Jonmkl
Rasputin's Rose Gardener
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2012
- Posts
- 715
If you had the time, money, and manpower to make any game for the Neo Geo a reality, what kind of game would you make?
What genre would it be? What mechanics would it have? What sort of art style would it use? What would make it stand out in the Neo Geo library?
Begin brewing.
The Future is Now!
------------------------------------
Firstly, anything I would create for the Neo would have to be rooted in the context of Arcades, even though they're not around anymore and seem silly to cater to, that is the context I will always see the Neo in, and the context I most enjoy. That's not a requirement for anyone else, that's just a preface for my idea. So here goes..
Warzard was a failed but very interesting concept from capcom that resulted in a flawed but very interesting game. A game that is a sort of single player action RPG when you are alone, and becomes a competitive fighting game when played together. It's VERY interesting from an arcade perspective, you go and level up your character, unlock secret items and new special moves, and then when your friend gets there he punches in his crazy long password and you get to go at it with the two characters that you've been leveling up.
But it's even better for the Neo Geo for two reasons, The AES and Memory Cards.
My dream game would by something like this but with crucial mechanical changes in the form of customization, you would unlock both special moves, and mechanics from other fighting games in the form of abilities. These abilities would then have to be slotted, so you couldn't use them all at once, but would instead have to choose ones that worked well together and build a unique fighting style with them.
For instance, once unlocked you could slot defensive abilities that would either give you a SF3 Parry, a MOTW Just Defend, or perhaps even a Last Blade style deflect. Everything from rolls, to super jumps, to assists could be unlocked and used to customize your character, even wether or not you could block in the air could be determined by your unlocked abilities. In addition the fighters would be weapon based so things like range and block stun could change with equipped weapons. Some weapons may have block crush, while some just do more chip damage, while some have excellent damage but do no chip at all. You could even unlock different types of power meters for your character to suit your tastes.
Think of it like CVS2s groove system but fully customizable and unlocked over time as your character levels up.
And with the special moves being customizable, things get even more interesting, think about a character like terry who has so many move sets in so many games and all of them are slightly different, do you want your terry to have rising tackle? How far across the screen does your burning knuckle go? Is buster wolf your super or something else? In this game you'd be able to shape your character to your tastes, focus on zoning, focus on rushdown, attack, defense, whatever, and all of it would be stored on your trusty memory card so you could take your creation and wreck someone else's day with it.
And of course there could be a silly long password system as a backup, just for cabs and cmvs' with no memory card slots.
As far as button layout, even that could be customizable, it could even start as a 3 button fighter with Light Slash, Heavy Slash, Kick, with the last button being unlocked based on separate abilities. Using a Just Defend? It could be a heavy kick. Saving your defensive slot for air blocks? It could be a deflect, or a RBFF lane dodge, Feeling truly hype? CCCCOMBO BREAKER!
------------------------------------
Either that or I would make something like the very first Legend of Zelda, a open world action game full of so many secrets that it would take ages to figure out, and at first you'd just wander, like so many kids who didn't even know there were dungeons in LoZ, but once you truly mastered it you could acquire the masterful sword, complete the game, and destroy the evil dark lord fairly quickly with only a single credit, perfect for arcades.
What genre would it be? What mechanics would it have? What sort of art style would it use? What would make it stand out in the Neo Geo library?
Begin brewing.
The Future is Now!
------------------------------------
Firstly, anything I would create for the Neo would have to be rooted in the context of Arcades, even though they're not around anymore and seem silly to cater to, that is the context I will always see the Neo in, and the context I most enjoy. That's not a requirement for anyone else, that's just a preface for my idea. So here goes..
Warzard was a failed but very interesting concept from capcom that resulted in a flawed but very interesting game. A game that is a sort of single player action RPG when you are alone, and becomes a competitive fighting game when played together. It's VERY interesting from an arcade perspective, you go and level up your character, unlock secret items and new special moves, and then when your friend gets there he punches in his crazy long password and you get to go at it with the two characters that you've been leveling up.
But it's even better for the Neo Geo for two reasons, The AES and Memory Cards.
My dream game would by something like this but with crucial mechanical changes in the form of customization, you would unlock both special moves, and mechanics from other fighting games in the form of abilities. These abilities would then have to be slotted, so you couldn't use them all at once, but would instead have to choose ones that worked well together and build a unique fighting style with them.
For instance, once unlocked you could slot defensive abilities that would either give you a SF3 Parry, a MOTW Just Defend, or perhaps even a Last Blade style deflect. Everything from rolls, to super jumps, to assists could be unlocked and used to customize your character, even wether or not you could block in the air could be determined by your unlocked abilities. In addition the fighters would be weapon based so things like range and block stun could change with equipped weapons. Some weapons may have block crush, while some just do more chip damage, while some have excellent damage but do no chip at all. You could even unlock different types of power meters for your character to suit your tastes.
Think of it like CVS2s groove system but fully customizable and unlocked over time as your character levels up.
And with the special moves being customizable, things get even more interesting, think about a character like terry who has so many move sets in so many games and all of them are slightly different, do you want your terry to have rising tackle? How far across the screen does your burning knuckle go? Is buster wolf your super or something else? In this game you'd be able to shape your character to your tastes, focus on zoning, focus on rushdown, attack, defense, whatever, and all of it would be stored on your trusty memory card so you could take your creation and wreck someone else's day with it.
And of course there could be a silly long password system as a backup, just for cabs and cmvs' with no memory card slots.
As far as button layout, even that could be customizable, it could even start as a 3 button fighter with Light Slash, Heavy Slash, Kick, with the last button being unlocked based on separate abilities. Using a Just Defend? It could be a heavy kick. Saving your defensive slot for air blocks? It could be a deflect, or a RBFF lane dodge, Feeling truly hype? CCCCOMBO BREAKER!
------------------------------------
Either that or I would make something like the very first Legend of Zelda, a open world action game full of so many secrets that it would take ages to figure out, and at first you'd just wander, like so many kids who didn't even know there were dungeons in LoZ, but once you truly mastered it you could acquire the masterful sword, complete the game, and destroy the evil dark lord fairly quickly with only a single credit, perfect for arcades.
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