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Feb 9th, 2007 at 12:30:45 - King of Fighters 2002/2003 (PS2) |
Today I came across my old nemisis Tuan again and we plopped 2003 in to give it a shot. As usual he quickly caught on to things but since I had already played for awhile, I had a good edge against him. He chose Kim a lot(from Capcom Vs SNK series, and many old SNK games) and got pretty good with him while learning to trap me in a corner and spam supers when I least expect it. However my best character K' always came through for me in the end.
I also remembered that along with the new switching system, there is a new move where you can attack and while doing this switch to another teamate who will jump in and attack leaving your opponent vulnerable for a couple seconds to get a combo in. Even though it uses up one bar everytime you doit, this is VERY useful if you can land it. I remember a couple times I began losing my touch on tuan but I wehn I saw an opening sometimes I would use it to switch from one of my other 2 teamates, to my leader(he always was my leader) K'. After K' jumps in and kicks the guy I would most likely follow up with his Leader Desperation Move which a lot of time would take down half an opponents life.
Eventually I played another guy named wilson who would use Kyo, Iori and another random person(he was experimenting with people). I switched up my team and began to use Tizoc. Hes basically the Zangief of SNK and hes easier to pick up then Zangief in this game. In street fighter games you would have to do a whole 360 motion just to do Zangiefs spinning air throw. However in KOF2003 you only need to do Half circle back punch to perform Tizocs. To me I think it makes him more easier and funner to play. All in all, I had a great time playing but still somehow was left with that feeling of the game missing something. This could also be because I've played KOFXI(the next game in the series), and its even better than this. I mean go down to the Santa Cruz board walk and play it and you will know what I mean. Perhaps I have been spoiled haha. Otherwise if you like fighting games and especially like SNK, this is a must have. 2003 will always be remembered as a year when KOF made a huge leap as a fighting game.
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Feb 9th, 2007 at 12:11:46 - King of Fighters 2002/2003 (PS2) |
Its been awhile since I've played a SNK game and this one made it worth it. We can see that SNK means business after being gone from the video game market around a decade ago. Should of just put 2003 since thats the only game I play on it but since technically the box comes with both games, I put 2002 in the title entry too.
When you think KOF, you think Kyo Kusanagi, Iori, Terry Bogard, and all the 3 person teams that are made every year. Up untill 2002, your matches involved you picking 3 characters and pitting them against either the arcade or your buddies. KOF2003 is no exception but this year, the rules are a little different; in a good way. Old players of Marvel Vs. Capcom will love this new system. No longer must you choose an order in which to fight with your characters. Lets say I have Kyo, Benimaru, and Shingo. I'm fighting with Kyo and get to half life and things just are working, so I simply press R1 and switch to Benimaru. It's that simple. This makes fights seem more like KOF should of always been.
The music and graphics are also very nice. You even have the option of switching both to the arcade versions which sound nice and look nice as well. Combatwise the regular and leader specials are mostly similar to past KOF games except for a certain few characters that have been tweaked a bit. Other characters have new or again a tweak in their move line up this year which means there may be new styles for you to master. Arcade is fun as usual and continues the story with new characters this year. Along with being able to unlock bosses and the huge selection of characters, you and your friends will be playing this for hours.
However as good as all of this sounds, compared to old fighting games, to me this game lacks something. You will feel it too if you play Street Fighter 3 and then play this. When comparing to other games, in this game it seems as if super arts sometimes dont take highest priority. What I mean is, in most fighting games like street fighter, if you begin a medium punch and your opponent uses shinku hadouken at the same time, the shinku hadouken would hit before your punch. Thats not the case in this game however and may leave some people feeling somewhat "robbed". I know I kind of did today when I played. All in all though this new KOF present a whole new system along with new characters stages and bosses so its still a really solid and fun fighting game.
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Jan 17th, 2007 at 20:27:33 - Soul Caliber III (PS2) |
I was reading my entry from last night and I realized that I was kind of sleepy when I wrote it haha. Soul Caliber III is in a league of its own in terms of fighting games as compared to a game like Super Smash Brothers Melee. The fact that four players can play at the same time in SSBM as compared to the usual two makes it unique compared to many fighting games. When I thought about best 3D fighting, I was still thinking about Soul Caliber II from last night haha. However this is at the top of 3D fighters as it rivals the Tekken series and the old Dead or Alive Series when it was still on playstation. What makes Soul Caliber so appealing is that in most fighting games, characters just use their fists. Soul Caliber is one of the unique fighters, where you can use weapons. So I think anyone who is into 3D fighters, should at least give this a shot.
