Fighting Games

[Rynnec]

From what I've heard, the 3DS port of BBCSII plays alright, other than a few things like jagged sprites and compressed sound effects. SSFIV I got to play a demo of, it played pretty decent from what I recall.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I've been playing Real Bout Fatal Fury Special (Note: Not Fatal Fury Special, that's a totally different game) on the  Virtual Console and it is freaking awesome.

I've only ever played Fatal Fury 1, 2, Special, and Garou so I missed everything in-between, but this is much more of a proper Fatal Fury 3 than what I heard about the actual third game. Everything flows really well, and the plain system is excellent here and not as much of a novelty as it is in other games in the series. Also, the new fighters are really cool and unique. I've always liked the design style of Fatal Fury and how the story all takes place in one tow, and the character designs and music are always great for this series.

And that announcer is so chill. Of all the "exciting" announcers in fighters, this is by far the best one.

It also makes me hope against hope that the next Fatal Fury game is a remake of the very first one with the new KoF sprites and killer background style. If it played anything like this does, and looked as good as KoFXIII, then it would probably be the best fighter ever.

They already have Terry, Andy, Joe, Hwa Jai, Raiden, Billy Kane, and even characters from the sequel with Kim and Mai, creating ones for Geese Howard, Michael Max, Richard Meyer, Duck King, and Tung Fu Rue shouldn't be nearly as time consuming as ones for another KoF. I think I'm just that eager for another Fatal Fury.

[gunswordfist]

Played the Skullgirls demo yesterday. Not bad.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

On the subject of fighting games, Dead or Alive 5 comes out in a week. I don't care about the game itself, but I must admit that I'm very interested to see what kind of reception it gets from critics and fans alike. Considering the travesty that was Ninja Gaiden 3, DOA5 is essentially Team Ninja's last chance to prove whether or not they are worth anything without Itagaki and the former core team members. I have a good feeling that if DOA5 does lackluster as well, Team Ninja will be put out for good, which would basically be ending a development team that is well over a decade old.

[gunswordfist]

Today and yesterday, my little brother and me have been having a blast playing Soul Calibur IV. I need to stop losing so much.

EDIT:
OK, no more double posting from me (which explains why I'm bumping random threads instead of multi-posting) so here it goes:

I wish all modern fighting games had tag team mode instead of having that as a selling point. It should be mandatory by now. I wish a strong story mode, tournament (I swear that was in a lot of games when I was a kid) and survival/endurance modes were the norm too.

[Rynnec]

I wish all modern fighting games had tag team mode instead of having that as a selling point. It should be mandatory by now. I wish a strong story mode, tournament (I sweat that was in a lot of games when I was a kid) and survival/endurance modes were the norm too.

Why SCIV and V didn't have Tag mode I'll never know. There was practically no reason not to have it.

Blazblue, Persona 4 Arena, and Mortal Kombat 9 have in-depth story modes, SCV had a story mode too, but it sucked. I don't know how many games have Tourney modes nowadays, but I'd be suprised if it's not a lot. Sadly, I haven't come across many FG's with survival modes, but plenty have Score Attack.

[gunswordfist]

Didn't even know SCV was out. I'm behind on games.

Story mode and tag team mode should have been the norm in fighters like 10 years ago. What the hell are they thinking? And once I think about it, yeah it's incredible stupid that SCIV doesn't have tag team mode. How the hell does story mode have tag team but not versus? So damn stupid.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, I was craving a classic 2D fighter the other day, and since Desensitized hyped it up so much I ended up getting Garou: Mark of the Wolves (it was pretty cheap on XBLA, anyways, and I didn't feel like spending an extra $5 for MvC2). I'll admit right now that I don't have a proper game-pad to play with for fighting games, but for what its worth I can make do with the regular XBOX360 controller since I've never been a hardcore technical fighter who could make much do with that kind of precision, anyways.

