/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.7774193]

How do KoF fans figure out which games to play? There's like thirty of them.

[Anonymous No.7774197]

>>7774193
They're fighting games you play them with other people, so play the ones that are already most popular. Which is KOF 98

[Anonymous No.7774206]

>>7774197
Yeah, I guess that's what I'm getting at. Why did everyone settle on 98?

[Anonymous No.7774209]

>>7774206
It's one of the best. Huge roster with a lot of viable characters.

[Anonymous No.7774230]

Why isn't Garou or SNK vs. Capcom or popular?

[Anonymous No.7774256]

The first one is 94, which brings characters from Art Of Fighting, Fatal Fury, Psycho Soldier, Ikari Warriors, as well as original characters. So is was a big thing to play as a team with so many characters from established SNK franchises.

95 brings many changes, good ones. 96 is very good playability-wise and 97 is perfect in that sense. These three have a story arch (Orochi), different characters, different movesets or ways they function.

98 has no canon story, it exists because it brings the characters from the previous games so you have variety, and some of them even have two modes. you can choose the way to play from old and new modes as well, so for a lan party it's perfect, you and your friends can choose from a great roll of characters and styles.

Same with 99, 2000 and 2001 (NESTS story arch) with 2002 the one to unite all the characters to play.

there's another story arch starting with 2003, but for the next game they called it XI and changed the arcade to Taito-X, and for the next one (XII) they entered development hell redesigning all the sprites to what they desired to be HD like Arc System Works games, it was a disaster, feels unfinished, XIII is basically XII but finished.

SNK has bankrupt twice around this point and after that, has lived of pachinko, copyrights, selling rights to have characters in other franchises, mobile games and other crap. The new 3d games are promising but it's another era.

the ones i didn't mention were neowave (it's not canon, just a collection of characters to test taito-x) and maximum impact - really good 3d ones from back then, intended to be a trilogy but they cancelled the last one. 1 and 2 were good, with 2 being the best and gaining another version (regulation A).

so for lan parties the best were 98 UM (a taito-x modern version of 98 with even more characters and modes), 2002 UM. maximum impact 2 (or regulation A) and XI (which had a lot of characters, plus several from neo geo battle coliseum)

[Anonymous No.7774257]

>>7774230
Because Capcom vs SNK 2 shits on both

[Anonymous No.7774273]

>>7774256
Thanks, this is very informative. I didn't even realize there was a 3d spinoff, definitely going to try that out.

[Anonymous No.7774276]

>>7774230
I found SvC really ugly and heard it was full of busted characters like red aromar.

My problem with SNK fighters is their 4 button layout. Never got use to it.

[Anonymous No.7774279]

>>7774276
Both SvC games have the mismatched sprite problem going on.

[Anonymous No.7774281]

>>7774256
Thanks for this

[Anonymous No.7774332]

'94 for the gritty Irem style graphics, amazing soundtrack and the OG Rugal
'95 for how stupidly broken it is (though i hate this entry)
'96 for the Boss Team
'97 because the grappling characters are pretty fucking good, and the epic world tournament motif, the best of his kind imo
'98 for the overall balance and playing Shingo, Heavy D, OG Rugal and the sports team is pretty fun
'99 for the ''cyberpunk'' aesthetics, best Benimaru/Ralf ever
'00 for the strikers combos
'01 for the weird gritty industrial feel it has, non charge Heidern, Foxy and K9999
'02 for the broken Kim
'03 for Gato
XI for the futuristc fell, Silber, Gai Tendo, Oswald, best roster ever imo
'98UM because of the Extra mode, the most fun entry ever made imo
'02UM for the shitton of characters

[Anonymous No.7774517]

>>7774193
With KOF its was always a safe bet that the Dream Match games were all good, till XII came into play. Maybe, I'm wrong though.

[Anonymous No.7774924]

>>7774193
>>7774206
KoF fans have played all of them, they just end up focusing more on the ones they like best. For most that's 98 or 02.

[Anonymous No.7774948]

>>7774193
I only play the ones that have the best BG music, '98, '99 and 2000.

