Fatal FFFFFUUUUUUUUUU

I know I'm a few weeks late to the party with this one, but apparently some Chinese hackers discovered references to some unused characters in the King of Fighters XII code. These include Vice, Hwa, Takuma, Mai, King, Yuri, Billy Kane, and a few alternate characters, like "Dark Ash" and '98 style Iori. So, three comments on these:

(1) Still no NESTS saga love? I know this makes me a heathen, but I really started to get into the series around '99 and '00 - objectively not the best games of the series, but I like their style a whole lot more than anything '98 and prior. The game needs some K', Kula, Vanessa...and I wouldn't complain about Whip, either. (Needs more of the Mark of the Wolves folk, too, but that should be a universally understood fact.)


(2) Hwa? That's not an interjection, that's the name of the Muay Thai kickboxing guy, Hwa Jai, back from the original Fatal Fury. Of course, the series already had a better Muay Thai fighter with Joe Higashi. He was so lousy that he was one of the few characters, along with Michael Max and Richard Meyer, that never appeared in any of the later games, even when a bunch of them were resurrected for Fatal Fury Special. Even those guys got spiritual successors in later games - Axel Hawk for Michael Max, and Bob Marley Wilson for Richard Meyer, officially making Hwa Jai the most bitch useless character in the series aside from that one dude that existed solely to get pummeled in the intro to Real Bout Fatal Fury 2. So, why him? EDIT: Sotenga informed me that he does make cameos as Joe's trainer, but that would've totally ruined my joke!

(3) Everyone's spazzing out about DLC in fighting games, because the prospect of having characters sold to us piecemeal is infuriating. And yet I'm hoping SNK will be a bit smarter here. They've already realized that the whole "yearly upgrade" thing just isn't working any more. Maybe they're looking at Guilty Gear and seeing all of the incremental updates, and hopefully realizing that there are now better ways to sell fighting game updates than forcing gamers to buy, roughly, the same products over and over. I really wouldn't mind if they released a pack with, say, 9 new fighters, a few new backgrounds, and additional modes, and charged, say, $20 for it. Maybe do the same thing every six-to-nine months, and perhaps release some fully upgraded retail versions at budget-y prices, to keep newcomers up to par. There are a only a few other games doing this right - I'm not huge into Fallout 3 but their approach to the extra packages sound pretty good, as do the additions to GTA4. But it holds lots of possibilities for fighting games, way beyond paying way to much money for downloadable keys to unlock something useless like costumes.



I know I'm a few weeks late to the party with this one, but apparently some <a href="http://www.mugenchina.org/dzbbs/viewthread.php?tid=26456&extra=page%3D1">Chinese hackers</a> discovered references to some unused characters in the King of Fighters XII code. These include Vice, Hwa, Takuma, Mai, King, Yuri, Billy Kane, and a few alternate characters, like "Dark Ash" and '98 style Iori. So, three comments on these:<br /><br />(1) Still no NESTS saga love? I know this makes me a heathen, but I really started to get into the series around '99 and '00 - objectively not the best games of the series, but I like their style a whole lot more than anything '98 and prior. The game needs some K', Kula, Vanessa...and I wouldn't complain about Whip, either. (Needs more of the Mark of the Wolves folk, too, but that should be a universally understood fact.)<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEk8jiuQ9pN9T_tLvJuAOtzlSvSEDoHHmg5vITCpRbaSzgOf6qP4Xl00Qg-wiDWHg5K4i3wUIm3_LYBg6w8sWJ7fcPAzLRu6S8uOH9nKKIX3Ope73Qkd9tVYlzWS0FtA7NK0apU_-ZJSHC/s1600-h/1063708311-00.gif" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5370749200214100002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEk8jiuQ9pN9T_tLvJuAOtzlSvSEDoHHmg5vITCpRbaSzgOf6qP4Xl00Qg-wiDWHg5K4i3wUIm3_LYBg6w8sWJ7fcPAzLRu6S8uOH9nKKIX3Ope73Qkd9tVYlzWS0FtA7NK0apU_-ZJSHC/s320/1063708311-00.gif" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 256px; height: 223px;" /></a><br />(2) Hwa? That's not an interjection, that's the name of the Muay Thai kickboxing guy, Hwa Jai, back from the original Fatal Fury. Of course, the series already had a better Muay Thai fighter with Joe Higashi. He was so lousy that he was one of the few characters, along with Michael Max and Richard Meyer, that never appeared in any of the later games, even when a bunch of them were resurrected for Fatal Fury Special. Even those guys got spiritual successors in later games - Axel Hawk for Michael Max, and Bob <strike>Marley</strike> Wilson for Richard Meyer, officially making Hwa Jai the most bitch useless character in the series aside from that one dude that existed solely to get pummeled in the intro to Real Bout Fatal Fury 2. So, why him? EDIT: Sotenga informed me that he does make cameos as Joe's trainer, but that would've totally ruined my joke!<br /><br />(3) Everyone's spazzing out about DLC in fighting games, because the prospect of having characters sold to us piecemeal is infuriating. And yet I'm hoping SNK will be a bit smarter here. They've already realized that the whole "yearly upgrade" thing just isn't working any more. Maybe they're looking at Guilty Gear and seeing all of the incremental updates, and hopefully realizing that there are now better ways to sell fighting game updates than forcing gamers to buy, roughly, the same products over and over. I really wouldn't mind if they released a pack with, say, 9 new fighters, a few new backgrounds, and additional modes, and charged, say, $20 for it. Maybe do the same thing every six-to-nine months, and perhaps release some fully upgraded retail versions at budget-y prices, to keep newcomers up to par. There are a only a few other games doing this right - I'm not huge into Fallout 3 but their approach to the extra packages sound pretty good, as do the additions to GTA4. But it holds lots of possibilities for fighting games, way beyond paying way to much money for downloadable keys to unlock something useless like costumes.<br /><br /><br /></span>