The game has an easy to get into fighting system, but obviously a lot of complexity and depth beyond that. I was easily reminded  of how much I suck at fighting games, though, because I swear to god I can't ever get past the 3rd stage with ANY character (I've gotten slightly better at fighting most opponents at that stage, but I still can't win 2 out of 3 rounds by that point). The game does give you a few options to decrease the difficulty, which I've done so far just for the sake of experiencing the arcade mode with all the characters (I've only completed it with 3, so far). Currently my favorite character from a control standpoint is Jae-Hoon, as he his move-set and general animations feel the smoothest to me, and I've performed better with him than any other character so far. When I get enough practice at the game, I can try challenging my friend who is fairly decent at 2D fighters, and while he hasn't played this game in years he'll still probably kick my ass at it. Still, it'll be nice to play against him since its been a long while since I've played against another human opponent (in the same room) in a fighting game before, and its always a ton of fun to do. I just don't get the same satisfaction out of playing online.

[Spark Of Spirit]

One thing about Garou is that I always enjoy watching the matches. Even if you don't know what you're doing, it always seems like you do because almost every move is effective and it all flows extremely well. That's why I tend to like 4 button fighters better than 6 buttons since it cuts out the chaff nobody ever uses and helps you learn what works faster.

But yeah, Garou is probably my favorite one on one fighter for having a great cast of characters (If I recall right, only one character is garbage and nobody likes him anyway since 'crazy' guys in fighters tend to be lame) that all work really well together. I also really dig the art style and music.

I'm glad you're enjoying it, though!  8)

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, it isn't as complex as certain other fighters so it feels just inviting enough to newcomers to keep me playing it, but still offers up plenty of challenge as I can't beat the arcade mode without decreasing the difficulty so far. I am trying to figure out how to properly chain attacks together, though. I'm assuming that the computer is still restricted to the same combat rules that you are, and once I get to stage 3 they are able to chain powerful blows and combos together like its nothing. I haven't quite gotten to that level of expertise yet, myself. I usually have to rely on blocking and building up my power gauge to store up some devastating attacks, while in the meantime trying to play it safe and take smaller, quicker jabs at my opponent whenever they let down their guard. That said, playing defensively hasn't managed to get me much further against tougher opponents either, so overall I still really need to improve my gameplay in order to beat arcade mode on its default difficulty.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Oh yeah, you can chain combos by pushing the inputs at the right time. But unlike fighters like Street Fighter III or Guilty Gear there's a wider window for input during animations including timing block which makes the game more tactical and not so focused on offense or defense which ends up catering to everybody's play-style.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, the game does feel perfectly balanced and I feel motivated enough to try and master its combat system.

That said, I do wish that it had some unlockables and more modes to it in order to offer up some sense of progression, but arcade mode and survival mode are the fighting game standards and they are still addicting enough for me to continuously play in order to try and enhance my skills at the game.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm really liking GMOW more and more as I keep playing it. I still utterly suck at the game to the point where I can't beat it on its standard difficulty (hell, I can't even get a high enough overall ranking to make it to the boss fight with Kain), but I'm slowly starting to get better at it to the point where I can at least now beat the first 3 stages on their standard difficulties (though I still have a really tough time getting past stage 3 with any character).

So far my favorite characters to play as are Jae-Hoon and Gato. The former is a really good fast character who has some nifty little tricks that are easy to pull off and come in really handy against computer controlled opponents who can be exploited a bit by certain tricks over and over again. The latter manages to perfectly combine both power and speed, and has the most painful looking special move in the game where he literally lands on you and snaps your neck.

Just for reference, what are some other good SNK fighters to play that are available on the XBOX360 (either on a disc or on XBLA)? I may consider looking into more of them and even investing in a better controller option for fighting games (which I was planning to getting around to doing at some point in time eventually, anyways).

[Rynnec]

King of Fighters XIII (on-disc) and '98 (download, though it may be Japan only), and Samurai Showdown II are available for 360.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I believe I saw KOF '98 available on XBLA, and I know for a fact that SS2 is available on XBLA, so I'll definitely keep those 2 games in mind for later. I might also end up looking into buying KOF XIII depending on how much Christmas money I have left over to spare, and if that game is welcoming enough to newcomers.