[Anonymous No.7775557]

>>7774332
>non charge Heidern
you mean the shitty one

[Anonymous No.7775589]

>>7774193
classic & competitive staple tier: 98OG, 02UM, XIII
still popular, but depends on region, and has things to dislike tier: 98UMFE, 2000, 2002OG, XI
current game that is popular because it's current tier: XIV
boomer tier: 95
china tier: 97
just kinda less popular tier: 94, 99, 2003
broken mess tier: 96, 2001
lmao tier: XII

[Anonymous No.7775627]

>>7774206
they dont. its a tired old advice to start with 98 but many realize very quick it's not very lenient and kinda basic. most move on to 02um or XIII/XIV.
98 is held so high because it was the game that finished what 97 started. from 94 to 97, kof quickly evolved from a street fighter knockoff with gimmicks to a more unique system defined by hops, mobility and strong offense. 97 was almost perfect but it had way too many rough egdes—completely OP supers, numerous infinites, etc. 98 simply fleshed that out and added some missing chars from 94-96. the end game was basically a great encapsulation of what KoF has to offer, and its system served as blueprint for all KoF games to come. but later games improved on it, eg in meter management and with general depth.
for a long 98og was still a good option due torollback netplay on Fightcade, but today we have 02um on Steam which is just more lenient and has more advanced system than 98.

[Anonymous No.7775664]

I spent a good amount of my childhood in the mid-late 2000s in Mexico
Therefore, KoF02 is the only KoF game

[Anonymous No.7775823]

>>7774256
I was about to write the same thing but you summed up everything better than I would

[Anonymous No.7775830]

>>7774332
I'm hoping Gato shows up in XV, but so far it just looks like a budget 14 do-over

[Anonymous No.7775838]

>>7775664
Regular 02 or Magic Plus 02?

[Anonymous No.7775848]

94 and 95 weren't standardized, they're kinda like a very old version of MUGEN. Characters from different series had different gameplay - Fatal Fury chars could wall while crouched, while Art of Fighting chars could use some super moves without a full bar.
KOF 96 is the first game that brought the KOF "feel", by making it have different gameplay from both FF and AoF.
KOF 97 is very fondly remembered because of the roster, but it was broken as fuck with almost everyone having infinites/100% combos, and that annoying slowdown.
98 is just 97 rebalanced with the 94-97 roster.
99 had fucking Strikers and the worst rolling dodge (if you roll backwards, your character auto-dashes forward after the roll).
2000 refined Strikers (can call them without stopping).
2001 had the worst everything.
2002 ditched Strikers and kept all the broken stuff from 99/2000. And people loved it.
People barely remember 2003 and XI, because they tried to be Marvel vs Capcom.

[Anonymous No.7775920]

>>7774193
Basically, the "standard" would be 2k2, that's the one everyone's crazy about and the most played overall.
All the other KoF's have smaller followings, so some people REALLY specialized in playing them, you'll find players that only play one game varying from '94 to '98.
All I said is for competitive and/or online fightcade play, though. Me, I randomly open one of 'em up on GGPO, play a few coins against the machine for 15 minutes and call it a day.

[Anonymous No.7775929]

>>7775848
1999, 2001, 2003 and XI are horse manure. The series' crisis was so huge they couldn't even bother making a decent-looking character select screen for those, let alone a playable game.

[Anonymous No.7775941]

>>7775589
02UM is even MORE broken than the OG, don't know how they managed to fuck it up so badly balancewise.
Where I live all the pros play the OG 02 on fightcade for money, tournaments get 9-10k viewers

[Anonymous No.7775946]

>>7775941
>02UM is even MORE broken than the OG
hot take, buddy. please state your arguments. the only broken character in 02um is nameless

[Anonymous No.7775962]

>>7775946
Kusanagi, nameless, kasumi, k are way up there.
But hey, anything for not getting your eardrums raped by the OG's traumatizing music.
I'd rather play UM but people here only ever play fightcade

[Anonymous No.7776020]

>>7775962
>Kusanagi, nameless, kasumi, k
i agree nameless, kasumi, k are all top tiers, then again literally every KoF has this issue and usually has top tiers at high level (98OG, 98UMFE, XIII, you name it). and 02OG especially had broken as hell top tiers. and i dont mean they were just strong, Angel and May Lee were just downright broken. Angel had an infinite and a bunch of other OP things, May Lee was just broken by design since she could be plus on any attack if she switched stances.
going back to 02um, kasumi and k are strong, but it's not like theres a huge gap between them and rest of characters. there's still plenty good characters in the game, in fact with good execution you can absolutely take "mid" tier chars like kyo and deal tons of damage. speaking of which kusanagi is nowhere near top tier without bar. he just has some of the highest damage in the game with 3 bar.
nameless is the only downright OP character in the game because of how easy and damaging his max mode combo is, and the huge confirm he gets for it.

[Anonymous No.7776083]

>>7775848
>and the worst rolling dodge (if you roll backwards, your character auto-dashes forward after the roll).
I honestly can't figure out why it has this back roll like this. I guess it would be mostly useful for dodging very fast projectiles without losing your space or putting more space between you and your opponent, but at that point they should have just included the in-place dodge from 95, and then it would have had utility for getting out of pressure.

