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[ongoing project] Playing all versus fighters - chronologically!

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    There does seem to be a huge drop off in quality between the best fighting games and all the rest. I can only really think of a few that are ok, most are either AAA classics or just terrible.

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      If you’re moving on to Mega CD fighters then Eternal Champions is worth a play.

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        Originally posted by BigDeadFreak View Post
        There does seem to be a huge drop off in quality between the best fighting games and all the rest. I can only really think of a few that are ok, most are either AAA classics or just terrible.
        That's ...an interesting observation. And pretty spot-on!
        Fascinating.


        Originally posted by samanosuke View Post
        If you’re moving on to Mega CD fighters then Eternal Champions is worth a play.

        Your wish is our command!



        Eternal Champions (Sega CD)


        I couldn't make up my mind whether "Challenge from the Dark Side" on Sega CD was a true sequel or rather just an expansion for the original cartridge version, which I've never played. But when I came across this one for five bucks I figured what the heck, I'll just take this one and we skip the first game -- this isn't an important series like "Fatal Fury", after all.

        Coming from "Mortal Kombat" and "Brutal: Paws of Fury", we really didn't expect much.....so holy sheet, were we taken by surprise! This game is awesome!!!!

        Well, not on a gameplay level....it doesn't hold a candle to SNK nor Capcom. But it still plays really really well, the graphics are nice, we have loads of characters, many more of which can easily be unlocked by cheat codes, and the game is unexpectedly gory....much moreso than "Mortal Kombat", in a way, due to the cruel and highly varied executions and gargantuan amounts of blood during those. Not so much during the regular fighting, which is an interesting contrast.

        It's really cool how imaginative the characters and many of the stages are. You have not lived until you have played a match between a rooster and an owl!

        I realize this game gets a lot of flak for being unpolished, but we had a lot of fun with it and will be back! No, I wouldn't want to trade it for an SNK gem, but it is a very nice addition. Anyone else here likes it, in particular the CD iteration which is supposedly a lot better than the original?



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          Haha....I expected at least a few replies considering how often EC has been mentioned before ....but this proves you never know!
          But no matter, let's continue!


          Fatal Fury Special (Neo Geo)


          As the title of the game suggests this is no full-blown sequel but rather an upgrade to FF2. In today's words, DLC on cart.

          But heeeeeello, that's quite a lot of DLC! As in "Street Fighter II Turbo", the bosses are now playable, sure. On top of that, though, we get three returning characters from the very first "Fatal Fury" and SNK also touched up the stage backgrounds, for example adding changing seasons to Jubei's Japan or snowfall to Korea. Also Eiji Kisaragi from "Art of Fighting 2" surfing on a ...um... fish in Mai's Japan stage. Anybody know why? Do they now each other, both being ninjas and whatnot?

          Well, anyway. I already liked FF2 a lot, I've had my copy it since childhood, but I remember feeling uncertain about this one. Yeah, the upgrade sounded nice, but I had to choose my Neo Geo games wisely, and I subsequently went for something completely new. Picked up "Fatal Fury Special" about five years ago or so, for 25€, and I have to say....it would have been worth its full price back then. There's so much new stuff, plus this monstrous roster of 15 playable characters, and in particular the return of Duck King whom I particularly liked in FF1.

          .....but wait. Duck King is now a silly character, aimed at comic relief?! O_o I mean, yeah, that's fine...but I found him pretty respectable and even a little scary in FF1, so this takes a bit of getting used to for me.

          Aside from that, the new additions are cool. Axel Hawk seems a bit boring but he can be fun to play for a couple of rounds, and Billy Kane is a nice change of pace with his fighting stick. Geese's new stage is excellent, as is its music, and wow, Tung Fu Rue!!!! I loved him in FF1. So awesome to see him return, albeit in a modified way to make him more balanced with the rest of the roster. HIs stage is ACES as well!

          At the end of the day, this IS just a heavily upgraded "Fatal Fury 2", but what an upgrade this is. I did not expect to be this happy with it.


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            I like the Fatal Fury games but I can't see past Real Bout Fatal Fury Special. I've owned a few of them but that's by far my favourite. The backgrounds and music are brilliant and there's plenty of great characters in it. Some of the Desperation Moves look great too, especially Kim's.

            I don't think I've ever played FFS. It doesn't look that great on youtube, to be honest.

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              Sorry, I missed the Eternal Champions post! I think your write-up matches how I feel about the game. I really enjoyed it back in the day but, even back then, it was very clear it wasn’t on a par with the Capcom or SNK games. The feel just wasn’t as smooth, it wasn’t intuitive enough, didn’t quite have the sense of impact it needed and it was just a little bit janky in the animation. But it was still very enjoyable. The characters were varied and mostly pretty cool. The backgrounds were pretty lovely for the most part and, yeah, those death animations were quite full on although I remember them being quite tricky to pull off too. Might have been the fact that there was no internet to look stuff up though.

              I haven’t played the Mega CD version but would be curious to know what was different. With a layer of extra polish, I reckon Eternal Champions could have been a real contender.

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                Originally posted by Dogg Thang View Post
                Sorry, I missed the Eternal Champions post! I think your write-up matches how I feel about the game. I really enjoyed it back in the day but, even back then, it was very clear it wasn’t on a par with the Capcom or SNK games. The feel just wasn’t as smooth, it wasn’t intuitive enough, didn’t quite have the sense of impact it needed and it was just a little bit janky in the animation. But it was still very enjoyable. The characters were varied and mostly pretty cool. The backgrounds were pretty lovely for the most part and, yeah, those death animations were quite full on although I remember them being quite tricky to pull off too. Might have been the fact that there was no internet to look stuff up though.

