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[ongoing project] Playing all versus fighters - chronologically!

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    #61
    Guys, guys, guys.....what's wrong with "Body Blows"?! You're scaring me!

    Well, I understand both viewpoints, I think.....compared to console fighters it must have felt rather limited, but from an Amiga point of view it was probably pretty good. At least that's what I've heard....Amiga folks speaking fondly of it.

    Since we are doing consoles only I won't be able to try out the initial version of the game, but of course I've got the Amiga CD32 here ready to go, and "Ultimate Body Blows" is one of four fighters for the system I have sitting here. I was really excited to try it out and without having played any of them so far I figured BB to be the second-best of those....but now you got me worried here.
    We'll see.

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      #62
      Personally, I had access to “proper games”. My parents were very wealthy etc. You’ve all heard me say that a million times before...

      These games that that you guys are talking about, well I’d love to have played them, but Street Fighter II... Is there actually a better game ever? SNK couldn’t compare for years. FF Special was the first time that they actually got it together.

      I’m not well versed about Eternal Champions and the like, but in my day Street Fighter II and all of its derivatives ruled supreme, at least until KOF ‘96 came out. S/O Samurai Spirits because that was an awesome game and I lost out on a pair of NIKEs that are worth way more money now, but it was happy times.

      It’s super cool that there are heads here who remember the good times. As much as our little forum is being spaced out, I remember when it was imports, but I applaud you lot for remembering.

      Three and and a half Musashi Thumb’s Up!
      Last edited by J0e Musashi; 24-04-2018, 07:47.
      Kept you waiting, huh?

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        #63
        Secret fact. I’ve always preferred Shmups, but I don’t possess the concentration to be good at them.

        I was super-****ing hot at SFII though, and that’s why fighters will always be my greatest love. Even though I play Souls derivatives nowadays.
        Kept you waiting, huh?

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          #64
          I was very close to an AES, and we were scrubbers. I went with a SNES instead because renting games was easier. It was probably the better decision in the end as I ended up playing many more games, one of which being Link to the Past which solidified my stance as a gamer and made me a part of the hobby forever. SF2 wasn't too bad on it at the end of the day.

          I sometimes wonder where my head would be if I went with the AES, actually. I'd played Spectrum and NES games before but then only really became fascinated with arcade fighting games. Home console games were no longer of any real interest until SMW and LttP.

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            #65
            Originally posted by J0e Musashi View Post
            These games that that you guys are talking about, well I’d love to have played them, but Street Fighter II... Is there actually a better game ever? SNK couldn’t compare for years. FF Special was the first time that they actually got it together.
            It's interesting going back to those older games. Recently, I bought an arcade cabinet off the forum as break-room thing for my workplace, and filled it with a RetroPie setup.



            Doing this has given me a chance to look at the 16-bit era of fighting games with fresh eyes, and I agree; I think SNK did amazing things with pixel art, and their games were certainly very fun to play, but in that earlier period, nothing they produced comes close to Street Fighter II in terms of simple playability.

            It's hard to describe (which, I'm sure those of you who know me on here will guess, vexes me somewhat) but it just moves better. Art of Fighting and even Fatal Fury 3 all have this strange feel to their controls. They feel rigid, like you're always somehow fighting with the character as much as the opponent. Even Samurai Shodown suffers from this a bit; I think the reason the SS series is so highly regarded is that it has gameplay that derives from it, with very powerful moves and short combos, with extremely long "whiff" times and recovery for when people miss.

            I’m not well versed about Eternal Champions and the like,
            Gonna ruffle some feathers here and say that when I think of Eternal Champions, I lump it in the same category which also contains Brutal: Paws of Fury, Kasumi Ninja and about 20 other bad fighting games. Not only do I think it hasn't stood the test of time; I thought it was bad even back then.

            I struggle to think of western fighters that were truly good, if I'm honest.

            Mortal Kombat was the exception, where the first two games were extremely playable, but I also feel they were like a joke which was funny when I was 11, and has now ran on much longer than it ever really should have. They worked because they really tried to do their own thing, from the ground up. Still, people love them and all power to them; I don't judge. They obviously have some appeal.

            Originally posted by dataDave View Post
            I sometimes wonder where my head would be if I went with the AES, actually.
            I'm willing to bet you would've had maybe 2 games at most, and neither of them would've been one of the top-tier expensive titles. I speak as someone who was also pretty poor back then. The AES was a wonderful machine if you had the money and a taste for its games, no doubt, but let's face it - it was a console for the comparatively few working adults who were into games and the financially well-off.

            The SNES & Megadrive were vastly superior machines in nearly every way that mattered to a kid in the 80s/90s. They each had a library of great, and most importantly varied games at a reasonable price.

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              #66
              I was told I could get a game at Christmas and a game for my birthday, and of course no other consoles. Samurai Shodown and Fatal Fury Special would have lasted me a long, long time. Especially considering I'd have traded in SamSho1 for the sequel a year later.

              There was also the issue of only having a 50hz portable TV. Even our living room TV didn't have a SCART socket.

