Available now on UMD or Japanese PSN if you?re impatient, this is apparently a follow-up to KOF Sky Stage. I?ve had no prior experience with KOF:SS, but Neo-Geo Heroes Ultimate Shooting is ace.
The shooting system I thought was really cool. You?ve got main attack (which is different for each character, either spread out, concentrated, or homing), and secondary attack which uses up a constantly recharging triple-bar. You?ve also got 3 bombs, which for some characters seems to have limited range, and a taunt button.
The taunt adds a very interesting dynamic to the game, since activating it cancels out all enemy projectiles. Which is great in a tight spot. But subsequent enemy attacks appear to be more powerful, so you need to gear yourself up for some quick dodging afterwards. Also, activating taunt causes all enemy score drops (tiny NeoGeo logos) to increase in rank. So if an enemy normally drops a small NeoGeo score item, using taunt will increase it to a medium or big score item. After a while the taunt wears off. I?ve found it most useful to save for tight spots or just before big enemies (like the gunships on stage 1), since they?ll then haemorrhage major points. If I get in trouble during taunt, it?s time to rely on bombs or pray you?ve got some energy saved.
There?s an energy bar for each character, which might annoy purists, but there?s no lives. Die and it?s Game Over, or Continue time. I?ve been playing it 1CC fashion, and the diversity of characters and stages is keeping it interesting. It?s taken the Darius route for stages, with branching paths at the end of each one.
Speaking of Darius, I thought Darius Burst on PSP was probably the worst in the series (I know some on here love it). For me it was devoid of charm and reward, and after clocking it once I wasn?t given much incentive to play again. Apparently you can unlock other modes, but I couldn?t be bothered to try again.
In NGHUS, there?s loads of modes available right from the get go, and the 10 characters encourage experimentation. Once a stage has been reached it can be replayed at leisure, but be warned, starting from any stage other than 1 makes the game not count any of your NeoGeo score picks-ups at the end of the stage. Which is good. Because if you?re playing for score it encourages you to start from the beginning. But if you just want to play to the end, you can pick up where you left off really easily. It?s worth noting that after each stage your health and bombs do not recharge, meaning a 1CC of the entire game is going to take some work!
It also appears there?s a unique set of dialogue depending on which character faces which boss, and it?s kinda cool to have someone like Marco Rossi act as the boss of stage 1, and call on his tank, Metal Slug, or those POWs, to aid him in battle. The fact that everyone is flying around is kinda weird, but I love it.
There?s also plenty of artwork and so on to unlock, if that?s your bag.
I?ve spent most of my time just experimenting with all the characters, but this feels like a much deeper game, with more variety, more rewards, more modes and just more of everything than Darius Burst. Admittedly it?s vertical rather than hori, but if you really want a hori shmup just change the screen settings and control it as such.
STORY MODE ? 15 stages, 10 characters
Syd III ? spaceship, fast, decent main attack, secondary is shield
Kyo Kusanagi ? fast, good main, poor secondary shield, too slow
Terry Bogard ? worst character. Slow. Lousy main. Ridiculously crap secondary which leaves him wide open.
Iori Yagami -
Akari Ichijo ? seemingly non-existent secondary?
Marco Rossi ? difficult to use. Main attack has 100 bullets but then recharges. Powerful secondary. Interesting from a conceptual point of view.
Athena ?
Kula Diamond -
Mai Shiranui ? excellent character. Great main, semi-homing, strong secondary. Weak bomb.
Iroha ? biggest breasts in the game, and the most powerful character. Powerful main, with homing, epic secondary that is both shield and rebound attack which absolutely drains a boss? energy bar, plus her bomb targets the boss area and is super powerful.
CHALLENGE MODE:
Subject ? specific tasks earn medals. Tricky, since objectives are in Japanese. This could offer tremendous replay value. I only played the first stage, and achieved 4 of the 13 tasks, but I?ve no idea what the others are. Reckon I?ll try this once I?ve clocked main mode a few times.
Survival - basically boss rush mode.
Multiplayer ? not tested.
Sky Stage ? port of the arcade game? Regardless, it sucks. Why play this when you have other modes? Still, awful nice of them to include it as a bonus.
Museum ? unlock artwork and music.
