat crude, not-particularly cared for, even rudimentary, in my opinion. My personal favorite is the Parallax Swamp on Joe's stage.

Now, if THIS is not a WTF, then TELL ME, what a WTF is.

Apart from this, or, even better: with THIS included, the game emits considerable charm and sports quite a few fresh elements to weigh in as a more successful effort than its predecessor, especially once their mutual primal agenda of rivaling the Street Fighter franchise reveals in its alarming persistence. SNK took a reliable and solid step with Fatal Fury 2 that remains an easy, safe retro recommendation to date.

- YER turn ...

- ME turn...

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related recommendation:
Fatal Fury 2 Guide

Street Fighter II Champion Edition

2008-07-09T17:59:00.000-07:00

BOSSCOLLIDER

Street Fighter II is among those games that do have a zillion variants, each possessing though significant additions, extras and elements of subtlety when compared to their respective direct predecessors. The primal consensus complaint concerning the original Street Fighter II - Street Fighter II - The World Warrior was an inaccessible Boss roster. Surely, you could do battle against the four trademark Supreme Mean Duders of the output, yet you could not help but long for the possibility to make THEM roll against each other. This here Champion Edition from 1992 is the first massive SF2 delivery to offer significant extras over the originator, characterized mainly by the selectable Boss roster and the natural excitement this mere circumstance imbues the effort with.

Enjoy and Read on!

It is no stock wonder, neither a puzzling occurrence of an ever-lasting mass hypnosis that Capcom's game characterizes the 2D Fighter genre with a granite fist. The SF2 system offers extremely well balanced gameplay mechanics that heavily relies on sobriety and related awareness of the opponent's strengths and weaknesses - traits you need to rigorously consider in spite of your chosen warrior, as well. The output seemingly introduces a quite unorthodox controlling scheme, giving you three types of punches and kicks. A rather rich basic arsenal, naturally available for all participants. These elementary maneuvers are categorized by their effectiveness: you got Weak, Medium and Strong assaults both in the punch and the kick class, a method that delivers more serious punishment when the fierce assaults are invoked, yet those demand more time to execute, thus having an increased risk factor to utilize. Weak and Medium maneuvers claim less time and related animation frames to complete, but those deal significantly less damage factor on contact.

The Street Fighter II system heavily relies on the Charge method to invoke the nifty Specials. The Charge solution is quite intuitive: you need to push towards a certain direction, then you are to hastily unleash the appropriate combination to introduce the intended maneuver. It is quite easy to thoroughly familiarize yourself with this fluent structure, as I can not think of any other directions for the required Charge maneuvers than the Back and Down perspectives. Thus, the majority of these Charge Specials do concern a certain Charge motion and a combined button smash of either the Forward or Up direction, supported by an attack button. It doesn't matter which of the available three attack buttons per- assault type you give in, what is important though is to rely on the appropriate class. Confused already? Either way, let me deliver an example: Chun Li's crazy ass Helicopter Kick requires you to Charge towards the Down direction, then you are good to set it off via giving in Up combined with either Kick you prefer, OR happen to find during the execution period. Be sure to notice Chun Li's legs. Good skies, those are some slightly serious calves, wouldn't you agree?

- PUNK!!

The game surely knows and offers Specials utilized by the common, comfy solutions of giving in quarter- and half circles as well, with an extra Special of the Russian Wrestler Phenomena Zangief, who possesses the most brutal move in the game, though executable only by a full circle motion. This Amazing Spinning Pile Driver That Crushes Puny Non-Comrade Skulls To Strawberry Jelly is a moderate PITA to pull off, yet the resultant effects are absolutely worth chasing, going and practicing for. As a general rule, it seems to be a good idea to start your whole circle in the air, thus you can greet the opponent by finishing the move off when you land beside her/him.

!EXTRA! Mamereview offers scientific scrutinization of the arcade game picked by the first person who finds out what PITA is standing for.!EXTRA!

As hinted, the game gives you nice Throws as well. You absolutely must love those maneuvers, in my opinion. Guile's Greco Roman Suplex is a retina stigma you'll stuck around for an eternity if you ever saw that, surpassed only by the Real Deal Thing demonstrated by Dan "The Beast" Severn in THIS particular video. As natural, Throws occur by the comfy, traditional way: you want to approach your opponent for a rigorous nose rivalry, then you are free to deliver the Throw by giving in the Forward direction, combined with a Punch button. Even better: most characters know different kinds of Throws, invokable by - amazingly 'nuff - different punch buttons.

Interestingly, the core Street Fighter II system and this heavily related direct proprietor of it are based on a rather straightforward structure which does not (YET) exhibit all that much supportive gauges and elements you need to be aware of. It exhibits a ZERO, even SIRO number of those, to be specific. All this resultant clarity though definitely does not weigh in as a hindrance, quite the contrary: a simple, yet flamboyant system you witness and invited to play with that urges you to focus on one particular bar, yet THAT bar is a quite rigorous, precise representation of - to put it simply, yet, quite frankly - what is up.

- GRAAAAAAGROOOOOOAAAAAGGHAA!
- YEAH! I'll NEVER question YOU, Duder!

This immense straightforwardness that characterizes the output in the most essential way a human mind is currently capable to conceive lefts a reviewer in a hard position, nevertheless. This particular difficulty ensues as you can not help but recognize that the game simply begs to be played, and does not deliver anything else than strong, well balanced, simple elements to support it's eternal, solid aspiration.

Naturally you can not avoid the segment in which you absolutely must account the game's trademark character roster. These warriors are primal representatives of this robust genre, and, while pretty much all games do possess one or two characters you will keenly play with and relate to, I think it is safe to say that every single fighter the SF2 universe offers are masterpieces. Don't forget to play with them, as they will never ever grew tired or old in a good fight, and THAT -

Believe You Me.

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related recommendation:
Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition Guide

Street Fighter

2008-07-03T18:04:00.000-07:00

UNDER-CONTROL

Probably only but a few would believe that the Street Fighter franchise had an actual first episode before its second, an implausible time-warp occurrence to start this phenomena of rampant arcade dominance off.

Though Capcom's 1987 effort possesses significant chance of being interpreted as a massively coarse fighting experience when examined today, - and sorry, we missed the chance of examining it yesterday, or, did we? - it actually defines trademark focal solutions that do solidify further in consecutive games. Little if any doubt is present though that future 2D Fighters are more subtle, more sophisticated and more sane than this prime originator is. I tend to think that sane is a proper word in this case indeed, as, though Street Fighter starts the fray off, rudimentary controls and limited playability make this classic both an essential retro output AND a mild pain in every sitorgan.

Enjoy and Read on!

Street Fighter gives you two characters to play as: Ryu, or Ken. Though, by default, only Ryu seems to be selectable. If you would like to play as Ken, then you need to challenge and defeat the Ryu Player. In case she/he exhibits no interest to insert coin again, then you can go on to demonstrate your Street Fighter skill set against the CPU. And a skill set, you WILL need, Young Padawan.

Street Fighter dictates a quite furious pace that forces players to develop universal defense- and attack strategies. This might include inserting keyboard/control pad into monitor for bonus fireworks and related smoke effect. Once these "specials" are properly sought out and mastered, then the game reveals its coarse charm to you. Distance from the enemy is everything in Street Fighter, the mere factor that determines which one of the furiously paced attacks will connect. It seems same 'nuff of a bet to back off from the CPU, which has a tendency to attack rampantly and constantly, so there is quite immense potential in countering.

As you will see, three, tops four attacks easily do weight a KO herein, especially if you score these hits by introducing one of the Specials the game is aware of and offers. We will see into those later. Considering the speed of the game which desperately tries to conceal the rudimentary animation, the pace of the rounds is furious. Also fast. Though rigorous distancing from the enemy is your best friend herein, that particular factor changes dramatically with all the intense jump-around the game usually exhibits. That is: either you or the enemy will jump. Ducking and relying on Specials are always better solutions then forwarding up to your opponent to deliver basic ground attacks, as speed is so senselessly swift that even Terence "Super Snooper" Hill would need TWO coins to kick the CPU's butt in pure standup. And, let me tell you that this circumstance suggest a difficulty level that requires skill levels well beyond Godlike proportions.

