The OaO 90's Fighting Games Thread

[Gary Floyd 0]

the SNK games were kinda fun: Fatal Fury, Samurai Showdown, World Heroes, Art Of Fighting...granted they weren't as quality as the SF games, but let's not overlook them.

"Samurai Showdown" was awesome, as was "Fatal Fury". "Art of Fighting" was only Ok.

[Anya 0]

Art of Fighting 2 is impossible.

 

 

Primal Rage was one of the better MK clones I think. That really isn't saying much. It was mostly "one of the better" because you could actually move around quickly and tolerate beating the game. I played as Blizzard because giant apes are cooler than dinosaurs and he could freeze. Everyone either played as Blizzard, Talon or Sauron. Primal Rage 2 never coming out is tragic.

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski 0]

I rented a lot of fighting games in the 16 bit era but my parents would not let buy any till I got the original MK. I later added Killer Instinct to my collection. I kind of wish I had more 16 bit fighting games but at the same time, I can get them as collections as arcade perfect.

 

Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting are hard games. I liked that SNK had each of the characters have their own cutscenes and stories, unfortunately you could only play as three characters.

 

There needs to be a Samurai Shodown collection. I would buy that. Sam Sho II is one of my favorite games ever.

[Rendclaw 0]

KI for the Snes was a totally different game than the arcade version. I actually enjoyed playing it, even though I thought KI 1 and 2 Arcade were total shit. There was very little strategy involved in either one, just whomever could pull off the coolest and longest combos...

[Anya 0]

That makes no sense. SNES KI has the same combo system.

[Rendclaw 0]

I had a different feel than the arcade, Anya. Combo Breakers were easier to pull off, and the characters were better balanced than the arcade.

[luke-o 0]

Obviously, i was always a fan of SF (no matter what sequel it was)

 

Streets of Rage and Golden Axe were also of my favourites and TMNT - Hyperstone Hiest was great, but when i replayed it a few months ago, it seemed to easy.

 

I was never into the Mortal Kombats cause i was always playing Street Fighter.

 

Loved the SNK stuff, still do.

 

My local arcades suck now cause we only have one KoF arcade machine and its a bit run down. I go down there now to play House of the Dead 4.

 

Primal Rage was class. Hard as fuck. But class.

 

Killer Instinct was awesome, but the stupid combos were so hard to pull off.

 

Rise of Robots is not the worse fighter ever made, Clay Fighters was.

[Guest InuYasha]

Clay Fighter wasn't a bad game, as much as it was a game made to parody the insanity over the fighting games of the time, like MK and SF. In a sense, Clay Fighter was a joke that gotten taken a little too seriously, and then faded away.

[Special K 0]

Lots of people swear by the SNK games as the only fighting games worth playing. I think some of that attittude is ased on their absolutely insane difficulty levels. The AI on the bosses in those games were ridonkulous.

Samurai Shodown II, Last Blade II and Garou: Mark of the wolf are all amazing.

 

I completely fell out of love with the MK series after the second installment. The running and dial-a comboes in MK 3 pissed me off.

 

I liked KI, there was something very satisfying about pulling out your first massive Fulgore combo. Looking back on it, it's really quite a shallow game.

 

Hated Primal Rage.

 

I like the Versus series, though Marvel Super-Heroes v Street Fighter has the worst character seletion ever. You have only nine spots for SF characters, so you include Ryu, Ken, Akuma and Dan? Not to mention Captain America and Cyclops all play quite similarly to those four.

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

Clay Fighter wasn't a bad game, as much as it was a game made to parody the insanity over the fighting games of the time, like MK and SF. In a sense, Clay Fighter was a joke that gotten taken a little too seriously, and then faded away.

 

My brother and I had a load of fun with Clay Fighter. Our main game was Street Fighter because my parents didn't let us play Mortal Kombat.

