When it comes to shonen manga, anime and games, there are few with as much knowledge and love as the Shonen Otaku. Join me as we look at the settings and characters that give us our favorite stories in both anime and gaming.
I'm sure you're all looking forward to my retrospective on King of Fighters 2003. Unfortunately, life is getting in the way and making that next to impossible, seeing as how I need to write a 3-page essay (single-spaced) within a week. In the meantime, I can spare the time to touch on something that tangentially relates to King of Fighters.
Mark of the Wolves is a sequel to the original Fatal Fury games. In it, a new fighting tournament is held (surprised?), and several new characters join the fray. In fact, it's almost entirely composed of new characters. The only returning Fatal Fury character taking part in Mark of the Wolves is Terry, who sports a new brown jacket instead of his usual vest and hat.
Everyone who isn't Terry is either all-new or a relative to a Fatal Fury character, with the most prominent being Rock Howard.
That's right. Howard. Rock is Geese's son, but he didn't inherit his father's villainy. In fact, Rock Greatly resents his father, and is instead something of a little brother figure to Terry. Both Terry and Geese's influences can be seen in the way he fights.
He doesn't appear in the King of Fighters games I'm covering, but it's worth noting that he has appeared in the King of Fighters: Maximum Impact spin-off games and the spectacularly excellent Capcom vs. SNK 2.
If you want me to cover this one, tell me in the comments.
More relevant to King of Fighters, hailing from Mexico is Tizoc, sometimes known as Griffon.
Like most Mexican fighting game characters, Tizoc is a luchador; a masked wrestler. He was very popular among children until he was defeated by a mysterious man, whom he tenaciously searched for before deciding to regain his glory by entering the new tournament. That may make him sound like a glory hog, but Tizoc is actually just a spirited competitor with a strong sense of justice.
Combat-wise, he's not as fast as Ramon, but not as slow as Street Fighter's Zangief. As you might expect from a professional wrestler, he uses a lot of grabs and body slams.... Except he does it for real. Just like...
This guy: Gato. Gato is that stock anime character that is always serious, thinks he's the best, and is absolutely ruthless in his effort to keep his pride, much like Seto Kaiba and Vegeta. He's a hitman for hire, and much like Ryuji and Billy, is too cool for guns or practicality. Unlike the other two hired psychos, this guy had no need for weapons. Gato assassinates with his acrobatic kung-fu, as shown(-off) with a move in which he jumps on his opponent and snaps their neck. Believe it or not, he actually has a sister:
Hotaru Futaba is nothing like her brother. She's kind, outgoing, and even has her own pet, a Japanese animal called a Marten. Even her fighting style is nothing like Gato's, utilizing ki for projectiles & reflectors, and a stance system. Much like Kasumi Todoh with her father, Hotaru is searching for her brother (who she seems to keep missing).
But there's one more important female character to cover.
Move aside, Hotaru!
Those are the Lillien Knights, a band of pirates led by their rich and beautiful captain Bonne Jenet.
Bonne Jenet organized the Lillien Knights out of boredom. Her parents are extremely wealthy, so she had the money to spare for her hobby. What Jenet does she seems to do for fun and excitement, which makes her somewhat relateable to gamers who play games for the same reason.
Her running animation.
Although she's a pirate, nothing has shown her to be evil. In fact, despite being very harsh on them, the Lillien Knights really like her and are very loyal to Bonne.
She gets along with Tizoc too. How bad can she be?
And she has a good theme too.
As for how all this will relate to King of Fighters, you'll just have to wait and find out. At least I've gotten their introductions out of the way.
It’s King of Fighters ’98, but with some characters from the NESTS
Chronicles.
This is going to be a relatively short one.
