King Of Fighters [UK]: August 2010

Sunday, 29 August 2010

All About SNK Head to Head Fighting Games 91-00 - A Quick Look

I've mentioned this book several times before and i've always meant to do a write up but have never found the time.

Whilst browsing a review on Amazon for another art book i noticed a video review (more like a flick through the book), which i thought was a pretty good idea, and considering the size of this book i thought it'd make more sense to try doing that.

It's a fairly long video, i've had to split it into two video files to fit it onto Youtube, and i've intentionally not narrated along the video clip as i don't like the sound of my own voice.

As you can guess the book covers pretty much every fighting game made by SNK (not including stuff made by second/third party companies like ADK, etc) between 91-00. Which is pretty much up until the time of their bankruptcy and before they returned as Playmore and then SNKP.

This is actually the second book in the A.A Game History Series, the first book covers Capcom Fighting Games instead, though this is the only one i own.

Anyways enjoy the vids:

If there's any particular section you're interested in seeing, let me know and i'll try and get some photos up.

Tuesday, 24 August 2010

Super VS Battle 20-X (2010) - A Quick Write Up

So as previously mentioned Super VS Battle 20-X was held in the UK over the past weekend.
It was incredibly tiring, but overall it was a good tournament and probably the best held by NeoEmpire so far.

This year i was lucky enough to get into contact with one of Japan's top players Bata (thanks to Dark Geese), who is currently studying in the UK, and if you have seen the previous videos on my youtube channel he also came down to a session two weeks ago.

Throughout the weekend Bata dominated on 02UM, not losing one game throughout and won over 170 games in casuals. Not suprising given that the UK scene lacks players, though that is not to take anything away from his victory. He is a strong player.

Most of the weekend we were pretty much situated in the same area, and when we weren't (due to other tournaments) Gunsmith (admin of Orochinagi.com) was busy helping us get another TV and ps2 set up for casuals.

As you can see in the photo below at one point we got pretty much stuck with the smallest TV ever, i put a cigarette packet in front just to show you the scale (or lack of).

Although the turn out was a little dissapointing (about 20 players total, mainly from UK) it was nice that we had a good mix of old school Namco WonderPark players and some of the newer players all attending.
This year due to the event schedule not being up in time, many French players were unable to attend as they could not book their flights/eurostar before the event.

Hopefully though next year when the main KOF game will be XIII they will be able to attend.

There was a bit of a problem regarding finals for KOF, first we had a bit of an issue with the players not turning up on time and then there were some technical difficulties with equipment. (Not uncommon in big gaming events) So we ended up doing quarter finals up until the 3rd place match off the stage, and only the final match on stage.

Not such a big deal but it was a shame that we were unable to play all games on the big stage for the second year in a row.

In the end though as mentioned Bata was too strong for the UK and took home the SVB2010 KOF championship title.

1UP with Bata

Bata and Creme Brulee (aka dobiqwolf)

1UP, Bullet Proof (admin of NeoEmpire) and Bata

KOF Players Group Photo
(1UP, Sendo, KusoGaki, Deacon Hyral, Windton, Tim119, Cristina, Robocop2, Bata, GigaD, ZeroNiiro, and Gunsmith)

Bata and me (and the champion stick)

Also non KOF related, but SVB had a few guests over including Daigo, Yoshinori Ono, Katsuhiro Harada, and Seth Killian. (Managed to get a photos with a few of them)

Although Daigo was likely the favourite to win on SSF4, he was knocked out in the semi finals by Ryan Hart (aka Prodigal Son) who at one point was a KOF player too. Unfortunately all of Ryan's hard work kinda went to waste as he was beaten in the Finals by French player Luffy.

Me and Daigo Umehara

Yoshinori Ono and me

Katsuhiro Hara and me

Monday, 23 August 2010

Super VS Battle 20-X (2010) - KOF02UM Results

Was a long and exhausting weekend but Super VS Battle has ended, i will do a full write up when i get the chance but i'm still tired from the weekend and have had a busy day at work so i'll start out with just the results and hopefully tonight or tomorrow when i get the chance i will do the write up.

