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Post by Xeogred on Mar 3, 2021 17:59:08 GMT -5
Imagine... a fighting game, without combos.
Definitely played this one as a kid a bit. Man, it's cheaply produced. Lame production values, like screen fade out effects just spinning the screen in or out, things like that. The combat is so dang bad it's hilarious. I gave it like 15 minutes and couldn't beat the first match on the default settings.
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Post by toei on Mar 3, 2021 22:11:14 GMT -5
Ex Yeah, it's the Hyper Neo Geo 64, which is only partially emulated in MAME, and apparently nowhere else. It was SNK's somewhat late attempt at getting into the 3D arcade game. It only had 7 games, all of which fit into the 3 core genres that were big in arcades at the time; there's 4 fighters, 2 racers, and a horror-themed light gun game. Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition is the only to ever get a console port. Buriki One (a MMA-style fighter that seems pretty decent) was supposed to get a PSX port, but it didn't happen.
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Post by Ex on Mar 3, 2021 22:58:54 GMT -5
toei Here's hoping we see those games emulated someday. - Just did a run through... Soul Blade is a PS1 port of an arcade 3D fighting game developed by team Project Soul and published by Namco. It is the first installment in the Soulcalibur series. Soul Blade was originally released in Japan as Soul Edge, an arcade title in 1995. An upgraded and expanded port was released on PlayStation in 1996 in Japan, then 1997 in USA and Europe. This port was renamed Soul Blade, due to a trademark dispute. When Namco attempted to apply for a trademark for the Soul Edge name outside of Japan, they were sued by Tim Langdell, the owner of Edge Games. Langdell claimed that he owned the right to use the word "Edge" in anything video game related, and as a result, Namco renamed this game Soul Blade outside of Japan. (Ex's note: This is utter horseshit and Namco should have beat him down in court, then counter-sued.) To avoid future issues, the sequel was given the name Soulcalibur, as were all successive series installments.
I think for the vast majority of Soulcalibur fans out there, most forget this initial entry even exists. That's a shame, because Soul Blade is absolutely fantastic. For my taste, it's the best 3D fighter on PS1. It's got phenomenal graphics (especially in DuckStation holy moly), excellent audio, absolutely awesome fighting mechanics, plenty of characters to play as... it's just a tour de force. I suppose my one complaint is that you can see all the content in one evening. But that's not much of a complaint. I first played Soul Blade for hours at a friend's house the year it released. Soul Blade blew me away those twenty four years ago. And even today, it still impresses me. I consider this a must-play for 3D fighting game fans. In its day, Soul Blade pushed both its genre and its platform to the very edge. Ex's time to beat: 20 minutes (played through arcade mode as Taki) Ex's rating: 9/10
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Post by Sarge on Mar 4, 2021 0:32:23 GMT -5
I have learned that I am really bad at Project Justice right now. Just haven't gotten traction on that (or Power Stone 2). I think I'm just not in a patient mood right now. I did finish another unrelated game, though...
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Post by toei on Mar 4, 2021 3:12:35 GMT -5
I vaguely knew the change of name was trademark-related, but I didn't know the whole Tim Langdell story. Holy shit. This guy sued everybody, all over something so ridiculous. Reading through some of those details, he sounds like he might actually be deranged (along with being a low-level scam artist, obviously). He just kept losing almost every suit, but he kept right on going, denying his losses, denying he'd even sued people, fabricating evidence at every step and getting caught for it. Also, yeah, Soul Edge/Soul Blade is great. Top 3 3D fighter on the PSX, along with Tobal 2 and Tekken 3.
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Post by toei on Mar 4, 2021 5:47:45 GMT -5
Here's an arena fighter I'm almost certain none of you have played before: Spikers Battle. It's a spin-off of Sega's SpikeOut that only came out in Japanese arcades in 2001. It runs on NAOMI so you can emulate it with certain Dreamcast emulators pretty easily. It plays like a mix between a beat-'em-up and a fighter, with all battles being 4-player. It's pretty fun.
SpikeOut is an interesting and overlooked series in general. 3 of the 4 games are arcade-exclusives, and even then I don't think they were very widely distributed in North America, though as is often the case, they did well in Japan. There's the original 3D beat-'em-up, the fantasy-themed spin-off Slash Out, and this games, Spikers Battle. The first one ran on Model 3, which, last I checked, was still a little iffy to emulate (but doable), but the other two are Naomi. There's an interesting combo system that involves holding the "Strong" attack button for specific lengths of time (you have a gauge that lets you know which moves it's at) and a few other features that aren't obvious at first. Only real issue is the cameras sometimes suck. The first game was designed & directed by Toshihiro Nagoshi of Yakuza fame.
Also, I just found what my monthly theme will be (won't be just one series, don't worry).
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Post by Ex on Mar 4, 2021 10:40:35 GMT -5
he sounds like he might actually be deranged I'm not sure if he was insane, or just a trademark troll hoping he'd be able to win a lucrative lawsuit against a large publisher. Looks like when he took on EA over Mirror's Edge, that one ended up being more than he could handle. EA started the demise of his schemes and he started losing his trademarks after that. Only a fool would take on a company as big as EA with their kind of lawyer money over such a flimsy premise. What an imbecile. I know I've played Tekken 3, which is a highly polished technical fighter, for sure. That said, I've never personally been a fan of Tekken. I don't deny the series is high quality, but I don't much care for its fighting mechanics or character designs. I'm not sure if I've ever played Tobal 3. I'll look into that one this month at some point. Here's an arena fighter I'm almost certain none of you have played before: Spikers Battle. At first I thought I had, but I realized I was thinking of Spikeout: Battle Street on Xbox. That particular beat 'em up was not very good. But the arcade entry you're talking about is probably better. Edit: Hmm, I'm not seeing a Tobal 3 anywhere? Unless you meant Tobal 2.
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Post by toei on Mar 4, 2021 12:48:02 GMT -5
Yeah that was a typo, I meant Tobal 2.
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Post by Sarge on Mar 4, 2021 13:12:20 GMT -5
A PS2 Tobal 3 would have been great, though.
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Post by Xeogred on Mar 4, 2021 17:58:36 GMT -5
I've known of Soul Blade and own it myself, been awhile since I gave it a look though. I'm sure I'd dig it too. When the new Samurai Showdown came out, I was hoping it'd feel like a 2D Soul Calibur... but that wasn't the case at all to me. I played some of the arcade games back in the day too. I too can say I've always appreciated SamSho's style and all, but the gameplay has never really worked for me.
On another note, I guess arcade emulation for the whole Virtua Fighter series is mainly a no-go? They all seem to have a lot of emulation issues from what I've seen with 1-3 so far. I was hoping to burn through them quickly with one character and work up to 4 (PS2). But yeah, don't think that will be happening now.
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