Like King of Fighters ’98, SNK and Eolith seem to have
deemed it appropriate to give a grand finish to the NESTS Chronicles. Just like ’98, the game brings back many
characters from previous games to allow for matchups other games can't offer. Mixed in with the usual
regulars, many of the ’98 teams return again, like Iori’s '96 team, the '97 mercenary team and the New
Faces team. From the NESTS chronicles
are K’’s team (minus Lin) and the NESTS team (minus Foxy).
2002 went back to teams of 3, and as a result, a lot of
characters got the axe. Heidern, King,
Saisyu, Shingo, and more are all absent from 2002. In fact, only three teams have characters that debuted in the NESTS chronicles, omitting Bao, Jhun Hoon, and even Li Xianfei. You can imagine some people weren’t thoroughly satisfied by this offering.
2002 does introduce a new character though, unlike '98, though this new character isn't exactly new. Near the end of the game, you
have a chance of fighting one of four mid-bosses, one of which is a fighter simply named
“Kusanagi” (not to be confused with Kyo).
Kusanagi is essentially Kyo’s hot-blooded evil twin. Most fans speculated he was simply another
Kyo clone, but SNK established where he came from in 2003. We’ll get to that in the next article.
When I said 2002 is like ’98, I also meant that in terms of
its gameplay. 2002 doesn’t
have strikers, nor does it have ‘98’s control selection. Really, it plays like a standard King of
Fighters game, like ’97, but with only the option of the advanced control
format. Not that that’s a bad thing.
Same old rivalries.
The presentation in 2002 is far better than in
2001, thankfully. Stages are colorful and change
between rounds. There are a lot of fun
cameos of Fatal Fury and King of Fighters characters to spot, including ones omitted from the
roster.
It’s almost as if the old SNK never left us. Thank goodness they got rid of 2001's electro synth. Now the tunes are peppy and great to fight with, if not only a little weaker than the likes of KOF '99. They have a rhythm you can tap
your foot to and are never overly-repetitive.
Saying it’s like the old SNK never left us is a good way to
describe much of KOF 2002. New sprites
and a few altered movesets aside, King of Fighters 2002 didn’t bring a whole
lot of anything new, but still kept what we liked about the pre-2001 games.
All of it adds up to 2002 being enjoyable, but skippable. Personally I think KOF 98 is better.
The remake, on the
other hand…
Like ‘98’s remake, King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match
includes everything missing from the original and more. Goenitz, Geese, Kasumi and all the
characters from the NESTS saga are present in it, with the exception of K9999,
who was replaced with a new character named Nameless (paradoxically). Unlimited Match includes all the bosses from
the NESTS chronicles as well, and they’re all fully playable once you unlock
them.
You read that right.
You can play as Igniz! With the typing of those words, your
perception of game balance breaks in half with a sickening *crack!*. The bosses take the place of the original's final boss (who is instead a bonus boss if you do well enough). Which one you fight depends on how you’ve
finished off a certain number of opponents, but I won’t go into any more detail on that.
Look at all dem characters!
With new 3D stages, Unlimited Match excels at its
visual presentation along with its powerful character count.
Unlimited Match also tries to improve upon the original game’s soundtrack
by completely replacing it with one much less limited by the Neo Geo system the original was on. Though they’re objectively better than the original tracks, they
don’t satisfy me, particularly the remixed tracks of songs from previous games. The remixes all lack the melodic punch other games had and instead seem to try and lay it on a little too thick.
The biggest disappointment is the omission
of all the excellent boss tracks from the NESTS Chronicles. The closest thing players get to them is an
inferior heavy-metal arrangement of Krizalid’s theme. I know people who like Unlimited Match's version, but... I don't.
But I digress. King
of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match is an excellent game superior to the original
in just about every way. Not only that,
but, like some sort of godsend, it’s readily available on the Xbox Live
Arcade. I highly recommend it. However, the remake on the XBLA does not include the original, and the original is ridiculously rare. Not that you need to bother playing it, but... Winkawaks.
Bye bye NESTS Chronicles, hello Tales of Ash. Bye bye Eolith
and hello SNK Playmore.
