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Post by Sarge on Mar 2, 2021 14:50:33 GMT -5
Yeah, I'm trying to remember if I've played Star Gladiator or not. The only character I'm truly familiar with from that series is Hayato, because he's in Marvel vs. Capcom 2. (He's also not considered very good in it, too, but I don't think it makes as much difference if you're not a high-level player. I am decidedly not.)
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Post by Xeogred on Mar 2, 2021 18:05:38 GMT -5
So Bloody Roar Extreme (Xbox) AKA Primal Fury (GC) is kind of like a super beefed up version of Bloody Roar 3 essentially. Jumping into Primal Fury right after a run in 3, you'll instantly notice that the roster, levels, and moves are all just about the same. Primal Fury has an anime styled cutscene where I guess Extreme has some CGI. The music is a huge step up over 3 where it didn't really stand out. The character models and graphics are a lot better too. There's about a year gap between 3 and these two entries, plus they were probably able to get that extra graphical juice out of the GC and Xbox, when it was still kind of the earlier days of the 6th gen.
Kind of reminds me of how different 16bit era ports or PC versions of games vs console ports would be back in the day. Bloody Roar 3 is still really cool and the one my friend and I played a lot. But if you were to give someone the option now, the Primal Fury / Extreme choice is far superior.
I'll keep chipping away at these a bit more and definitely check out Bloody Roar 4, the last entry in the series.
Beyond that, I was doing some Virtua Fighting 4 (and 5) studying last night. This is the conclusion I've come to:
Virtua Fighter =
Tekken =
Now, I think only toei here might get my joke/meaning. Bret Hart was a very serious wrestler and very technical, calculated, etc. Watching his matches is like he's taking someone to the clinic and destroying them piece by piece. Shawn Michaels on the other hand was flamboyant, flashy, but still had all the skills and athleticism to keep up as well. They were pioneers, ahead of their time, and still quite possibly the best from a skills and versatility standpoint in the ring. Before their time it was the "dinosaur" era as some joke with your Hogan's and Andre's, the big guys doing theatrics but only with a few moves. I can enjoy that too and love old wrestling in general. But people like Bret and Shawn made the matches far more intense and fun to watch.
Basically, I love Tekken and think there's a 99% chance I'm really going to dig these later Virtua Fighter entries. I think for this month Virtua Fighter 4 Evo is the one I'll really sink my teeth into, as recommended. Maybe give that one the full all characters arcade runs for a more legit completion of sorts.
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Post by toei on Mar 2, 2021 19:36:36 GMT -5
Playing as Hayato in Star Gladiator feels a little like Soul Calibur since he's got his sword. I didn't enjoy playing as any other character, though.
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Post by Ex on Mar 2, 2021 23:02:50 GMT -5
FIST is a single plane fighting game with 3D graphics, developed by Genki and published by Imagineer, in 1996 for PlayStation. This game also released on the Saturn. Both versions were Japan-only releases. FIST is considered a sequel to the (superior) Super Famicom fighting game Seifuku Densetsu: Pretty Fighter. Gameplay is super simple, no advanced anything to speak of here. The main draw is that most the characters are girls. When playing as girl fighters, you occasionally get to see pseudo-ecchi artwork of the character you play as, for every three fighters you beat in the "Scenario" mode. The male fighters are mostly goofy and comedic. To be frank, FIST is rather terrible. It's got bad graphics, bland gameplay, no interesting single player mode, just lackluster everything. The AI is abysmal. I beat this game by exploiting how dumb it is. I just kicked the opponent once, then jumped backwards until the time ran out, and won every round by TKO. On one hand, of course I can appreciate a fighting game with "pretty" female fighters. But on the other, that can't be the only draw. There needs to be decent gameplay too, and that's something FIST completely lacks. There's no mystery why this release remains obscure and never released outside Japan. FIST is so bad it knocks itself right out of the competition. Ex's time invested: 20 minutes (beat "Scenario" mode using the bunny girl) Ex's rating: 3/10
Not if you play this game. - On a positive note, via FIST I finally tested out DuckStation, and it's great.