But maybe that's the point, they didn't want to give you a get out of jail free card, they just wanted to help with the faster projectiles to protect you from zoning.

[Anonymous No.7776090]

Do any of them have a decent story mode? I think that would be a decent flavor to keep me playing until it clicks.

[Anonymous No.7776101]

>>7775838
All of those plus, super plus, and magic plus hacks are garbage.

The only good hacks are the PS2 hacks and the PS2 hack for 02 is decent. It's good to have Shinto, King, Geese, and more in 02 again.

[Anonymous No.7776121]

>>7776090
96 and 97 are pretty good on story. They're good on setting you up for 98
Likewise 99 and 2000 are good on story as well, though 2002 doesn't play like 2000 at all, unfortunately, but I feel more people should be playing 2000 anyway. I prefer it to 2002.

2003, XI, and XIII have an excellent story, and 2003 and XI play more like the Capcom vs games with live tagging in matches. It makes them interesting in their own way, and XIII is more traditional, but the art is quite nice to look at, and the story ends in a way that I think is better than the Orochi saga ending, as classic as that is.

The Nests saga will never be finished for me because 2001 is just such shit.

[Anonymous No.7776153]

>>7776090
96 and 97 have the best storylines. The canon endings in both need a team of Iori, Kyo and Chizuru. 96 also has a very good final stage, set in a stadium. Nowadays every game has a stadium as fighting arena, but it was pretty rare back then. Remember those are fighting tournaments.

98 and 2002 have no story, they're called "Dream Matches", because they bring back dead characters and bksses.

99 and 2000 set up an interesting story, but it ended up in a wet fart (2001).

2003 is meh, XI has nice presentation (they're drawn with modern techniques, and are not as pixelated as in the MVS era). XIII is a pretty good ending for the third trilogy.

[Anonymous No.7776201]

>>7776153
I remember being disappointed in 2001

[Anonymous No.7776214]

98 and 2002 were made specifically to have a long-term competitive scene, while the others were mostly focused on things like new characters, playing around with rebalances, and sometimes experimental mechanics.

[Anonymous No.7776242]

>>7774193
>How do KoF fans figure out which games to play?
Roster and game balance, '98 is fairly balanced for example.

I would recommend either '98 or 2002 (Dream Match games without a canon plot, so the roster is great and includes deceased characters from previous entries), XI (very unique roster, tag team gameplay like 2003) and XIII (the last 2D one).

[Anonymous No.7776258]

Brazilians are obesessed with 2002 because they got stuck with cheap pirate versions of it after SNK and arcades died and later versions weren't released on that wretched piece of land.

[Anonymous No.7776614]

>>7774193
Which one has your favorite character? Play that one.

[Anonymous No.7776640]

Go watch some Ichigeki Hissatsu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1KMw6-RslQ&list=PLaDIjPZgHSSxFaRZrPcpDgCGfPjx28FtU&index=8

[Anonymous No.7776705]

>>7774193
>How
I just call your mom. And whatever she says man. Thats the KOF that i ll play. For 2 minutes.

[Anonymous No.7778182]

Everything after Dream Match 1999 felt just a tad soul-less.

[Anonymous No.7778227]

>>7774256
Thanks, Júan.

[Anonymous No.7778245]

>>7775838
One the other or both
Most KoF02 I saw had a Spanish language hack and had Rugal available (which everyone used)

[Anonymous No.7778387]

>>7778182
problem is that "old" SNK died in 2000. then it went through de-facto bankruptcy (it was a long story) and lost some staff. kof 2000 was in a way meant as a "goodbye" game. 2001/2002 were made by Eolith, a Korean company that had former SNK members working there.
nowadays SNK say they got some old team members back on board. but alas, it's not the 90s anymore, game business changed and it's not like before when small dedicated teams made soulful 2D games for arcades. so naturally, some degree of soul will be lost.

[Anonymous No.7779916]

>tfw in my headcanon SNK died and never came back after they stopped developing games for the NEOGEO.
Feels good to be this autistic sometimes.

[Anonymous No.7779919]

>>7778387
It's a sad tale. I honestly can't say whether I'd rather they'd just stayed dead.

[Anonymous No.7780003]

>>7779919
despite everything, i can say that a lot of their post-bankruptcy output was great and surpassed 98 in gameplay. 02um and XIII were absolutely worth it, maybe include XI and 98um for good measure too. XIV wasn't bad. the worst was Maximum Impact series and 2001.
however, when it comes to art, design and atmosphere… hard to say. it's a combination of many things. just going more current year anime style with more waifus; losing Shinkiro (see pic); not having same level of artistry in backgrounds; etc. music stayed good though.

