King of Fighters Encounter [iPhone] - A Quick Look

So after finishing work last night i spent some time trying to get KOF-e installed on my iPod Touch, most of that time being spent trying to remember what my login username was, in the end i managed to download it from the Japanese iTunes account i made when i first got my iPod Touch.

As a side note it seems Apple have made it a bit more difficult to make a new Japanese iTunes account now without a credit card, at least i couldn't figure out how to do it.

On to the actual game which i found a little dissapointing.

If you have played social networking games on Facebook before then you might know what to expect from this, given the fact that the file is only 19.2mb i should have guessed it wouldn't be an overly complex game.

When you load up the game for the first time you are prompted to select your main character, who you can also change later on through unlocking, you are then challenged by about 3-4 default opponents as part of your introduction to the game.

Gameplay is very simplistic and turn-based, each time it is your turn you press the big red button and you will attack. From what i understand you can select different skills, though this seems to crash for me so i am stuck with the default standard attack...Occasionally your character is able to do a NeoMax, as i understand it comes out at a low chance rate.

After defeating your opponent you are able to send them a message as you can see above.

If you are unable to find a local opponent then there are also other modes available such as Boss Mode where you battle naked Saiki (four different levels) and also Dark Ash.

For some reason when i was playing this earlier it managed to glitch each time i tried to enter the boss battle, with each time the game reset it also 'Cleared' each boss battle for me...Quite a strange bug but it enabled me to unlock more characters without doing very much.

Whilst on the subject of character unlocking, as mentioned you start with one character and are able to unlock the rest of the cast by either defeating a boss character or levelling up one or more characters to level 4.

There is also Training Mode for single player use. In this mode you connect to other players via the internet, though it doesnt seem to matter whether you win or lose as your level and skill bar still increase in both cases.

You can also request in set time periods (5mins/10mins/5hours/etc) for the game to pick up 'training partners', after the set time has elapsed or you reach the maximum amount of partners you can 'train' with them. (Mash the red button until you go through them all basically.)

Occasionally an Event will pop up in the bottom left of the main menu, the only ones i have seen so far involve beating up a sandbag in a set time.

Also something fairly interesting is that Iori seems to have a different pose in this game, i've read on CyberFanatix's forums that it apparently comes from his XII early designs.

Overall it isn't particularly a great 'game', most of the time spent in this app is pretty much mashing the red button, but since it is free i wouldn't complain too much.

I recorded a couple of videos last night and uploaded them to my Youtube channel for those who wanted to see how it runs.





To finish up this entry i've included some screenshots of Dark Ash.

King of Fighters Encounter [iPhone]

SNKPlaymore has just released a new free social gaming app for the iPhone called The King Of Fighters Encounter (developed by Kayac), unfortunately though so far it seems to be limited to the US and Japanese iTunes stores...

From what i have read about it so far it seems to have some kind of streetpass functionality (kind of similar to some games on the 3DS) where if you walk past another person who also has the app it will engage in a battle between both systems.

It looks somewhat like an updated version of Battle Festa which was released earlier in the year for the Japanese mobile phone services.

I'll see if i can figure out some way to work around getting it from the Japanese iTunes tonight, if i can get it to work i'll follow up with a write up. If not then i'll just have to wait until a UK version pops up on iTunes (if ever...).

For now if like me you are based outside of the US or Japan check out these articles/websites for more details:

Siliconera
AndriaSang
Kayac Inc. Website

Or if you are one of the lucky people who live in the States and has an iPhone you can grab it for free here from iTunes.

KOF-i - K' Dialogue Versus Team Japan

I think this is the last of the K' dialogues that i currently have, i'll have to double check later whether i have his dialogues against the Yagami Team and Elisabeth Team.

As i already covered his dialogue against Kyo this post only covers Benimaru and Daimon.

