ROTD vs Matrimele ...and why .

Wich of the 2 newest Neo fighters do you think is better ?

and list why you feel that way .

George

Matrimelee - better than ROTD by a long stretch.

Point 1 is the question of style. Matrimelee oozes niche style from the music to the character design to the bizarre little touches that make one crack up while playing. Chinnen pulling his cat out of his suit to deliver a meow of intimidation after administering a beating comes to mind.

The music is astonishing. Whether you dig it or not (some of which is a function of whether or not you understand Japanese), you will never hear musical *quality* like this on the Neo otherwise. Sonically, the output is crystal clear, even on my unmodded AES's mono.

The way in which the music is part and parcel of the backgrounds is part of what makes the game feel so slick and well-produced. Compared to ROTD, the music is brilliant, and frankly, the backgrounds are WAY better. Some may object to this in that Matrimelee switches themes within single backgrounds, but they're never bland or irritating to fight in. ROTD's backgrounds just left me cold.

Point 2 - Play mechanics. Matrimelee plays VERY differently from ROTD in my opinion. While there are still some juggles and big combos possible, it's very much an older style of fighter than ROTD. It's not as flashy, but it's slick and highly playable. I have no complaints with the way characters control - once you get used to the timing of the game moves emerge smoothly and combo'ing isn't difficult. It's not, however, the Paint-By-Numbers style of combo that ROTD makes possible.

Basically, it's worth getting both if you're willing to play MVS for ROTD - $69 for a new complete kit is a great deal. If you're an AES only person, I'd say that Matrimelee is the much better purchase. Like everything though, a lot of it boils down to personal preference for a particular style of fighter, and how seriously you take the "atmosphere" of a game. Matrimelee is overflowing with atmosphere but is at the same time a solid and enjoyable fighter with a great cast of characters. Personally, I'm a huge Matrimelee fan now that I've had the AES cart around for a few weeks - it's more than worth a try.

<small>[ June 17, 2003, 10:33 PM: Message edited by: gmw ]</small>

I knew this question would pop up some time. There's about to be a 4 alarm here with all the flames that are coming. Here's my 2 cents anyway:

STYLE: Both games have styles so different it's really all down to your own personal taste. Matrimelee feels like a goofy Japanese comedy and ROTD is more like the classic kung fu movie. If you favor fighting through a freak show to marry a 10 year old girl then your cup is Matrimelee. If you would rather try to remove a cult from the city with a group of dark martial artists then ROTD is your choice. I personally can enjoy a good kung fu flick atmosphere much more than the super Japan humor hour.

ART/GRAPHICS: Matrimelee uses the ROTD engine. This makes both games very comparable in visuals. Really what it comes down to again is style. ROTD uses the usual locals for fights. Streets, drive in, broken mansions, industrial parks. Matrimelee uses more imaginative locals but relies too heavy on the arena stage. With places as cool as Chinnen's tree and the club, it sucks that 90% of your time is spent in an arena with different background effects slapped on. The in game art is not much different than the style of ROTD although characters seem to look different than their sprite on Matrimelee. I like both a great deal on this area, but props go to ROTD for not making me fight over and over on one theme stage.

GAMEPLAY: ROTD uses a very fast and juggle based combo system. Some people hate this, some love it. I personally love the velocity of a good Rage match and even enjoy the "dial a combo" move when used in moderation. Rage has a great offensive and defensive movement system that's complimented by a nice combo countering system. Everything seems sleek and nothing really stands out. This is where I have trouble with Matrimelee. Matrimelee feels very disjointed in it's systems. It's almost to the point where it feels like the whole point IS to make you keep from having any flow in battle. Where ROTD’s dial a combo laid, Matrimelee has a power hit. Basically a dial a combo that does not even make you dial. Boom! You’re across the screen. Matrimelee also has an annoying feature that makes you explode with energy when you have a power stock. Some argue that this is a combo breaker to make the game more fair and prevent player domination… To me it’s just out of place. Matrimelee gives you more control in the air with the delayed double jump. Where ROTD makes you press down then up for a fast and high jump, Matrimelee lets you simply push up again while in the air. While it too seems to only break flow in a fight, it is fun and can lead to some really cool things. Finally, Matrimelee has the ref. This poor mook serves only to get in the way. Using him to block or shoot off a quick throw is great, but after that if he’s not put away he’ll wander around and get in the way of the fight. Not to mention he seems to only show up randomly. It seems to me that Noise Factory said “Hey the ROTD engine is done! What now? I know! Let’s throw new sprites in it and re-use it on another game!” To me, Matrimelee’s systems seem more like an afterthought.