 

I rented WWF Raw so much that with all the rental fees my parents should have just bought me the game because I played it almost every weekend for nearly a year. Of course that was back in the pre-Blockbuster days when you only had rentals to like 2 1/2 days. The mega moves were pretty cool and yes, Diesel's was a pain in the neck to do. I remember that Luna also did the 1-2-3 Kid's mega move and if you performed it she'd just from corner to corner changing her physical appearance into the 1-2-3 Kid. Totally weird to say the least.

[AndrewTS 0]

I had a different feel than the arcade, Anya. Combo Breakers were easier to pull off

 

That thing in the menu that says "Combo Breakers" or "Easy Combo Breakers" would have something to do with it. Try turning that off.

 

, and the characters were better balanced than the arcade.

 

How so?

 

Clayfighter was my first fighting game, but as soon as I played Street Fighter that was it for that game. Plus the sequel sucked. Although the sequel did have a ridiculous number of palette-swap "hidden characters." Rise of the Robots is 10 times worse than Clayfighter.

 

I like the Versus series, though Marvel Super-Heroes v Street Fighter has the worst character seletion ever. You have only nine spots for SF characters, so you include Ryu, Ken, Akuma and Dan? Not to mention Captain America and Cyclops all play quite similarly to those four.

 

I have it on Saturn. XM vs. SF kills it. Plus Sakura has lots of weird tweaks (the upward fireballs, the change in her move commands, etc). The Dan joke was totally pushed to the limit in the game, what with that ridiculous ending.

[Anya 0]

Clayfighter is no where near as bad as Rise of the Robots. Clayfighter is playable it's just lame. Nobody could play more than like 15 minutes of Rise.

 

 

MSH vs. SF does have the worst roster. I'm glad I am not the only one to notice. Shotos, shotos and more shotos. The only reason I've played it so much is that I have the arcade. Marvel vs. Capcom 1 is still my favorite versus game.

[Special K 0]

I really like Sakura. Her chargin Shoryuken is vicious. She plays more differently from the shotos than Captain america and Cyke. No Charlie/Guile? And what's with their reluctance to ever have Blanka in another game? He was the most popular character in SFII at many an arcade.

 

I don't really like the change to the buttons in MvC2, but the sheer amount of characters makes sure you can play it for a LONG time (even if many of them are ridiculously unbalanced. Fucking Cable scrubs. Grrr)

 

Plus it has Buletta/BB Hood who is like the best fighting game character on earth. And I kick ass with her. It's an absolute joy if you can get off her "crying and stabbing the enemy a ridiculous number of times, then drowning them in a pool of your tears" attack.

 

I also have to give a shout out to Rival Shools: United by fate. My friends and I played the shit out of that game. I was monstrous with Akira. I also had a disgusting areial combo worked out with the Chiropractor lady.

[Jer 0]

Rise of the Robots is hilarious. Player one had a special move that did more on block than any of player two's moves did on hit. I remember we spent hours trying to find a special move with player two, but could never find one. We tried like every normal 2D combination; nothing. If anyone knows the 2P special move, I'm just dying to know.

 

Obviously the SF2 games were the best of the early 90s fighters, but the other game that's stood up pretty well to time is UMK3. That game is crazy intense when people know what they're doing. Much better than MK2. Run gets no love, but it makes the game so much faster and more fun.

[AndrewTS 0]

As someone who admittedly has only played against scrubs and the computer and is an intermediate player at best, IMO MK3 is teh suxx0r5 in any form and I'll take MKII every day of the week over any incarnation of 3.

 

SNK have rarely had 2D fighters as good as Capcom, but I think the new game (2006 aka Max Impact 2) should abandon the real sidestep for a strafe and make the game just like Street Fighter EX, because they can't do 3D gameplay at all very well.

 

KOF'95 played like crap compared to the later games, but the graphics and music blew me away at the time. Rugal was a pretty badass boss, the whole team up concept was still fresh, plus Athena's goofy pop song made for a cute ending.

