Wild Ambition Playstation vs. Hyper 64 version

RBjakeSpecial · Oct 24, 2006

Just put in the Fatal Fury Wild Ambition into my ps2... It's loading up. I'll write my impressions and feelings as I play it.

First.. MY GOD a crazy intro. The intro to the Hyper was pretty cool, but not nearly as good as this intro. The music has a very tense Japanese drum feel to it. Geese is TOTALLY bad-ass.

There is another intro when you start the arcade mode! They dumped a lot of money into the port. "Starring Terry Bogard... " Ha ha.. all MGS style... South Town looks a like Racoon City here... A good looking CG overall, not excellent, but good enough to get you pumped to play some good 'ol Fatal Fury.

Ok, first of all the character selection screen's graphics look TERRIBLE compared to the hyper, the face portraits are a lower resolution.

The voice samples sound GOD AWFUL. "Round One Fight" sounds like it was compressed to hell... The characters voices and sound effects sound REALLY muffled.

The remix music sounds AWESOME.. really good there.

The polygon count is noticabley lower and the textures on them look much worse.

The backgrounds look nothing like the Hyper 64 version. For example: Toji's stage is missing the 3-D elements to it, the cool ocean animation, the colors are washed out and wrong. Mai's level has just a simple 2-D statue in it instead of a wicked 3-D hand and waterfall.

The 3-D effects on the special moves and hit sparks have worse tranpanrency effects.

The gameplay is slightly different. On the Hyper version a lot more special moves are cancelable allowing more combo possiblities. For example: Most of Andy's punches can be easily canceled into his :hcf:

kick move.. couldn't do it so well on the playstation version.

After about 20 minutes I had to turn it off. The only good thing the game has going for it is the crazy CG intros and awesome Remix soundtrack.

(BTW I'm not sure if people are going to repond to this... Just post some fond memories and LOVE for Wild Ambition, Playstation or Arcade! If only we could have got a sequel to this wonderful game!!!!)

Magnaflux · Oct 24, 2006

I agree. I bought the PSX port mainly for the CG intro. :emb:

About the only redeeming value is that Xiangfei is selectable without having the machine on for a week or 1cc'ing the game.

RBjakeSpecial · Oct 24, 2006

Magnaflux said:
I agree. I bought the PSX port mainly for the CG intro.

About the only redeeming value is that Xiangfei is selectable without having the machine on for a week or 1cc'ing the game.

SO TRUE! When I bought my board Xianfei and Geese we're unlocked. Then I popped out the board and put Buriki One in :crying:

The characters disappeared after than and I've never been able to get them again. I'm slowly building up my WA skillz though, hopefully I'll be able to unlock them soon.

I'm listening to Mai's remixed stage theme on the Playstation, it's really beautiful. SNK must have dumped a TON of money into this bad port. At least it makes it all strange and semi-hardcore.

Fakk2 · Oct 24, 2006

I felt the same way. The PSX port was worth it for the CG Intros though and I do love the remixed soundtrack. As for playing the game, the H64 version is way better. FF WA was a great 3d game from SNK, and the only one I enjoy playing thats 3D from SNK.

Sam Sho WR on PSX has the BEST 2 intros for SNK games though and if ya havent yet seen them you should try it and see.

SouthtownKid · Oct 24, 2006

Magnaflux said:
I agree. I bought the PSX port mainly for the CG intro.

About the only redeeming value is that Xiangfei is selectable without having the machine on for a week or 1cc'ing the game.

The other good things about the PS port are Ryo and Duck King. Don't forget them.

EX_Andy · Oct 24, 2006

This might be the senility talking, but I remember the Hyper version being brighter, looking cleaner, and having less aliasing/flickering. The PSX version looked muddier and seemed to run slower. As much as I enjoyed Wild Ambition on the Hyper, I could never sit and play the PSX for long.

RBjakeSpecial · Oct 24, 2006

EX_Andy said:
This might be the senility talking, but I remember the Hyper version being brighter, looking cleaner, and having less aliasing/flickering. The PSX version looked muddier and seemed to run slower. As much as I enjoyed Wild Ambition on the Hyper, I could never sit and play the PSX for long.