Worths a try though, nevertheless: check how long you can last against the CPU on the ground, if you do play a game of - khm, khm - concept and - khm, khm - strategy. As a result of the supercoarse animation and pairing speed, you won't have the chance to block upper and lower level attacks consciously. This is not what the creators anticipate from you, either. You can usually get away from those situations via attacking the lower section of your rival quite cheaply yet systematically, but, if you stand up with him - no precious creatures in this here game - then sooner or later he will bash your blob in, trust me. Let alone that there are characters in the game you do not want spend a moment against with your head kept in normal, standup-height position.

Street Fighter invites participants to jump around like crazy to soften the rival up by airborne attacks, and/or to duck and unleash low level attacks towards incoming or approaching opposition. Yet, organizing yourself to defense on the ground is a ritual to commit risk free suicide - HAH! - in this game.

Since animation is rather far from being extremely fluent, the game conceals this particular deficit with the well developed speed we already hinted at. Amazingly, Street Fighter's system is both ruthless and rudimentary enough to punish you with pretty much instant KO in case you made two mistakes in a row. Third mistake? Forget about it, as those who make a third mistake in this game, won't have much to worry about anymore. All in all, it is totally possible to be flattened out in the blink of an eye, which I think is OK and funny, yet, especially when you first play the game without prior experience of it, then the CPU can be very effective at cornering you into a rather dire situation where it spanks a Win on your butt with ease. Those are the moments you should start inventing your countering methods in, though.

As you may have guessed already via the image above, the game has bonus sequences and there is an impressive amount of enemies to batter up or to be battered by, too. If you are a Street Fighter II fan, then you will see very familiar faces apart from Ryu and Ken. If you are a HUGE Street Fighter II fan, then you surely do lie to me now as you should play SF2 this very moment.

What I find rather unfortunate about Street Fighter is the implementation of the Specials. These maneuvers are extremely circumstantial to invoke. They may seem to demonstrate a truly rhapsodic behavior, yet, in reality, it is more about the exact precision of the timing they do require. The timing of the proper directions and button push, that is. I could perform the three Street Fighter Specials of Ryu: the Dragon Punch, the Hurricane Kick, and this trademark projectile attack. I don't think he has more, though I am keen and ready to be pleasantly disappointed. In case I am wrong, please educate me and benefit other visitors, too.

Though Guides to Street Fighter seem to be as rare as pink elephants with quantum dissolving capabilities - that means: I could not find one - the Street Fighter II commands for Ryu do seem to work herein. DO SEEM, I sorrowfully cite. Remember that the required precision is truly unnecessary, so you will probably end up doing those Specials by your particular way. You know, the way it seems to work for you, for most of the time. Yet the SF2 Ryu moves are useful guides, no doubt. As for Street Fighter Ken: his capabilities and related Specials are an amazing treasury of ancient puzzles and enigmatic mysteries, eager to be thoroughly explored and subtly solved by the dear mamereview.blogspot.com visitor. Hey, ever saw a useful link before?

At the end of the day, one must admit and conclude that Street Fighter has a certain humorless, grouchy charm to it, though it is rather improbable that the game will digest your unconditioned devotion to it with keen appreciation. Which is a shame, because the game could have been - I truly do not worship "could have been"s - a rather stable, though vicious game if it would have exhibited a responsive, user friendly control method to invoke Specials, let alone the absence of a full, playable character roster. I sure do realize that the game comes from 1987, a time in which a full character roster was an implausible mental invention. Now, was it? No, it was not. As, in fact, Street Fighter delivers you a full character roster. Yet, it delivers you a character roster only to bash apart, and not as to play as its components.

With its exceptionally intense and semi-coarse flow, the game delivers massive early deficits, as balance was not yet a major consideration of a genre that just been born with this effort. Thus, as mentioned previously: sometimes it is but a blink of an eye, and someone flattens out. In a terrible world without mistakes, you would certainly say that Street Fighter manages to offer its deficits as charms, but this is not exactly the case this time around. It remains good fun to combat the CPU, but the incapacity to play as included characters is always a hurtful condition to die with. Let alone live with.

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Fatal Fury

2008-06-27T16:34:00.000-07:00

FI(R)ST IMPACT

Though commercially failed short after made it's debut in 1991, Fatal Fury actually exhibits such a degree of charm and semi-clumsiness to itself that it is virtually impossible to not approach it with high-end retro awe and contemporary bliss.

As SNK's first major attempt and major failure to compete against Street Fighter II, the game takes you to the same fictional universe as it's later, more successful sibling, Art of Fighting does. Fatal Fury is certainly notorious of some of the latter things, as well: 1. this is the first game to introduce famous SNK character Terry Bogard, 2. this is the first game in which your character might select her/his outfit on a per-gender basis, thereby propagating peace, love and understanding towards transsexuality. Either way, this 1991 effort definitely has the Blood Sport heritage incorporated into it, handling the skirmish-oriented culturemix to you via a gameplay which puts intensity to the table and demands both quickness and relentlessness in return.

Enjoy and Read on!

Fatal Fury starts off by exhibiting an early SNK trend which will get even more strait in Art of Fighting. In case you had a guess, then you probably guessed correctly: in Story mode, Fatal Fury lets you select only between three fighters of it's character roster, while the Two Player mode delivers a 2 on 1 experience in which two human players emerge to defeat a more precise and aggressive solo CPU. This is not too fruity, but at least gives you desperation.

My personal opinion is that SNK strived to derive from the era's Capcom traditions by any ways conceivable, thus, delivering a more strict, dare we say: one dimensional narrative with two or three selectable characters certainly suggested that the Japanese firm has The Balls to ignore the classic solution Capcom invented. It is though a definite case when you try to sell out your special deficit as a special appeal you are able and ready to sport. As Capcom's tradition is superb and should not be tinkered with on the "let's take away from it!" path. The tradition itself is this: each and every character SHALL and thus, WILL have her/his Unique Ending. To be honest with you, I tend to think that SNK simply did not want to put the effort/time/money or either, or all of these to deliver unique endings for each character, thus making the majority of Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting characters semi-faceless screen-fillers. Giving pretty much identical End Sequences for selectable warriors, to me, is more of a bigger letdown than an excuse.

Sounds harsh enough? Then let me ask you this: who, why and how would develop a major, steep-enough liking for characters if and when they can not win against the CPU with the warrior in question? Never forget that such End Sequences and/or quotes tend to imbue a massive character to the - sorry about that - character, something SNK will be a Master of later. Just check the Samurai Shodown quotes, those are instant classics and tell precisely, thoroughly of the protagonists. I think SNK itself felt bad about the lack of playability of the early characters in Story mode later on, as, as we will see, the firm certainly changes a whole lot about these unfortunate early practices in the future to come. More precisely: in the future that had cometh. Nice is the world of retrospection.

Enough of the good old ranting which gives you cancers on places a decent woman never ever heard of though, let us observe what Fatal Fury brings to the table, instead. Interestingly enough, the game sports highly original basic solutions to operate, though you can not exactly call this classic title the most gauge-and-meter filled 2D Fighter you ever had chance to play with. To be more specific: there is a Life gauge, and that is about it. OK, I lied: there is TWO Life gauges, as your rival has one, as well. Behold below, and keep your eyes on it!

Now I certainly do hope that you have a rug or something to clean the slime of your eyes off of your monitor. The game boils down to the utilization of the proper Specials in the proper Moment, thus seldom are the times when the output's sophisticated Base structure could dramatically influence the outcome of a round. These structures basically give you a distance dependent attack system which is sensitive to- and aware of- of the following conditions: naturally, the distance you are from the enemy, in addition: the Attack State you are in are both of focal importance. Let us observe what all these actually mean.