[Anya 0]

I've been saying UMK3 is the best for years now! I'm betting most people with fond memories of MK II would be bored and frustrated with it if they played a good Jax or Mileena. The game is so slow and limited. Running, chains and more juggles is the best thing they did for MK. MK3 is fast and flashy.

 

 

In Rise couldn't the second player pick the bosses? I don't even remember the main robot having a special move to begin with.

 

 

Everyone needs to play Fight for Life. It's the worst fighter ever. I never want to hear someone bring up Shaq Fu or Kasumi Ninja if they haven't played FTF. I can't even begin to explain how bad it is. It's like VF/Tekken clone but even slower. Everything is as slow as a VF floaty jump. Even just walking forward takes decades.

 

 

The greatest legacy Primal Rage had was that the nice delux showcase 33 cabinets Atari made for it ended up being used for better games later on. You know those big white cabinets that often house Namco and Capcom games? That probably was once Primal Rage. Next time you're at the arcade playing Marvel in one of those take a moment of silence to reflect on Primal Rage.

[Jer 0]

Yeah, I vaguely remember arguing with you a few years back saying MK2 was the best. Since then I've actually gone back and played MK2, and it's... not. Not having any options in movement makes for a really boring game. I still give it major props for the ambiance, the stages are great. But unfortunately, it's not fun.

 

And fuck Kintaro, cheapest boss ever.

 

What system is Fight for Life on? I'll totally get it, I love bad fighters. The day we scored Clayfighter 2, TMNT: Tournament Fighters and Rise of the Robots on the same day was a great, great day.

[AndrewTS 0]

In Rise, P1 is stuck with the blue wuss. P2 can pick anyone.

 

And actually, based on some reviews I googled, I think Fight for Life has better overall reviews than Shaq Fu. However, this is mainly based on FFL's obscurity and Shaq Fu's notoriety. SF is terrible, though. It's nearly impossible to even jump kick anyone. There are terrible Game Boy fighters that even allow you to do that. Even freakin' Slaughter Sport lets you do that.

 

However, I think Street Fighter the movie gets a way worse rap than it deserved. First off, it's not the horrid arcade game, which threw in a bunch of MK-based moves for no reason. It's basically a really slow, mushy-controlling SSFT with a weaker roster, completely different hitboxes (because of the fact that the human actors don't have the proportions of the cartoony world warriors), and lame elevator music. Playing 2 player is a riot, as you laugh at all the terrible voices and the goofy-looking digitized versions of the SF moves. Plus the whole *concept* of the game is so surreal it must be experienced.

 

Super Mario Bros. The Movie--the game would have been fantastic. I would have loved to drop Dennis Hopper into boiling lava after stomping on dozens of reptites--er koopas, and flew around levels on rocket boots.

[Anya 0]

Fight for Life is on Jaguar. Jaguar has a holy trinity of bad fighters. FTL, Kasumi Ninja and Ultra Vortek.

 

I actually got my Jaguar and 3DO for the bad fighters. Way of the Warrior! For years I wanted to play it just based on the screen shots. Then finally got it when the 3DO became cheap. It's so great. It's like low budget MK which was already cheaply made. The "actors" are literally the Naughty Dog guys and it was filmed in the hall of an apartment. The obligatory ninja character is actually called just "Ninja"!

 

 

Has anyone played Clayfighter 63 1/3rd or Scuplters Cut for N64? It had Earthworm Jim and Boogerman as playable characters. The one thing I found funny was the parody of the KI combo system. You can do ridiculous 500 hit combos and the annoucer has goofy names for them like "Triple Brown Betty Combo!!!".

[Anya 0]

The only people that review Fight For Life are Jaguar fans who are just reviewing it compared to other Jaguar games. I can't imagine anyone thinking Shaq Fu was worse without going in with a bias. Games like E.T., Superman 64 and Shaq Fu are so notoriously bad when you finally play them years later it's going to be even worse because you're going to be looking for the dumb stuff and laughing at it. Fight For Life is so bad it would be legendary if it wasn't so obcure.

