buttasuperb:
Sagat and Bison are cool with me, although I hope the next round of announced Capcom characters either completely stay away from SF, or are lesser known characters from SF, such as Rose or Gen.
I feel the same way. SNK's side seems to be getting all the variety -- with the exception of Hugo (SFIII) and Tabasa (Warzard), the entire CAPCOM lineup is pure SFII. If Playmore insists on ignoring CAPCOM's other titles and sticking to the Street Fighter series, then I'd hope they'd pull in characters who've only appeared in SFZERO, SFIII, or SFI. That last one's pretty unlikely, I know -- as much as I might like to see the NEO-GEO as the resurrection grounds for the likes of Geki, Joe, Lee, Retsu, or Mike, I doubt CAPCOM would give Playmore the go-ahead to bring back any SFI chara that CAPCOM itself hasn't had the chance to fiddle with yet. <a href="http://www.neo-geo.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=10;t=004885;p=9#000209" target="_blank">Gen</a> and Rose would be great selections from the SFZERO roster, and (like a number of others here) I'd really like to see Alex and Oro make the cut.
In addition to favoring the SFII cast a little too much, the CAPCOM side also includes too many chara that've already appeared in CVS2 (10 out of 12; Hugo and Tabasa again being the only exceptions). Meanwhile, only 6 out of the 12 SNK chara were in CVS2. Most everyone here has concluded that the Earthquake, Shiki, and Genjuro sprites used in SVC will probably also be the ones used later this year in Samurai Spirits 5. I can't help but wonder if the same might not be true for SVC's 8 KOF chara -- to be seen again in KOF'03, perhaps? If this is true, maybe we'll even see Mr. Karate in the next KOF. Now, I've got no real problem with pre-emptive sprite recycling (we got a taste of this with Seth and Vanessa as Strikers in The King of Fighters Dream Match 1999 (for Dreamcast)). However, this does make me a little concerned that the remaining SNK roster may be filled with KOF chara (I'd've been happy with either Kim or Choi, but both is showing a little too much favoritism for one KOF team, while ignoring so many others (Ikari, Psycho Soldiers, etc.)). To be sure, there are plenty of great KOFers who weren't in CVS2 and are much in demand (Kisaragi Eiji, Andy Bogard, and K' for example). However, I'd also like to see a few more SNK chara that haven't been in KOF -- Yamada Jubei, Tung Fu Rue, or Duck King (Garou series), and quite frankly at least one entry each from the Gekka no Kenshi (Last Blade) and Fuu'un (Savage Reign / Kizuna) series. If my theory about SVC KOFers' sprites being recycled at the end of the year for KOF'03 is correct, this might not bode well for the casts of Gekka and Fuu'un. But isn't it about time some of the Garou-only chara put in an appearance in KOF?
Back on the topic of Sagat and Vega. When the footage of SVC's opening was released, the focus on Mr. Karate and Gouki seemed to indicate that these two might be used as mid-bosses (although I'd've preferred to see Ryo in Kyo's place in the opening -- since Kyo has no ties to Mr. Karate, and the dynamic between Ryo and Mr. Karate is markedly similar to that of Ryu and Gouki). This had me hoping that the final bosses might be Sagat (post-SFI, pre-SFII) and the 26-year-old Geese Howard (from Ryuuko no Ken 2 / Art of Fighting 2). With the inclusion of the other 3 members of Shadoloo's Shiten'nou, this now seems unlikely. I've always wanted to see SNK's take on Vega, but he's been the final boss in so many games, I was just hoping that we'd get to see Sagat in that role again. It goes without saying that Geese is a must-have, but the young Geese is a version we've only seen once (and has never been playable). Finally, as I've said before, if you're going to have Balrog (Vega's lapdog), you've got to have Billy Kane (Geese's right-hand man, and another chara who wasn't in CVS2).
buttasuperb:
Although I would have rather seen Hanzo, Genjuro is a kick ass choice. buttrock
I think we're all certain that Haohmaru will be in SamSpi5, so I'm quite pleased to see that Playmore chose to include Genjuro in SVC over Haohmaru (mostly because Haohmaru was already in CVS2). It's almost certainly a guarantee that Hanzo will be part of the SamSpi5 cast, so I'm hopeful that he'll be in SVC, too. SVC's SNK roster desperately needs both a ninja and a grappler, and a new Hanzo that included his HyperNG64 Rasetsu (Bust) version's grappling/bone-breaking techniques could fill both those roles nicely (besides, it'd be great to see little Hanzo flinging big-ass Hugo around
).
--Chris
<small>[ May 28, 2003, 07:08 PM: Message edited by: Dash no Chris ]</small>