Fatal Fury knows a Close-Up, a One Step Away and a Far distance, measured from your rival. Characters have a unique attack mode to each distance, let it be Punches or Kicks. But this is not all yet, as here is where what I call Attack States do come in. Once you attack, you make a Normal attack. Now, if you manage to land two Normal attacks - landing means they can not be blocked, mind you - then your character switches to his (no her option in Fatal Fury) Alternate attack form. If he manages to connect with that as well, then a cycle of one Normal - one Alternate WOULD begin until your attacks are either blocked or do miss. The reason for the aforementioned "would" is this: what we have witnessed so far is but the basic theory, yet the game seems to be rather unpredictable about when, and where give the Alternate attack form in.

My experience is that Fatal Fury keenly, and massively tends to interchange only between the two Base attacks, thus, as I noticed, you need to adjust the distance after the two Normals in a very precise fashion to go for the Alternate. When the enemy is moving away from you, this becomes almost impossible of course. If he comes too slow and too fast: then it is close to impossible, as well. When you do have the Alternate, though: those attacks usually knock the enemy down which leaves little chance for Combo-like attacks and thus takes away our "would" quite completely, as well.

The Most Emotional and Best Written Ending in Video Game History

- OR - is it an Ending at All??

As such and as hinted, times are scarce when this promising, though not too steadily predictable structure claims a huge chunk of the game for itself. It is more likely that the enemy will block your forwarding assaults or simply will counter with a shot before you could connect with your follow-up Normal, which leads us to the conclusion that your best bet probably is to more profoundly rely on Specials and airborne attacks, let those direct forwarding attacks be a quick method to greet an air-to ground enemy, reaching Mother Earth beside you. Deliver some old fashioned Enlightenment to him!

The game relies on a rather unorthodox supportive concept as far as it's basic flow goes. Fatal Fury divides some of the game environments to Upper plane and Lower plane. Not all backgrounds use this method, though: when planes are absent, then obstacles you shall face with, sometimes: quite, quite literally. Granted they are delivered and utilized, you can move through the two planes simply by jumping to the Upper from the Lower, or rolling down to the Lower is an option - in case you happen to be on the Upper. Cool, yes? In reality, not too bad, but does not exactly reinvent the steel, either. Gives some chase-around quality to the output as characters on different planes must engage each other on the same plane, while you should be aware that there are certain moves, even attacks that are accessible and inaccessible depending on what plane you are on. For example, jumping and ducking are movements you must live without when you are on the Upper plane.

Fatal Fury's selectable characters are nicely/bluntly - take your pick - balanced, to the point from which on it is OK to say that Joe Higashi has a very slight reach advantage, and maybe Terry Bogard is a tad bit swifter than the other two protagonists are. Apart from that, general usability and behavior of the player characters are heavily reminiscent, even Special moves are easily interchangeable. Under such circumstances nevertheless, it is nice to see how SNK did not intend to sell out essentially identical moves as different maneuvers, thus the majority of the trademark Fatal Fury Specials are invoked by the same commands. Let us make no mistake, though: animations are different of course, and one must admit, they look quite cool, I especially dig the superswift charging kick attacks, though I remain not too fond of the hurricane punches. This is something I could always sleep well without. But now we can never be sure of this, anymore.

The most notable aspect of the game remains it's nicely diverse enemy roster. Every rivals have their tiny weak spot(s) to them, surely, finding and exploiting these are of essential importance. Check out this here concluding Fatal Fury screenshot below which will wrap this here review up, and heed my words: this screenshot is a result of me smashing Boss character Geese Howard's hideous ass to the ground in a rapid fashion, jump beside him, grab him, smash him. While he recovers: jump beside him, grab him, smash him. While he recovers: jump beside him, grab him, smash - mmmm, something tells me that either of us do start to get the idea, which should be enough to start experimentations off.

All in all, Fatal Fury actually weights in as a quite integral effort regardless how it could not rival Street Fighter II when this first major SNK 2D Fighter Bomb essentially failed to detonate in US arcades back in 1991. You must admit that the animation is very coarse and semi-inept: notice how some of the characters do more of a hovering (!) than stepping. And still, amazingly enough: this deficit gives evident charm to the output. Such an abstract circumstance is a rare commodity to greet, mind you I. To wrap this up, let us conclude by pointing out that Fatal Fury might have failed to gain instant success and recognition in the US, yet in it's home country Japan, it enjoyed rampant popularity right away which remains intact to this day. Not to mention how the title reigns in worldwide cultdome since then. As the delivery that had chance both to see and to define the ancient times of the genre, and as the title to cautiously project the coming of SNK's King of Fighter series - notice Fatal Fury's subtitle at the Main Screen - this classic output surely defines and surely deserves a significant place in 2D Fighter History.

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related recommendation:
Fatal Fury Guide

Art of Fighting

2008-05-30T13:20:00.000-07:00

INFO POUNDER

The first Art of Fighting game hits arcades in 1992, an SNK title to conquer Capcom's extremely popular Street Fighter II. The game arrives in a period which greets a rather desperate SNK, as their previous effort to rival with Capcom, Fatal Fury, did not exactly manage to blow notable amount of pepper under the mighty organ Street Fighter II could, and still can call it's rather robust nose. With Art of Fighting though, SNK managed to create and ruthlessly deliver a highly successful output, one to introduce both fresh, well implemented ideas and the biggest sprites you ever saw to date by the day.

Enjoy and Read on!

Art of Fighting is the first game to rely on the character designs of Shinkiro, the artist with Za Mad Skillz, Brada'! who creates an excessive amount of designs for consecutive SNK games, though he will be employed by Capcom later on. Art of Fighting boosts truly hilarious presentation values via giving you the absolutely classic "B-ninja-action" mood and the hihgly sophisticated plot arch. OK, let's call it moderate instead, still hilarious, nevertheless. Noticed the subtitle yet? Indeed, an Info-Pounder. That is exactly what Art of Fighting is: the protagonists do gain blatant recognition that someone superclose to them has been kidnapped, so there is little left to do than choosing your warrior, then beating the hoile crap out of every single person whom are aware of 1. either of the kidnapper's identity, or 2. of someone who knows the identity of the kidnapper. It will shock you considerably that there are quite a few characters you need to tear through before you could do battle with the enemy who is aware of the Final Boss's identity.

A highly usual criticism towards Art of Fighting is that the game's story mode offers but two selectable characters, a deficit which, I think, is acceptable considering the plot arch, but the main problem I do see about the matter is that the game exhibits incapacity to give you the chance to play everything out of it even in single player. Let me explain: in Versus mode, players can select all of the eight characters and as such, surely do battle via any lineup the output can introduce, but you won't ever have the chance to control Jack's monumental ass to destruct an AI controlled Ryo Sakazaki. I think an even simple implementation of "1 Player Skirmish" would have been a must, regardless how I dislike "would have beens".

The system is rather fluid, combining nicely utilized base methods with ideas no one ever saw before. As for the base methods, Art of Fighting partly relies on a control scheme reminiscent to the system utilized by the majority of the first five Samurai Shodown games. The effort gives you a Punch, a Kick, a Throw and a Taunt button. While smashing the respective attack buttons together you can invoke an Uppercut Punch or a Low Kick to the shins, the Strong variants of the basic punches and kicks will be invoked by the Throw button once you simply declared what kind of maneuver - punch or kick - you plan to currently rely on. As this might sound a little bit confusing at first, let us clarify this for good: if you are close to your opponent and press the Throw button - a throw will occur. You might need to move towards your enemy at the same time to accomplish a throw. If you throw a punch - SIC! - or a kick THEN press the Throw button from the distance, then either a Strong Kick or Strong Punch occurs, depending on what maneuver you just buffered to the button. I truly hope now your confusion is either totally absent or complete. Blocking happens by the usual way: just move towards the direction your opponent is facing, and don't forget to keep the direction by the moment the attack connects.
We must account on a funny-ass basic maneuver the game knows of and invites you to utilize: this is an off-the wall "off-the-side-of-the-screen" jump kick, usable by most characters. Dodging and dashing are available by the usual, respective double directions.

