Total Eclipse Of SNK 2011

Completely forgot about watching this streamed live, but for those like me who missed it's been recorded on Ustream.



I'm just starting to watch through it now, it's 3 hours of footage in total and i believe it's the top 8 of each of the three tournaments that has been filmed (KOF98, Last Blade 2, and Garou MOTW).

Edit: Noticed that blogspot cuts off the right side of the video, those who want to watch it on Ustream directly (or full screen) here is the link: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/14374334

Edit 2: Also now available to watch on Youtube (uploaded by Soh85), watch it on Youtube here.

King of Fighters Battle Festa (Japanese Mobile Phone Game)

 

SNKPlaymore opened a new website for this mobile phone game yesterday, nothing really exciting considering the chances of them ever releasing it outside of Japan are slim to none (like nearly all of their other mobile phone games), but since it's KOF related thought i might as well post about it.

It looks like some kind of turn based battle game using sprites and backgrounds from 02UM, interestingly though i noticed Duke from Burning Fight in one of the screen shots.

It's a shame they haven't ported any of their mobile phone games onto any other mobile platform (that we can actually access outside of Japan like the iPhone/iPod Touch) as some of the games look quite interesting. 

I've only ever managed to track down a rom/emulator (that didnt run correctly) for KOF VolleyBall, and Metal Slug which i bought a while back on the iPod Touch is pretty terrible...

Anyway check out the website for KOF Battle Festa here.

Edit (1/5/11): 

Just noticed a post from a couple of days back on Andriasang where there is a better explanation of what this is.

Check out the article here.

Trouble Witches NEO! - A Quick Look

(Please note the photos in this entry i took of the Trial version last night.)

So finally was able to download the full version of this today and played it for a couple of hours, so far initial impressions of the game are fairly positive.

Open turning on the game you're presented with a variety of different game modes an Arranged 360 version of the game, the original Arcade version of the game as well as Challenge mode.

Within these modes you're also presented with additional modes, for example if you select Arranged 360 mode you can pick between story and single modes, and in challenge mode you can play 3 or 5 minutes score attack or boss attack.

The game has a voice option, so you can pick between English and Japanese, i've decided to currently leave it on English just because i find it pretty amusing how horribly bad it is (sounds almost like Vocaloid speech.) In Japanese the voice acting is good however.

Also located in the options menu is a how to play 'manual', which is pretty well presented, this also shows the various characters within the game. (Some of which you need to unlock, as well as the DLC character that hasn't been released yet.)

In the above two images you can see some of the characters within the game, the two highlighted were the ones you could pick in the demo. Including the DLC character there are about 9 playable characters total in the game, each with a different shot type and different 'familiar' shot type.

The actual game is visually quite pretty, with a 2D image background overlayed with 3D background and then the front layer of character sprites in 2D. (If that makes any sense...)

The game has been redesigned slightly from the original PC version, artwork has been redrawn and the graphics generally look alot more polished. The original version also had more of a general 2D look to it, as opposed to the 3D overlay in this one.

Although i haven't spent an extensive time with either version of the game i did notice their are more bullets in the Xbox version of the game.

In terms of gameplay the game starts out fairly easy and gradually the bullets come wave after wave thicker and faster, by the time i got up to the 5th and 6th levels (after many continues) i started to find it difficult to keep up with the bullets. Though in the first place im not a great shmup player.

Score attack mode in this game is very good fun, you basically play an altered version of the game and try to score as many points as you can within the time frame. Bullets come at you very quickly, and you don't have time to think of what to buy in the Pumpkin Girl Shop.

Whilst on the subject of the Pumpkin Girl, quite (in)famously in the original version you were able to use the wand cursor to poke her...You are still able to do this in this version but you can't poke her chest anymore...lol. 

Also something i noticed missing was the heart meter. When you poked her in the PC version some times a meter at the side lit up with hearts, though i never quite figured out what this was for...

As i mentioned about the Voice Acting in this game earlier this game also contains a ton of Engrish, quite alot of the time i can barely even understand what they are trying to say...lol.

Overall i am enjoying this game so far, with the amount of different game modes i can see myself playing it for a while (particularly score attack), for 800MS i think it is well worth the price. Hopefully it does well and SNKP publish more doujin games.

