N
norefuge
Guest
This is my personal history regarding arcade neogeo and KOF98 in particular.
I consider KOF98 to be the best fighting game ever made, a monumental
production where every aspect comes together in perfection.
I became familiar with the king of fighters series during my years in high school.
The year was 1995, me and a couple of friends were skipping boring classes
and ended up in this new arcade establishment. In my country there exists
this law that forbids anyone younger than 18 from entering arcade venues.
Me and my friends (all of us around 15 years old at the time) were pretty
anxious, trying to stay low and not get thrown out of this place. The venue
was newly opened, full of the latest arcade games. One game in particular
was surrounded by people waiting to play. That game was KOF 94.
From the moment i inserted the coin i knew that this was something unlike
everything i'd seen before. The team matches, the strange characters (that little
strange Freddy look-alike and the cool flame wielding guy were particularly
impressive to a 15 year old at the time), the unlimited desperation moves
coming to play when your life was low (how realistic this seemed at the time)
were things unlike anything capcom had done. We were hooked. Day after
day we were dumping coins into the machine trying to discover the secrets
of the game and we were not the only ones. Kof94 was the most popular
machine in a venue packed with arcades. _Everyone_ was playing it.
Game was hard though and most of us didn't bother with versus matches,
preferring instead to explore this unique game better in single player.
The years passed and its 1998. All of us 18 years old now, fear of getting
thrown out long gone, same circumstances, still skipping classes, different
venue, different game. Place is full of cigarette smoke, low lights, seedy
atmosphere, all sorts of lowlifes in here. There is this huge crowd in front
of this game, all waiting to play, all excited, eyes focused, hands trembling
in anticipation. Game is called Kof98 and nothing is gonna be the same again.
That game tought me the vices and virtues of PvP. Single player was good
enough till i learned the game to an acceptable degree. Afterwards, it was all
PvP. Going into the venue at any time in the night or afternoon, it was
certain that there was going to be waiting involved till you got to play it
and there was often gambling involved over the outcome of matches.
You see, people felt so certain of their abilities in the game that they would
accept to gamble over the fight. What can i say about the game itself ?
Animation so crisp and 'tight' that you could develop a 6th sense playing
the game, timing your responses and attacks to pixel perfect accuracy.
Capcom games (sfa3 in particular) felt 'over smoothed' in the control department,
lacking the precision of kof. It was this SNK control scheme that i believe
made the game a success. It felt magick, it sucked you in, it made you believe
in your skills to the maximum degree. There was no such thing as luck in
the PvP matches. Best person always won, and the guy who lost knew it and
showed respect. Imagine all sorts of real life characters playing the game.
From 30 year old businessmen to street punks carrying knifes. Yet there was
rarely any trouble over the outcome of the game. I've been playing in that
place for 2 years straight, 90% against other humans and i've never seen
such a level of commitment and seer dedication to a game.
Years passed again, now arcades have all transformed into internet cafes
where todays youth enjoys "counterstrike" and i can not help but feel
nostalgic about the era of my teenage years. Remembering how
once i was confident enough in my skills to casually bet money because a game
was so good i felt i was invincible. I don't know if arcades are dying or if they
belong to a long gone era. What do know is that i feel privileged that me and
my friends have all lived through that era. I just hope that SNK will continue
to create these kind of killer monumental games for years to come. KOF 98
was my zenith in gaming, maybe some of their latest offerings will be somebody
elses.
I consider KOF98 to be the best fighting game ever made, a monumental
production where every aspect comes together in perfection.
I became familiar with the king of fighters series during my years in high school.
The year was 1995, me and a couple of friends were skipping boring classes
and ended up in this new arcade establishment. In my country there exists
this law that forbids anyone younger than 18 from entering arcade venues.
Me and my friends (all of us around 15 years old at the time) were pretty
anxious, trying to stay low and not get thrown out of this place. The venue
was newly opened, full of the latest arcade games. One game in particular
was surrounded by people waiting to play. That game was KOF 94.
From the moment i inserted the coin i knew that this was something unlike
everything i'd seen before. The team matches, the strange characters (that little
strange Freddy look-alike and the cool flame wielding guy were particularly
impressive to a 15 year old at the time), the unlimited desperation moves
coming to play when your life was low (how realistic this seemed at the time)
were things unlike anything capcom had done. We were hooked. Day after
day we were dumping coins into the machine trying to discover the secrets
of the game and we were not the only ones. Kof94 was the most popular
machine in a venue packed with arcades. _Everyone_ was playing it.
Game was hard though and most of us didn't bother with versus matches,
preferring instead to explore this unique game better in single player.
The years passed and its 1998. All of us 18 years old now, fear of getting
thrown out long gone, same circumstances, still skipping classes, different
venue, different game. Place is full of cigarette smoke, low lights, seedy
atmosphere, all sorts of lowlifes in here. There is this huge crowd in front
of this game, all waiting to play, all excited, eyes focused, hands trembling
in anticipation. Game is called Kof98 and nothing is gonna be the same again.
That game tought me the vices and virtues of PvP. Single player was good
enough till i learned the game to an acceptable degree. Afterwards, it was all
PvP. Going into the venue at any time in the night or afternoon, it was
certain that there was going to be waiting involved till you got to play it
and there was often gambling involved over the outcome of matches.
You see, people felt so certain of their abilities in the game that they would
accept to gamble over the fight. What can i say about the game itself ?
Animation so crisp and 'tight' that you could develop a 6th sense playing
the game, timing your responses and attacks to pixel perfect accuracy.
Capcom games (sfa3 in particular) felt 'over smoothed' in the control department,
lacking the precision of kof. It was this SNK control scheme that i believe
made the game a success. It felt magick, it sucked you in, it made you believe
in your skills to the maximum degree. There was no such thing as luck in
the PvP matches. Best person always won, and the guy who lost knew it and
showed respect. Imagine all sorts of real life characters playing the game.
From 30 year old businessmen to street punks carrying knifes. Yet there was
rarely any trouble over the outcome of the game. I've been playing in that
place for 2 years straight, 90% against other humans and i've never seen
such a level of commitment and seer dedication to a game.
Years passed again, now arcades have all transformed into internet cafes
where todays youth enjoys "counterstrike" and i can not help but feel
nostalgic about the era of my teenage years. Remembering how
once i was confident enough in my skills to casually bet money because a game
was so good i felt i was invincible. I don't know if arcades are dying or if they
belong to a long gone era. What do know is that i feel privileged that me and
my friends have all lived through that era. I just hope that SNK will continue
to create these kind of killer monumental games for years to come. KOF 98
was my zenith in gaming, maybe some of their latest offerings will be somebody
elses.