[Anonymous No.7780030]

>>7779919
SNK has made a lot of good shit in their playmore days.

[Anonymous No.7780052]

Really hope KoF never goes full capcom-retard tier with a barebones shell game they just update later. Id take yearly releases any day over that cheap shit

[Anonymous No.7780061]

>>7774193
There's literally 15, and a lot of us played the games as they came out. So for example, back in 1998 when there was a total of 5 games, I just played them all enough to formulate opinions of them and then only played the ones I liked. Since then, it's gotten easier.

[Anonymous No.7780062]

>>7780052
This is /vr/ but they already did that sans the updates.

[Anonymous No.7780137]

>>7774193
just choose whichever one mais titties jiggle the best in

[Anonymous No.7780153]

>How do KoF fans figure out which games to play?
Easily. You buy one of these.

[Anonymous No.7780159]

>>7780153
Forgot my picture

[Anonymous No.7780195]

>>7780159
Mine came in today, anon. How do you like yours?

[Anonymous No.7780247]

>>7780003
Ogura's definitely the second best artist they've had unless you count Obari or something. I also enjoy 98 and 2000 a lot more than the more max mode heavy 02UM and XIII but favorite KOFs are very much a different strokes kind of deal and XI is definitely underrated.

[Anonymous No.7780315]

>>7780195
>>7780159
dont forget to put hylo on it

its pretty good but the buttons leave a bit to be desired- sega astrocity has sanwa buttons which are leagues better

if you dont have ANY neogeo shit the stick pro is a solid choice until it skyrockets in price

[Anonymous No.7780326]

>>7780003
Nona is a good artist but his style does not fit KoF at all. Falcoon was the worst artist of the franchise

[Anonymous No.7780335]

>>7780030
The same sprite style overstayed their welcome by about 10 years. Even worse the 2d upgrade only lasted 2 games before switching to generic 3d

[Anonymous No.7780396]

>>7780195
It's fucking great. I bought the controller and I have been hosting fight parties with my coworkers almost every week. I'm satisfied with the included games (after the unlock). Hylo triples its value, if only for the Marvel fighters and the additional Metal Slugs.

[Anonymous No.7780428]

>>7774193
98, 2002, 13.

/thread

[Anonymous No.7781287]

>>7774193
>94, 95
Rough and tough
>96
Great game, Is easier and more polished but still kind of rough.
>97
Refines gameplay a little bit, story is relevant,I hate how the music stops from half the matches and there's only background noises. End of the "Orochi Saga"
>98
Takes the best parts form the other 4 games, no story, up until now every game had its own unique bosses and sub bosses, here the final boss is a rehearse from the first/second game, some characters missing but solid roster.
>99
new hero team, new gameplay elements, new story, new "saga". The changes don't make the game necessarily better. Some people like them and others don't.
>00
the last game made by the original SNK, changes a few minor things from 99.
>01
SNK is in bankruptcy, game is made by Eolith, a few radical gameplay and artwork changes, the music is also very different from the other games. End of the NEST saga.
>02
Basically 98 all over again, gameplay reverts to a simpler state I don't think there's a single (gameplay) change made in 99-01 that returns in this game. Adds super overpowered moves, no story, same boss from 98, roster is a mix between 98 and characters from 99-01 It's easier than the other games.

There's also 98UM and 02UM which are special releases of those games with lots of extra content.
Every game adds and removes a few characters, music is great on all the original SNK games. Games get more lenient as time goes on.
I haven't played the other games.

[Anonymous No.7781498]

>>7780247
people overestimate how "max mode heavy" 02um and xiii are. it's one thing what you see in Chinese pro matches, it's another thing what people actually do online. and, max mode is actually a pretty cool feature that turns all those non-cancelable overheads into something much scarier, and finally allows you to spend 2-5 bars of meter to do more damage in a combo (unlike 98 and 2000 where most of time you just used meter for guard cancels and occasional 1 bar supers). and you shouldn't forget you need meter to do them, you can't just go landing 90-100% combos all day because that likely will burn all of your meter.
speaking of 02um, approximately half of the roster doesn't even care much about max mode. most of them are quite short and the damage isn't really that high, average for 2 bars is roughly 50-60% and for 3 it's 60-70%. that said, 02um also has the hardest max combos by far, and landing them is by far harder than XIII because you don't get the auto dash. training some of them is a soul crushing experience.
XIII made those combos far easier, a lot of them are pretty easy when you understand how kof input buffer works. they also mostly do about same damage. theres only a couple HDs in the whole game that truly make people butthurt, ironically the most infamous OP stuff in the game is some EX moves and drive cancels.
XIV was when max mode started being an overkill though, they basically made it cost 1 bar, and you build meter very quickly.

