[ongoing project] Playing all versus fighters - chronologically!

[Leon Retro]

Why not play along with our group and share your opinions in this thread? Would be way cool!! KOF95 is coming up but 96 is still a long time off, I think. Well, kind of.

I'll think about it. I definitely like reviewing games.

[BigDeadFreak]

I love this game and find it surprising that it doesn't get more appreciation. Yes, the gameplay is a bit wooden and I can understand that people find it frustrating that you can't customise your team. However, I think it's nice that you're forced to play with characters you wouldn't normally use.

The gameplay might not be the best in the series but it's no worse than '95. The thing that really stands out is the atmosphere. It's amazing. The Korean stage and the the Pao Pao Cafe in particular are works of art, so rich in atmosphere in a way that few games of any era can match. The fusion of graphics and background music is perfect. I find the music in the Japanese stage so catchy that it'll be in my head for days after a couple of play throughs.

Unfortunately, I rarely play it these days. Ultimately I always go for the superior gameplay of '98 over the style of this game. I do think it's a crying shame that most people will never experience it though. Most people seem to jump straight to '98 or one of the more recent games and completely overlook this title. I made that mistake when I first got a Neo Geo. But, having played '98, 2003, The Last Blade and Garou it was The King of Fighters '94 that really showed me what a special system the Neo Geo is.

I recently decided to sell off some of my MVS games and it was a real wrench to get rid of this. It just doesn't get the play time to justify keeping it but it really is a special, under appreciated piece of software.

[Neon Ignition]

94 has a great style about it, I think that's largely part of the appeal and it carries through the next few entries. 98 does play better but I always had a softer spot for 94 through 97

[Samuray]

I love this game and find it surprising that it doesn't get more appreciation. Yes, the gameplay is a bit wooden and I can understand that people find it frustrating that you can't customise your team. However, I think it's nice that you're forced to play with characters you wouldn't normally use.

Yes, that's exactly the way I feel. Not a fan of customs teams.

Oh well, but it's impossible to tempt other people into playing the "correct" teams once they can be edited, sadly.

The gameplay might not be the best in the series but it's no worse than '95. The thing that really stands out is the atmosphere. It's amazing. The Korean stage and the the Pao Pao Cafe in particular are works of art, so rich in atmosphere in a way that few games of any era can match. The fusion of graphics and background music is perfect. I find the music in the Japanese stage so catchy that it'll be in my head for days after a couple of play throughs.

Well said!

Haven't played the others KOFs yet but I can't imagine they will be able to touch this one, just in terms of visuals, music and atmosohere. They will still be pretty great though, I'm sure.

All stages in 94 are perfection in my eyes.

Unfortunately, I rarely play it these days. Ultimately I always go for the superior gameplay of '98 over the style of this game. I do think it's a crying shame that most people will never experience it though. Most people seem to jump straight to '98 or one of the more recent games and completely overlook this title. I made that mistake when I first got a Neo Geo. But, having played '98, 2003, The Last Blade and Garou it was The King of Fighters '94 that really showed me what a special system the Neo Geo is.

Yeah, whenever someone says "I wanna get into SNK / KOF, what shall I look at?", it's aaaaalways KOF98 and sometimes KOF2002.
I respect that those have perfected the gameplay and the cast, but it really is a shame that so many people will never play the other iterations in the series because of it.

I recently decided to sell off some of my MVS games and it was a real wrench to get rid of this. It just doesn't get the play time to justify keeping it but it really is a special, under appreciated piece of software.

Personally I feel that a game's presence at one's home can be justified even if it's not played every other month or so, but then again who am I to talk, being nearly out of shelf space here?

Always sad to read someone getting rid of beloved stuff, though.

[BigDeadFreak]

Personally I feel that a game's presence at one's home can be justified even if it's not played every other month or so, but then again who am I to talk, being nearly out of shelf space here?

Always sad to read someone getting rid of beloved stuff, though.

Well, it's on Ebay at the moment and no one ahs bid yet. I'm kinda hoping it stays that way so I can play it a few more times

[Samuray]

Mortal Kombat (Sega CD)


Well....this sure is....different.

We all remember the excitement and scandal from back then regarding "Mortal Kombat", and for a kid like me it was like a forbidden fruit. Mind you there were close to no arcade machines in Germany so if you lived here, you could only wait for the console home ports.

I immediately decided for the Sega CD version because it was supposed to have more animation frames compared to the other two, and of course unlike on Super Nintendo, blood could be enabled in this one.

But.....I can't say I tremendously enjoyed the game back then. Never got any of the sequels either, until PS3-days.

A lot of time has passed since then and we have a different view on older games now compared to back then, so maybe "Mortal Kombat" has aged like good wine. Or perhaps the color red is the only thing those have in common....