Below i've added some images of the original PC version so you can compare some of the visuals.

Enjoy!

KOF02UM VERSUS Video / King of Fighters -EX- CMV

A few new KOF02UM vids have been uploaded to Youtube by SMOAI2010.

Some great Chang play in the first half of the vid i've embedded below, one of very few times i've actually seen him being used so it's great to see him doing some damage.



Another vid i came across yesterday, which i really enjoyed watching, was this 'King of Fighters -EX-' combo music video. It features combos from pretty much all of the KOF games up to 03 (though i don't remember seeing any 94 combos), and also includes a few combos by Fiol (who i mentioned a couple of days ago).

Check it out:



Also just to note that from what i've been reading online this morning it seems that Trouble Witches NEO! is now working properly so i should hopefully be downloading the full version of that after work tonight. 

Trouble Witches NEO! Status Code: 80153422

Was looking forward to playing this properly but doesn't seem like i'm going to be able to unlock the full version of it tonight as it gives the above error screen when trying to purchase!

A quick google search reveals this is a widespread problem with users all over the world, i don't think even SNKP have realised yet judging by the fact they've just updated their Facebook page with the status:

SNK Playmore on Xbox LIVE Arcade

Hi everyone! “TROUBLE☆WITCHES NEO!” is available on Xbox LIVE Arcade for the small price of 800 Microsoft Points! Get on your broomstick and experiment alone, or with witches worldwide, in the cutest shooter ever on your Xbox 360!! Alakazam!!

It's a real shame, as judging by the trial version, it seems like a decent game and visually quite stunning. I think i may just finally just get around to playing the PC version instead until they manage to sort this out...Hopefully it won't be too long.

Blog Pages

As you may (or may not) have noticed i've been spending a bit of time trying to redesign parts of this blog.

I've only noticed the Page feature of blogspot quite recently so have been experimenting with what i can do with them, as of now there are three working pages (Blog, KOF[UK Vids], and Facebook/Twitter) and the others are just currently placeholders while i decide what best to do with them.

I've done this as an attempt to clear some of the 'clutter' in the sidebar, and to try to make the blog as easy as possible to navigate/search through various information.

The KOF[UK Vids] page will be used to showcase various UK tournament finals videos, i've not fully completed work on this section as of yet but for now it has pretty much most of the videos back to October 2009.

The Twitter/Facebook page contains plugins for the KOFUK Twitter feed and the KOF02UM[Euro] fan page.

Once i get around to it i will start working on the About page, and as i figure out more things i will keep adding to the rest of the blog. As for now it's been a long day of messing around with it and i think i've had enough :P

Trouble Witches NEO! Out Now!!

XBL has already updated with Trouble Witches NEO! Bit suprising since i thought it normally updates in the afternoon.

Anyway the game costs 800MS, and the file size is 944.96MB.
As per usual with XBLA titles a trial is available, and also they updated with two character icon packs (80MS each).

I'll be buying the game at some point after i finish work tonight, and a short write up will follow.

The Xbox.com page can be found here. (Change the en-GB to en-US in the url if you are from the US.)

Also SMOAI2010 has just uploaded a video of the NESICA version of 02UM (a tournament vid i believe), whilst as far as i know gameplay/balance wasn't changed at all in this version you do get a quick glance at the NESICA card screen at the start of the vid.

Also some nice Hinako and Lin play towards the end.

Trouble Witches NEO! Premium Themes.

Haven't logged into my XBL account for a while so didn't notice that XBL had updated with Trouble Witches NEO! Premium themes until last night while at a friend's house.

Went off to scour Youtube for videos of the themes just to see how they looked and came across these two videos uploaded by Youtube user ThemeXbox.

The first is the 'Type Witch':


And the second is 'Type Boss':


Although i doubt i will buy either (considering i only have enough points left on my account i've been saving to buy the actual Trouble Witches game), i do quite like the 'Type Witch' theme.

The actual game should hopefully be out some time tomorrow (27/4/11), i'll be sure to do a little write up once i get it.

