Amazon Posting: KOF Orochi PS2 & PSP

[Kaioh]

Just picked this up for PS2. '98 has an audio glitch where at the start of the second match it'll say READY...WINNER! instead of READY...GO! If you get a perfect in the first match it'll say PERFECT instead of GO! at the start of the second match. '96 seems like it drops a frame here and there. No AST option for any of the games either. I wonder if the PSP version has the same glitches.

 

[KagerouSama]

I now have the PSP copy in my possession.
I'll play around with it in a little bit.

PS2 copy on Tuesday still.
I <3 Redundancy!

 

[KagerouSama]

Okay.
I took a nap. Sorry. I sleep every once in a while.

So, just a minute ago, I unwrapped the game and popped the UMD into my PSP.

The menu comes up on power-on.
I get a blue background with what looked like a bullet-entry graphic.
No KOF characters are present on the game background graphic.
The mellow part of the KOF '96 Soundtrack Track "Fairy" (Chizuru's theme) begins playing.
Instead of playing full through, it just loops that mellow part over and over.

Alright, makes sense to me.
There's no reason to play an entire song for just the grabber to get you to play the game.

I go to play...
Forced Firmware upgrade.
It's been a while since I've had to upgrade. No biggie.
I tell it alright to proceed.
The system reboots and the firmware screen comes up.
I tell it to install.

LOW BATTERY!
Even though I have the darned thing plugged in, I have to wait for the battery to recharge.



So, I'm waiting.
I have a 33% charge at current.
It may be tommorow before I can post any reactions or actual review.

In the immortal words of Matt Semmel (BeefJerkey), "Yar!"

 

[KagerouSama]

Threepete?

Anyway. I jumped far beyond required firmware. 5.1.
2000 Silver model.
I now have access to PSN store right from the PSP.
I don't know if I like that yet or not.
But, it's great that I now have access without needing a high-priced, monolithic PS3 to bow down to and not play PS2 games on.

Anyway...

I went to play some '98 to check "sound glitches."
Mind, this is the PSP version.

After "Ready, GO" the BGM and SFX lag for about 3-4 seconds.
After the music kicks in, all the sound effects play in order of what happened until the effects pick up to where you are in the match.

Between rounds, I don't recall hearing the announcer once.

The effects are going to be muted quickly.

The load times aren't bad.
Though, they do break flow.

As far as game options go, it breaks down like this:
Difficulty is set in the options menu.
(Defaulted at 1, from 1-8. So don't expect your soul crushed straight away. Though, Yuri's difficulty seemed to skyrocket near the end of the match I had against her.)
Controls are set in the options menu.
So, jumping from 98 to 94 (and un-intuitive as that would be anyway), becomes more so because of the squared layout of the PSP.

At current, I have things set like this:
AC
BD

That'll work fine for 98.
At least you can map them however for adapting as you like.
You just have to pause and wait for the PSP to save as you do so.

I didn't see an AST/OST option.
However, both can be unlocked. As well as graphics, iirc.

The intro video highly favors the '95 art and backgrounds.
The AST from different games is used prominently. And somewhat randomly.
Unless there are random intro videos. I didn't check that.

Really nice so far.
Great for on-the-go KOF. (I still want '99 on PSP. That may never happen.)

As I get the chance to play more (Har, har!) I'll post more impressions.

Hopefully the PS2 version won't lag as much in the sound effects.

 

[Dizzy11523]

How do you unlock anyone in 98? I can't find the faqs for it.

 

[KagerouSama]

How do you unlock anyone in 98? I can't find the faqs for it.

Unlock?
As far as EX characters,
Kyo (95 Version)
Billy
AOF Team
FF Team
New Face Team
Mai (94 Version? I don't remember verbatim. Just that she has the fan uppercut move as a DM.)
Just hold start and hit light punch.

It wouldn't let me do that for O.Rugal though.
I didn't get a chance to beat the game yet either.
So there's a chance that stipulation applies still.

 

[Dizzy11523]

Sweet....no Geese Howard in this one?