The most notable feature Art of Fighting grew quite popular by is the implementation of the Spirit gauge. Special moves do cost Spirit Power in Art of Fighting, the more Spirit you have, the more damaging your Specials will be. If you lack the required Spirit energy to introduce a certain kind of Special, then your character either will do not perform it at all, or there will be not much thanks in it. As we do see, the Spirit gauge is of essential importance, as are the methods of keeping these gauges as full as possible if it is ours, and to drain them ruthlessly if it is possessed by a rival in the opposing corner. Fortunately, Art of Fighting does support a very nice minigame concerning these gauges, indeed. Here are the rules: if you want to fill your Spirit gauge, all you need to do is to stand still and hold one of your attack buttons. Your vulnerability is of course will be increased during this brief meditative period, but your reward is either a fully or a partly refilled Spirit gauge.

Taunting is the method to drain the rival's Spirit gauge down. These are funny little animations with occasional tiny remarks to them, each exhibiting excessive cockiness, actually, enough to drain the viewer's Spirit gauge. First and foremost, the method makes "Special Spamming" impossible, I refer to the method if and when a player chooses to utilize the same maneuver in a repetitious fashion, yet, we must certainly account this integral solution as a significant element of tactics and good fun, reigning intact, grateful, solid in the game's system.

Special moves are learned along the way, in a quite nicely presented fashion. Art of Fighting delivers bonus segments that have more impact on the gameplay than pumping your score up. There are three types of these - notice the quality redundancy here: - little minigames in the effort, all of them influencing your character in one way or another. While chances of increasing the length of your Spirit gauge will be offered on two occasions, you will be even presented with the opportunity to master the Highly Illegal Secret Technique!, coming to you as a nice Special you can rely on for the upcoming bouts. Oh, do not believe me: if I am not mistaken, you can use all Specials from the very start, please correct me if I am wrong. While the prizes you earn by a successfully accomplished Bonus attempt do not exactly redefine the standards of RPG excellence, they surely do manage to add nice and proper flavors to the core experience.

There are some secret Specials/Desperation moves available for some, though definitely not all of the characters. Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia, the selectable 1 Player contestants both do have such a maneuver, yet you need to fulfill various, strict conditions to be able to unleash your Desperation Special. See the linked Guide for details.

Beyond a system that frequently delivers rather swift rounds and tends to exhibit rampant aggressivity when combating the CPU, the game rewards a cautious gameplay with a strong focus placed on awareness of WHEN to throw a Special at the enemy. These moments usually concern long range ground-and airborne attacks, offensive segments you want to throw a Special in to counter the intended assault. Keeping opposition away initially seems to be most fluent with the use of projectile Specials - as long as either the enemy does start to come forward or your Spirit energy empties. Now it is your choice whether to risk a forwarding yourself or to set the pace for a period of countering. And never, ever forget about the throw: throw that throw instead.

With it's integral presentation values Art of Fighting remains among the 2D Fighters that managed to enrich the genre by delivering fresh solutions, thus creating a more flamboyant experience than the era's average 2D Fighter could or even ever aspired for. Not to mention to introduce Ryo Sakazaki. Never ever would occur to you that Ryo is a mixture of two highly popular Street Fighter characters, Ryu and Ken, right? Never ever would occur to you that it is just: NATURAL to look Caucasian with blond hair and blazing eyes, still possessing the name Ryo Sakazaki. Unless I am not in some fatal misunderstanding, then these are among the little vibes and traits that certainly give extra appeals to Art of Fighting, in my opinion. As hinted, the output marks a significant milestone in SNK's history as well, as Art of Fighting was their first delivery that could gain massive and devoted attention in an era excessively characterized by Capcom's Street Fighter II. And the ENDING, what a tremendously, hilariously and amazingly bad ENDING it sports!

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related recommendation:
Art of Fighting Guide

Garou - Mark of the Wolves

2008-05-24T08:44:00.000-07:00

SIGHTS THAT BITE

This 1999 output from SNK is both an answer to Capcom's Street Fighter 3 and the ninth installment in the Fatal Fury series. While ties and references to the aforementioned title are numerous, Garou certainly chooses to thread along a different path as opposed to following one which have been established already by its predecessors, let alone the evident aspiration to deliver a game which should and might rival with Capcom's Street Fighter 3.

The Japanese word Garou translates to hungry wolf, an entity the game gives you 12 metaphorical variants of via a character roster composed of subtly diverse personas. While the number of protagonists is not exactly the highest you had chance to witness in a fighting game, this deficit allowed SNK to include more frames for character animations. The results are exceptionally fluid motions, combined with a very steep attention devoted to detail work. With true eye candy 2D presentation and a new system it introduces and proudly relies on, many regard Garou as one of the most enjoyable fighter experiences ever to date. Now it is time to scrutinize this work superclosely.

Enjoy and Read on!

As mentioned, this SNK effort was an answer to Capcom's Street Fighter 3, a title that finally hit the arcades when the firm no longer had face/courage/guts/place to add any more words to the Street Fighter II title AND release related variants as completely fresh outputs. How about Super Street Fighter II Turbo? While a Super Street Fighter II Turbo Special and a Super Street Fighter II Turbo Special 2 also would have been nice, Capcom instead chose to release a brand new episode back in 1997, a highly successful statement that probably shaped the creative powers and motives to fuel this here trademark delivery.

Garou brings essential changes to the table when compared to the previous Fatal Fury statements. The focal alterations do concern an increased degree of instant accessibility in certain aspects, while the final name of the game is the massively complex structure the entire system is built and offers exceptional - sorry about this - depth upon.

The T.O.P. gauge you need to set in on your lifebar once you pick your character represents your Tactical Offensive Position. Once your lifebar reaches the T.O.P. portion your character deals an increased damage when connecting, her/his health increases constantly and the special T.O.P. attacks do become accessible, too. T.O.P. assaults are mainly consensual attacks, invoked by the same command. This customizable period a character can exhibit increased efficiency by gives an extra tactical touch to the game, something which is spiced up both by the "common" specials each character has a decent set of, let alone Super and Power specials which are available once the corresponding meters on the bottom section invite players to unleash ruthless efficiency.

Super moves are mainly consensus commands with but a few exceptions to them on part of certain characters, as far as Power moves go, they are accessible once a protagonist chooses to build up a maximized Super gauge - now the possessor is ready to score a Power attack in, similarly invoked by consensus moves with but a few exception to this direction. As you might have guessed and probably guessed correctly, Gauge increasement occurs when you manage to connect, though taking assaults in has a tendency to offer some Gauge power as well. All characters possess a decent selection of these rampant delicacies in their arsenal, while the common specials and the subtle, integral core system Garou supports these focal elements with do invite us to taste a fighting experience which essentially begs to be invoked. Let us elaborate on these gameplay methods.

Garou heavily relies on the brand new Just Defense system when compared to previous SNK and Capcom efforts: a Just Defense maneuver occurs when you block an attack in the last possible moment as opposed of blocking offensive moves all the while. Successful Just Defense is Good News: it gives back life to you. Unsuccessful Just Defense is Bad News: you will suffer the harm intended without any block to damp the punishment down whatsoever. Just Defense is a truly nice implementation which invites you to demonstrate not just a safety-based, but instead a skill-based defensive game. Via the health increase a successful Just Defense worths and a flawed one tolls on you, the system becomes a focal factor and an element to imbue tactics into the flow when two great Just Defenders meet. Actually, the game features an invisible gauge which we might regard as the Guard gauge: if you eat in too many attacks in a short period, your Guard will be effectively crushed, leaving you pretty much helpless against consecutive attacks for a brief period.

