Neobitz' Knight's Chance MVS Collectors and Standard Edition Details.

 

Neobitz have posted up some details of what is to be included in the Collectors and Standard editions of their title, Knight's Chance, good to know they aren't sacrificing old MVS carts to make this game. 

Preliminary Knight's Chance MVS Collector's Edition and Standard Edition.

Standard Edition Includes:

MVS Cart (New shell + custom PCBs). No SNK parts used!

Mini-Marquee
Flyers
Soft DIP Settings Sheet
MVS Cardboard Box

Collector's Edition Includes:

Everything from SE plus:
Shockbox + Insert
Custom Playing Cards
Poster (not pictured)

Final art subject to change. Meg size not finalized.

Collector's Edition will come with the option to reserve a serial number (first come, first serve basis).

Pre-Orders will open once we finish setting up the pre-order page.

We're trying to aim for a December 2013 release date, depending on production time.

COMPGAMER TV : The King of Fighters Online Review/Gameplay

cgnnews has just uploaded a video recently, which is actually a review I believe, but as I can't understand Thai I just watched a bit of the gameplay instead. 

The video itself is over 30minutes long and shows gameplay pretty much throughout. 

It's weird though, as my preconception of the game was that it would be some kind of scrolling beat'em up type game, but it looks more in line with games like maybe Starcraft type games. 

If you look at the KOF Online official site it does seem you are able to download it now, though I gave up halfway through trying to figure out to register. (May try again when I'm less tired from work.)

Gunlord headed to 3DS/Wii-U - Indiegogo campaign

NGDEVTEAM are looking to bring Gunlord to the Nintendo platforms of the 3DS and Wii-U and have started a crowd funding campaign on Indiegogo.

Previously this was released on the AES and Dreamcast, but now they are looking to bring the title to a wider audience. 

I've only ever managed to play one of their titles, Fast Strikers, which was released on iOS platforms a few years back. For some reason it was pulled from the iTunes store, which I'm a bit gutted about as I deleted it at one point and have no way to download it again now!!

Anyways for those interested to help fund their campaign, please check out their campaign on Indiegogo.

Knight's Chance (MVS) - Attract Sequence

Neobitz has uploaded a new video to their Facebook page, showing off the attract sequence for their MVS title, Knight's Chance. Judging from what is being said on the Facebook page, the game is pretty much finished and should start being prepared for preorders some time in the next couple of months.

KOF Online - Gameplay footage!

As I mentioned previously some kind of location test was held recently in Thailand where a few players were able to get their hands on playing the upcoming KOF Online game. Footage from this has now appeared on Youtube, via the channel cgnnews

Judging by the video it looks to me like it may be some kind of team battle game, maybe not so different from games like League of Legends, but as I don't play PC games so much it's difficult for me to draw a comparison to anoher game.

I think it looks pretty cool though, and hopefully my laptop will be able to run it once it is released, it's been a long time since I've played any online games. The last online game I was playing was Maple Story, and only stopped because access to the Global server, where my character was made, is restricted in Japan. :(

Xuan Dou Zhi Wang (but as a beat'em up) headed to iOS

Xuan Dou Zhi Wang, which recently added Terry and Benimaru to it's character roster, is set to be headed for iOS devices but as a beat'em up. 

No details as of yet when it will be released or how much it will cost as of yet. 

Still haven't had the time to check out this game yet myself, have seen a few videos on Youtube but don't tend to like playing games on PC so haven't gotten around to trying it out yet. 

Check out the video below for footage of Terry in the fighting game version for PC. 

KOF Online - Location Test (?) in Thailand

There appears to have been some kind of location test (or possibly a press invitational event) held recently, where some people were able to test the beta for KOF Online.

Sadly I can't read Thai, and Google Translate doesn't always make much sense.
But for those of you who can, you can check out the news here. 

A Quick Look Back at GamesMaster (UK TV Show)

For those who may not know, Gamesmaster was a television programme which ran in the early to late ninties on British television.

Because back in those days the internet hadn't become the mainstream tool we all use today, it was one of the few sources of gaming information in those times. (Other than games magazines of course.)

Actually it was one of the things which had made me interested in the Neo Geo in the first place.
I remember seeing challenges on King of the monsters, Soccer Brawl and even KOF95. (See video below for the KOF challenge.)

