BerryTogarts NeoGeo Fighters History Quest

BerryTogart

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Finally did it and completed the game with Jubei - Mizuki ate another bunch of creds and I'm not sure but tbh I think I dunked 80-100 creds in this on this playthrough.
I don't know why it was THAT hard - I understand that I'm not the best of players out there, but it's not as if I didn't complete other games like MK, SF and even SS1 yet.
Compared to SS1 this one was a beast.
All in all nothing I'm very proud of but it counts for the record so I'm not going through the whole chore again.

What I didn't like:
*) Post hit invincibility (I slashed "the air" so often I can't count it)
*) "Now I'm really pissed and can do the pow move" invincibility - what's this animation good for? So I don't forget that the completely red guy/girl is pissed? And of course it dodges my slash...
*) I had to fight against my mirror image instead of earthquake - that sucks - why do I not get paired against the other guys when there's enough of em?
*) Priority timing for throws - I could swear the CPU cheats on that but then again this could be because of me failing, so it's not that much of a Problem
*) Disappearing behind non-slashed foreground objects and not seeing my sprite
*) So many fuckers have a dog - no one has a cat - sucks

What I did like:
*) It's SS2 - what's not to like about this awesome game. I'll try to highlight some special things in addition to the ones you already have read a gazillion of times
*) Galfords stage with the cat in the background trying to get the fish (horray for cats)
*) ChamCham - the ape mimicking her moves and with the victory stance on her head is hillarious
*) Charlottes painting in the Background (well after she did beat me some times I wanted to slash it but oh well)
*) The bad english translations that make the games story hillarious to follow
*) Jubeis carrier who runs through the Background the whole game - I have absolutely no clue what this guy is good for
*) Earthquake and his huge character sprite (I don't like to play him too much, but I love the character concept and how they drew him)

That said - the very sad part is that I'll not be able to play the next fighter in my Christmas Holidays if I'm not able to find something locally, the only fighter I have left in my collection that I haven't completed yet is WH2Jet which would be against the rules.
 

SNKorSWM

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Well, the good news is that WH and WH2 are games that won't empty your wallet.
 
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BerryTogart

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The fighting game quest continues, as I was able to get my hands on KOF 94, 95 and 96.
Had a short time window to look into 94 for half an hour and what immedately seems "off" after having played SS1 and SS2 is the button layout with P/K/P/K - I missed several of my moves because of pressing the wrong button.
The backgrounds all seem pretty dark regarding the color palette, but have some nice details (people piling on each other to see the fight in mexico)

I've never before seen or heard from the "US - Sports" Team which I picked by accident when looking through the teams in the player selection screen - quite funny idea. ("You're bringing fireballs and claws to this fight? Well I have this basketball! uhm....)
 
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GohanX

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Get used to the button layout, most of the Neo fighters use it. A lot of people don't like 94, but I love it. It's simple, kind of broken, and the Art of Fighting team is a monster.
 

BerryTogart

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Still not sure on what team to choose. Experimented with the FF Team (obliged by my username) but couldn't get the hang of them yet, though I found Joe better to use than I remembered him.
Also tried the all women team but I'm not good enough with them for a 1cc and I can't stand to hear the weird screaming all the time.
Took the AOF team for a round and holy hell - ryo even has air fireballs now? Bad memories of AOF and not wanting to take the "cheesy" team prevented me from pressing on with them though. (perhaps I'll fall back to them later)

I had the longest testplay with the Kim team, which would be a good choice because I don't know any other game series where I'll use the chars afterwards so it would be kind of "unique" but the main Problem I have with that team is that I totally suck with anyone but Kim.
Choi Bounge seems to be vega style with a MUCH smaller reach and the forward roll seems to have a slow Animation to come out. Even worse I have absolutely no clue what I'm doing with Chang Koehan, normally I resent to playing defensively and giving the enemy weak punches and Tekkyu Funsai Geki ("the ball throw") when it seems appropriate.
 

GohanX

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You might want to just skip ahead to KOF 95 then and get the custom teams. I use AOF team in 94 purely because it's the only team with three members that I can use effectively, the other teams have maybe one character I can use well. Of course, AOF team is pretty much 3 of the same character in that one.
 