Guard Cancels are reliant on the Just Defense system: certain kinds of special moves - for the Impatient: Special Command Moves, T.O.P. moves and Super Moves - can be transitioned and utilized as Guard Cancel moves, granted you Just Defended an attack. Time is both little and precious to introduce these cancels though, as you will have but a little more than a moment to state your special from behind the Just Defense you - naturally - just exhibited.

Feint moves are new, and pretty cool, too: the commands for these moves are consensual ones, while the moves themselves look different on a per character basis. Feints are both nice decoys and gateways to delicious parts of the system's depths. When you throw a Feint, your character will mimic one of her/his trademark specials by introducing the first few frames of the related animation, yet you are free to turn the Feint into an instant assault against an enemy whom is hopefully got misled by the Feint itself. This subsystem offers firm possibility to form combo chains by Feinting out from certain normal attacks, something the game allows, even invites you to do. Now it is up to the player to construct and develop longer combo chains that are incorporating both the Feints and the consecutive attacks.

What about Break moves? Each character has one or more Specials that can be broken up by a consensus command, giving opportunity to make your next action via any direction you want after splitting this particular special. These Break moves can be incorporated into combos, which of course is a yumi, yumi. Normally you can implement one Break move per combo, though you will see that this directive is but a directive indeed, not a rule which reigns intact and permanent. Successful Countering can open pathways to multiple Break moves. A Counter hit occurs when you manage to connect on your rival prior she/he could finish an opposing move that she/he was busy introducing. Garou likes Counters immensely, thus also delivers a rather complex and balanced subsystem to incorporate them.

The following sentence might sound a bit complicated, as it will concern move buffering. A quite nice thing about Garou is that it remembers movements and recognizes once a complex command have been both started and then have been finished, regardless if some additional command and its related move have been given and executed in between starting and finishing the more complex move which is incorporating the simpler move. Hey, thanks for still being here. This ability of buffering commands is naturally opens up nice additional perspectives. Garou also offers complex evasive maneuvers via upper body and lower body variants, yet each character have only one kind of main evasion form - upper or lower - available for them.

Throws are implemented nicely with a pair of related minigames to spice this here subsystem up further: you can escape throw grips if you use the consensus move with the right timing, while an underlying roll structure gives the players opportunity to decide how and when to roll - if to anywhere, that is - when knocked down. A swift forward roll might very well earn you both a grip on your rival and a successful throw, or a knee in your face which is not necessarily the result you were hoping for, yet an unsuccessful attempt at least still does remain an attempt, yes?

Garou still weighs in as a very integral and flamboyant 2D fighting system which remains supereasy both to recommend and to develop an immense liking for. But a final tip remains before you are advised to punish some Garou butts: if you want to face the Final Hidden Boss - and hell, you WANT to face the Final Hidden Boss as this is the only way to see your character's end sequence - then you do not necessarily want to score lower than an "A" Fighting Rank during the bouts, especially be sure that you do not lose a round against Grant, the great Sub-Boss Garou introduces. Kain awaits you, and it is Kain who waits for you, indeed.

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related recommendation:
Garou - Mark of the Wolves Guide

Garou - Mark of the Wolves System

Samurai Shodown V Special

2008-05-09T18:54:00.000-07:00

ISSEN HISSES!

While fine tuned, much more balanced gameplay mechanics and boosted presentational appeals are focal reasons to regard Samurai Shodown V Special as the Finished Fifth Installment of the series, the 2004 effort also caused good old controversy with its fresh implementation of Finishing Moves, a similar concept to Mortal Kombat's Fatality system. These extremely violent specials were unleashed on consensus by the time of the Nevada-tan Incident, leading SNK Playmore to release a whole stream of variants of the game, many of which are heavily censored, yet surely you can access all of them on the MAME platform, uncensored variant included.

Samurai Shodown V Special is the last statement for the NeoGeo platform from SNK, a piece naturally introducing massive relations with its direct predecessor Samurai Shodown V. The game presents a very impressive hero palette, offering even the trademark Boss protagonists as playable characters, while an elegant blend of the established Samurai Shodown traditions do form a supersolid basis here just to be spiced up sanely by fresh elements you never had chance to witness prior to this statement of elegance, integrity and significance.

Enjoy and Read on!

At its innermost soul - nice oximoron, no? - Samurai Shodown V Special seems to be a sober blend of the classic, simultaneous buttonmolesting-direction of the series, while keeping the more furious pace introduced from the third episode on intact. Every single method, feature and/or solution you love in the previous games are implemented, thus Samurai Shodown V Special first and foremost unravels as a robust statement to contain all the charming traits its predecessors have brought to the table, yet with the quite complex, combined structure it claims and proudly exhibits via filtering elements from previous episodes results in a highly flamboyant system that has a massive amount of content in store for us.

Now that the previously established gameplay mechanics pretty much all have been implemented, Samurai Shodown V Special definitely does NOT come up short of all the cute gauges we had exquisite chances to familiarize ourselves with, let alone the highly complex relations these meters are affecting each other by this time around. The basics have been altered as well, now we have a button specifically assigned to perform various dodge maneuvers beyond the classic evade attempts that are still available. These new basic movements allow you to roll back and forth, also swift jumps can be utilized, giving players increased potential to escape both from airborne and low ground attacks. The same button you use for the new dodge maneuvers triggers the Meditation function if you stand still and keep pressing, a feature coming back to the game after a brief absence, also a feature we will account on later.

Basic blocking still happens via the classic method of pulling your character towards the opposite direction good blessings and assaults do come from, yet the system now exhibits a rather elaborate cancellation structure underlying beneath which allows you to effectively counter opposing maneuvers out once you unleash the proper antidote-move to the incoming strike. This particular aspect weights in as a supportive, quite elegant subsystem which is rather interesting to explore on a per-character basis, yet seems to operate at the highest frequencies of the game. A definite offering for the hardcore player you witness, and what you witness here is none other than a definite offering for the hardcore player, say that I herein.

Additional extras as far as consensus movements are concerned include Pursuit maneuvers that do come in two different variants, each is quite suitable to greet an opponent who is about to get back on her/his feet, also some crazy-ass triangle jumps can be mastered to confuse either the enemy or at least yourself. A basic Surprise Attack is also accessible in each hero's skill palette, swift moves to connect on multiple occasions when properly executed, giving you a recoiling opponent and a chance to take a deep - yet swift - breath.

The essential gameplay mechanics surely do concern the massive amount of gauges you see on screen, in fact, you can't pick any favorite from a previous title and end up lackadaisical seeing that it's missing. Trust me, it IS there. The Rage meter still fills up when you eat strikes in, also the Rage Explosion is still available as comfy, cozy gateway leading to excessively aggressive behavior. You can pass through this gate once your Rage meter is full and choose to trigger the Rage mode via the consensus move. When enraged, you deal a blatant amount of damage to All Flesh Opposing, even better: when in this state, the timer stops counting back, letting you claim ruthless punishment without time limitation as long as the Rage gauge has some life in it.

A catch is present though, also, a clever one it is: you can use ONE Rage Explosion per match. I do not mean the round, I mean the entire match. As we will see, there are sober decisions to be made about when to use up this ability, as keeping it to the second or the third round is an absolute MUST if you plan to punish your rival with radical elegance. My personal observation is that it is generally seems to be unwise to trigger the Rage Explosion in the first round.

Let us see into the cause of this suspicion. Samurai Shodown V Special comes with the Mu no Kyouchi state implemented, this translates roughly to State of Nothingness. You can enter into this mode only when certain, strict conditions are fulfilled. These are as follows: you must have had lost a round already, AND you must be close to release your soul for the Eternal Hunting Fields by the time you are allowed to rely on this mode. Meaning you can trigger the Mu no Kyouchi only if your Life gauge has turned to Blue. This occurs only if you have access to the Rage function yet - surely, whether you do or not is revealed clearly by the accessibility or the absence of the meter in question. In case you Exploded in the prior round, you won't do that in the current, as the Rage gauge itself is absent. You see why it was unwise to trigger Rage in the first period? Haha, or you might as well see that you do NOT see.

