Miscellaneous Fighters

[Duragar]

Section for the random fighters we find while looking around the internet.

So... to get this thread going...

I think I've shown people clips from this game before, but whatever, these are some pretty combo videos.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh_tQRWrxFw
www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9LO65SZVeo

And some actual fights:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Baazgkh2KLM
www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1KxdbhLU0k

Immaterial and Missing Power, the Touhou fighting game. I find it endlessly amusing that they made the transition from a bullet hell shmup to fighting game so well. They kept pretty true to the original attacks for each character, too. I don't know enough about the game mechanics to really give a good synopsis of it, but if you're interested (which would surprise me), you can read all about pretty much everything there is to know about the game here:

iamp.mizuumi.net/index.php/Main_Page

So yeah... if you can get over the ridiculously cutesy characters, it's actually supposed to be reasonably well-balanced (though that's not to say that there aren't Tiers). Only problem is that it's a PC game... so it's either keyboard (wtflololol), or UCB controller (sigh...) to play. (Though I wouldn't be surprised if someone came out with a USB stick for this game).

And now a game I take WAY less seriously:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd19tB5K-bQ&NR=1

lolol Fist of the North Star Fighter.
Mind you, I'm neither surprised that this exists, nor at how dee dee dee broken it is. I find the Fist of the North Star series amusing, so in browsing for clips, I ran into this. Yay insta-kills that are pretty easy to hit with (I'm looking at you, original Guilty Gear).

More stupid shit:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWSlTvWmZTY - lolwut
www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8zx9qxCSvM - FAIL.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctqAkn8kn6Q - Uh....
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Wl5ET06ZjA - Bullshit (and uh, ew...)



And there's plenty more where that came from. Now, to be fair, it doesn't look like the bugs would come up in an actual fight... but yeah... that's a fail.

Least this clip looks somewhat balanced
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Nvx1JWYRPw&NR=1

Then there's MUGEN, but we all know what a mess that is, so fuck that. If you want to watch the mess people have come up with for that, you can look it up yourself. -_-;

Anyone else find random fighters that you find amusing?

[Pikachu]

HnK isn't a game people take seriously... anything that looks fair in that game is prolly being played by a guy who isn't practiced.

youtube.com/watch?v=cywGYaFTPrc

I don't even wanna get close to this crap.


This one is a bit of a cult classic even in Japan, though I suspect a lot of top players at least know how to play this game well: Darkstalkers Vampire Savior.

youtube.com/watch?v=8SyjXfWiZ54 (some finals of a Jap tourney, kinda cool, but I warn you - Dmitri is boring to watch)

youtube.com/watch?v=M7dh6CoN8zk (Daigo playing Jedah)

Other random fighters are like.. Last Blade 2, and a new release of a Samurai Spirits game. Here's a location test. Looks 3D

youtube.com/watch?v=gwreY2SE3o0

[Duragar]

Yeah... trying to make a 2-D game into a 3-D one makes the baby Jesus cry.

But in all honesty, though I love the way sprites have become high-res and beautiful, I honestly wouldn't mind 3-D graphics if the game still played like a 2-D game (The exception to this is Soul Calibur, because it was designed as a 3-D game from the get-go).

Though it's not a fighter, Megaman X8 proved that you can have a beautiful 3-D background and character models, and still have wonderful 2-D game.

And yeah, Josh is right... HnK is borken, hands down. I won't subject people to more videos because these were just outright dumb. Wasn't really amusing in the slightest.

[Pikachu]

It's hard to make the 2D-3D fighter, notable examples being Rival Schools and Street Fighter EX series. There's novelty to it, but the hard part about 3D fighters, I've come to realize, is the necessity of adding more frames to show off fluid animation. On the other hand, in 2D fighters, things happen in a much shorter span of time, since attacks come out faster, and there's more suspension of disbelief regarding animations.

That's why EX series and Rival Schools will feel a tad floaty when you play them. More animation just gets tacked on for visual purposes, which isn't a cardinal sin by any means, but it simple alters the feel to it. To date, I feel no company has successfully maintained a good 2D to 3D transition in terms of the series' classic feel. This brings another point, though... does it matter?

Well, for games where the Fighting Game Community (FGC) haven't really given the systems a lot of competitive respect, there's less attention and demand. Mortal Kombat and Samurai Spirits/Showdown are two examples. Cool themes, amusing characters, but never large-scale competitive. So when MK went 3D... well, it just became another game with better looking fatalities. I think Samurai Showdown is going that direction.

Street Fighter 4, on the other hand, has a lot of pressure to measure up. The system can still feel different, but it must retain some of the same 2D feel. Even 3rd Strike, for all its criticisms regarding space control, at least maintains the feel of 2D-ness (being actually 2D helps). SF4, though, is venturing into a bit of the EX series world, and it ought to tread carefully to not become a broken pile of shit. I think balance and quality are the true subjects here, and we've been unfortunately burned before by 3D transitions.

Of course, if we try to be objective, then we have stuff like HnK, KoF, Melty Blood, Arcana Hearts, and an assortment of fanboy chain crazy stuff to make 2D look less appealing. Oh well.

Btw, Chip, I think the videos posted are hilarious, because it's a way to remind ourselves why we play the games we do. There are some miscellaneous fighters that aren't on par with the major competitive games, but still are worth mentioning. Besides, completely dismissing a series could be a mistake. Just compare the original Guilty Gear, or even GGX to Accent Core. Worlds apart!