BerryTogart

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Can't skip - need to complete 94 first - it's the rules. So either I learn to use the other 2 or use the AOF team
 

GohanX

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How to win at KOF 94, the easy way:

Use AOF team. Try to set up a combo that starts with a jumping hard kick. All three characters can do the combo of jumping hard kick, ducking or standing hard punch, fireball. If your timing is really good you can do a Zanretsuken instead, especially with Takuma. You have a really good chance of dizzying the opponent. Repeat combo or do a super if you have meter. Your opponent is probably dead at this point.

Fighting Rugal, this strategy is suicide. It's been a while since I fought 94 Rugal, but I think just being defensive and sweeping will take him out. Don't try to get fancy with KOF bosses, just find their weakness and exploit it.
 

BerryTogart

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So I managed to Play through King of Fighters 94 today and as usual a quick personal view on the game.
I had some problems starting with that one due to the P/K/P/K layout of the stick, after having played much SS2 - but of course you get used to it.

What I didn't like
*) Balance of the teams - AoF seems just to be stronger than all other teams, especially Ryos reach with the sweep

Neutral
*) Fixed teams - on one hand it prevents you to build the Team that you prefer, on the other hand you are forced to try out some other chars (I would not have Chosen chang e.g.)

What I did like:
*) The american Team - while I would not want this to be on every KOF, it was an interesting alternative to the usual other teams that have strong "fighter" oriented touches - the idea of this bunch of sports guys joining up was quite amusing
*) Backgrounds - I like how you can spot the characters from the other games cheering in the background
*) Reactions of your team to the fight - you land a hit and they cheer for a Moment, likewise they facepalm or do something similar when you loose

Personal hitlist of played fighters after finishing this:
1.) Samurai Shodown 2
2.) King of Fighters 94
3.) Samurai Shodown 1
4.) Art of Fighting

In case you are wondering how KOF 94 could end up in front of SS1: I think that SS1 is the more complete and polished game. Personally I'm a fan of quick "pick up and play" fighters that everyone can get quickly into however and I could rather see me pick up this game for a quick bout with a friend coming over than SS1.
 

GohanX

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Berry, I tried playing KOF 94 after talking to you yesterday, I got absolutely crushed. I blame the controller, I was using a Logitech pad.
 

BerryTogart

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I did not expect to post that soon on KOF 95 - but I had 2 hours of playtime this evening and just finished the game. It felt pretty weird because the matches went rather smooth with custom teams and I hardly needed credits at all. (relatively to my normal performance on geo fighters).
I experimented a bit with custom teams and did settle for a play with Joe/Ryo/King where especially King did not perform very well for me - I really like the character but I can't seem to get a good performance out of her. My best matchups were as usual with Ryo and upon reaching Rugal I had to try 2 or 3 times to even beat the "Subboss". After that I got a match with Rugal himself and after getting my butt kicked the first time I took him out on the 2nd try with Ryo using cheap sweeps. (As usual I didn't tamper with any difficulty settings - playing on console mode, euro region)

What I didn't like:
*) I'm going to regret saying this - but Rugal was too easy to beat
*) Compared to 94 the controls seemed a bit "off" to me sometimes. They were still fluid and good most of the time, but at some moments in the game performing special moves seemed to net mixed results for me.
*) The story doesn't explain to me how Rugal did survive the first beatdown and the Explosion (perhaps that is written down in the manual, don't have one)
*) Some backgrounds (e.g.: the campsite, Rugals stage) seemed like they haven't been given as much love as they could have
*) no ending on the custom teams (I guess there are endings on the non-custom ones?) - they could have just shown the ending of the "lead" character or the one that beats Rugal

What I did like:
*) The background of the ladies team, the band in the background, the guy playing harmonica in the front, twin waitresses and duck king shaking at the table - my favourite one from this game
*) Custom teams
*) Billy Kane - can't really play him, but I like the guy

Well all in all I think the game is pretty ok and I don't regret getting it - especially when playing it shortly after KOF 94 however it seemed to me that it didn't bring that much new to the table. Small improvements and the 3 new guys are there, I could still rather see me getting out 94 and have some plays with the weird sports team. (yeah the AOF team would be a Problem in 94, but then again perfect balance is not the most important thing I need for 2p action with my friends)

Personal hitlist of played fighters after finishing this:

1.) Samurai Shodown 2
2.) King of Fighters 94
3.) Samurai Shodown 1
4.) Art of Fighting
5.) King of Fighters 95

Yes - AoF is in front of 95. While I think you cannot directly compare those two, I think AOF has a bigger standalone factor from what I've played so far (taunting, "fighter chess style", huge sprites). So I'd rather get out AOF after a game of 94 than 95.
 