 

[KagerouSama]

Sweet....no Geese Howard in this one?

Nope.
It's just 98.
Not 98UM.

 

[jeff bogard]

Unlock?
As far as EX characters,
Kyo (95 Version)
Billy
AOF Team
FF Team
New Face Team
Mai (94 Version? I don't remember verbatim. Just that she has the fan uppercut move as a DM.)
Just hold start and hit light punch.

It wouldn't let me do that for O.Rugal though.
I didn't get a chance to beat the game yet either.
So there's a chance that stipulation applies still.

in challenge mode you unlock characters for 95, 96, and 97. which is kinda convenient that you don't ahve to do the code again for 97 and 95. for 96 i take it the code comes from the neo cd version or AES version (I forget which one has the code to unlock the bosses).

as far as omega rugal goes he wasn't unlockable in 98 MVS. i highly doubt he's an unlockable character (and would prefer it to leave it like that).

 

[KagerouSama]

in challenge mode you unlock characters for 95, 96, and 97. which is kinda convenient that you don't ahve to do the code again for 97 and 95. for 96 i take it the code comes from the neo cd version or AES version (I forget which one has the code to unlock the bosses).

This is what I get for not reading the manual.

as far as omega rugal goes he wasn't unlockable in 98 MVS. i highly doubt he's an unlockable character (and would prefer it to leave it like that).

What? And have an inferior inferior port?!
That's MADNESS, I tell you! MADNESS!

 

[jeff bogard]

This is what I get for not reading the manual.



What? And have an inferior inferior port?!
That's MADNESS, I tell you! MADNESS!

LOL, i've just never been a fan of bosses in fighting games for selectable characters. I'd rather keep them un touchables, and have a sorta balanced cast for competition.

 

[MilkManX]

Sweet. I am gonna have to go nab this!

 

[Dampfwalze]

After "Ready, GO" the BGM and SFX lag for about 3-4 seconds.
After the music kicks in, all the sound effects play in order of what happened until the effects pick up to where you are in the match.

Between rounds, I don't recall hearing the announcer once.

This sucks!
Terminal Reality allready fucked up the SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 on the PSP and now the KoF Collection too. If sound and graphic lags are their standard for NeoGeo emulation, then they better do not publish any NeoGeo games on the PSP at all.

 

[KagerouSama]

This sucks!
Terminal Reality allready fucked up the SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 on the PSP and now the KoF Collection too. If sound and graphic lags are their standard for NeoGeo emulation, then they better do not publish any NeoGeo games on the PSP at all.

I don't recall mentioning graphical lags on this collection.
Sure, there's loading between matches.
It was expected (by me) on the PSP version.
The PS2 version I didn't expect it quite as much.
The loading isn't horrible on either version.

That still won't stop the cries from cart owners decrying there shouldn't be any loading at all.

It's something to be agreed with.
If they had just made a front-end for "teh roms" with save states and the like, yes, it could be more enjoyable.

But, being what it is--lots of extra art and music that was shoehorned in and not necessary to gameplay--the loading becomes necessary for the designers vision of "SNK love" to throw in lots of extra art and music that could have been put on a CD-ROM for user enjoyment elsewhere but stuck in to save from printing extra materials.

The controls certainly handle far better than any fighter on the SNK Vol.1.

Heck, the loading is more bearable on the PSP version, as the character select music stops.

On the PS2 version, the match load screen will appear just the same.
Except the select music loads a different (poorly chosen) cut.
On my Fat-PS2 5000 model number, it will play 3-5 times with that bad cut.
Annoying.

The graphics are all the same.
Loading times for challenges are disguised with a random move-list for a matching random character from a random year.

It's neat the first few times. After a while, that gets annoying too.

One challenge in particular they ramp up O. Rugal's defense, give you infinite stock and tell you to win by K.O. before time runs out.
(Completely able to be done. I just thought I'd mention it to get this upcoming point across.)

This load takes long than the others.
It shouldn't. But, it does.