 

And yeah SF The Movie is not that bad. That is another example of being so infamous it gets hate by people who haven't even played it. It's bad but it's no where near being worse than games like the Jaguar stuff. It's crappy ST. Any version of ST is better than Ultra Vortek. Plus it has Sawada and his awesome super where he lifts his arms up in the air and just runs towards you.

[AndrewTS 0]

I'm shocked nobody brought up SVC Chaos, which is horrible for too many reasons to count.

 

The typical excuses made was that it was released "too late" and that it had been "long surpassed" when it was released. It's a damn 2D fighter, folks (and by folks I mean SNK fanatics who must justify the insane prices of the carts they purchase). 2D fighters haven't taken a quantum-leap forward in gameplay in a hellalong time.

 

SVCC would have been horrible 10 years before it was released. Street Fighter 2 has things like "acceptable hit detection", "animation that doesn't make me sick," and "music that doesn't make you clinically depressed." The pre-match quotes almost save the game, especially since they led to the quote-generator and its hilarious results. Match of the Millenium on a damn Game Boy Color-level portable kills it in playability.

[AndrewTS 0]

Has anyone played Clayfighter 63 1/3rd or Scuplters Cut for N64? It had Earthworm Jim and Boogerman as playable characters. The one thing I found funny was the parody of the KI combo system. You can do ridiculous 500 hit combos and the annoucer has goofy names for them like "Triple Brown Betty Combo!!!".

 

Yeah, I have Sculptor's Cut. It's very rare, and would probably fetch a pretty penny on Ebay, but nobody wants it so it doesn't. I agree with Jer that if you can get a few friends together, playing a bunch of bad fighters back to back makes for a great time.

 

I was surprised Art of Fighting on SNES had the scaling in it. However, the game is *really* limited in gameplay. However, it's worth a look if you're an SNK nut who wants to see where some of the characters came from. For instance, Kasumi's walking punching-bag of an old man, King (who OMG gets her shirt ripped b00bi35111). Plus I heard it was the first game with a "super" move.

[Anya 0]

I don't think anyone cares about Chaos. It's just lame. 90's bad fighters are at least funny and have novelty. I know an arcade that has like 3 cabinets and no one ever plays it. I don't mean that as an exageration like how nobody plays T5.1 anymore. NO ONE EVER plays it. I've never seen it played. More people play Cruis'n USA.

 

 

I've never been more into fighters but it's only Namco and 3S now. In the 90's EVERYONE made them. Now there's like 4 companies. All I play is Tekken, 3S and SC. What else is there? VF? No one actually plays it, they just talk about how deep it is. I don't like GGXX and Capcom and SNK haven't anything interesting in like a decade. Maximum Impact? Ugh no thanks. Does anyone actually LIKE it? Not like it as in "well it's ok for a 3D KOF" I mean actually play it? I have never heard of a KOF MI fan. People tolerate KOF MI they don't like it. It's like WWE fans. "Well it's watchable" except "well it's playable". It's the same with Capcom's stuff. I guess an Alpha compliation is nice and all but where's the actual content? Fans shouldn't just shrug and accept nothing but ports and compilations. If Namco released a Tekken 1-3 compilation I wouldn't play that.

 

I've pretty much given up hope 3S will ever be topped as far as 2D fighters go. I can't play Marvel. I love how 3S has the mindgames and technical skill but isn't so crazy.

[Thoth 0]

SvC Chaos is fun... sort of. I wouldn't call it good. I enjoyed playing with my friends. Nowhere near what anyone would call good.

 

I'm tempted to agree with you, Andrew, that SNK doesn't have as many hits per game released as Capcom, based on two things. They released a lot of games that no one remembers (because they do suck), and King of Fighters 99-2001 suck ass. 2000 is sort of okay.