BerryTogart

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Berry, I tried playing KOF 94 after talking to you yesterday, I got absolutely crushed. I blame the controller, I was using a Logitech pad.

Damn that controller! Get a Lemony Stick!
(edit: updated the first post with an image of the stick made by lemony aiding me on my fighting game quest - thx LemonyVengeance!)
 
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jeffensminger

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I did not expect to post that soon on KOF 95 - but I had 2 hours of playtime this evening and just finished the game. It felt pretty weird because the matches went rather smooth with custom teams and I hardly needed credits at all. (relatively to my normal performance on geo fighters).
I experimented a bit with custom teams and did settle for a play with Joe/Ryo/King where especially King did not perform very well for me - I really like the character but I can't seem to get a good performance out of her. My best matchups were as usual with Ryo and upon reaching Rugal I had to try 2 or 3 times to even beat the "Subboss". After that I got a match with Rugal himself and after getting my butt kicked the first time I took him out on the 2nd try with Ryo using cheap sweeps. (As usual I didn't tamper with any difficulty settings - playing on console mode, euro region)

What I didn't like:
*) I'm going to regret saying this - but Rugal was too easy to beat
*) Compared to 94 the controls seemed a bit "off" to me sometimes. They were still fluid and good most of the time, but at some moments in the game performing special moves seemed to net mixed results for me.
*) The story doesn't explain to me how Rugal did survive the first beatdown and the Explosion (perhaps that is written down in the manual, don't have one)
*) Some backgrounds (e.g.: the campsite, Rugals stage) seemed like they haven't been given as much love as they could have
*) no ending on the custom teams (I guess there are endings on the non-custom ones?) - they could have just shown the ending of the "lead" character or the one that beats Rugal

What I did like:
*) The background of the ladies team, the band in the background, the guy playing harmonica in the front, twin waitresses and duck king shaking at the table - my favourite one from this game
*) Custom teams
*) Billy Kane - can't really play him, but I like the guy

Well all in all I think the game is pretty ok and I don't regret getting it - especially when playing it shortly after KOF 94 however it seemed to me that it didn't bring that much new to the table. Small improvements and the 3 new guys are there, I could still rather see me getting out 94 and have some plays with the weird sports team. (yeah the AOF team would be a Problem in 94, but then again perfect balance is not the most important thing I need for 2p action with my friends)

Personal hitlist of played fighters after finishing this:

1.) Samurai Shodown 2
2.) King of Fighters 94
3.) Samurai Shodown 1
4.) Art of Fighting
5.) King of Fighters 95

Yes - AoF is in front of 95. While I think you cannot directly compare those two, I think AOF has a bigger standalone factor from what I've played so far (taunting, "fighter chess style", huge sprites). So I'd rather get out AOF after a game of 94 than 95.

Dang man, you knocked that one out quick. That's the KOF that has always crushed me.
 

MattBlah

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This is a great thread, I enjoyed reading through and will keep coming back to see your progress, Berry.

I'd love to do something like this but I don't think I'd have the patience. The fact you used so many credits on SamSho2 shows some serious dedication, i'd have probably got angry and thrown my stick out the window :D
 

GohanX

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Damn that controller! Get a Lemony Stick!
(edit: updated the first post with an image of the stick made by lemony aiding me on my fighting game quest - thx LemonyVengeance!)
I have many great controllers, but sometimes I'm just too damn lazy to dig it out and just use whatever I have out already.

The pad is actually really good, but the button placement sucks for kof. I can tear shit up in MotW with it.
 

BerryTogart

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This is a great thread, I enjoyed reading through and will keep coming back to see your progress, Berry.