The command lists for the each characters are still long meaning there are lots of cools moves and stances for you to learn and master. I like this compared to a lot of fighting games where all you have is a handful of specials moves. Soul Caliber III makes it so you have to practice many move strings to create strategies against other types of players. An example is that two people who play Mitsurugi, can play him two completely different ways. The more moves you pick up, the more you can mix up the fight to always keep an opponent guessing. This is how I play and I think its pretty effective when you want to play against tougher players. Unlike in most fight games as well, you have to use a button to block as compared to holding back usually. This separates casual gamers from more experienced ones. With a casual player, they wont block as much, but if you come across a player who can block both high and low combos very well, then you know they much tougher opponent. Mike was this kind of opponent haha.
In my second session, Mike came back and I got a chance to fight him again to redeem myself and we must of played for hours upon hours. Mike chose Siegfried and I chose Zaslamel after using him a couple times against Marie. I wasn't able to attack fast enough to damage him enough. However as rounds continued I begin to gradually pick up on his moves and even abused a move Mike hated. It's this one where Zaslamel hits for medium height then follows low and sends you up into the air if you don’t block. After this you can grab them in the air with his scythe and slam them down. I loved doing this countless times and I’m seriously considering, practicing with him one day to get better. However as usual haha, Mike eventually found a way around this move and I continued to get stomped by his blue haired Siegfried. It was time to bring out Mitsurugi. At the beginning I started to get beat very bad, and even got so defensive that I feared to attack. After awhile I just sucked things up and began to more adventurous with my moves. Surprisingly enough, half of them begin to work because I was now making him guess what I would do. However sometimes when I got to close Siegfried would use this move where he would kick me to stun me leaving me vulnerable for another attack. He would follow with a slash bringing me up in the air and then slamming me back down. This would take down half of my life alone unfortunately so I had to be very careful.
In later games I began to win a couple matches but still would lose until I began remembering some of my old moves from Soul Caliber II gradually. One is where Mitsurugi put his sword in and if a person does a vertical slash the minute you press B, you will almost always dodge it and slash them back in the process. Its one of my favorites because it slows a lot of my friends down allowing me for a chance to grab the upper hand. Not only this but Mitsurugi has another stance where he will arc his sword close to his face aiming at the opponent. In this style, if you get close to a person you can press the throw buttons and use his throws from the previous game which look very cool. What makes these style so cool is that if you press B+K at the same, you can switch styles on the fly. So if he saw me switch to my regular defensive position, I would sometimes switch to the attack style quickly and grab him for a easy throw. This sometimes was a double edged sword though as he would pick up on it and quickly make mince meat out of me the minute he saw me switch. In this style I have no way of doing that dodge and attack move so I’m left way open. Either way, we would break even for many matches by winning back and forth. Later he switched to Yoshimitsu which posed little challenge at first. In the couple of later matches he would do a drain technique that took my life and added it to his. Then things began to get interesting as he had many unique attacks where he spins around and hops on his sword. He seemed like he looks like one of those characters in fighting games who you think is weak but can be dangerous if played well.
I began to get beat again and finally switched to Maxi the rest of the night. He also switched back to Siegfried and began to pick a couple wins back up. The thing I love about Maxi is his nunchaku combos. If you can practice them a lot, you can remember what attacks will string off from a combo depending on where he flips his nunchaku around. My favorites is his high starts but finishing with low kicks. Unfortunately, will you play as him you will begin to notice that some of his monster combos were taken away from the previous game. However I quickly figured out how to do some of the old ones from this game and enjoyed playing with Maxi once again.
Playing with other players again made me enjoy the love of playing Soul Caliber II on Gamecube. If anyone enjoyed Soul Caliber II on Gamecube and has a PS2/3, they need to get this game. You will absolutely love the new stages, modes, music, unlockables and characters the game has to offer. As Super Smash Brothers holds the title as the best Multiplayer fighting game in my book, Soul Caliber III will continue to hold the title as the best 3D weapon fighting game.
This entry has been edited 2 times. It was last edited on Jan 17th, 2007 at 20:36:07.
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Jan 17th, 2007 at 04:09:00 - Soul Caliber III (PS2) |
The sequel to Gamecube’s best 3D fighting game in my opinion, does a great job in adding more modes and unlockable things in this game compared to the previous. They still have the traditional single player mode where you battle a random character and the same trash talking intros that gets you pumped up for the next fight. There are all new stages and music but they all go well with each character and look and sound beautiful like the old Soul Caliber II did. However in this game there is a new Tale of Souls mode where you pick a character and you go through a story. What makes this mode cool is that you can go different paths and end up with a couple different scenarios. Sometimes you'll encounter sequences where you meet up with another character and you'll have to press a button quick to dodge an attack or a random object flying at you. It gives you a feel that your choosing your fate as you fight through the story unlike the previous one. I haven't played too much of this mode but I think you do end up at the same ending regardless of your route. Don't think there is no purpose to the different scenarios though before you get to the final level. There are lots of little things you can unlock by taking different paths and beating new challenges.