Yes! There is something overall brighter about the Hyper64 version. I think the PSX version is definately slower, also the physics feel slightly different, I noticed some characters fly up in the air for different reasons than the Hyper... makes the gameplay feel a little worse.

megashock_330 · Oct 25, 2006

RBjakeSpecial said:
Yes! There is something overall brighter about the Hyper64 version. I think the PSX version is definately slower, also the physics feel slightly different, I noticed some characters fly up in the air for different reasons than the Hyper... makes the gameplay feel a little worse.

tbh Wild Ambition was a verry underated game...the Heat Meter was a realy cool & balanced super system :buttrock:

i really liked how it like tied together super's, unblockable's, guard crushes, and dizzys, realy a very interesting system :buttrock:

the game loked pretty bad even back then but it still played pretty good

now the only 3-d game's we get from SNK are KOF MI :oh_no:

Electric Grave · Oct 25, 2006

Glad to see your review, I told you about the intros didn't I?

Let's see, arcade monitor vs home TV?, well arcade monitor is allways going to look better no contest. The stages do change, but the gameplay is all there, is just that gamepad vs joystick conflict all over again.

Defenately we have a lower polygon count, there's no doubt of that, but the PSX wasn't a very powerfull machine anyway, is like DOA PSX and DOA Arcade, same problem.

I believe the port was made with a ton of effort to make this game enjoyable to those without access to the arcade, the extra characters add more replay value, and again the intros are both great for a company that specializes on 2D.

We can't expect to run Fatal Fury 1 on the SNES and not loose something along the way, same way with the PS port, it was an outstanding effort, plus like you said the music is top notch. :buttrock:

One true fact is the long jump issue, but I think this added depth to the game, because you can short jump and "medium" jump as well.

RBjakeSpecial · Oct 25, 2006

electricgrave said:
Glad to see your review, I told you about the intros didn't I?

Let's see, arcade monitor vs home TV?, well arcade monitor is allways going to look better no contest. The stages do change, but the gameplay is all there, is just that gamepad vs joystick conflict all over again.

Defenately we have a lower polygon count, there's no doubt of that, but the PSX wasn't a very powerfull machine anyway, is like DOA PSX and DOA Arcade, same problem.

I believe the port was made with a ton of effort to make this game enjoyable to those without access to the arcade, the extra characters add more replay value, and again the intros are both great for a company that specializes on 2D.

We can't expect to run Fatal Fury 1 on the SNES and not loose something along the way, same way with the PS port, it was an outstanding effort, plus like you said the music is top notch.

One true fact is the long jump issue, but I think this added depth to the game, because you can short jump and "medium" jump as well.

Wicked! Thanks for the input, without your posts I would have never checked out the port. It's an interesting piece of SNK coolness.

Played both versions on my TV (using a supergun with the Hyper board) and always play playstation fighters with my Real Arcade Pro (my favorite stick until PS3 Virtua Stick comes out!!!!)

The long jump feature... hmm.. to me it felt just different and not any better. I'll definately check it out though. I think the arcade had two levels of jumping, but I completely didn't check it or mess with it. The combos definately felt a bit nerfed, but it could just be that I'm used to the Hyper version. The extra characters are very cool!

I LOVE WA, but one thing always bothered me about the game.. that is the HEAT move. It just doesn't seem very powerful. What is the best way to use it? I can stun someone and do a combo, but the powered up super combos do much more damage and seem to give a much better pay off.

I'm working on a full long review of the game, it was cool to investigate this port so I could put it in the review. I'll post it up here in a couple of days. It's not so great though... just trying to practice my writing skillz.

EX_Andy · Oct 26, 2006

RBjakeSpecial said:
Wicked! Thanks for the input, without your posts I would have never checked out the port. It's an interesting piece of SNK coolness.

Played both versions on my TV (using a supergun with the Hyper board) and always play playstation fighters with my Real Arcade Pro (my favorite stick until PS3 Virtua Stick comes out!!!!)

The long jump feature... hmm.. to me it felt just different and not any better. I'll definately check it out though. I think the arcade had two levels of jumping, but I completely didn't check it or mess with it. The combos definately felt a bit nerfed, but it could just be that I'm used to the Hyper version. The extra characters are very cool!

I LOVE WA, but one thing always bothered me about the game.. that is the HEAT move. It just doesn't seem very powerful. What is the best way to use it? I can stun someone and do a combo, but the powered up super combos do much more damage and seem to give a much better pay off.

I'm working on a full long review of the game, it was cool to investigate this port so I could put it in the review. I'll post it up here in a couple of days. It's not so great though... just trying to practice my writing skillz.

Yes, the Hyper64 version had 2 levels of jump.