Back on the topic of "Unlocking characters", I've managed to complete a challenge that unlocked "5 hidden characters" in KOF 97.

This gave me O. Iori, O. Leona, and the Orochi New Face Team at the bottom.

I don't know if you need the 97 wins to use 95 Version Kyo.
I don't know if 97 will still demean you on the top 10 initials screen.
(I didn't play long enough for a high score and have a second controller wired up, but so far away I couldn't have put in the code anyway.)

I have ~5 Challenges left.
All challenges take place in '98.
No clue what they unlock.

Oh, and there's this:
"Defeating three teams in 99 seconds is BS!"
That's 11 seconds to KO each character.
Normal stock.
I think there's normal damage too.

Now I'm going to fire up the PS2 version again and try to complete as many challenges as I can.

 

[Dampfwalze]

I don't recall mentioning graphical lags on this collection.

The graphical lags (or better said, complete freeze of the game for about half a second) happen on the Arcade Classics Collection.

And loading times between fights don't bother me, but sound lags in the actual gameplay do.

 

[Lime2K]

Those graphic lags happen on the PSP version of Orochi Saga, too.

You pretty much summed up my opinion in those two sentences.

 

[MilkManX]

Here is my report.

There is alot more good than bad this time. Nothing is really a deal breaker but I wish SNK would have www.terminalreality.com actually test the games better.


Good Stuff

KOF 94-98!

Unlockable Art and Tunes

Plays great!

No weird tileing or slowdown like the PS2 SNK Classics had.


Not so good stuff.

Damn weird half assed blurr filter on all the games. No option to shut it off.

Loading screens in the game? WTF? The Japanese version didnt have this!

Weird sound glitches!

Glitches in detail.

So far the big one is KOF98(nice one terminal!)

When every round starts about 95% of the time the Announcer goes

READY

GO

--INNAH


or

READY

GO

--EADY


WTH is that?! Its not a deal breaker but it sure is weird!


Now on KOF96 I only got a glitch once.

Female Team Stage at the end of the match it didnt switch to the quote music it just kept on playing the Female Team stage. Tried repeatedly but only happened once out of 10 or so times.

So far no issues with 94,95,97.

Overall its a great collection but I wish SNK USA was more vigil in their playtesting like the SNK Japan ports are.

 

[jeff bogard]

I played it last weekend and loved it too. I had homework to do, and i just couldn't stop playing. So many memories....

Anyway, the glitches don't break the game the game is very playable and fun ( can't be all those kof's in 1 package).


One thing i did notice on KoF 95 while fighting Omega rugal was that with kyo when you do the

+ then follow it by +

it skips frames, i can't remember if you can follow it by strong or anything but it does skip frames. I can't really complain much after all by then whoever you did that too has about 1/2 of your life or less.

 

[insaneben]

I gave it a try earlier today.
The ports seem fairly solid (except for KOF '98, which felt very shoehorned).
The sloppy menu presentation, load times and lack of an arranged soundtrack really soured the deal. The control scheme also feels a little off as well.
While I never bought the SNK Classics v. 1 port, I can see why so many people hated it (and Terminal Reality), which once again dropped the ball.

I'm curious, though: does the Japanese version have few load times and the option to play with an arranged soundtrack?

 

[Azathoth]

Jesus Christ... I just found out about this atrocity and I just can't wait for Terminal Reality to fuck up the Samurai Shodown set whenever they try and fit SSVS in (if that's so).

So it's both worse than the original Japanese release and worse than straight up emulation? How incredibly predictable.

 

[Hide]

i'm out of topic but,

KOF 98 is my first ever AES game bought on release and NOTHING can rival the mvs/aes.

Anyway, KOF98 is the only definitive KOF ever released. The rest may be average (kof 94, 97, 99, 01, etc) Some may be good (kof 95, 00) But as far as I'm concerned, you don't play any KOF as competitively as KOF98.

98UM is sweet and it is a must have when the US ver comes out.

Don't bother with the rest!