MUSIC/SOUND: There’s no doubt that Matrimelee is where it’s at for quality sound on the Neo! The music is greatly composed and the sound effects are superb. Much better than ROTD on both counts… Although.. In my opinion Matrimelee fails here too. Personally I don’t want to hear a sanguine ballad about french fries as I play. It’s like trying to fuck to a song about friendship by Elmo. It’s funny and great the first time but it gets old quick. At least with Rage the music is so forgettable it does not grate on you later.

FINAL: In the end it’s all up to you. With Rage being so cheap now you can afford both and should have both! This post is just my opinion and based on my own style and flavor preference. Noise seems to be loving this remake stuff. Double Dragon and Power Instinct have both now been redone.. What’s next? Master of the Blades? (Last Blade remake)

Matrimelee feels very disjointed in it's systems. It's almost to the point where it feels like the whole point IS to make you keep from having any flow in battle.

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I really basically agree with Cynn's post here - for me, I suppose I went into purchasing Matrimelee on the understanding that I was getting into a fighter based on its atmosphere and its wackiness. I think one thing that's true in connection with what Cynn said above is that I can't see Matrimelee being great as a hardcore tournament fighter you'd want to get a bunch of folks around necessarily. I've played quite a bit of Matrimelee VS with a few friends, and it's good fun, but in a very different way than the way in which we'd play a KOF or Real Bout 2.

For me, Matrimelee is just pure fun - the whole experience of it, and the "disjointed" feel seems like a way to draw out matches, to make people just get into the goofiness. I can see this irritating some people, especially people who were really into ROTD, but it's what makes the game in my opinion.

<small>[ June 18, 2003, 12:00 AM: Message edited by: gmw ]</small>

M A T R I M E L E E - a whole universe ahead of RotD imho glee glee glee

The point of the music, as mentioned by Tanaka-san, was to make the listener say "WTF?".

That's why you fight to a song about french fries. It's supposed to be ridiculous.

And so that goes in line with the whole game: 2 80 year old women, an undead dog, a ninja, a witch, a princess, a priest (elias), the ladies man (Jones), a native american. The game is so diverse - just like Waku Waku 7 was.

The engine is ALMOST the same as RotD, except they disabled the CD chain combo system (CD will still break combos), and there's no tag feature. Base on those two features, the amount of easy as cheese infinites drops infinitely. But, there are still a lot of heavy and good combos to be performed. Your matches will at least be slightly enjoyable, as you shouldn't be stuck in just one combo for eternity. Personally, I found the control in RotD quite responsive and clean, the same applies to Matrimelee. The extra features not found in RotD, namely the quicktime feature, arren't that spectacular. Quicktime is really only useful on the last match, and I guess in 2 player, since until Sissy, the CPU never seems to taunt.

Anyhow...

Tarma:
M A T R I M E L E E - a whole universe ahead of RotD imho glee glee glee

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Where is your WHY explanation .

Curse you Retro for asking me this.....j/k

Now I love both games but I'm going with ROTD on this one.

As Cynn pointed out ROTD is like an old-school kung-fu flick and next to HK flicks I love those to death. ROTD oozes style( or tries to attempt style especially in the BGM area ), even though I have a love/hate relationship with the Dial-A-Combo feature.

The BG's are cool and aren't over used( something that urks me about Matrimelee ) and yes Matrimelee does own ROTD music wise but after awhile s song about French fries does get on the nerves :o

Long story short, Yung really digs ROTD's style

Very cool feedback guys. I hope that the unbelieveable price drop on ROTD MVS gets the title into tons of arcades and earns a sequel that fixes the small gripes ppl have with it.

I can see ROTD getting ported around a bit possibly. I have this feeling though that Matrimelee will stay on the Geo only. So collector wise, I'd go with Matrimelee AES. (well apperently I did. lol)

Matrimelee, I haven't played it but I've seen it in motion.

Plus, I don't like the fact Rage of the Dragons has the acronym ROTD. It could mean Rot D, keep going . . . rotty, it's a rotty game.

So based on zero playing time, and simple elementary engineering, I've come to the conclusion that standing in a puddle of water with your hand in an electrical socket will kill you.