Since then I don't believe there has been a television show in the UK for gaming that has ever matched it's popularity, so many gamers in the UK remember this television show very fondly.

In the later series of the show you can even see some of the fighting games players from the UK, who are still playing fighting games today!

Recently I've been working my way through watching every episode again, since luckily Youtube user DynamiteHeaddy has uploaded them all. He's also uploaded various other UK TV shows from the 90s, so it's worth checking out his channel.

Although the show nowadays may seem a bit silly, back then it was one of the best television programmes!

You can read more about the show on Wikipedia.

Aquapazza US Version Preoder - $34.90 (£22.41)

 Playasia have listed the preorders for the US version of Aquapazza for $34.90, and you can get free economy shipping too!

Still haven't played this myself, I see it on the shelves a lot in my local Book Off but there's always something cheaper that I want to buy instead.

Star Gladiator Episode:I Final Crusade (PS1) - Basic Combos with Hayato and June

Randomly found this on my shelf yesterday, actually bought it last year during one of my shopping trips to Akiba for 50Yen in Traders' junk corner, but haven't actually played it before.

Decided to throw together a quick little combo video, a couple of the combos are actually not true combos as the computer can roll out of them, and the combos with June were just thrown in to add extra footage.

Actually quite enjoying playing it at the moment, mainly play with Hayato at the moment and managed to complete it earlier.

I think I have the second game somewhere back in London, so may have to dig it out and give it a play when/if I go back there for a holiday this year.

KOF Online - Joe / Tizoc Skill videos

The official channel for KOF Online (ggchannelofficial) has uploaded a couple of new videos showcasing the skills useable for Tizoc and Joe.

Check them out below:





Also the main image above is by karlonne on Deviantart, just a random picture I came across on Google and thought was great.

Street Fighter 2: Hyperfighting - Homebrew for the Virtual Boy

Seems like someone over on Planet Virtual Boy's forums has created a homebrew demo version of SF2:HF for the Virtual Boy!

Whilst not my personal preference of hardware, I do enjoy seeing people working on and releasing games for consoles that have long been 'dead'.

Check out some screenshots of the game below:

 

Unfortunately from what I understand this doesn't appear to work with normal emulators, and has so far only been said to work with original hardware with a Flashboy cartridge.

If for some reason you happen to own both a Virtual Boy AND a Flashboy cart, check out Planet Virtual Boy's forums for the rom.

Also check out the brief footage of the game running via Retrocollect's Youtube Channel:

King of Fighters Online - KOF MMO

Seems like this is finally going into closed beta towards the end of the year, there have been various announcements for KOF Online over the years but it seems this is the first time it's actually made it to the beta stages. 

I can't read any Thai, but if  you can, check out the website and Facebook pages. 

A few short clips have been released showing a few special moves with Kyo, Terry, and Iori.

Looks pretty good to me, not too sure how fun it'll be but it's been a while since I've gotten into any kind of MMO type game, so hopefully once it makes it out of beta I'll check it out.

Also just in case you were curious this was one of the previously released videos a few years back, seems like it's been reworked quite a bit since then.

Dragon's Crown 1.01 Game Update Patch

 

Dragon's Crown has been updated to version 1.01 recently, I think the most useful part of the update for me is the ability to repair all of your equipment in the shop with a single button press.


See the full details below:

[Bug Fixes] Stabilized network connectivity during online gameplay. [New Features] Hidden items can now be uncovered by simply moving the finger cursor over their location. The item hotkeys can now also be accessed by holding the L1 Button (PS3)/L Button (PSVita). Dagger and Bomb items can now be thrown diagonally by pressing Up on the Left Stick + Triangle button. An option to fix all items at once in your bags has been added to Morgan’s item shop. In the Options Menu, you can now select the area you wish to be matched in for online play. [Feature modifications] Arrow drops will increase according to how many Elf characters are in the party. The visibility of inventory Runes while the player is near the bottom of the screen has been improved. Other tuning and minor improvements to various gameplay elements were made.
Read more at http://www.siliconera.com/2013/08/23/dragons-crown-patch-adds-new-features-and-tweaks/#3xikwGYHqbU6uZps.99

 

 

[Bug Fixes]

• Stabilized network connectivity during online gameplay.