There are little mini missions where you have to fulfill certain conditions to win, such as defeating a living statue, or trying to kill the three shop owners in battle when they run around the ring a lot. As all fighting games, there is also a training mode for you to practice and also in this game unlike the last, a tutorial mode to help you get used to all the technical moves that are available to you in the game. Mastering some of them help out a lot in certain cases so its a good thing to practice some of these if you want to become a lot better.
The main thing about Soul Caliber III that shines is Chronicles of the Sword mode in my opinion. The fact that you can make your own custom character and unlock loads of armor, weapons and accessories to customize them brings in a whole new level of play. When you start you choose a gender and a class. Depending on what class you choose, determines the type of weapons you use. When you level it up during the mode (by defeating people you fight on the map), you gain points and eventually level up. When you get high enough you can evil use the same styles as some of the regular characters in the game. The jist of this mode is that you create your own character and you join this army. Eventually you move up in the ranks and defend your country against other countries and gain experience to get stronger. There is a good story but I won't ruin it. Sometimes when you encounter very strong enemies, a cinematic sequence will show and they look really nice. It's almost as if this story is made just for you and your character. You meet allies along the way that you can use to fight other soldiers and warriors. Also if they lose a fight, its not like you can never use them again. However you must wait a little before you can access them again. If all your units are gone off the map due to loss at any time, you get a Game Over. So you have to be careful when deciding how many troops you send out and when to fight. I personally love this mode and the fact that after you beat it, you can use your old character again to play through again seems very appealing to me. The more enemies you defeat too, the more gold you get which you can use to buy the weapons, armor and accessories you want to use for your character. You can even buy weapons for the regular characters so that you can use them in other game modes. You and your friends can also use the items you have purchased from this mode, to create custom characters for Vs mode. I just find it so cool how diverse the character customization options are. Not only can you choose armor and weapons but you can also change the color of hair, your skin color and even the tone of your voice. This is definitely a fun mode anyone should give a shot if they get this game.
So after economics section today, I visited my old buddies Tuan and Mike(we played Super Smash Brothers Melee together). Mike said he had Soul Caliber III so I asked if we could play and after dinner, we headed back up to his room for the showdown. I started off with Mitsurugi and Mike chose Seigfried. Siegfried is a big favorite from the past with players so I know I was in for my money the minute I saw him picked.
Brief Story-
Siegfried also in this game is no longer Nightmare. Nightmare and him have split apart and Siegfried is now normal again. Soul edge is Nightmare because after Seigfried escaped the darkness of Soul Edge and left his armor at the site where he came back to normal, a new warrior in this game named Zasalamel, gave Soul Edge a body to inhabit so that it could become Nightmare again. So Soul Edge now uses the old armor from the previous game and roams the game as Nightmare once again while Siegfried sets out to destroy both Nightmare and Soul Edge.
All characters have different styles and strengths like in most fighting games. In this one, some have big weapons, some have medium size swords and other characters have small weapons. Siegfried uses huge swords. Despite his being a tad bit slow, he has great attack power. Mitsurugi seems pretty balanced like in the previous. He can move a bit faster than Siegfried and attack a bit faster at the cost of lower attack since he only uses long swords and other great katanas. Both of these characters have a couple stances which makes battles interesting. Using them can help gain the upper hand in a fight but also could leave you wide open for a big beat down. At first Mike kept destroying me haha. He needed to help a friend hook up a stereo system so another friend by the name of Marie decided to face me while Mike was gone. I already had played against her on Soul Caliber 2 as the past and she was a very good Nightmare player. Most of his moves has been split among both Siegfried and Nightmare while both incorporate some new moves of their own. However I think Siegfried plays the most similar to the old Nightmare. A lot of my fights against her would be who ever got the upper hand at the start of the fight, would most likely win the fight. Me and her both were still trying to remember old moves to use against each other while also learning new moves on the fly and using them as well. She kept me away a lot but also would slide to trip me whenever she would get a chance. I picked up on this early and learned to block it low and follow with a throw. I think this helped out a lot with changing the tide of the battle. The more I would follow up my attacks, the more she would result to blocking which would lead me to throw her again. I think at this point I just about remembered how to play Mitsurugi again. He has a stance change where if you get close to someone, you can use his old throws from Soul Caliber II, so it was very useful with faking people out tonight. I switched to Maxi for a bit but I just got obliterated by Siegfried haha. I couldn't get close to him where Maxi really shines with his combos. Ill try to use him more later.
In the end, I am really appreciating this sequel now that I got to play it against others. It still is just as appealing as the old one and as so many new features that you will be playing it for a long time which is good for any fighting game. Namco however went way over the top with this one and I think it's pretty obvious after playing it, why it made the classics list for my foundations of game design class. It has everything you could expect for Soul Caliber III to have and more. I see no reason why it doesn't deserve a 5 out of 5.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Jan 17th, 2007 at 20:33:05.
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Naroku has been with GameLog for 17 years, 10 months, and 11 days |
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