OPTIONS
Change the screen to be vertical or horizontal. Buttons are fully customisable. I couldn?t get on with tate mode, but holding the PSP horizontal doesn?t prove too problematic.
The shooting system I thought was really cool. You?ve got main attack (which is different for each character, either spread out, concentrated, or homing), and secondary attack which uses up a constantly recharging triple-bar. You?ve also got 3 bombs, which for some characters seems to have limited range, and a taunt button.
The taunt adds a very interesting dynamic to the game, since activating it cancels out all enemy projectiles. Which is great in a tight spot. But subsequent enemy attacks appear to be more powerful, so you need to gear yourself up for some quick dodging afterwards. Also, activating taunt causes all enemy score drops (tiny NeoGeo logos) to increase in rank. So if an enemy normally drops a small NeoGeo score item, using taunt will increase it to a medium or big score item. After a while the taunt wears off. I?ve found it most useful to save for tight spots or just before big enemies (like the gunships on stage 1), since they?ll then haemorrhage major points. If I get in trouble during taunt, it?s time to rely on bombs or pray you?ve got some energy saved.
There?s an energy bar for each character, which might annoy purists, but there?s no lives. Die and it?s Game Over, or Continue time. I?ve been playing it 1CC fashion, and the diversity of characters and stages is keeping it interesting. It?s taken the Darius route for stages, with branching paths at the end of each one.
Speaking of Darius, I thought Darius Burst on PSP was probably the worst in the series (I know some on here love it). For me it was devoid of charm and reward, and after clocking it once I wasn?t given much incentive to play again. Apparently you can unlock other modes, but I couldn?t be bothered to try again.
In NGHUS, there?s loads of modes available right from the get go, and the 10 characters encourage experimentation. Once a stage has been reached it can be replayed at leisure, but be warned, starting from any stage other than 1 makes the game not count any of your NeoGeo score picks-ups at the end of the stage. Which is good. Because if you?re playing for score it encourages you to start from the beginning. But if you just want to play to the end, you can pick up where you left off really easily. It?s worth noting that after each stage your health and bombs do not recharge, meaning a 1CC of the entire game is going to take some work!
It also appears there?s a unique set of dialogue depending on which character faces which boss, and it?s kinda cool to have someone like Marco Rossi act as the boss of stage 1, and call on his tank, Metal Slug, or those POWs, to aid him in battle. The fact that everyone is flying around is kinda weird, but I love it.
There?s also plenty of artwork and so on to unlock, if that?s your bag.
I?ve spent most of my time just experimenting with all the characters, but this feels like a much deeper game, with more variety, more rewards, more modes and just more of everything than Darius Burst. Admittedly it?s vertical rather than hori, but if you really want a hori shmup just change the screen settings and control it as such.
STORY MODE ? 15 stages, 10 characters
Syd III ? spaceship, fast, decent main attack, secondary is shield
Kyo Kusanagi ? fast, good main, poor secondary shield, too slow
Terry Bogard ? worst character. Slow. Lousy main. Ridiculously crap secondary which leaves him wide open.
Iori Yagami -
Akari Ichijo ? seemingly non-existent secondary?
Marco Rossi ? difficult to use. Main attack has 100 bullets but then recharges. Powerful secondary. Interesting from a conceptual point of view.
Athena ?
Kula Diamond -
Mai Shiranui ? excellent character. Great main, semi-homing, strong secondary. Weak bomb.
Iroha ? biggest breasts in the game, and the most powerful character. Powerful main, with homing, epic secondary that is both shield and rebound attack which absolutely drains a boss? energy bar, plus her bomb targets the boss area and is super powerful.
CHALLENGE MODE:
Subject ? specific tasks earn medals. Tricky, since objectives are in Japanese. This could offer tremendous replay value. I only played the first stage, and achieved 4 of the 13 tasks, but I?ve no idea what the others are. Reckon I?ll try this once I?ve clocked main mode a few times.
Survival - basically boss rush mode.
Multiplayer ? not tested.
Sky Stage ? port of the arcade game? Regardless, it sucks. Why play this when you have other modes? Still, awful nice of them to include it as a bonus.
Museum ? unlock artwork and music.
OPTIONS
Change the screen to be vertical or horizontal. Buttons are fully customisable. I couldn?t get on with tate mode, but holding the PSP horizontal doesn?t prove too problematic.
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