[New Features]

• Hidden items can now be uncovered by simply moving the finger cursor over their location.
• The item hotkeys can now also be accessed by holding the L1 Button (PS3)/L Button (PSVita).
• Dagger and Bomb items can now be thrown diagonally by pressing Up on the Left Stick + Triangle button.
• An option to fix all items at once in your bags has been added to Morgan’s item shop.
• In the Options Menu, you can now select the area you wish to be matched in for online play.

[Feature modifications]

• Arrow drops will increase according to how many Elf characters are in the party.
• The visibility of inventory Runes while the player is near the bottom of the screen has been improved.
• Other tuning and minor improvements to various gameplay elements were made.

Also as noted on Siliconera the European release date will be October 11th. Hopefully if I go back to London at the end of the year, it'll be a bit cheaper by then and I can pick up the ps3 version.

[Bug Fixes] Stabilized network connectivity during online gameplay. [New Features] Hidden items can now be uncovered by simply moving the finger cursor over their location. The item hotkeys can now also be accessed by holding the L1 Button (PS3)/L Button (PSVita). Dagger and Bomb items can now be thrown diagonally by pressing Up on the Left Stick + Triangle button. An option to fix all items at once in your bags has been added to Morgan’s item shop. In the Options Menu, you can now select the area you wish to be matched in for online play. [Feature modifications] Arrow drops will increase according to how many Elf characters are in the party. The visibility of inventory Runes while the player is near the bottom of the screen has been improved. Other tuning and minor improvements to various gameplay elements were made.
Read more at http://www.siliconera.com/2013/08/23/dragons-crown-patch-adds-new-features-and-tweaks/#3xikwGYHqbU6uZps.99

[Bug Fixes] Stabilized network connectivity during online gameplay. [New Features] Hidden items can now be uncovered by simply moving the finger cursor over their location. The item hotkeys can now also be accessed by holding the L1 Button (PS3)/L Button (PSVita). Dagger and Bomb items can now be thrown diagonally by pressing Up on the Left Stick + Triangle button. An option to fix all items at once in your bags has been added to Morgan’s item shop. In the Options Menu, you can now select the area you wish to be matched in for online play. [Feature modifications] Arrow drops will increase according to how many Elf characters are in the party. The visibility of inventory Runes while the player is near the bottom of the screen has been improved. Other tuning and minor improvements to various gameplay elements were made.
Read more at http://www.siliconera.com/2013/08/23/dragons-crown-patch-adds-new-features-and-tweaks/#3xikwGYHqbU6uZps.99

[Bug Fixes] Stabilized network connectivity during online gameplay. [New Features] Hidden items can now be uncovered by simply moving the finger cursor over their location. The item hotkeys can now also be accessed by holding the L1 Button (PS3)/L Button (PSVita). Dagger and Bomb items can now be thrown diagonally by pressing Up on the Left Stick + Triangle button. An option to fix all items at once in your bags has been added to Morgan’s item shop. In the Options Menu, you can now select the area you wish to be matched in for online play. [Feature modifications] Arrow drops will increase according to how many Elf characters are in the party. The visibility of inventory Runes while the player is near the bottom of the screen has been improved. Other tuning and minor improvements to various gameplay elements were made.
Read more at http://www.siliconera.com/2013/08/23/dragons-crown-patch-adds-new-features-and-tweaks/#3xikwGYHqbU6uZps.99

[Bug Fixes] Stabilized network connectivity during online gameplay. [New Features] Hidden items can now be uncovered by simply moving the finger cursor over their location. The item hotkeys can now also be accessed by holding the L1 Button (PS3)/L Button (PSVita). Dagger and Bomb items can now be thrown diagonally by pressing Up on the Left Stick + Triangle button. An option to fix all items at once in your bags has been added to Morgan’s item shop. In the Options Menu, you can now select the area you wish to be matched in for online play. [Feature modifications] Arrow drops will increase according to how many Elf characters are in the party. The visibility of inventory Runes while the player is near the bottom of the screen has been improved. Other tuning and minor improvements to various gameplay elements were made.
Read more at http://www.siliconera.com/2013/08/23/dragons-crown-patch-adds-new-features-and-tweaks/#3xikwGYHqbU6uZps.99

SNK USA's Office - Back in 1995

Recently stumbled upon the website neogeo.ch. who have posted up photos from their trip to the offices of SNK USA back in 1995!! Although this original office has long since closed, it's still great to check out some of the history of SNK, and how it was like in it's heyday.