As for the Mu no Kyouchi state: granted that conditions are fulfilled you trigger this special mode via a consensus command, and a pace of slow motion you find yourself in. The Rage gauge turns to Blue, counting back quite hastily: the amount of time you can spend in Mu no Kyouchi is massively dependent on the time you spent with Meditating prior triggering the state. You will see a tiny triangle above your Life gauge, - granted you are kind 'nuff to point your eyes to the hinted area - the further it is, the more you have meditated, and the more time you will be able to spend in state of massive focus and concentration. Let us clarify matters further: each character has different starting relations to pretty much all the gauges, meaning every hero will have their respective benefits and hindrances towards each gauge. Some gets Enraged further, some does not need to Meditate all that match to be able to spend a considerable amount of time in Mu No Kyouchi. The basic idea though, is this: if you spent no time whatsoever with meditation then chances are that you will only have time to execute the Issen move while in Mu No Kyouchi. The Issen move is the quite vicious strike we had chance to witness in Samurai Shodown IV by the name RAGE Strike - now accessible only through the State of Nothingness, while the resultant effects of successful utilization remain as satisfying as ever. Mu No Kyouchi also has an interesting trait to it: connecting strikes into a combo is quite easy when in this mode, you can even abuse your enemy in mid-air if you prove to be skillful enough to prevent her/him from falling. Perfect care, cool design.

We are to elaborate a bit on the Rage gauge yet, as a maximized Rage meter gives you access both to the Weapon Flipping Techniques and the Zetsumei Ougi delicacies, these latter group being the class to contain those tender, controversy-ridden Fatalities. Weapon Flipping Techniques are essentially the same elements that were the POW Specials in Samurai Shodown IV, yet now these moves do guarantee that your opponent will be disarmed when you successfully utilize these particular Specials. Weapon Flipping Techniques are blockable assaults, yet you are allowed to attempt them as long as your Rage gauge looks alive - once you succeed, the meter drops to zero, leaving you in dominant, your rival in desperate situation, as weapons are the most precious friends to keep close in the game.

- before -

- after -

A little side note here: the output features consensus commands to disarm the opponent while you are unarmed, even better: you are free to drop your instrument yourself as an act of taunting your partner. Killing yourself is still an option, as well. And great fun, too! Not to mention that you could rely on the feature in a tactical context in case you would go for the Mu no Kyouchi or the inherent Issen, as these, remember: require one lost round out of you. If giving away a session to your rival is too bitter of a perspective, then throw the round away by your own hands, and never forget to unleash the Ultimate Special, the Forbidden and Highly Secretive Five Note Song of Revenge Technique!

Goes like THIS, though takes LIFES to master:

MUHAHAHAHAHA!

The Zetsumei Ougi moves are accessible only in the rounds in which you could get away with the W, meaning either in a second round that follows up a FIRST in which you emerged triumphant, or in a third round following rounds with one win to go for both participants. You will need to be after a Rage Explosion to trigger the Fatalities, also it is required that your opponent's Life gauge have turned to Blue, giving her/him the chance to enter concentration mode and surprise you with the Issen. What though if your rival's Life gauge no longer can turn to Blue because she/he lost the Rage gauge by using up the Rage Explosion? Can you still unleash the Zetsumei Ougi? Be sure to comment if you could. A side note yet: the Zetsumei Ougi is blockable.

Kusaregedo (right) is a delicately silhouetted notability of modern day mixed martial arts.

Samurai Shodown V Special weights in as a robust statement to simultaneously record, contain and offer the great gameplay mechanics that were culminated during a whole decade to solidify unto the worthy output this piece proudly radiates as via every single seconds you spend with it. The excessive character palette and fine tuned presentational values conceal robust inherent content ready to be explored, yet let us conclude this review with a quite practical advice: if you want to see an Endsequence in this effort then you have to kill, KILL, absolutely !KILL! the first three Bosses the game puts you together with. Rely on the Issen or on the Zetsumei Ougi. For the forth Boss: you decide.

Giving the Issen to Amakusa?? SURE, we do that ALL DAY LONG!

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related recommendation:
Samurai Shodown V Special Guide

Samurai Shodown V Special Notions

Samurai Shodown IV

2008-04-29T03:44:00.001-07:00

BLOOD! HOW REVOLTING!

Following a not too keenly received third installment in SNK's Samurai Shodown series, the company released a fourth episode in 1996 with fine tuned gameplay mechanics that remained faithful to the altered system the third piece introduced, yet the developers took criticisms into sober considerations. Massively vibrant, inventive and one of the most violent of the Samurai Shodown games, Amakusa's Revenge weights in as a refreshing, courageous experience to enrich the saga with.

Enjoy and Read on!

Samurai Shodown IV keeps the most notable characters the series already have built up by the time of this release, even reintroduces illustrious Boss figures we had a hard time colliding with back in the earliest days of the franchise. The game offers a rather unusual structural premise as you have a certain time limit being set in 1 Player mode, while it's amount is heavily dependent on the character you choose. Your goal yet again is to spank Amakusa's butt and the enemy roster you have to go through to reach his castle is similarly influenced by the hero you choose to play with. In case you arrive in time, you will have the chance to see if Amakusa hired any major guns to aid his - naturally - highly illegal and sinister purposes, while a defeat against time will lead to a conclusion you won't necessarily end up happy with.

Changes and gameplay additions are numerous and significant. First and foremost, the piece offers two variants of each character, namely a SLASH and a BUST figure whom have a couple of slightly distinctive moves compared to each other while the BUST replicas do exhibit an interesting "darker feel" to themselves as well. Now each hero comes with a variety of selectable outfit colors and even a Grade system, one of the funky inventions Samurai Shodown IV introduces.

There are Beginner, Medium and Bada ... I mean Expert Grades. These are massively reliant on the combo system the game operates with, so let us see how exactly this works. The program features a Consensus Combo Streak of 14 successful hits guaranteed, accessible and executable by every character, granted they hold either the Medium or the Expert Grade. A character with the Beginner Grade selected can execute the starting movement of the Consensus Combo, automatically resulting in 4 impacts if successfully executed, knocking the enemy off of her/his feet. Now the good thing is this: once you play at least on Medium Grade and manage to soak the Consensus Combo in, your POW meter - which is, amazingly: still available! - automatically fills up to the maximum. And let me tell you this: as we will see, we can do quite neat things with a full POW meter in Samurai Shodown IV. A funny extra thing is of immediate note about the Expert Grade though: this particular level will give you a slightly more swift character, while you completely lose the ability to block. Sounds like a fair trade? You know the drill: you decide, me just writes here.

The system has the fortunate potential to perform crazy-ass combos consisting of 35-40 hits by, yet the main function of this here frequently cited Consensus Combo that is available to all protagonists is more of a neat minigame that offers a way to fill your POW meter, as the damage done by the streak itself is not particularly excessive. Surely, each character have their unique combos you can invent and master by experimenting with the respective attack forms and specials they possess, naturally this is one of the main appeals the effort delivers, enriching the experience with sober complexity and nice surprises that might and should be revealed.

Samurai Shodown IV consorts with the third installment as far as the basic gameplay mechanics go: trademark attack moves that were executed with simultaneous button taps are now mainly available on separate locations, thanks to the extra attack button the game utilizes. This is by far not to say that the program would be free of simultaneous taps. In fact, it is more reliant on them than ever before. Samurai Shodown IV dictates a much more furious and significantly "braver" pace, it is truly no problem earning some extra stripes and cuts on the butts, as the next attack you are about to unleash: SURELY shall connect. This is the neat mood the game gets you in, also it is the rhythm it masterfully, cunningly invites it's enjoyer to keep up to.