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                #67
                Originally posted by Asura View Post
                It's hard to describe (which, I'm sure those of you who know me on here will guess, vexes me somewhat) but it just moves better. Art of Fighting and even Fatal Fury 3 all have this strange feel to their controls. They feel rigid, like you're always somehow fighting with the character as much as the opponent. Even Samurai Shodown suffers from this a bit; I think the reason the SS series is so highly regarded is that it has gameplay that derives from it, with very powerful moves and short combos, with extremely long "whiff" times and recovery for when people miss.
                I completely agree. It's hard to say why they feel so stiff but I think it's always been a feature of SNK fighters. I've grown to love KoF '98 but even that feels a bit awkward. Compared to SF2 the early SNK stuff feels like really ossified.

                Originally posted by Asura View Post
                Gonna ruffle some feathers here and say that when I think of Eternal Champions, I lump it in the same category which also contains Brutal: Paws of Fury, Kasumi Ninja and about 20 other bad fighting games. Not only do I think it hasn't stood the test of time; I thought it was bad even back then.
                Again, I couldn't agree more. I bought it on the Mega CD, played it for about 5 minutes and just gave up. It was a complete mess. Far too many moves, fiddly controls and the graphics were an indistinguishable mess.

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                  #68
                  The feeling of stiffness playing KOF94 is one of the reason it took so long for me to get into them coming off the back of Capcom's fighters.

                  And by stiffness I mean how the characters handle... not Mai

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                    #69
                    Originally posted by Superman Falls View Post
                    And by stiffness I mean how the characters handle... not Mai
                    Mai isn't- oh. Ooooh.

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                      #70
                      Yeah, I know what y'all mean with that stiffness in control....but I got used to it and don't mind it at all. Still, SF2 does feel a lot "softer" to play, or ....more fluid. But "World Heroes", see a page back or two, does come surprisingly close!

                      LOL @ Mai joke

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                        #71
                        It'd be interesting to hear from someone who understands how fighting games are made to see if they could explain why there's such a difference in feel between Capcom and SNK games. We all know instinctively that they are different but I don't think any of us can fully articulate why.

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                          #72
                          Or why Mortal Kombat is incapable of reaching a point where its fighters don't feel like they've been animated with a broom up their backsides

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                            #73
                            (let’s finish up the first batch of games before I’m away from home for a few days. From now on we played two new games per night and some of the previous ones)


                            Art of Fighting (NEO GEO)

                            The final game of Night 1, this one certainly is a looker. Wow. Just …wow. I clearly remember being totally speechless back then when I played it for the first time, although I had seen a few screenshots before.

                            But it’s not just a graphics demo, oh no. While the characters do feel particularly stiff in this one it can still let you have very fast-paced and dynamic matches. The music is incredible and helps set the mood, with the stages being out-of-this-world awesome, maybe with the exception of the L’Amour restaurant, which is nice but a step below the others, in my personal opinion. Someone else from our group loves that stage the most, so your mileage may vary.

                            My absolute favorite and one of the if not THE most beautiful stage in a fighting game I’ve ever seen, is Downtown. I love it so much, I can hardly put it into words! <3 This dirty back alley….the bum….the garbage container….the burning barrel….the fog!!!!! Just incredible.

                            The characters themselves are interesting too, because they seem so much more real than those of other fighters. Their size helps, as does their general design and the fact that their faces get black `n blue `n all bloody while the match goes on.

                            This game made me get a Neo Geo back when I was little, and it certainly was the main attraction for many months at my house. Today, the magic is not quite the same for people playing it for the first time, simply because the gameplay doesn’t feel as natural and fluid as some may expect.

                            By the way, we played through the story once before switching over to versus for the nights to come, so everyone would get to meet Mr. Big and Mr. Karate before they show up in AOF2. And I gotta say….the single player is just as good today as it was back then. No other fighting game has given me such strong „this is an awesome karate movie!“ vibes.

                            „Art of Fighting“ scores 4 kitties with me (for visuals and atmosphere mostly) while the others have it at 3 and 2.5 kittes, due to inferior gameplay when compared to other titles.



                            All in all, having „Fatal Fury“, „World Heroes“ and „Art of Fighting“ provided a highly interesting combination of fighting games back then, and I’m glad our group started off with these (plus both „Street Fighters“, of course)

                            Comment


                              #74
                              Originally posted by Superman Falls View Post
                              Or why Mortal Kombat is incapable of reaching a point where its fighters don't feel like they've been animated with a broom up their backsides
                              Indeed. The ongoing popularity of that game amazes me.

                              Comment


                                #75
                                Interesting to see Art of Fighting 1 after reading about it. I'd always dismissed it as the second one is supposed to be so much better. I've owned the second game for a good few years now and can't get into it. The CPU is ludicrous, it's just so hard. I know there's supposed to be certain tactics that work against each opponent but trying to play it like a normal fighter is impossible. It also seems a bit dry and lacklustre in terms of presentation and atmosphere.

                                The first game actually looks a bit better. The stages seem to have more atmosphere and, as you say Samuray, it does all feel like a martial arts movie. If I can find a cheap copy on ebay I might give it a go.

                                I used to own the third game (it was one of the first Neo Geo games I bought) but thought it was really dull. The graphics were technically amazing but the rest of it was a little lifeless.

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