Vanilla Thunder, I just got home from my local arcade (it had "
Rage of the Dragons") and I'll be honest with you:
IT SUCKS!
YES, I played the game (quite extensively might I add) and was very disappointed with it. <img src="graemlins/shame.gif" border="0" alt="[Shame]" />
WHY?
Okay, here's my mini-review:
PROS:
Music. It has a Heavy Metal/Industrial-type of soundtrack, so it satisfies your need for new tunes and pumping tracks.
Control. The moves are tight and responsive, but that's also where the game fails...
CONS:
Gameplay.
THIS GAME IS _SLOW_!!! THERE IS SO~O MUCH LAG AND RECOVERY TIME FROM SPECIAL MOVES AND SUPERS (whether blocked or not) THAT YOU WILL FIND YOURSELF _
VERY_ FRUSTRATED WITH PLAYING! (But the speed of the game is fast enough to keep you playing)
This game has _
OLD SCHOOL_ written all over it! It's as if Evoga took as step back to Street Fighter II or KOF '94 in terms of gameplay because ROTD sure as hell plays like your back in 1993-94. <img src="graemlins/spock.gif" border="0" alt="[Spock]" />
Grapics. Think of Street Fighter Alpha (i.e the cartoony/anime-ish look). That itself is not bad, but
a lot of the characters are poorly animated...ESPECIALLY THE FEMALE CHARACTERS (Cassandra, Sonia, Alice, and poor Pupa)!!! <img src="graemlins/eek2.gif" border="0" alt="[Eek 2]" /> <img src="graemlins/blowtop.gif" border="0" alt="[Blow Top]" />
Playability. You will get really pissed because the CPU is so cheap! It will bust out those 10-hit string combos in a heartbeat and whack you with supers while your stuck trying to figure out a way around the huge amount of lag that all your special moves have!
Don't get me wrong, I know this is Evoga's first attempt at a fighting game, but they could have at least looked at MOTW or SF to see how fluid and smoothly the game flows instead of literally taking special moves from KOF (Oniyaki? Crack Shoot? Burn Knuckle I say!) and slowing the game down with lag!
Engrish. There's a big amount of it, but you'll be so pissed from playing that you'll hate it moreso than laugh at it!
Honestly though, play the game
BEFORE you buy it because, in all likelyhood, you will be disappointed with it just like I was when I played it for the first time...
I consider myself a competitent and international type of gamer willing to experience new things, but I just didn't like ROTD; NOT because I had high exectations for it, but because it's like taking a step in the past...and for current fighting game enthusiasts, that's NOT a good thing.
Evoga has shown no sign of technological development with its fighting engine, and that's a shame because ROTD is a very average fighting game that has little to offer the veteran players out there...
It could have been SO~ much more, but it's a first generation title that takes LOTS of patience and practice to be good at.
Hope that helps!
[ August 13, 2002: Message edited by: The True Warrior ]</p>
)... so I'll get the homerelease for sure... 
....