All this has quite much to do with the increased lifelines the characters possess: now you have way more opportunity both to shine and to be massively, even successfully assaulted prior any of the characters on the screen would reach evidently desperate situation. Rounds have a tendency to last longer with the noted rhythmic pattern that invites you to give the good old snarl attitude right from the start.

Focal inventions to affect the gameplay are these: a full POW meter allows you to use special attacks, invoked by consensus commands by all characters, though resultant maneuvers are of course different. You are not constrained to rely only on these particular POW specials, though. You can trade a full POW meter in for the new RAGE meter which allows you to execute even a hilariously brutal strike, and here is how: the damage you deal with a successful RAGE strike is massively dependent on the amount your opponent claimed off of YOUR health. A brilliant idea, brilliantly realized. The concept adds considerable depth to the system as it demands sober decisions to be made whether to go for a RAGE strike at the first place in exchange of a full POW meter and related specials, while the successful utilization of such a furious assault could turn the tide of any, absolutely any situation. A sober decision have been quite welcomely made as well, since superquick the RAGE strike, might be: also a blockable assault it is. All in all, a truly nice feature to incorporate the concept of comeback to the game, even better: the piece immensely likes when you go senselessly brutal just to rip someone in two with a RAGE attack that no one ever could see coming or ever considered as needed. POW specials can be used multiple times per round, a RAGE strike can be unleashed only once per round. There is a Combination Slash as well, connectable with specials - the Combination Slash can be used four times after using the RAGE explosion, invoked by the same command as the one you used to get into RAGE mode. Remember though that Beginner grade does not incorporate RAGE.

Some nice additional features have been also incorporated, such are the ability to commit Seppuku once you decide NOT TO give away the W for the opponent in a hopeless situation. The good thing is this: once you showoff your bowels, you naturally lose the round, yet, granted there is a follow up round to roll for you will take start the period with your POW maximized. There is also an option implemented to taunt your opponent, and Samurai Shodown IV also includes No Contest moves quite reminiscent to Mortal Kombat's Fatalities. These specials can be utilized on a conditional basis, meaning the enemy has to be defeated in a certain way to give you the opportunity of finishing her/him if you choose to. Once this particular possibility is granted, the game is nice and enthusiastic 'nuff to inform you of the exact Consensus Special Command you need to perform to express your Radical Verdict.

Other nice, minor-yet significant additions are of note here yet. Now you have the ability to evade from attacks using a button combination, effectively moving to the 2.5th dimension, better yet: you can even trick your adversary by making a swift circle around her/him and connect with an attack by that tiny-tiny, precious free moment this maneuver grants you with. The weapon-collider minigame is still included, and now the ability is offered to take the enemy's weapon away when you are armed with nothing but hands and a sinister look. At the end of the day one can't help but notice: Samurai Shodown IV is among the most precious installments the franchise has produced so far, bringing us a rather rich mixture of inventive content to fuel a complex, swift, deep fighting experience.

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related recommendation:
Samurai Shodown IV Guide

Aggressors of Dark Kombat

2008-04-28T17:51:00.000-07:00

B-FLICK BRAWLER

Let's face it: you can't confront a game called Aggressors of Dark Kombat and remain uninterested of it at the same time. Developer of the piece ADK was a division of SNK back in the days when VS Type Fighters and Beat'em Ups were massively popular, thus a quite fortunate suspicion arose that a hybrid of the two genres could prove to be a highly effective output in all aspects consensus might conceive. Aggressors of Dark Kombat or Tsuukai Gangan Kohshinkyoku in Japan now reigns in well deserved cultdome via the extremely cheesy entertainment appeals it contains and steadily delivers, conforming nicely to the absolute best and absolute "worst" a B-action movie from the early '90s could offer.

Enjoy and Read on!

Hopefully it was a nice way to put it, as one could argue if B-flicks from the early '90s could offer anything good at all except how bad they were, and how GOOD they turned up as via being so - bad. Strange are the standards of B-entertainment indeed, yet it had quite beneficiary metamorphosis whenever got presented in an interactive fashion, coming to life via animated sprites. Aggressors of Dark Kombat is focal, somewhat overlooked representative of such exquisitely sweet outputs. As an effort to hit arcades in 1994 just to remain relatively unnoticed with its descent yet not particularly stunning presentation, the piece now solidifies as proprietor of quite a unique position as far as its buildup.

The game delivers a street brawl feel conforming nicely to the mood summoned by such classic titles as Final Fight and related entertainment. A unique twist in the gameplay concerns the ability to move around in the environments exactly the way you would do that in a Beat'em Up, while the number of rounds is reduced to one with a multi-layered lifeline to keep/destruct. Each character has three row of energy and successful attacks do replenish health in the current bar the energy level is at, though once you lost a layer completely, then there is no way regaining it saved an extra credit and a restart.

Surroundings do offer occasional novelty items similar you would find in Beat'em Ups: shovels, clubs, Molotov cocktails are given tools to form special opportunities of, though only the hot liquid seems worth grabbing and tossing at the enemy as the possible aftermath - crazy animation with the opposition's ass on fire - grants a nice, cozy, comfy free shot for you.

The feel and pace of the gameplay is pretty unique: the piece relies on a Punch and a Kick with a third button assigned to jump. Tap the attack keys once to utilize a weak form of the respective function and hold it down to summon the strong variant. The game heavily relies on grabs and consecutive throws, these are executed by moving close to the enemy's front and pressing the forward direction plus both attack buttons simultaneously- a minigame then ensues in which you either have the fortunate chance to decide what kind of throw you want to execute or the opposition will counter-grab you and it is your turn to either counter-grab or pray that she/he will execute a somewhat gentler throw on you. This hardly happens. Pray happens, gentler throw: hardly happens, that is.

Special moves are nicely balanced and there are even "Crazy" ones among them, one for each character. These "Gangan" specialties can be utilized once your lifeline informs you of this. In case you can unleash your Gangan move successfully in the rather brief yet reasonable period you allowed to, you can be sure that the W is yours.

There are some oddities to surround the game, most specifically: the names of the characters are hardly included anywhere in the output, let alone some immensely idiotic aspirants such as Bobby, who, even worse: is INCLUDED in the effort. Probably the most annoying, simultaneously most faceless figure I ever saw in a fighting game. Anyone ever selected Bobby to play in Aggressors of Dark Kombat, please defend your hero, I do beg for you. The absence of the names is quite big of an issue to regard it as one worth addressing, therefore we address that herein, indeed:

Aggressors of Dark Kombat Character Roster - from left to right:

Kisarh, Fuuma, Goh, Leonhalt, Horst "Derrick" Tappert, Sheen, Joe, Lee, Bobby

The pace has a consistent flow to it with a nice way of enforcing you to utilize a multitude of attack forms thanks to the possibility of quick, wide position changes and the considerate difficulty to sell out the same attack method on consecutive occasions. Some welcomely complex special algorhythms are present to enrich each character, for example Sheen has massive potential to grab charging enemies from the air just to slam them to the ground, while Joe might punish airborne attacks with a nice counter-special consisting of crazy-ass kicks seemingly tailored to such situations. Characters do vary considerably through such key aspects as movement speed and power, though not all of them exhibit convincing design power and related originality. Bobby, anyone?

With its unique structure to combine elementary Beat'em Up appeals with the charm and beauty of the VS genre, Aggressors of Dark Kombat delivers a rather special taste of classic arcade gaming to ruthlessly, welcomely exploit the hilarious atmosphere your everyday average '90s B-flicks are notorious of. At the end of the day, the output delivers blatantly bad oneliners, relies on sober, traditional gameplay mechanics and gives us nice realization of a rather complex grappling system. Through its charming, acceptably executed presentational values Aggressors of Dark Kombat weighs in as an effort which had the courage to fuse popular elements, and, amazingly: still has.