So down to the nitty gritty, the results are as follows:

1. Bata [JPN]
2. 1UP [UK] (SvB2007 Second Place of KOF02)
3. Tim119 [TWN/UK] (SvB2009 Winner 0f KOFXII)
4. Giga_D [UK] (SvB 2008 Third Place of KOF02)

and the rest of the top 8:

Cristina [UK]
Deacon Hyral [UK]
Enrique [FR] - Disqualified due to not turning up on time.
Kaphwan [UK] - Disqualified due to not turning up on time. (SvB2007 Winner of KOF02)

Groups:

Finals Bracket:

Videos from the finals as well as a few casuals are up (or going to go up) on my youtube channel.
(@ http://www.youtube.com/kusocamera )

Saturday, 14 August 2010

Arcadia Magazine [Sept 2010] - A Quick Look

Apologies for the lateness again, don't seem to have much spare time lately, but of course it's always better late than never.

So as you can probably tell from the cover this month's Arcadia is a KOFXIII special and covers hyperdrive combos, character overviews/combos, and a continuation of the team stories.
Again the issue opens up with KOFXIII and Neo Geo Heroes advertisements.

The first part of the KOFXIII feature basically is a rundown of the game's system, including all things like jump heights, explaining hyperdrive, and all the other bits and pieces new and old to this version of KOF.

The next part is character overviews, basic combos, i've already started translating some of the combos in previous blog entries, and explaining uses for certain moves, etc. There's also a 'close up' for each character, and in the case of Raiden it shows the different properties of his dropkick move depending on how long you hold the kick button.

The usual Neo Geo fan club featuring fan art of course is present as always, there are quite a few pieces of fan art this month i'll include them at the end of this write up.

There's also a Tougeki feature on KOFXIII, as you may or may not know it will be a tournament game this year, about characters who are currently popular and expected to be used at Tougeki.
K'/Mature/Iori are the most popular, Kyo/Elizabeth/Maxima are second most popular and they have Raiden and Takuma as wild card characters (due to both characters being able to dish out massive amounts of damage).

Also included are a list of Hyperdrive combos, although not the best combos i'd assume these were included and are more suited for beginner players. I've already seen videos of combos which do much more damage than the ones shown here.

Last but not least the team stories, i've included the pictures at the end of this entry, not much to say about this as i'm unable to read it.

If you want to pick up this issue, it's still available on Playasia for about £16 (after shipping).

I've also received the KOFXIII Master Guide in the past week, which i think i might have mentioned already, hoping to write up about that soon if i have the time. (Still got another pile of books i keep meaning to write up about...)

Anyway enjoy the rest of the pics!

Arcadia Sept. KOFXIII Combos pt.2 - Team Japan, and Team Yagami

Second part of the Arcadia combos translated, Garou and Psycho Soldier teams will follow once i've done them. Still need to get around to doing the Sept. issue write up, will hopefully try to do that soon as well as a write up about the KOFXIII guide.

Kyo:
1. cr.B (x1/2) -> st.B -> (hcb+B/D) or (dp+C (one hit) -> drive cancel -> qcf+D -> rdp+B -> (rdp+BD) or (qcb,hcf+AC) )
2. close st.C -> qcf+D -> (hcb+D) or (rdp+B -> rdp+BD) or (qcb,hcf+AC) or (rdp+B -> qcb, hcf+A/C* -> rdp+D(corner).

*air version of orochinagi, not ground one.

Benimaru:
1. jump D -> (close st.D) or (cr.Bx1/2) -> (qcf+B/D~d,u+B/D) or (hcb,f+A/C) or (qcfx2+AC)
2. cr.B(x2/3) -> (qcf+B/D~d,u+B/D) or (qcfx2+AC)

Goro:
1. st.B -> dwnF+C -> qcb+B -> hcb,f+A/C
2. (corner) jump C -> close st.C -> dwnF+C -> qcb+B -> hcb,f+AC -> dwnF+C x3 -> hcf+A

Iori:
1. Close st.C -> f+A -> qcb+B -> drive cancel -> (qcb+A/C or (hcf+A/C -> attack)
2. (back close to corner/wall) hcf+A/C -> dp+C -> qcb+B -> qcb+A -> close st.C