                I haven’t played the Mega CD version but would be curious to know what was different. With a layer of extra polish, I reckon Eternal Champions could have been a real contender.
                Thing is, I had a friend when I was growing up who had a Mega-CD, and swore until he was blue in the face that it was the best fighter going.

                I was easy to please back then, and even I could tell the difference.

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                  Originally posted by Samuray View Post
                  At the end of the day, this IS just a heavily upgraded "Fatal Fury 2", but what an upgrade this is. I did not expect to be this happy with it.

                  Yeah, it's a great game in all departments. It plays really well, has excellent graphics, and the music is top quality. The SNES port is also really good -- and easily one of the best fighters for that system away from the SF2 games.

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                    World Heroes 2 Jet (Neo Geo)

                    Another upgrade like "Fatal Fury Special", and another game I avoided back then. A few years ago I got it for really cheap (well, it's still available for peanuts even today, I think) and I was interested to see what I missed.

                    At first glance, not a lot. This is not a huge an expansion as "Fatal Fury Special" is, with all stages remaining exactly the same as in "World Heroes 2", and with the addition of a mere two characters. Sure, Jack the Ripper is really cool and an interesting interpretation of the historic figure (but WHY is a an 80s punk? Can't be just a fan of his since we are battling (in)famous figures from history here...?), but the other guy....this Chinese general whose name I cannot remember....right, Ryofu....seems surprisingly boring despite his weapon. Anyone with me here?

                    Anyway, at second glance we notice why it's called "Jet" now. Gameplay feels a lot ...well, not overly quick, but way smoother than before, which is great!

                    Also it seems some characters have had a small update to their move sets.

                    It is rather baffling that they killed of the fun Death Match mode. Why? Did it bother anyone?

                    So we have pretty good additions and tweaks to the nice "World Heroes 2" here, but nothing as profound as in "Fatal Fury Special". Still, it's a game that is certainly good to have.

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                      Originally posted by Samuray View Post
                      Sure, Jack the Ripper is really cool and an interesting interpretation of the historic figure (but WHY is a an 80s punk? Can't be just a fan of his since we are battling (in)famous figures from history here...?), but the other guy....this Chinese general whose name I cannot remember....right, Ryofu....seems surprisingly boring despite his weapon. Anyone with me here?
                      I haven't played Jet, but I'll definitely be playing as Jack the Ripper when I have a go. They should have had a Victorian doctor for that character -- and the "punk" should have been based on Johnny Rotten or Billy Idol.

                      Originally posted by Samuray View Post
                      Anyway, at second glance we notice why it's called "Jet" now. Gameplay feels a lot ...well, not overly quick, but way smoother than before, which is great!
                      Smoother gameplay is definitely a nice thing.

                      Originally posted by Samuray View Post
                      It is rather baffling that they killed of the fun Death Match mode. Why? Did it bother anyone?
                      I enjoy the Death Match mode in WH2, so it's a shame they removed it.
                      Last edited by Leon Retro; 04-03-2019, 11:08.

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                        Killer Instinct (SNES)

                        I was very very excited to finally experience this game, because I skipped it back in the SNES days. I suppose I concentrated on Neo Geo way too much at the time this came out, and I think the N64 version was already rumored? So I decided I would wait for that one, not knowing that it would be more of a sequel and that I would skip the Nintendo 64 entirely, at least for the time being.

                        Anyway. I got a N64 years ago, and of course "KI:Gold", but then I learned that that one has polygonal graphics while the SNES version has the pre-rendered style of "Donkey Kong Country" and, apparently, the arcade original. So I had to acquire this one as well.

                        Was this game worth my excitement? Well....hard to say, to be honest. Contrary to many in our group I do like the visuals...but gameplay feels so incredibly strange. Yes, it's supposed to be combo-heavy...so maybe we would have to train for many hours, days even, to get some real magic going here? So far it feels rather chunky and choppy.

                        Most of us were pretty let down by the graphics as well, stating this was one of the ugliest games we had played so far, and one member was fascinated looking at this and "Mortal Kombat" as two relatively bad games that were at the core of a cult following alive even today.

                        So yeah, we won't be returning to this one, but I stand by what I said: I like the visuals.

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                          Killer Instinct always felt like a one player beat em up to me, it's reliance on combos made it the perfect game to show off with in single player in the arcade as opposed to multiplayer. I've still got massively fond memories of this one, it was huge at the time and still plays well now.

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                            Yeah, I got a fair bit out of the game but it was on a 'being there at the time' basis when it was just astounding by virtue of it existing on the SNES.

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                              I never liked Killer Instinct and I don't like fighters like it. Aside from how it looks and the Rare big-heads thing, which just doesn't do it for me, the memory-test nature of it is exactly what I don't want in a fighter. I like fighters that you can get to know very quickly but then reveal more depth as you get better at them. But some fighters, and Killer Instinct is a prime example, just feel like studying. Learn the combos by heart like you're about to take an exam and that's how you need to play. Never liked that and I have little patience for it.

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                                But on the flip side it led to the current gen Killer Instinct

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