HEAT blow isn't supposed to be damaging, instead, it's unblockable and it's there for smashing turtles. Once your opponent is dizzy, give them the best combo you have. Also, if you catch someone in the air with it, you can then juggle them while they're up there.

Because you can perform either HEAT blow or Overdrive (formerly P. Power) with just a full meter, even if your lifebar isn't red, and because taking damage empties out your HEAT meter and eventually dizzies you, the meter system definitely favors offensive play. But, you can't be stupid about wasting your meter because if you miss, you empty out your own meter and you're just a step or two away from getting dizzied yourself. Then again, if you're constantly on the offensive, this isn't as much of a problem, since you're already working on filling up your meter again. It's basically a risk-versus-reward system, but definitely skewed toward offensive play, which is a good thing except for people who turtle.

The HEAT meter was a very smart system and I almost want to say it was ahead of its time, but 2D fighting game mechanics were already so mature by then that it's not really accurate to say that.

Neo Alec · Oct 26, 2006

megashock_330 said:
tbh Wild Ambition was a verry underated game...the Heat Meter was a realy cool & balanced super system i really liked how it like tied together super's, unblockable's, guard crushes, and dizzys, realy a very interesting system

Agreed. Anyone who skipped it because it's 3-D missed out. The game really feels like it belongs in the Fatal Fury series with the other games, with a few changes. Aside from the side-stepping with the D button, which has been a mainstay of the series anyway, the game plays almost entirely 2-D. It feels like Fatal Fury.

megashock_330 said:
now the only 3-d game's we get from SNK are KOF MI

Maybe I don't know shit about 3-D fighters, but I like Maximum Impact 2 a lot. And we'll be getting the new 3-D Samurai Shodown game on the Type X2.

RBjakeSpecial · Oct 26, 2006

EX_Andy said:
Yes, the Hyper64 version had 2 levels of jump.

HEAT blow isn't supposed to be damaging, instead, it's unblockable and it's there for smashing turtles. Once your opponent is dizzy, give them the best combo you have. Also, if you catch someone in the air with it, you can then juggle them while they're up there.

Because you can perform either HEAT blow or Overdrive (formerly P. Power) with just a full meter, even if your lifebar isn't red, and because taking damage empties out your HEAT meter and eventually dizzies you, the meter system definitely favors offensive play. But, you can't be stupid about wasting your meter because if you miss, you empty out your own meter and you're just a step or two away from getting dizzied yourself. Then again, if you're constantly on the offensive, this isn't as much of a problem, since you're already working on filling up your meter again. It's basically a risk-versus-reward system, but definitely skewed toward offensive play, which is a good thing except for people who turtle.

The HEAT meter was a very smart system and I almost want to say it was ahead of its time, but 2D fighting game mechanics were already so mature by then that it's not really accurate to say that.

Thanks for that detailed description of the Heat meter. I usually use it when I just need one more hit to finish the opponent and I can't seem to land a super. I think it's a cool system.. I think I have to go back and mess with it a bit more.

Neo Alec said:
Agreed. Anyone who skipped it because it's 3-D missed out. The game really feels like it belongs in the Fatal Fury series with the other games, with a few changes. Aside from the side-stepping with the D button, which has been a mainstay of the series anyway, the game plays almost entirely 2-D. It feels like Fatal Fury.

Agree %100. I know so many people that judged the game from the PSX version instead of the arcade and don't consider it a REAL Fatal Fury game. To me it feels like a good experimental Real Bout game. Unfortunately I've gotten almost NO versus play out of my Hyper board, need some Fatal Fury Fan Friends!

Neo Alec · Oct 26, 2006

RBjakeSpecial said:
Agree %100. I know so many people that judged the game from the PSX version instead of the arcade and don't consider it a REAL Fatal Fury game. To me it feels like a good experimental Real Bout game. Unfortunately I've gotten almost NO versus play out of my Hyper board, need some Fatal Fury Fan Friends!

Yeah me too. My brother was able to finish the game with Joe, but was useless against me in versus mode.

evil wasabi · Oct 27, 2006

RBjakeSpecial said:
Just put in the Fatal Fury Wild Ambition into my ps2... It's loading up. I'll write my impressions and feelings as I play it.

First.. MY GOD a crazy intro. The intro to the Hyper was pretty cool, but not nearly as good as this intro. The music has a very tense Japanese drum feel to it. Geese is TOTALLY bad-ass.