The site seems to be in German, but I put the gallery description into Google translate and this is what I got:

At this point I would like to thank the entire 95er team from SNK USA. Thank you that you treat your fans as well, and (as a kind of proof) a few freaks as you have gotten ourselves into. For me, a real childhood dream has come true and it was an event that I will never forget all my life. Thank you SNK, this I will never forget! Master (G)

You can check out more of their photos on neogeo.ch here.

Yatagarasu heads to the Vita as Legend of Raven

Almost exactly one year ago, I posted about the possible 3DS release of Yatagarasu.Seems like since then, Nicalis have changed their minds and are instead choosing to publish it to the Vita system and are giving it the localised title of Legend of Raven.Not too sure if that title is even correctly translated considering wikipedia tells me it's a three-legged crow.

Still haven't gotten around to playing the full version of this game yet, I think I dabbled with an early version one or two years ago, so it'd be nice to play this on a console. (Even if it is a portable.)

Anyways check out more details and screenshots over on Tinycartridge and Siliconera.

KOFXII licence plate

Saw this over on SNK-CAPCOM, and thought it was pretty amusing.
You can read the full story behind this license plate here.

I don't think it's something I'd ever do, plus I don't drive anyway, but it's pretty cool nonetheless.

King of Fighters XIII Steam Edition BETA test - SRK and Orochinagi beta key giveaways

If you weren't selected for the Beta test for the Steam Edition of KOFXIII, then there are currently giveaways over on Orochinagi and Shoryuken.com.

My laptop is too weak to play it, so I think after playing a bit more of Dragon's Dogma )which I picked up recently) then I'll finally buy the digital PS3 version, since you get all the DLC if you buy the gold edition. 

Rumour: New KOF Dream Match in development. ??

Saw this posted over on MMCafe's forums.

According to this rumour, SNKP are planning to release a dream match game to mark the 20th anniversary for the series.

From MMCafe's forums:

- Marking its 20th anniversary next year, The next KOF is currently in preparation for (arcade) operation around October. First details are slated for release around March - April.

- It will be a Dream Match and won't be a numbered title. It might possibly feature a subtitle instead.

- Over 50 characters are slated for the game. 36 characters are already solid for the lineup; their design and figures are already under development.

- They (SNK Playmore) are planning the sensational return of character(s) not in the KOF series.

- The sprites used in XIII will not be recycled. They are re doing everything in 3D for 1080P. (It isn't the method where they use 3D models and do the 2D pixel art based on them). This is for using various character ???? (toon rendering?) and technology in order to make use of camera angle and effects, meanwhile keeping the same speedy gameplay as the game did in 2D.

- (not too sure on this) The system has some issues which are still being fixed?

- The combos will be easier than the system in XIII to make the game more friendly to players. They are giving consideration to makeing the game's combo more like 98.

- The development is costing them the most budget and most staff in the series' history, and they're still seeking for additional recruits. (No word on what board the game will run on).

Please note: that at this point this of course is still a rumour, and may not be indicative of what the next KOF release will be like, so make of it what you will.

But of course if true this is exciting news, there are many characters that I would love to see making their way back to KOF!!

Chaos Code - Random Combos with Hikari and Kagari video

Just something I made yesterday for fun, since I haven't updated my Youtube channel for such a long time I thought I'd finally make something.



I only bought this game last week from the Japanese PSN so everything shown is very basic, and without much knowledge of how the game's system works. Also playing on pad because I can't afford a joystick at the moment. (Decent joysticks are pretty expensive here.)

Also shoved in a clip of the 'Hasta la vista baby' scene from the Japanese dub of Terminator 2, since I was watching the JP dubbed video last night.

DashXero's Dragon's Crown Fan art

Originally saw this over at Tinycartridge, some great pieces of fan art by Tumblr user DashXero.
Of the ones that were on there, this was my personal favourite.

Check out more of his work here.

Chaos Code heading to US PSN

Just saw this over at Shoryuken, apparently Chaos Code is going to be released on to the US PSN sometime in the near future. You can check out the 'Coming soon' teaser here, and the game's trailer below:




I actually just picked this game up on the JP PSN this past week, and it's pretty fun. Just a shame there's no online play option, if I have some time within the next couple of days I may do a write up about it.

Dragon's Crown - Upcoming figures.

I came across some news today regarding the upcoming releases of some Dragon's Crown figures.

First up we have the lovely Sorceress, from Alphamax

Next from Megahouse, we have two upcoming releases for the Elf and Amazon.