I'd love to do something like this but I don't think I'd have the patience. The fact you used so many credits on SamSho2 shows some serious dedication, i'd have probably got angry and thrown my stick out the window :D

Well can't say I've been the eye of the storm during that whole time - but apart from a few "damns" and "fucks" here and there I managed to stay focused, what I normally do is pause after 2 or 3 tries on the Boss (or a preround guy) to do something else shortly (I considered 5 pushups for a cred, that way I could shake miisalos hand at the Meeting without crying) - usually that helps.

Dang man, you knocked that one out quick. That's the KOF that has always crushed me.

It was a bit weird - after getting crushed the first 3 or 4 times I switched from an agressive strategy to a very passive and counter oriented one. Especially in the pre-rounds it felt to me that in KOF 95 the cpu is rather open to countersweeps or similar after blocking. (jump in to try a combo after he was down and recovered also helped)
 

BerryTogart

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Played some more more rounds today - I can't get to find a team I'm decent with. Only one who is fixed on my team atm is Joe - Ryo seems to be a bit weird in this Version, tried Kyo and sucked hard, experimented with king, terry, even chan and geese - but somehow I can't find to find the flow with any of those. My motions from left to right are still horrible (double qcf from right to left is somehow insanely hard to perform for me) - I really would like a Training mode in this one
 

BerryTogart

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Just completed KOF96 with the team: Kyo, Ryo, Joe
I finally managed to get a bit more of a hang of Kyo and while I'm still not dishing out mad combos I feel that I generally got a bit better handling the characters.
Matchups against the teams went rather smoothly and I only experienced some Problems against the "New Ikari Team" (Leona) and the Boss Team.

In comparison to 95 and 94 obviously you now have combos that get counted (I like that, it gives a sense of achievement) and the characters got tuned. I already mentioned in a post before that I found it a bit harsh to limit Ryo's fireball to a "Dan" version but what can you do.
Gameplay feels very smooth and I seldomly have a hard time pulling off moves (except from the right to the left side, but that's me not being equally good on both sides and not the game).
Well SNK bosses are like ever... rock hard. While I found out after a couple of rounds that you can easily cheese Chizuru Kagura (crouch defense and hard punch with Kyo/Ryo works wonders) I had a rather hard time with Leopold Goenitz.
After getting my ass kicked for some rounds I developed some counter strats that were not enough to knock him out but to actually beat him when the time ran out on character 2 because I had more life than him.
(Ryo: defend - after a Hurricane cast counter with "HiEnShippuKyaku" and follow up, Joe: After a hurricane cast counter with "Surasshu Kikku" (Slash Kick) and BakuRetsuKen (Exploding Punch), Kyo can actually counter his hurricanes with "HyakuJuuGo Shiki: DokuGami" (Style No. 105: Poison Bite) when in the right position)

What I didn't like:
*) nerfing Ryos fireball
*) The Background of the Chizuru fight telling me this is "the last stage" and "the final battle" when in reality it wasn't because Goenitz was coming up afterwards
*) personally I liked the Motion for the old "KyokugenRyu RenBuKen" (Kyoku-gen Style Rapid Dance Fist) better, they did change up some other moves too
*) I had a hard time with king sometimes because she has a move for hcf+kick and qcf+kick and in the heat of battle I often screwed that up

What I did like:
*) There is a "Boss" team! Actually you can play as the baddies now
*) First time KOF has a combo counter
*) Soundtrack of the AOF stage
*) Stages changing over the course of the fights
*) Stage Details - Reporters in the back, ppl fighting each other, serving maids running around, helicopters flying, Truckers in the back - there were many nice touches
*) Controls felt responsive

All in all I'm very happy with this game and it was the first of my fighters I got out recently when a pal joined for some fighting action. That said my personal hitlist of played fighters is a bit shaken up after finishing this. I explained that I would get out KOF 94 over SS1 because of the nice "pick up and play" factor - but that is now filled by KOF 96 (only having an "American Team" does not push one in front of SS1 - sorry KOF94)

1.) Samurai Shodown 2
2.) King of Fighters 96
3.) Samurai Shodown 1
4.) King of Fighters 94
5.) Art of Fighting
6.) King of Fighters 95
 
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