There is another intro when you start the arcade mode! They dumped a lot of money into the port. "Starring Terry Bogard... " Ha ha.. all MGS style... South Town looks a like Racoon City here... A good looking CG overall, not excellent, but good enough to get you pumped to play some good 'ol Fatal Fury.

Ok, first of all the character selection screen's graphics look TERRIBLE compared to the hyper, the face portraits are a lower resolution.

The voice samples sound GOD AWFUL. "Round One Fight" sounds like it was compressed to hell... The characters voices and sound effects sound REALLY muffled.

The remix music sounds AWESOME.. really good there.

The polygon count is noticabley lower and the textures on them look much worse.

The backgrounds look nothing like the Hyper 64 version. For example: Toji's stage is missing the 3-D elements to it, the cool ocean animation, the colors are washed out and wrong. Mai's level has just a simple 2-D statue in it instead of a wicked 3-D hand and waterfall.

The 3-D effects on the special moves and hit sparks have worse tranpanrency effects.

The gameplay is slightly different. On the Hyper version a lot more special moves are cancelable allowing more combo possiblities. For example: Most of Andy's punches can be easily canceled into his kick move.. couldn't do it so well on the playstation version.

After about 20 minutes I had to turn it off. The only good thing the game has going for it is the crazy CG intros and awesome Remix soundtrack.

(BTW I'm not sure if people are going to repond to this... Just post some fond memories and LOVE for Wild Ambition, Playstation or Arcade! If only we could have got a sequel to this wonderful game!!!!)

more playable characters but the backgrounds and sounds are all clearly crap compared to the hyper version.

funny how people see that here but it's like pulling nose hairs when I apply this to SS4 vs. SS3 to people.

Neo Alec · Oct 27, 2006

RBjakeSpecial said:
The backgrounds look nothing like the Hyper 64 version. For example: Toji's stage is missing the 3-D elements to it, the cool ocean animation, the colors are washed out and wrong. Mai's level has just a simple 2-D statue in it instead of a wicked 3-D hand and waterfall.

What 3-D elements? There aren't any.

RBjakeSpecial said:
SO TRUE! When I bought my board Xianfei and Geese we're unlocked. Then I popped out the board and put Buriki One in The characters disappeared after than and I've never been able to get them again. I'm slowly building up my WA skillz though, hopefully I'll be able to unlock them soon.

Yeah, they disappear for me a lot too, but actually they always reappear again really soon after. I don't think you have to 1 CC it though, since I don't do it that often.

I'll be reviewing the game for my site soon too.

RBjakeSpecial · Oct 28, 2006

Neo Alec said:
What 3-D elements? There aren't any.

I'm talking about the cool 3=D ship wreked boat in Toji's stage and the cool hand in Mai's stage. I think they are 3-D models... I could be wrong, they move in 3-D on the stages. Structures like these aren't in the playstation game at all, just 2-D wrap arounds like Street Fighter EX plus alpha

RBjakeSpecial · Oct 28, 2006

wasabi said:
funny how people see that here but it's like pulling nose hairs when I apply this to SS4 vs. SS3 to people.

YES. There is a world of difference between the Sam Sho ports and the Neo versions. I think people need to sit down with both of the versions.... I think another part of it is that people don't want to get a hold of the originals, so building up the ports as these awesome perfect versions is helpful to their feelings about their games. Maybe someday someone will make an A/B comparison video, it would be rad to see, but the effort in making it would be insane.

SouthtownKid · Oct 28, 2006

RBjakeSpecial said:
YES. There is a world of difference between the Sam Sho ports and the Neo versions.

He's not talking about that. He's talking about how SS3 looks and sounds so much better than 4, even if 4 does have a larger roster. So he was equating SS3 to the Hyper64 version of WA, and SS4 to the Playstation port of WA.

Electric Grave · Oct 28, 2006

SouthtownKid said:
He's not talking about that. He's talking about how SS3 looks and sounds so much better than 4, even if 4 does have a larger roster. So he was equating SS3 to the Hyper64 version of WA, and SS4 to the Playstation port of WA.

SS3 is the pinnacle of beauty for me, I find everything about that gema to be beautiful.

SS4 is a little more fast paced, specially with the combo starter, it turns the game in to an offensive fest, you can still use technic, but not as much like on SS3.

By the way the port of SS3 for PSX is not that great is missing so much animation frames on the satnding poses that it hurts, specially Haohmaru's sword, put the 2 next to each other, although the Saturn and Neo CD do a hell of a job.

