King of Fighters
Jul 24, 2016 2:33:40 GMT -5
Post by Startling on Jul 24, 2016 2:33:40 GMT -5
I take issue with the bit about Samurai Shodown III "cutting its cast due to plot". That puts both KOF96 and KOF97 on a pedestal they don't really deserve, and grossly misunderstands what SS3 was about.
SS3 was completely rebuilt from the ground up. Nearly every asset in that game is new, and the huge graphical upgrade lead to every asset being a lot more complicated to draw than they were previously. Two completely different versions of twelve characters were created, and about half the designs are completely new in the first place. All of this within a year. On a related note, it's completely excusable that the game's a bit busted because of this.
KOF96, on the other hand, didn't really "redraw every sprite". Many of the sprites are physically new, but are heavily based on the previous sprites, and the graphical style is the exact same. In addition, SNK didn't even bother to finish the game in the year; there are a lot of old moves that were completed, but simply dummied out. What's actually there is constantly threatening to be the worst playing game in the entire series. It is very much a beta, but betas like 99 and even XII are better games (even FF3 (and FF2, really), which was an even more extensive overhaul than SS3 somehow, is a better game). 96 supposedly had "development troubles", but I suspect something much worse happened.
I also take great issue with outlining some rather trivial things to try and bring KOF95 down. KOF95 is generally considered to be one of the best games in the series, as everything was put together pretty tightly in a way that the vast majority of the games in the series are not. Many would probably put KOF97 over it in terms of sheer fun (it's like 95, but goes a bit too far sometimes...), but that's a different topic.
For the record, the big five KOFs are 02 and 98 tied, 97 (largely due to sheer player count), 95, and 00, in that order. The other "good" games, XI (which has really been lost to time sadly) and XIII, are different beasts played by a different audience. Bizarrely, the UMs are also included in this; 98 and 02 diehards generally avoid those games (personally I'm a big fan of things like the USA team getting gnarly buffs).
SS3 was completely rebuilt from the ground up. Nearly every asset in that game is new, and the huge graphical upgrade lead to every asset being a lot more complicated to draw than they were previously. Two completely different versions of twelve characters were created, and about half the designs are completely new in the first place. All of this within a year. On a related note, it's completely excusable that the game's a bit busted because of this.
KOF96, on the other hand, didn't really "redraw every sprite". Many of the sprites are physically new, but are heavily based on the previous sprites, and the graphical style is the exact same. In addition, SNK didn't even bother to finish the game in the year; there are a lot of old moves that were completed, but simply dummied out. What's actually there is constantly threatening to be the worst playing game in the entire series. It is very much a beta, but betas like 99 and even XII are better games (even FF3 (and FF2, really), which was an even more extensive overhaul than SS3 somehow, is a better game). 96 supposedly had "development troubles", but I suspect something much worse happened.
I also take great issue with outlining some rather trivial things to try and bring KOF95 down. KOF95 is generally considered to be one of the best games in the series, as everything was put together pretty tightly in a way that the vast majority of the games in the series are not. Many would probably put KOF97 over it in terms of sheer fun (it's like 95, but goes a bit too far sometimes...), but that's a different topic.
For the record, the big five KOFs are 02 and 98 tied, 97 (largely due to sheer player count), 95, and 00, in that order. The other "good" games, XI (which has really been lost to time sadly) and XIII, are different beasts played by a different audience. Bizarrely, the UMs are also included in this; 98 and 02 diehards generally avoid those games (personally I'm a big fan of things like the USA team getting gnarly buffs).