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Post by Sarge on Mar 2, 2021 23:41:21 GMT -5
That's why Dead or Alive, despite it obviously having a focus on hot chicks, is very enjoyable. The base-level gameplay is excellent. (And you can also see, based on the Xtreme games, that said hot chicks aren't enough to buoy those games either.)
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Post by Ex on Mar 3, 2021 0:05:38 GMT -5
SargeAgreed. Even for a shameless perv who loves ecchi, a video game needs more than just sexy ladies to be worth playing. That angle couldn't even save Bikini Karate Babes (trust me, I played the drek). That's why Seifuku Densetsu: Pretty Fighter is worth playing, while FIST is absolutely not. The former is actually a video game first, eye candy second.
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Post by toei on Mar 3, 2021 1:03:58 GMT -5
FIST is probably the worst Japanese 3D fighter, and one of the worst overall. One thing you didn't mention is how incredibly unresponsive it is. It takes almost a full second for your inputs to translate into movements. If that was fixed, it'd be at least playable, if still very basic.
It'd forgotten that Genki made this. Their numerous racing games are generally considered quite good, and they ported VF3 to the Dreamcast very competently. Jade Cocoon seemed well-liked, too. It's just strange that they'd release such dreck. They did publish the Kengo series (the so-called spiritual sequels to Bushido Blade), and those games sucked from what I played of them, but at least they didn't develop them.
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Post by Ex on Mar 3, 2021 2:09:24 GMT -5
One thing you didn't mention is how incredibly unresponsive it is. It takes almost a full second for your inputs to translate into movements. Yes, that's another problem with that FIST. Thankfully, this one didn't have that issue: Samurai Showdown: Warriors Rage is a single plane 3D graphics fighter, developed and published for PlayStation by SNK in 2000. This was the seventh entry in the franchise, and the third installment of the 3D trilogy of Samurai Shodown games (after Samurai Shodown 64 and Samurai Shodown 64: Warriors Rage). Despite the similar name, this game is not a port of the latter! Two buttons control weak and strong slashes, a third controls kick attack, and the fourth is used for dodges. Very simple. This entry introduces a new life bar system, subdivided into three sections. The first "round" of the fight lasts until one person is drained of all three sections, upon which one section of the bar disappears and the remaining two refill. Once those two are drained, the second section drops off, with the last one refilled. The match ends when one player has been drained of their last section of life. There's a versus mode, and single player story mode (based on the character chosen). +Responsive controls and solid hit boxes. +Nice 3D character graphics. +Above average 2D backgrounds with animation. +Fairly robust single player mode per character. +Lots of hand drawn animated CGs. -Weak OST. -Multiple mid-boss rushes. -Bad localization and not in a charming way. -The CGs apparently aren't subbed?! -The reused naming title confused people into thinking this was a port of the previous N64 release. I've always liked the aesthetics of the Samurai Shodown series, but have never been a big fan of their gameplay. This PS1 entry is nothing special in that regard, but it is imminently playable. Each character has a lengthy (for a fighter) story mode. The only thing I really hated about this game, are the multiple mid-boss rushes. Numerous times in the single player mode, you will have to fight groups of enemies sequentially, but you only get one life bar to do so. Sometimes you have to beat five enemies in a row to win these matches. It's cheap crap. Other than that, Warriors Rage would have been a decent rental in its day. There's not enough meat to the fighting system to go very deep, but it's a competent enough fighter to be worth sampling. And the last boss may very well make you rage (this is an SNK game after all). Ex's time to beat: 45 minutes (beat Rinka Yoshino's story mode) Ex's rating: 6.5/10
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Post by toei on Mar 3, 2021 3:06:42 GMT -5
When I checked a few years ago, Samurai Shodown 64 couldn't be emulated properly. No sound, among other things. I wonder if it's still like that? That's one game I'd like to try.
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Post by Ex on Mar 3, 2021 10:20:16 GMT -5
When I checked a few years ago, Samurai Shodown 64 couldn't be emulated properly. No sound, among other things. I wonder if it's still like that? That's one game I'd like to try.I agree, it looks better than what I played last night: From a cursory search this morning, it appears this game runs on proprietary arcade hardware that is yet to be emulated well. And... it never got a port to a console.
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