Japanese Arcades July 2009 (Daemon Blade)

SelectButton.net's Tokyo Rude: King of Fighters XII was a complete failure. It was released, last month right? It's almost non-existent in arcades now. I can find the arcade release of King of Fighters 2002 Ultimate more easily than KoFXII. There's also some lone guy playing the computer at KoF2002U, and I think I'm the only one that plays XII at the arcade closest to my house (which doesn't have 2002U.)
---


Sketcz: I thought it would be interesting to disseminate the decent posts of other people I find on the internet, since all too often an insightful comment, interesting story or worthwhile piece of text will be forgotten in obscurity on some small forum, surrounded by the feverish banality of a billion internet voices all shouting about absolutely nothing.



Tokyo Rude wrote:
Another update about a country none of you live in. I've once again found this information pretty interesting.

King of Fighters XII was a complete failure. It was released? last month right? It's almost non-existent in arcades now. I can find the arcade release of King of Fighters 2002 Ultimate more easily than KoFXII. There's also some lone guy playing the computer at KoF2002U, and I think I'm the only one that plays XII at the arcade closest to my house (which doesn't have 2002U.)

I think Tekken 6 fever is finally dying down. The most surprising thing about Tekken was the people that actually bought cards for it had a win/loss ratio of roughly 50%. This was almost every one that played the game. This pretty much reflects my opinions on Tekken, as I've always gotten halfway bored with it.

Virtua Fighter VR revision whatever is pretty mixed. Half the arcades no one will be playing it and the other half it'll be packed. Street Fighter IV has probably the best luck, with lots of Ryu and Zangiefs to go around.

Not even going to go into the Gundam games.

Though, Daemon Blade appeared on the scenes this week. I hadn't even heard of this sucker before, google tells me it's the Arcana Heart guys. I haven't played it, but stood and watched it at every arcade I've seen it at.

It looks roughly like a Saturn fighting game. I seem to remember Arcana Heart having a little more graphical muscle. As for the characters What the hell?. Oh okay, I guess that's not actually the main character or whatever. So less moe~ more garish design trainwreck.

I'll play this game tomorrow and actually report with opinons on how it plays, and not that it looks like a Guilty Gear level of cluster fuck I don't want to understand.


<a href="http://l33t.rud13.googlepages.com/demon001.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://l33t.rud13.googlepages.com/demon001.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 450px; height: 338px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">SelectButton.net's Tokyo Rude:</span> <span class="postbody"><span style="font-style: italic;"> King of Fighters XII was a complete failure. It was released, last month right? It's almost non-existent in arcades now. I can find the arcade release of King of Fighters 2002 Ultimate more easily than KoFXII. There's also some lone guy playing the computer at KoF2002U, and I think I'm the only one that plays XII at the arcade closest to my house (which doesn't have 2002U.)</span> </span><br />---<br /><br /><span class="fullpost"><br />Sketcz: I thought it would be interesting to disseminate the decent posts of other people I find on the internet, since all too often an insightful comment, interesting story or worthwhile piece of text will be forgotten in obscurity on some small forum, surrounded by the feverish banality of a billion internet voices all shouting about absolutely nothing.<br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Tokyo Rude wrote:</span><br /><span class="postbody"></span><span class="fullpost">Another update about a country none of you live in. I've once again found this information pretty interesting.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">King of Fighters XII was a complete failure</span>. It was released? last month right? It's almost non-existent in arcades now. I can find the arcade release of King of Fighters 2002 Ultimate more easily than KoFXII. There's also some lone guy playing the computer at KoF2002U, and I think I'm the only one that plays XII at the arcade closest to my house (which doesn't have 2002U.)<br /><br />I think Tekken 6 fever is finally dying down. The most surprising thing about Tekken was the people that actually bought cards for it had a win/loss ratio of roughly 50%. This was almost every one that played the game. This pretty much reflects my opinions on Tekken, as I've always gotten halfway bored with it.<br /><br />Virtua Fighter VR revision whatever is pretty mixed. Half the arcades no one will be playing it and the other half it'll be packed. Street Fighter IV has probably the best luck, with lots of Ryu and Zangiefs to go around.<br /><br />Not even going to go into the Gundam games.<br /><br />Though, <a href="http://www.examu.co.jp/dmb/">Daemon Blade</a> appeared on the scenes this week. I hadn't even heard of this sucker before, google tells me it's the Arcana Heart guys. I haven't played it, but stood and watched it at every arcade I've seen it at.<br /><br />It looks roughly like a Saturn fighting game. I seem to remember Arcana Heart having a little more graphical muscle. As for the characters <a href="http://www.examu.co.jp/dmb/chara01.html">What the hell?</a>. Oh okay, I guess that's not actually the main character or whatever. So less moe~ more garish design trainwreck.<br /><br />I'll play this game tomorrow and actually report with opinons on how it plays, and not that it looks like a Guilty Gear level of cluster fuck I don't want to understand.<br /></span><br /></span>