Posted in: Game Reviews by Michael Durr on June 12th, 2008
World Heroes. When I was a teenager, one of my favorite games was World Heroes 2 for the Super Nintendo. I remember it distinctly because it was one of the last games I bought brand new for the SNES. I played the game for hours, then days and even into many assorted weeks trying to exploit all the characters from my favorites like Rasputin, Muscle Power, & Kim Dragon to even lesser characters like Johnny Maximum or Erick the Viking. With the exception of Mudman, (I never played Mudman and I'm still annoyed when fighting him to this very day) I beat the game with each and every character. This is one of my prouder achievements when it comes to fighting games, and with the exception of the Tekken series or compilations, the last fighting game I've really played for such a long stretch. One would then imagine my joy when I heard about World Heroes Anthology when it came out for the Playstation 2. I had also played the first World Heroes in my time, but the idea that I would get my favorite World Heroes 2, coupled with the original and 2 games I've never even played before; my mind suddenly became agaze with the possibilities.
Graphics
True to form, the four games that make up the Anthology are not enhanced or brought up to Playstation 2 standards (whatever that might be). Remember the titles as they appeared on the Neo-Geo or their MVS Standups? That is how they look here. Straight to form with all of the cheesiness of their characters. From Muscle Power's No #1 Pose to the lush jungle backgrounds of the Mudman, it's all here. It holds up fairly well in today's hi-def environment and is certainly far from boring with vibrant color and fairly good detail throughout. Naturally, World Heroes Perfect looks the best of the group but no title suffers too much from the graphical outlying of the day they were created in.
Posted in: Game Reviews by Michael Durr on May 28th, 2008
The Neo-Geo console was one of my favorite consoles growing up. My parents never had the money for the home machine or the outrageously priced carts. However, that did not keep me from spending many quarters on the standups day in and day out. Most of my Neo Geo quarters were thrown into games such as Ninja Combat, Sengoku and Magician Lord. The rich graphics, the ahead of its time gameplay were all amazing beyond belief. Almost twenty years later, SNK decides to make a happy man. Sixteen classics on a single dvd for my Playstation 2 console. Furthermore, they went and released it in the $20 price range. Very very happy.
Graphics
Neo Geo games were always famous for their bright and beautiful graphics. Check out any Neo Geo game from the time period. Metal Slug, plenty of action and detail. Baseball Stars 2, bold & distinct characters with wonderful show of color. Almost every title is like this. There are only a few exceptions from what I could see. Burning Fight did have some issues and was kinda jagged and I don't really remember King of the Monsters being as bland in the visual department. However, these minor details are few and far between and most are dead pan accurate translations of the graphics that I remember fondly.
Posted in: Game Reviews by Michael Durr on January 9th, 2008
Some of my favorite fighting games include the likes of Marvel vs Capcom 2, X-Men vs Street Fighter, Marvel vs Street Fighter, etc. The appeal of these games was simple, fun fast arcade gameplay with cool easily-known characters (I did always have a fondness for Gambit). Along those lines, SNK was introduced into the series as a logical step around 1999 in the game series SNK vs Capcom. After SNK filed for bankruptcy in 2000, the company re-formed and was called SNK Playmore. In 2005, SNK Playmore decided to bring out a game that played very much to the old versus games in NeoGeo Battle Coliseum. In the last breath of 2007, NeoGeo Battle Coliseum makes it to the states for the Playstation 2 system. Now in my greedy little hands, I explore the game and see if it stands up as a true fighter.
Graphics
The Vs. games were always strong in graphics, you could recognize most of the characters immediately and know who you wanted to start playing with because of that look. NGBC is unfortunately just average. You could spend a long time looking at the various characters that you have to play with because you can't discern between one male fighter and the next. The characters and action appear very pixilated and this game has not improved since the console versions of the Vs. games already mentioned. In some ways, those seem better now; Marvel vs Capcom 2 for Xbox is a good example. Even Mai Shiranui of Fatal Fury fame isn't as beautiful as I hoped and there are few standouts in the background or animation department. While no progressive scan or widescreen is provided, in the options menu there is a Screen type setting (Type A / Type B) which stretches it out a bit. But it is not a widescreen option.