Mature:
1. cr.B -> cr.A -> (qcb+A/C) or [qcb+AC -> Drive Cancel -> dp+A~A -> (qcb+B) or (opponent in corner: qcb+A/C -> qcb+A/C -> st.C)]
2. qcb+D -> close st.C -> qcb+B -> Drive Cancel -> qcb,hcf+B/D

Vice:
1. cr.Bx3 -> (qcb+A~qcf+A/C) or [hcf+BD -> close st.D -> f+A -> (hcb,f+A/C) or qcb+C~qcf+A/C)]
2. close st.D -> f+A -> qcb+AC -> (qcb+A~qcf+A/C) or (close st.D -> hcf+BD -> close st.D -> f+A -> hcb,f+A/C)

Wednesday, 11 August 2010

Modern Warfare 2 Demo Glitch, XBLA

This is a bit of a weird one, especially since Modern Warfare has absolutely nothing to do with SNKP, but i got a message from my friend this morning before work telling me that the demo for Modern Warfare 2 causes a 'free game' glitch for certain SNK games.

What appears to be the case is that booting up the demo for MW2 and then quick launching an SNKP trial title (only 5 are affected; KOF98UM, SamSho2, Metal Slug 3, Metal Slug XX, and Garou:MOTW) grants access to the full SNKP game.

I'm not sure how this has happened and what caused it, but i did manage to test it before work and can say that it did in fact work for Metal Slug XX. Even though you can play the full game, it does not give you the game permanently.

Strangely it appears that it is only these five SNKP titles that are affected, i've not yet heard of any others having this problem.

I doubt this glitch will last forever though.

Tuesday, 10 August 2010

Arcadia Sept KOFXIII Combos pt.1 - Ash, and Elizabeth Team

Just received my copy of the September issue of Arcadia this morning, didn't have time to take pictures for a write up before i headed off to work but since i brought the magazine with me to have a browse through i thought i'd try to translate some of the combos shown in the magazine.

So far just Ash and Elizabeth's team's combos are done.

Ash:
1. Close st.C -> bk+B > (chrg.dwn, up+B) or (qcf+BD)
2. Jump D -> Close st.C -> chrg.bk, f+C -> Drive Cancel -> (qcb+*) -> chrg.bk, f + A -> chrg.bk, f+A -> chrg.dwn, up+D.

* The move is the EX version of his qcb+A/B/C/D, i am not sure the button combination input.

Elizabeth:
1. cr.B -> cr.A -> dp+A -> dp+A -> jump forward+C -> qcf, hcb+A/C
2. (Corner) Close st.C -> f+B -> dp+C -> qcf+C -> dp+A -> dp+A -> Jump C -> qcf, hcb+A/C

Duo Lon:

1. cr.B -> cr.A -> qcf+A/C (x3) -> qcf+B -> (st.A) or (qcb,hcf+AC)
2. Close st.C -> (f+*) -> crouch A -> st.C -> qcf+A/C(x3) -> qcf+B/D -> (st.A) or (qcb,hcf+AC)

* The movie is the EX version of his f+B, i am not sure the button combination input.

Shen Woo:
1. cr.C -> f+B -> qcf+BD -> qcf+D -> [qcf+D -> medium jump+C] or [qcb+A~qcf+A -> Drive Cancel -> qcf+C -> qcf+A -> (qcfx2+AC) or (cr.C)]
2. cr.B -> cr.A -> hcb,f+AC -> qcb+A~qcf+A -> Drive Cancel -> qcf+D -> qcb+A~qcf+A -> Drive Cancel -> qcf+ C -> qcfx2+A/C

Wednesday, 4 August 2010

HK PSN 50% off Fighting Games Sale!

For those of you who use a Hong Kong PSN account (not very difficult to set up and get hold of HK PSN cards), there is currently a 50% sale on selected fighting games.

Included are the psOne Classics: KOF97, KOF98, KOF99, and Samurai Shodown III. Each now costing HK$16 (Just a little over £1!!)

Whilst the conversions on ps1 are not that great, KOF98 (which i already own) loads between rounds and if i remember correctly music also restarts each round, the prices are actually very cheap.

More details can be found here.