thermaltreasure
Ninja Combat Warrior
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2013
- Posts
- 529
SamSho 2
Fatal Fury Special
Nam 1975
Neo Turf Masters
Magical Drop 2
Super Sidekicks 3
Fatal Fury Special
Nam 1975
Neo Turf Masters
Magical Drop 2
Super Sidekicks 3
SamSho 2
Fatal Fury Special
Nam 1975
Neo Turf Masters
Magical Drop 2
Super Sidekicks 3
Characters are more balanced. Choosing certain character combos in MD3 can pretty much guarantee the person with the stronger char will win.How is Magical Drop 2 better than 3?
Characters are more balanced. Choosing certain character combos in MD3 can pretty much guarantee the person with the stronger char will win.
I didn't even know that there were differences in characters.If you watch tournament play of Magical Drop 3 you’ll see that people are picking the competitive characters. Maybe noobs to the game won’t know who’s better than other characters, but I don’t think balancing alone makes MD2 better. The MD3 balancing isn’t game breaking and there aren’t any “banned” characters in the small community for it. Magical Drop 3 is a much more polished game in its presentation and music. The character roster is more diverse and it’s adventure mode gives it more replay value over MD2. Magical Drop 3 takes 2, and improves on just about everything in my opinion. If people are struggling and complain about the balance, I posted my MD3 strategy here which can destroy the CPU and human opponents when done correctly.
I didn't even know that there were differences in characters.
This video is a good all-about for MD3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLf9n9Kd65c
If you just want character differences, start around 25 mins.
The video mostly goes over how the drop patterns are created and special balloons inserted.
Good info on the MD series and differences between titles: https://mdcd.fandom.com/wiki/Magical_Drop_III
Lolifox always told me that the actual best of the series is money puzzle exchange due to the algorithms having all the bugs worked out. I've still never spent any time playing MPE, including during the period I owned an mvs copy of it, so it's still a mystery to me.There's a lot of Magical Drop 3 strategy in the 1997 Neo Geo Freak magazines, including the drop patterns for every single character. Since this got on the topic of MD3 I'll probably update my technique guide with the patterns. That Magical Drop Fandom page has some solid info for those getting into the game.
Lolifox always told me that the actual best of the series is money puzzle exchange due to the algorithms having all the bugs worked out. I've still never spent any time playing MPE, including during the period I owned an mvs copy of it, so it's still a mystery to me.
How is Magical Drop 2 better than 3?
But see, isn't that a problem? Without even knowing that, something feels off about the games. It FEELS like it was something that was repurposed halfway through instead of actually being a nice design.
Been thinking about this for a couple days. Is it a problem? They could totally do a Metal Slug 001x with updated controls, and change the layouts a bit with the same art assets to gel with the new possibilities. That might be cool, but a good 80s game is still a good 80s game. And maybe during that time, that's what people wanted. To the extent of the controls, it reminds me a bit of the discussion in another thread about the lack of beatemups.
When you add all these things, say like Gunstar, you turn it more into an action game than a run-and-gun. Too few options (can't shoot up), and you end up with something like a platformer like MegaMan. Contra got it right again then again, until there was a sort of drought where they tried doing some 3D things just as Slug hit the scene. Slug's timing was impeccable. Maybe people wanted the best of the 80's rather than the worst of the 90's.
Whether the developers decided they wanted to make a run and gun later in development on their own accord, or they got this idea came from playtesters, or the market, it's not like these guys hadn't made this type of game before. If you look at GunForce, it's hard not to see Contra in some places. If you look at Gunforce II, it's hard not to see Contra 3 in some places. Maybe by 1996 they just wanted to do something that was distinctly them, and they quadrupled down on that design with 2, X and 3. By then, it was certainly not an accident or afterthought, and they achieved their distinction. Now we see Slug clones.
Anyway, I agree with you a a good bit in a "Yeah, but" sort of way and it's been fun to think about. We all have that initial shock of not being able to shoot diagonal with the base weapon, but there are positive consequences of that design decision. You have to move more. You have to jump more. Slug, for better or worse, stuck to what it (finally) decided to be for as long as it could.
King of Fighters 98
Neo Turf Masters
Strikers 1945 Plus
Shock Troopers
Samurai Showdown II
Puzzle Bobble
I feel like the 6 I'd *want* would be different, but as an operator I'd be shooting for a mix of recognition, accessibility, and variety.
If it’s strictly for the quarters:
Garou MotW
Samurai Shodown II
Puzzle Bobble
Blazing Star
Baseball Stars 2
Metal Slug X
Samurai shodown 5 special
MOTW
Metal slug 3
KOF'98
PULSTAR
PUZZLE BOBBLE
mic drop...
BB