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related recommendation:
Aggressors of Dark Kombat Moves

Alien VS Predator Arcade

2008-04-23T11:20:00.000-07:00

TORMENTS OF TORMENTORS

Capcom released AvP in 1994, an arcade effort that was never officially ported to any different platform than the slotted originator. A blessing MAME exists, and AH!, what a sweet blessing it is, indeed. This classic foam of explicit alien eradication exhibits a couple of welcomed focal traits. First and foremost, it allows three players to wage war against hordes of xenomorphs simultaneously, thus a quite special co-op mode is offered once neither of the three active participants have immense of a butt 'nuff to take essential place away from the other players, even better: AvP gives you playable characters with considerable differences, while maintaining a fluent, pleasant faithfulness and even inventiveness to the stable, integral consensus Beat'em Up traditions the game builds upon.

Enjoy and Read on!

AvP introduces seven stages connected via neat mini cutscenes to present a quite decent story framework with - welcomely - no more aspirations than to place the player into situations where the only way out is through. The piece offers four playable characters with various default weapons accessible to each one of them. You have your cute little anime cyborg chick who is set to superaggressive mode all the time, a "tank" type male character with an implanted Smart Gun - the classic Alien toy - modification and the dumb look on dumb face included, while the row of selection is concluded by two Predators, namely the "stock-specie" we had chance to witness in the classic Predator movie in 1986, and even a Predator Hunter is offered, simply the most strong, most swift character you can play the game with.

The effort introduces all the cool movements you probably anticipate from a solid representative of the genre, these include: a straight combo streak consisting of four-five consecutive hits available for each character, an ultimate-attack useful to unleash punishment on all surrounding enemies, while you have the option to grab most adversaries to either take them in the air and groundplant them decently or to deconstruct them by vulgar display of power, an unavoidable attackfoam executed on the grasped baddie. A nice set of charge movements are available too, these are very useful both to change places very swiftly and to unleash powerful attacks on multiple opponents. An upper-and lower level charge attack is accessible.

Weapons are essential elements in the game. Each stage is packed with loads and loads of destructible objects to reveal quite some types of extras, these include all kinds of meals and softdrinks to replenish lost energy and super magazines that allow you to unleash projectiles without limitations for a short period of time. Otherwise, weapons tend to overheat or end up empty quite hastily - if and when this happens you are to wait for a while until the weapon cools down, or, if you play with the cyber chick, you have to reload. A risky period as the character is essentially defenseless during these sequences, an evident trade-off for her considerable speed.

HEY, decent girls DO NOT kiss at First Date!

"Outsider weapons" are also available, instruments you can pick up and either shoot with them or throw them at the enemy. Grenades and knives, primarily. Naturally you do not want to leave a stage without a good old bossfight, thus I am most happy to inform you that AvP delivers a boss to conclude each and every stage of the game.

Rhythmization of the effort is quite decent, considering the diversity of the atrocities you are subjected to by the multiple types of enemies. Settings do reflect noticeable aspiration to enrich the game with refreshing modal variation, selling out nicely outlined sketches of the classic Alien atmosphere, hardly overkilling any particular sequence. AvP consists of quite a few memorable portions, segments you will definitely remember and probably end up inspired to practice peak sequences out, growing more and more skillful at punishing alien sitorgans. The game therefore allows, even better: invites you to be the AvP Arcade Geek, and it seems safe to conclude that this is a temptation which remained intact since 1994.

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Samurai Shodown

2008-04-16T14:02:00.001-07:00

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/6401/samuraishodown12.jpgIPPON - SHOBU!

Japan based hardware and software firm SNK released their trademark effort Samurai Shodown in 1993. A true classic and timeless gem to shine both as prime originator of weapon based 2D deconstruction and proprietor of an exquisitely strong and authentic atmosphere, the game takes us to an 17th century Japan to spill some precious rivers of pixelblood via fast paced, quality punishment which remains extremely easy to timelessly appreciate.

Enjoy and Read on!

Samurai Shodown introduces quite a few neat touches to the VS Type Fighter genre, clever, cunning traits that have significant impacts on the gameplay experience. The piece's flow is quite eventful and intense, it is extremely easy to get into a near-death situation once you risked a reckless attack, exposing yourself and eating in a tremendous counterstrike. Attack forms are laid out in a quite intuitive manner by which you have a Weak Punch and a Weak Kick, supported by the Strong Punch and the Strong Kick. Tapping these buttons simultaneously throughout all the combinations you can conceive will yield you the different attack forms your chosen character is able to perform, yet it's certainly worth noting that some of the moves are distance-dependents, meaning the same button combination might yield a different maneuver based on the enemy's distance to you. Special moves are also accessible though the general gameplay is not as much reliant on the utilization of those as the Mortal Kombat games, for example.

The flow relies more massively on the quick selection-and execution of the proper defense/attack against an unleashed maneuver or opposing block attempt. Block happens by pulling your character away from the opponent, while you can execute quick dodge movements by double-tapping the away direction, or you can even charge up to your victim by double-tapping the direction the enemy is facing. This method lets you unleash rampant attacks and usually results in blatant holes in your defense, something your rival might benefit from considerably.

A nice thing about Samurai Shodown is its superlow tolerance level for irresponsible hothead gameplay: once you fail with an ambitious attack you can be almost 100% sure that ruthless punishment is imminent, thus the game usually boils down to a heavily concentrated, focused experiencefoam in which you are to choose all, absolutely all your actions very soberly and carefully.

This special flow and flavor of the gameplay delivers immersive moments and makes comfy place for memorable flashes of lightning fast action, oftentimes characterized by highly significant feeling-out periods to support the effort with a colorful rhythmic structure. By these tense moments you try to guess what the opposition will attempt to do, thus correct prediction and knowledge of what, how and when to reply for an attack and when you should attempt to deliver punishment yourself are elements and aspects of primal importance.

Interestingly enough, Samurai Shodown knows and interprets the concept of rage or, as we hinted at, even recklessness: while your safety gameplay at the end of a lifeline will probably lead to a defeat, the AI sometimes exhibits a funny personality trait, growing so rampant to finish you off that it offers huge holes in its defense temporarily, tiny moments you can forge staggering strikes of stopping power by if you are willing to risk them.

The respective Strong Attacks you can invoke by tapping the button combinations result in excessive damage, but funnily enough: the more a character gets hurt, the more she/he gets enraged, scoring more and more when connecting finally with an attack. This state is represented by the POW meter in the corners. Connecting with your POW meter at maximum delivers good old fatal damage.

Each character has a couple of cool looking throws that are heavily dependent on the exact situation the fighters are relating to each other by the moment these moves get utilized, while there are cool little additional options accessible both to disarm your opponent or even to break the enemy's weapon. Some funny, intense minigame is included as well in which you have to tap the button repeatedly to disarm the opponent after weapons do collide.

Samurai Shodown introduces a whole array of superb characters that are quite easy to like, while differences between them are extremely well tuned both regarding their fighting styles and the artistic originality they possess.

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related recommendation:
Samurai Shodown Guide

TACSF Unleashed!

2007-07-07T10:56:00.000-07:00

- choose either Quite Wisely or Quite Foolishly -

MAME Review Scrutinized Out These Titles So Far:

Alien VS Predator Arcade

Aggressors of Dark Kombat

Art of Fighting

Art of Fighting 2

Bad Dudes VS Dragonninja

Battle Garegga

Bio-Attack

DoDonPachi

Fatal Fury

Fatal Fury 2

Fatal Fury 3

Garou - Mark of the Wolves

Killer Instinct

Mars Matrix

Marvel Super Heroes

Metal Slug

Samurai Shodown

Samurai Shodown IV

Samurai Shodown V Special

Satan of Saturn

Street Fighter

Street Fighter II Champion Edition

to Infinity! - and Beyond . . .

Please come back later for more.

Nice job reaching this point by the way.

and now, for:

The Amazing Hidden Link Ping Pong Game!
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