[Anonymous No.7781570]

>>7780335
>The same sprite style overstayed their welcome by about 10 years.
Capcom vs SNK 2 is a top 3 fighting game for me. You're going to need a lot more than old sprites to scare me off.

[Anonymous No.7781581]

My favorite KoF character is Paul Phoenix

[Anonymous No.7781583]

>>7781581
that's polnaref u nerd

[Anonymous No.7782873]

>>7781287
>hate the background noises
But they're one of the best part of kof 97
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyk6wEA4AEw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J0THurEz9s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFVTGQH8zrg
It feels like a real fight

[Anonymous No.7782940]

>>7774256
What do you mean by “lan party”? What a hell, this is a 2 player game

[Anonymous No.7782956]

>>7780003
Shinkiro is a god among men

[Anonymous No.7783227]

>>7774193
94-98 + XIII. All others are Japanese red butt monkey shit tier.

[Anonymous No.7783240]

>>7783227
>including the trainwreck of XIII
Way to shoot yourself in the foot

[Anonymous No.7783282]

>>7782956
Man, I agree. I felt SNK lost a part of it's identity when he went to capcom during their bankruptcy. I really didn't care for falcoon's style when they took him on. Some of the other artists have been good fits, but Shinkiro will always be the best.

[Anonymous No.7783636]

>>7780247
>second best artist
I think Hiroaki deserves that spot more, if only he wasn't so underused. Ogura is very mid-tier and is responsible for a lot of bland looking designs.

[Anonymous No.7783740]

There are 14 main KoF games. Of them the most commonly played are '98, 2002, XI, XIII, and XIV. For '98 and 2002 it's usually their remade versions Ultimate and Unlimited Match respectively. 2000 is sometimes also played. The others are mostly novelty games (and 2001 is seen as the worst entry when XII isn't being harped on for being an incomplete XIII).

There is one offshoot 2D game called Neowave but it's typically ignored.

There are three 3D fighting games called "Maximum Impact" but are generally not highly regarded (although they can be fun in short bursts).

[Anonymous No.7783767]

>>7783740
>For '98... it's usually their remade versions Ultimate

No

[Anonymous No.7784418]

>>7782873
Nah, I don't know, I get what they were going for it's cool that they add to the atmosphere of the game, but in KOF 97 soundtrack, the actual music tracks are great and it's a shame you only hear them once per match.

[Anonymous No.7784686]

>>7774230
>>7774276
SVC chaos is doing well on fightcade.
There’s some crazy broken shit that happens in that game and though it’s fun, it gets overshadowed by CVS2.

I still think SVC had some of the best bosses in all of SNK

[Anonymous No.7784696]

>KOF 2000, 2002, 2003
Dem Jhun crouching short infinites tho

[Anonymous No.7785505]

Having played them all at the arcades back in the day, 2002 is the best simply due to the ease in which you can execute buffer moves and combos that were impractical in previous games without having to do frame perfect bullshit. Very few fighters in history have been able to match the fluid control of 2002 (with the notable exception of Street Fighter EX) it’s a big reason why the game is still played to this day.

[Anonymous No.7785520]

>>7784686
SvC is broken in a bad way. There’s only a few viable characters in the roster who are head and shoulders above everyone else. Geese is one of the most broken characters in any fighter.
KOF 2001 is another broken game but in that case it’s weirdly fun since half the roster is busted and the fights hinge on out cheesing the other guy.

[Anonymous No.7785560]

>>7784418
You're not wrong, 97 has some of the worst songs in the series because they decided to make at least half of the themes into ambience shit. Did you know that the Japan Theme is that guy repeating "The King of Fighters Ninety-Seven" and people cheering? That's really their whole theme!
While 97 gave as awesome themes like Still Green and the legendary Rhythmic Hallucination, most people only remember the dead ambient tracks.
For example, did you know that the Special Team (Billy, Mary, Yamazaki) all have a specific theme each? You would, if they didn't only play when fighting against them (and it wasn't as easy to get them into the enemy rotation).
Aside from that, the returning themes are way weaker. Psychl Soldier sounds like a park theme, and Esaka (Forever) has a great intro, but the rest is generic.

[Anonymous No.7785671]

>>7779919
As far i'm concerned they died after KOF XIII. Which is a high note, for me at least.

[Anonymous No.7785870]

>>7783767
Bitch.