 

However, KoF XI is a game that seems to be getting more appeal from the hardcore community. On top of that, the music is way better, and the animation is improving. Also, I think the sprites are slowly going high-res.

 

Makes me wonder why the fuck they are making Neowave 2.

[Anya 0]

I have Art of Fighting for MVS. It has good graphics and funny cutscenes but that's about it. It's archiac like SF II But without the fun. Same with Fatal Fury 1. It does have King's exploding shirt though.

 

Art of Fighting 2 is impossible. I doubt anyone has ever beat it. I know young Geese is the boss which sounds cool but I'll never see him. I think I can get to like, stage 3. The only Neo game I've played that's harder is 3 Count Bout. That right there is the single hardest game I've ever played. It's a wrestling game with a grapple meter like those SNES era games except it's impossible to win a grapple. The computer has won before you even really begin to mash. I think you'd have to actually be a wrestler to have the strength to mash hard enough to win a grapple. Even world class Eddy scrubs wouldn't be able to win.

[AndrewTS 0]

"Having fun with friends" is more than I could get out of SVCC. I find it to be that bad. Seriously, the only entertainment value is the pre-match quotes. Yet it has online play. Game Informer gave it a good review because of online play, and they hate 2D fighters.

 

"I'm tempted to agree with you, Andrew, that SNK doesn't have as many hits per game released as Capcom, based on two things. They released a lot of games that no one remembers (because they do suck), and King of Fighters 99-2001 suck ass. 2000 is sort of okay."

 

Agreed, except I kind of like 2000 because of the great graphics, cheesy gameplay and the strikers. It is chaotic and more casual players seem to prefer it so you're going to milk more fun out of it than something like 2002. I know 2001 is considered the "better" game but I don't like it much. 2002 gets lots of props but it's a hideous-looking game. There are backgrounds that look like they were scribbled in crayon, and I don't mean in the Yoshi's Island "it looks cute and cool" sense.

 

Dreammatch 99--aka the Dreamcast reworking of KOF'98, is the most fun KOF to me, plus it has a great roster.

[AndrewTS 0]

Was 3 Count Bout released as a counter to Saturday Night Slam Masters? Now that is a fun fighting/wrestling game. The SNES version retains the ability to have the tornado matches (tag champs who don't tag!), but the Genesis version was bad. It came out loooong after the SNES game, the control sucked, you couldn't have more than 2 wrestlers in a match, and the Death Match was too little, too late.

 

Wrestle War on the Sega Smash Pack was horrid.

[Anya 0]

I am pretty sure 3 Count Bout came out before Slam Masters. SM was cool...I played it on SNES back in the day. It had Haggar. You can't go wrong with that.

 

 

No one will ever play bad fighters with me.

[AndrewTS 0]

http://www.neogeoforlife.com/neo_reviews/3_count_bout.php

 

According to GameFAQs, 3CB debuted March 93, while SNSM debuted July 93 (both Japan dates). It's a really nice looking game, but Fire Pro Blazing Tornado no doubt kills it.

 

SNK was responsible for (at the time) the most egregious example of fighting game females existing for only fanservice, namely...

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c104/Sis...MaiShiranui.gif

 

It probably made an impression on Itaragi.

 

Of course, that'd not counting games that nobody played that you see pop up on sites all the time.

 

Thankfully, SNK balanced it out. They *used* to have some of the best character designs in fighting games. However, take a look at the 3D KOFs to see how that deteriorated with the KOF series' quality. Idiot Catgirl with giant projectiles, huge-breasted blond, gay 3D cowboy, a female Kim, etc.

[Guest InuYasha]

Sculptor's Cut was an exclusive version of the game that was only available to rent from Blockbuster. Frankly, I thought it was but stupid and annoying. I rented it once, beat it, and got all the hidden characters in about a day and a half.