And a few garage kits from Mad Hands:

And last but not least we have a few placeholder images for upcoming releases from Orchid Seed and Vertex.

Of the lot I would say I would be most interested in getting the releases from Mega House, I've bought a few of their figures in the past (at the top of my head I can remember buying a Rangiku Matsumoto figure) and it was pretty high quality.

I don't think any of these are out for a fair while, but hopefully by the time the Mega House ones come out I'll have enough cash to buy them!!

King of Fighters XIII - Steam Edition

SNKPlaymore has been posting up on it's KOF-i Facebook page today about the closed beta test for the Steam edition of KOFXIII.

Only 300 people will be randomly drawn to take part, and you have to have the correct minimum specs to sign up for it. Given that my laptop definitely isn't powerful enough to run it, I don't think I will take part but if you do have a laptop/PC built for gaming then you can sign up to the beta test and read more details here.

Pokemon Tretta discs - A Quick Look

It's been a while since I've written a proper entry on here about anything, so I thought I would start off with something that interested me lately, which is Pokemon Tretta.

Basically this is one of the many arcade games that you find in arcades/toy stores around Japan. You put in 100yen, and have a choice of either playing the game to earn a Pokemon disc, or you can skip the game and just get the disc straight away.

The game works very much like a Pokemon battle, you can either use your own discs to select your 3 Pokemon or use the default Pokemon given to you if you do not have any discs yet.

After playign the battle, you are given the chance to catch the 3 wild Pokemon you have just faced off against. Once caught you are given the choice to select which Pokemon you would like the disc to be dispensed for, if you have caught more than one than you are given the choice to insert another 100yen coin for the machine to dispense the disc for that Pokemon.

It's fairly straightforward, and I managed to play through it with a basic understanding of Japanese.

If you would like to read more about the game you can check out Bulbapedia.

So onto what I wanted to write about today. As you can see above these are the various discs that are dispensed from the machine.

As far as I am aware the different colours correspond to the different series in the game.
For example the white discs belong to series 1, green is series 3, etc.  
The orange ones though belong to the Promotional series, these are usually given out with magazines or, in the case of the Red Genesect shown, when you go to watch a Pokemon movie in the cinema.

Although the earlier series only have the Pokemon names written in Japanese, the latest series also has their names written in English.

Also you may notice the Chandelure is a bit shiny. In the case you catch a 'strong' Pokemon the disc that you are dispensed with have that glittery sticker instead of the normal one. 

On the side of each discis the name of each Pokemon in Japanese, as well as what I believe is the series number and the number or that Pokemon in the current series. Also if you look closely the spines for each disc contain part of an image of a Pokemon, meaning that if you collect a set you can see some pictures of various Pokemon. 

On the back are the details of the stats of each Pokemon.

On the top you can see what attacks the Pokemon is capable of doing, through the centre (depending on the series) is the HP level, energy level, and description, and finally on the bottom are the stats for attack, defense, speed. 

Generally speaking I'm not a Pokemon fan but after reading about the massive add-on for the 3DS game Pokemon Tretta Lab I was inclined to check it out. It's quite an interesting game, I'd never played one of these 'card' games before so it was a nice entry point into these types of machines.

At the moment I have a few of these discs up on auction on eBay, so if you are interested you can check out my current auctions here.

It's been a while...

Hi everyone,

Not too sure if anyone still even reads this blog, I'm sorry I haven't been able to keep it up to date, unfortunately moving to Japan has meant a lot of changes in my life so it's been difficult to maintain a blog and adjusting to life here in Japan.

I'm still alive, now working as an assistant language teacher and living in Funabashi, Chiba. 
The pace of life has slowed down for me lately so I can probably try to maintain this blog a whole lot better, especially as I'm on summer holidays/vacation at the moment.

I've thought about updating the site for a while, but because I don't play much KOF nowadays I just don't have the motivation for it. I think not having a PS3 or 360 for over a year just made me lose interest.
Although I still intend to update with KOF/SNKP news, I think that I will change the direction of this site to adjust to my changes in interest and life.

As you may notice from the new banner, lately I'm really into Dragon's Crown as well as a lot of retro gaming. So I think I'll maintain this blog as the main theme just being general hobbies and such.

Anyway thanks to anyone who has maintained some interest in this blog, hopefully it'll get better in the future!!