PSX isnot the greatest thing out there for games like this, but I guess for people with no access to anything else is actually a neccesary evil.

Electric Grave · Oct 28, 2006

RBjakeSpecial said:
Wicked! Thanks for the input, without your posts I would have never checked out the port. It's an interesting piece of SNK coolness.

Played both versions on my TV (using a supergun with the Hyper board) and always play playstation fighters with my Real Arcade Pro (my favorite stick until PS3 Virtua Stick comes out!!!!)

The long jump feature... hmm.. to me it felt just different and not any better. I'll definately check it out though. I think the arcade had two levels of jumping, but I completely didn't check it or mess with it. The combos definately felt a bit nerfed, but it could just be that I'm used to the Hyper version. The extra characters are very cool!

I LOVE WA, but one thing always bothered me about the game.. that is the HEAT move. It just doesn't seem very powerful. What is the best way to use it? I can stun someone and do a combo, but the powered up super combos do much more damage and seem to give a much better pay off.

I'm working on a full long review of the game, it was cool to investigate this port so I could put it in the review. I'll post it up here in a couple of days. It's not so great though... just trying to practice my writing skillz.

Hey! I think is great that your giving the PSX version a second chance, I mean, Yes the HNG64 is better, but nonetheless the PSX version is an outstanding effort.

derboo · Oct 28, 2006

electricgrave said:
I believe the port was made with a ton of effort to make this game enjoyable to those without access to the arcade, the extra characters add more replay value, and again the intros are both great for a company that specializes on 2D.

We can't expect to run Fatal Fury 1 on the SNES and not loose something along the way, same way with the PS port, it was an outstanding effort, plus like you said the music is top notch.

You can't expect a perfect port, but you could expect WAY more in terms of graphics and sounds from the PS1. This was one year after Tekken 3 was released on PS1.

So the graphics and especially sound effects are really bad, even if you only look at the Playstation port (which i actually did, don't know the original), but the gameplay is really good, nonetheless.

Neo Alec · Oct 29, 2006

electricgrave said:
y the way the port of SS3 for PSX is not that great is missing so much animation frames on the satnding poses that it hurts, specially Haohmaru's sword, put the 2 next to each other, although the Saturn and Neo CD do a hell of a job.

The Neo CD was perfect, as far as I could tell. You can't really consider that a port.

RBjakeSpecial · Oct 29, 2006

SouthtownKid said:
He's not talking about that. He's talking about how SS3 looks and sounds so much better than 4, even if 4 does have a larger roster. So he was equating SS3 to the Hyper64 version of WA, and SS4 to the Playstation port of WA.

Oh! I was all confused.

I see. SS3 is bad ass. I like SS4 a lot also... never thought to compare them as far as sound and sprites and such... I played a lot more SS4 back in the day, so I'd probably be a little more biased towards it, but I LOVE SS3 also.

Electric Grave · Oct 29, 2006

Neo Alec said:
The Neo CD was perfect, as far as I could tell. You can't really consider that a port.

You're right about that, the Neo CD version is excellent, but I think if a game wasn't made originally on certain system as the Neo CD, I would consider the SS3 release a port, since it came like a year after the original MVS.

All the games on the Neo CD have that special care when it comes to the translation from Cartridges to CD access, but nonetheless are not perfect as far as animation goes.

Wild Ambition Playstation vs. Hyper 64 version

Land of the Rising Bling:,

Onigami Isle Castaway

Land of the Rising Bling:,

Crossed Swords 2 Bootleg Artist.,

There are four lights

Vanessa's Drinking Bud,

Land of the Rising Bling:,

Zero's Secretary

So Many PostsNo TimeFor Games.

Land of the Rising Bling:,

Vanessa's Drinking Bud,

Warrior of the Innanet

Land of the Rising Bling:,

Warrior of the Innanet

The Jongmaster

Warrior of the Innanet

Land of the Rising Bling:,

Land of the Rising Bling:,

There are four lights

So Many PostsNo TimeFor Games.

So Many PostsNo TimeFor Games.

Crazed MVS Addict

Warrior of the Innanet

Land of the Rising Bling:,

So Many PostsNo TimeFor Games.

So Many Posts
No Time
For Games.

So Many Posts
No Time
For Games.

So Many Posts
No Time
For Games.

So Many Posts
No Time
For Games.