Should the sprites really be redrawn?

I've been giving this a little bit of thought lately, and I've come to the conclusion that they should NOT be redrawn unless certain criteria are met.

The first important requirement would be cartridge size. Lets face it, with the 30-40 characters that are in every installation, if the sprites were to be redrawn, the cartridge size would have to be significantly larger in order for there to be any noticeable difference in quality. I admit that for a year or maybe even two, new sprites at the same level of quality would be a welcome change... but if Playmore were to go through all the time and effort that was required, I would want the results to be astounding.

Second, I'd say that Playmore isn't experienced enough with the KOF series to go about making the changes. We've all seen the complaints about the character art (particularly 2K1's), and many have complained that the gameplay isn't at the level it once was. As much as Playmore would like everyone to think that their staff is filled with old SNK members, players can tell that it isn't exactly the case. The releases they're putting out now in the KOF series may not be up to the level that is expected, but perhaps if they continue working on and releasing the games, they will understand what fans want/expect and will become better at giving the people what they want. The last couple of releases may not have been as good as they were in the SNK days, but be honest... they could have been MUCH worse.

The last requirement is that they take the time to enhance the game in its entirety. If they're going to have the artists get to work on the characters, then they should probably get the programmers to give the game's system an overhaul while they're at it. I know this may sound like sacrilege, but honestly... we're going to have 10 KOF installments available to us running on the same (or a remarkably similar) engine. I'm not saying that the game should be entirely different, just that the existing engine should be changed for the better. In what way? I have my own ideas for it, but I'll keep them to myself so that it doesn't detract from my point. The point is that I'd like to be excited by the game's engine again and at the same time, not lose that special KOF feeling... you know what I mean? I want to play something new while still feeling like I'm putting on an old shoe. Is that even possible?

So, to summarise: Playmore should become more experienced with the series and come up with an interesting new direction for it, develop a 1000+ meg cart, spend 2 years on development, redraw ALL sprites, and give the game engine an overhaul. I'm sure if they did all of this, and did it well enough, fans wouldn't mind forking out the extra money per NGH cartridge or MVS kit that it would demand.

I'm not sure how right or wrong I am, or how realistic any of these proposals are, but let's not kid ourselves, here... in this age, 14 years after the Neo Geo hardware was first released, and after 9 (soon to be 10) installments... it will take a hell of a lot to generate excitement for an upcoming KOF release.

If they were unable to meet these standards, would it really be worth redrawing the sprites?

PS: You're the experts, I just write here.

Playmore are lazy so dont expect diddly with them, hell kof2002 sprites not only look identical but they all still have there same win moves too and no added ones and hell they are to lazy to even add endings not matter whether it is a dream match or not, i for one am getting fed up with rehash of the same game and everyone jumping for joy when the price we have to pay for new neo games are abmissmal and they should atleast add something so we are getting value for money,,,, ppl say its all about gmeplay but yes the other kof were all about that too but atleast lots of new things were added, hell some of the backgrounds are tame as shit

hehe thats my rant out of the way

and as for the bug defect in rotd for alot of 1 slot boards playmore should refund everyone

<small>[ June 18, 2003, 06:56 PM: Message edited by: Lee Gray ]</small>

The only few thing changes is costume and the colour, nothing much.

Gameplay is and always should be first. After this everything else can be built upon wink .

If Playmore had the wealth of Capcom I believe they could have made their KOF games more beautiful as time goes on, but you have to look at the situation realistically.

Imagaine you own a company. Then it goes bankrupt. Then whilst you`re trying to re-establish it under a different name, gamers are expecting that year`s version of your most popular franchise but you haven`t got near as much a budget as you had for the instalments of the same franchise 2 or 3 years ago. Would you be capable of revamping most of or the whole of your best franchise? If you could, then your the child of God make_fac !