Some amusing undertones in the conversation between K' and Benimaru if you read it in a certain way. xD

K' Versus Benimaru Nikaido:

K' Versus Goro Daimon:

KOFXIII Blog Update - Character Changes

The official KOFXIII blog has updated with a video and list (listed as 1 so more to come) of some of the changes to the console version of KOFXIII.



Some of the changes are fairly easy to understand without any knowledge of Japanese others not so much, but not to worry since Professor over on MMCafe has kindly translated the blog entry.

KOF-i - Esaka Stage - Then And Now

Much like my post last night i'd thought it would be interesting to take a look at the Esaka stage from KOF-i and compare it to the original version(s) from KOF96. As Team Japan and the Psycho Soldiers team both shared the Esaka stage i uploaded both versions i found from Google Image just for the sake of completion.

Much like the Factory stage this stage also has cameos from other SNK characters in the form of Haohmaru sitting atop a rock/stone in the left corner of the stage.

Since i figured out a way to get both versions of KOF-i on my iPod i also included screenshots of the original version of the Esaka stage.

As you can see in the image below Haohmaru's cameo was only added to the 1.01 version of the stage, as well as Mai Shiranui appearing on the TV screen.

Also since i only managed to get back version 1.00 today i decided i might as well do a screenshot for Iori's Factory stage again so you can see the stage without the cameos (of the USA Sports Team, Rocky, and Candy).

The changes between the Esaka stages are fairly small, the biggest change would be the steps on the right hand side of the stage of the original has been changed into a similar kind of seating area similar to what appears on the left side.

I'm guessing that it was easier for them to reuse sprites on both sides of the screen to save time.

One thing i did find kind of interesting was that the SNK building's sign was not updated as SNKP, though i'm not actually sure whether SNK did actually change their sign.

Old SNK Goods From Japan S.2 - The Art Of SNK World II

It's been a while since i've done one of these write ups.

Amongst the things that my friend brought back from Japan for me were both books from The Art Of SNK World series, since i previously covered the first book i will only be mentioning the second book in this post.

The book starts with a small fold out image of Kyo and a title page featuring Chibi versions of various SNK characters, probably one of the few (maybe first) times that i've seen Shinkiro draw in this kind of style. 

Unlike the first book which had clear seperate sections for each game this one organises them into two major sections of 'Fighting Spirits' (coloured images) and 'Monochrome World' (black and white images, mainly sketches).

If you've collected a few different SNK/KOF artbooks by now you would have seen much of the Shinkiro artwork which is shown in this book for KOF so i didn't take any photos of those ones.

For KOF95 it also has full page profile images of the teams, which i felt took up needless amounts of space...You can kind of see an example of this with the bosses on the page on the right hand side. I quite liked the sketch type drawings of Iori though. 

Savage Reign is also featured in this book, which i personally liked just due to not seeing much artwork around for that game, there isn't that much though sadly.

Although i'm not too fond of the game itself i quite like these charcoal'esque images from Fatal Fury 3.

The above image i took because i found the proportions of King's chest pretty amusing, not quite sure what's going on there.

The Monochrome World section of the book was my favourite section of the book due to the range of things shown, which include 4koma (4 panel comic strips) and artwork from instruction manuals amongst other things.

The King Of The Monsters artwork was quite refreshing to see, partially because it's something i don't see much of and also because it's a game i have very fond memories of playing when i was a bit younger.

The book then ends with a Conversation section, which i skimmed over due to not knowing enough Japanese to read it, and a History Of Neo Geo sections which shows much of the games released up to the point of this book.

Overall this book is a nice addition to my growing collection of SNK artbooks, although personally not my favourite, though i think if you had the choice of choosing either the first or the second i personally preferred the first one more.

Mai Shiranui Cosplay - Giorgia

Going through my daily morning web browse routine before work i came across the above image on Kotaku of this Italian Mai Shiranui Cosplayer.

From Kotaku's page i was then directed towards her DeviantArt Page, and then from her DeviantArt Page i was directed to her main website. (Check out those two links for more images)