Indeed, this plays like crap. Having to block via buttons instead of BACK on the controller is bad enough, but the whole gameplay feels so incredibly floaty and very low-budget, in a way. Jumping is all over the place, there is little to none feedback for hits, and do those different attack buttons make any real difference? High kick, low kick, I mean? We are not sure.

Special moves aren't intuitive at all but that's probably something one could get used to.

The main draw of the game, the violence, was certainly something to behold back then....but except for the finishers we could rarely pull of, we felt that the blood was way more impressive in "Samurai Shodown" and even "The King of Fighters '94", maybe because with latter it's a much rarer sight. But it also looks better. Both are infinitely better games as well...I think most of you will agree with that.

But "Mortal Kombat" certainly has its place in history, and hey, the music video that is used for the intro of the Sega CD version is really cool. So it was a nice game to visit, but boy, we're not coming back to this! (well, maybe I'll play another round or two sometime, but it won't be part of our evenings for sure)

[Leon Retro]

Both are infinitely better games as well...I think most of you will agree with that.

[samanosuke]

To be fair, SamSho and KoF ‘94 are better than probably 95% of fighting games. SamSho 2 and KoF ‘98 are better than 99%, I’d say!

[Leon Retro]

To be fair, SamSho and KoF ‘94 are better than probably 95% of fighting games. SamSho 2 and KoF ‘98 are better than 99%, I’d say!

I could easily compile a long list of fighters that I think are better than Mortal Kombat. All the SF2 games, Fatal Fury Special, World Heroes 2 etc... I remember thinking MK looked impressive in the arcades, but soon realised it's a gimmicky fighter that doesn't have much to offer.

[Samuray]

Whoa, life (as in the kids and general family stuff) really got in the way of me doing the next chapter here. Apologies!

Darkstalkers (PSX)

So this game established the new Capcom style regarding colors and this very comic-like look. I like it! A lot, actually. It differentiates itself very well from the fine pixel art that SNK did with KOF94, for example.

The cast of characters is far more interesting than your general fare of boxers and karatekas, of course.... ..... .....buuuuut I think I like martial artists better in a game like this. Still, it's a very nice change of scenery, and the werewolf, the Mummy, the Ghost Samurai and the Yeti are awesome. Also, Morrigan!

However, I'm not too fond of Demitri for some reason. He plays fine, sure, but his aethetics are not up my alley, and why is he using fire? As a vampire? Seems odd. Victor, the Frankenstein-type monster, is a bit too silly for my taste, but it is always nice to see Germany represented in a game like this, so yay.

The backgrounds are drawn extremely well; standouts for me are Felicia's, the lagoon monster's rain forest one and wolf's England.

But why does this game seem to bring warriors from different periods of time together, much like "World Heroes"? This doesn't go too well with the overall concept, which would be completely fine on its own....why the time traveling? At least it seems like that's what's going on? Maybe someone could shed some light on this.

The group liked the game quite a bit as well, despite feeling a little unbalanced here and there....but since we don't know what we're doing half of the time, maybe that was just us.

Really good start for the new generation of Capcom games!

[wakka]

Ah, good to see you back [MENTION=16705]Samuray[/MENTION]. I enjoy this thread a lot even though I can’t contribute as haven’t played most of the games.

[Asura]

The Darkstalkers games are fun, but I never really got into them.

One of the Street Fighter guys put it better than I could - I think it was Takashi Nishiyama? To paraphrase, he said that in Street Fighter, when you press kick, the characters kick (or, in 2-3 very limited cases, punch). In Darkstalkers, when you press kick, your character morphs into a donkey who grabs a stop sign and hits the other character with it. Do you want to know what happens when you press punch?

They're just a bit anarchic for me, though they made a great proving ground for Capcom to test some of the mechanics that would later find their way into Street Fighter.

[Dogg Thang]

I have always loved Darkstalkers. It looks amazing. The design is gorgeous and the animation really went up a notch from what was around at the time. It still impresses me years later.

I loved how it plays too, with one huge caveat - SF2 was so intuitive very quickly and yet, with Darkstalkers, I have to relearn a character every single time I pick it up again. I have to look up moves lists and spend some time getting the hang of them all over again. I never managed to commit moves to memory because they just don't feel all that intuitive. Maybe Darkstalkers purists (if such a thing exists) would hate this but I would love to have seen the series remap all the special moves to more regular SF2 move inputs.

[HailMary]

Darkstalkers needs to make a come back, but needs to be on the same level as Mortal Kombat or at least a bit darker than it's cutesy appearance.

[Asura]

Darkstalkers needs to make a come back, but needs to be on the same level as Mortal Kombat or at least a bit darker than it's cutesy appearance.

This isn't trying to be negative, because if that's what you want, I respect that - but personally I would hate it if Capcom made Darkstalkers dark and grim. I feel it'd be taking away the identity of the franchise.