Edit: SNKPlaymore has just updated their facebook page with some new information regarding the DLC character:

SNK Playmore on Xbox LIVE Arcade

Official Wallpaper of "Luca Yurievna Vinakol". This highly skilled 10013-year-old witch will be available as an additional DLC character from 2011, May, 11th (price TBD).

KOFXIII Beijing Videos

ItalianCrustPunx (also known as Fiol on forums) has just uploaded about 10 videos of KOFXIII play from Beijing.

I've embedded one video below, but check out his Youtube Channel for the rest (10 in total at time of this post).



Also check out his Combo Music Video he created, featuring combos from 95-01.

Old SNK Goods From Japan - Pt.3 - SamSho Keyrings / KOF98 VHS Tape

So this is the third part about my bundle of goodies i got brought from Japan.

I had originally hoped to have this all done in about 3 entries but as i wanted to put as much information about each of the different items as i could it's going to end up being a few more...lol.

So in this entry i'm covering the Samurai Shodown/Spirits keyrings and a KOF98 VHS tape.

The SamSho keyrings (they're called Keyholders on the label) are small plush type ones, unfortunately due to the fragile nature of how these were made mine seem to have small parts falling off.

I'm not sure if you can tell but Haohmaru for example his sword has come off from where ever it originally was.

These plush keyrings are made as SamSho 2 merchandise as it states on the label (Shin Samurai Spirits) by Banpresto and i think come from around 1996.

The ones my friend found for me were Nakoruru, Galford, Mizuki (i think that's her name), Haohmaru and Ukyo.

Strangely although they are keyrings, there's also a suction cup attached to it so you can probably stick it to your window or something. 

Next up is this VHS tape 'Kusanagi Kyo, Iori Yagami : Characters Mook Video - Featuring KOF98'.

This was actually kind of exciting to get ahold of, as a fan of retro gaming in general it's always nice to get things about games on VHS tape. Particularly things that havent been given or may not ever get a DVD release. (And especially since retail DVDs in Japan seem to hold a crazy price tag.)

I've not had a chance to fully watch through this yet as the only NTSC capable VCR player in my house isn't in my room, but from what i've watched of it so far (about maybe 15minutes through) it showed basically some gameplay of Kyo and Iori with their voice actors speaking over it, some art gallery things, and an interview with the two voice actors.

The booklet also mentions some kind of clip or footage from the Neo Geo DJ Station Live.

At some point i will try to do some ghetto filming of this (set up my camera in front of the tv...lol...), as i don't have any software/hardware capable of transferring it to my laptop properly. I'm not sure when i can get around to doing this, but i'll try to do it as soon as i can.

But anyway enjoy the pics of it for now :P

[Edit]: Video from the Kyo Iori Character Mook up @ http://kof-uk.blogspot.com/2011/05/kusanagi-kyo-yagami-iori-characters.html

Old SNK Goods From Japan - Pt.2 - Neo Geo DJ Station CD

Along with the previous things i also got a couple of Neo Geo DJ Station CDs.

I'm only going to cover the Neo Geo DJ Station in this one as i haven't had a chance to listen to the Live '99 version as of yet.

This CD is basically plays out like a radio show, with the occasional song and various dramas featuring Neo Geo characters. Not knowing a great deal of Japanese i'm not really able to appreciate this CD that much, but from what i can understand it is fairly amusing.

The one i probably enjoyed the most from this CD was the Mai telephone consultation drama.

For some reason this comes with a sticker sheet (see pic right at the bottom of post), they're shaped similarly to the old Neo Print stickers though i'm not sure if this is intentional or a coincidence.

You can read translated details of the dramas (as well as the track listing) in this CD over on SNK Wikia.

The fictional band featured in this CD (Band of Fighters / BoF) are made up of Kyo (Guitar), Iori (Bass), Terry (Drums), Nakoruru (Keyboard) and Athena (Vocals).

Anyway i've ripped and uploaded this cd to MediaFire, the files are ripped as wma files (my Windows Media Player doesn't work properly so i can't figure out how to change to mp3) and i've named all the files according to the listing at VGMDB.

I'm not sure whether i will also rip the Live '99 CD as it was quite time consuming to do this one, and the Live '99 one has even more tracks on it!!

Anyway enjoy the pics from the CD booklet: