King Of Fighters [UK]

King of Fighters XV DJ Station Unlock List

2022-03-05T19:53:00.005+00:00

I've almost completed unlocking the DJ Station portion of KOFXV, so I thought I'd share the list of how to unlock each of the different playlists. With the Destiny Battle list you can just go into training mode and select the characters/stages required, just make sure that the BGM is set to default or it won't unlock.

Complete story mode with these team edit teams, most have ending scenes but a few do not.

SNK: Athena, Clark, Ralf.

Neo Geo: Kyo, Terry, Ryo.

Fatal Fury: Terry, Andy, Shun-ei

Metal Slug: Heidern, Clark, Ralf.

Samurai Shodown: Ralf, Maxima, Antonov.

KOF95: Dolores, Terry, Vanessa

KOF96: Mai, Luong, Chizuru.

KOF97: Leona, Iori, Shun-ei.

KOF98: Benimaru, Yashiro, Robert.

KOF99: Meitenkun, Chris, Kula

KOF00: Ramon, Angel, King of Dinosaurs.

KOF01: Ryo, Krohnen, Angel

KOF02: Dolores, King of Dinosaurs, Clark,

KOF03: Yuri, Athena, Isla.

KOFXI: Isla, K', Krohnen.

KOFXII: Kyo, Ash, K'.

KOFXIII: Elisabeth, King, Shermie.

Destiny Battle KOFXV BGM (can be unlocked in training mode):

Ash vs Elisabeth : No.53

Mai vs Andy: Club M

Kyo vs Iori: Sadistic Eyes

Iori vs Kyo: Goodbye Esaka

K' vs Krohnen: KD-0084

Yashiro vs Iori: Bloody

Shun-ei vs Meitenkun: Sobagaramakura

Dolores vs Kukri: Sand and Mud

Clark vs Ralf: Storm of Cheers

Antonov - Hyper Galaxy Ring: I was the King of Fighters

Athena - Concert Hall: Psycho Soldier 2018

King Of Fighters XV Omega Edition - A Quick Look / Unboxing

2022-02-19T17:39:00.001+00:00

Just uploaded a video over on YouTube just showing the contents of the Omega Edition plus the T-shirt, which I'm not sure whether it was supposed to be part of the O.Ed. or if it was a pre-order bonus.

I ordered it from Game.co.uk (£79.99 +£4.99 shipping) but I've also seen it more recently on Coolshop.co.uk for cheaper (£61.95 as of writing).

King of Fighters XV - Yashiro Nanakase trailer - A Quick Look

2021-03-25T19:09:00.003+00:00

I hadn't planned to do individual trailer write ups, but considering SNK has seemed to have 'shattered expectations' it means a change of plan...lol.

Prior to this week's trailer they did tease in the silhouette format that they used to tease upcoming DLC characters for XIV, a lot of people seemed to be guessing Ryo due to way they've been releasing trailers so far, some guessed Yashiro correctly, and others went for characters like Shen or Shingo.

But as we all know now it's Yashiro returning to the series. Strangely on SNK's Twitter account they say it's the first time back since 2002, but then he was in 98UM and 02UM...Even if they are technically remakes or possibly SNK just doesn't consider them part of the main series? A little strange considering 98 and 02 are dream matches.

Anyway back to the trailer, it seems like Yashiro's design has been slightly updated, also as pointed out by MMaker on Twitter, he has some clever details in his design such as the 1997 on his belt. (The last game he was alive in.)

One of the things I noticed that they didn't seem to show (or I've possibly missed), is his weak attacks in this trailer. I remember back in 98 his weak attacks (standing B, or crouching A) made him a bit of a poke monster, especially considering how good poking was in general in 98.

It doesn't seem like they've added anything new to his move set, though I did think his qcfx2+P super looks a bit weird how his arm looks a little disjointed? Is it really possible to punch like that? lol...

Other than that I think he looks pretty much as he has in the previous games he's been in.

On a side note, I was looking up his move lists last night (as I started playing KOF before internet was a widespread thing, I never bothered to learn move names) and I had forgotten his move list was written in Cyrillic (which I normally think of as Russian lol...).

This led me to check out why his move list was in Cyrillic, and after a while Googling various keywords together I came across the Wikipedia page for the Oroch People!!

It could be just a massive coincidence, but it seems all too similar for it to be. As we all know the Three Sacred Treasures are based on the Imperial Regalia of Japan, so it could be very plausible that they referenced the Oroch people when creating the New Face/Orochi Team.

As pointed out by others on Twitter it's a little ironic they announced Yashiro today (25th March) considering it's Heavy D and Iori's birthdays. Considering he beat up the former for his KOF invitation and he's rivals with Iori due to band conflict.

Hopefully this also means the Orochi version of Yashiro is in the works, as I actually used him back in 98, as well as the rest of the New Face Team. All in all, great trailer. I always like seeing more returning characters or familiar faces in the KOF series.

King of Fighters XV - Team Fatal Fury trailers / TARKUN Fatal Fury Definitive Soundtrack Vinyl Record - A Quick Look

2021-03-24T17:46:00.001+00:00

On to the next set of trailers, this time focusing on Team Fatal Fury. I feel that this team was an obvious edition to the game, so it wasn't too suprising when their trailers started dropping. It looks like they've received a nice graphical update much like the rest of the cast, especially Andy who looked terrible in XIV.

Overall I don't have too much to say about this team, it's just business as usual for the Fatal Fury team.

The other thing I wanted to write about today was this related vinyl record that I just received in the mail today.

I've had my eye on this record for a little while now, I still occasionally play the original Fatal Fury game and I'm a big fan of the soundtrack so when I found somewhere selling it in the UK I had to get it.

The soundtrack features all of the music from the original game, plus a remix of Raiden's theme (ROF Version) at the end of side B. I'm assuming ROF is referring to Rhythm of Fighters.

Also included is a 'booklet' with interviews with the staff involved with the vinyl release in both English and Japanese, as well as a download code for various quality tracks from this vinyl.

A nice record and a happy purchase, I believe it was a bit cheaper from the Limited Run website, but I bought it from an online store in the UK (as I don't like to be charged customs anyway) called Vinyl Guru. They have a few other SNK records in stock at the moment, as well as preorders, I was quite tempted to get the AOF2 one as well but spent too much money recently lol.

They do next day delivery, my vinyl was well packaged and arrived without any serious damage.

King of Fighters XV - Team Sacred Treasures trailers - A Quick Look

2021-03-21T19:52:00.000+00:00

So while we continue to play catch up on the KOFXV trailers so far, the next set of trailers I'll be looking at today are the Team Sacred Treasures' trailers.

I wasn't too suprised to see Chizuru's inclusion, it did seem judging on the endings in XIV that it was leaning towards her being included in this game.

I would say though I was a little disappointed that they didn't update her design a bit. Also something about how she animates is a little bit strange to me, but I can't exactly pinpoint the problem. (It could very well just be that she has more animation than I'm used to seeing for the character.)

Iori is looking good, he reminds me a lot of his Another Striker version from KOF2000.

I can't remember if it was a thing in XIV but it seems his EX hcb+P grabs and blows up the opponent on the ground.

Also with Kyo it looks like his 'Neo Max' is a lot like Saisyu's qcfx2+P from KOF98.

Overall, generally positive opinions from this set of trailers. It does make me wonder since the three of them are together for the first time since 03 (if you do the boss code you can pick Chizuru) does it mean that Orochi will turn up in some form for this game?

Lastly before I finish this post, I was going through my storage boxes yesterday of things I packed away before I went to live in Japan and managed to find some of my old Yujin gacha figures. Always found it kinda amusing that Kyo and Iori look like they're holding hands if you put them next to each other lol...

King of Fighters XV - Team Hero trailers - A Quick Look

2021-03-20T19:11:00.000+00:00

A bit late to the party but thought I'd just share a few thoughts about the trailers shown so far, this time focusing on Team Hero.

So it seems Team China has ditched Tung in favour of Benimaru this year, also judging by the set ups of the other teams so far it would seem that Benimaru is the leader of this team.

In terms of the characters shown, I wasn't too much of a fan of the new characters in XIV.

I did play Meitenkun for a while, but didn't really click with Shun-Ei at all.

Personally I'm one of those who wants more returning characters rather than new ones.

But anyway, just based on these three trailers it looks like the game has had a huge graphical overhaul and was probably needed considering the heavy criticism XIV received based on the graphics.

It does look like they are veering away from the BC combo system in this game, at the moment from what I can tell it looks like the game will instead be based around a simpler cancel system but since we cannot see the super bars it's difficult to guess exactly how this will work.

To me it looks kind of like how cancels work in the Street Fighter EX games. (attack -> special -> super)

Just as a personal opinion, I feel this was a good idea as I've never liked being on the receiving end of long combos.

But anyway that's my opinion of this set of trailers, not much really but it's not a team that I'm very excited about personally.

How about you? What did you guys think of this set of trailers?

[Switch] Neo Geo Pocket Color Selection Vol.1 - A Quick Look

2021-03-20T03:35:00.001+00:00

Recently picked up Neo Geo Pocket Color Selection Vol.1 for the Nintendo Switch, and since I have a lot of free time recently (due to the lockdown in London) I thought I'd just do a quick write up with some thoughts on this collection.

First of all the games on this collection are as follows:

Big Tournament Golf (Neo Turf Masters),
Dark Arms: Beast Buster
Fatal Fury: First Contact
SNK Gals' Fighters
King of Fighters R-2
The Last Blade
Metal Slug 1st Mission
Metal Slug 2nd Mission
Samurai Shodown! 2
SNK Vs Capcom: Match Of The Millenium

For £35.99 you're getting 10 games, which is pretty good value considering buying just one of the games on the original NGPC can cost more than that nowadays.

In terms of the game selection I think that it's quite a nice mix, but maybe a bit fighter heavy.

Also it kind of makes you wonder what titles they'll include in vol.2, considering SNK vs Capcom and Gals' Fighters are two of the more desirable games on the system and are already included in this collection.

I'm hoping that if there is a vol.2 that they'll include Neo Geo Cup 98, it was one of the few games I owned when I first bought the original NGP years ago and a game I played and enjoyed a lot.

Anyway getting back to the collection.

Emulation wise, as far as I can tell, it seems pretty accurate to the original versions.

I've not played far enough into KOF R-2 yet, but I seem to remember reading that the DC Link mode is not possible on this collection (for obvious reasons), so it may mean that in "making mode" that you may not be able to get 100% item collection as the original game required you to connect your NGPC to the Dreamcast port of KOF98.

A big plus for this collection is that you're able to play two players on a single switch console. with each player given their own screen, a little similar to a cocktail table arcade cabinet, and can be controlled with each of the two joy-cons.

Having owned the original NGP since it came out, I didn't know many people who owned it as well so over the 20 years I've owned the console I've probably only ever tried 2 player mode once lol...

Since the Switch is portable it means I now have more of a chance to play against someone else.

(Also note that one of the hidden characters in FF:FC is only playable in 2P mode...)

I mainly play my Switch docked on a 55inch 4K TV, and it looks pretty good in my opinion.

You can turn on or off the 'scanlines' as you prefer, and for the games that were compatible with the original black and white NGP you can also choose that for a more monochrome look.

For the games that aren't compatible though you'll likely see something like this:

I thought it was a pretty clever touch, it's what you'd really see if you put a NGPC only cartridge into the original NGP.

You are also able to choose New NGPC mode, as of yet I'm unable to tell any real difference between choosing the New mode vs standard Color. Even though I own both the New NGPC and NGPC, I've always thought the only difference was the size, but according to Wikipedia the only real difference is better quality sound.

I tested a few different controllers with the collection (HRAPv5 Hayabusa, Switch Pro Controller, 8bitdo M30) just to see which would be more comfortable to play with.

Of the three I tried I didn't necessarily feel that any of them were as natural as playing with the original clicky stick. I mainly play using the HRAP v5 as i like joysticks but I do find it easier to do spinning pile driver with the pro controller's dpad.

One thing I thought I'd mention about this collection though is that even when they were first released the console was pretty old technology (considering the GameBoy Advance came out around the same time, or maybe a little later), so some of the games do feel pretty clunky and dated. Still, the games are fun if a little basic.

Personally, back then it was pretty amazing being able to play a portable version of KOF even if it was an incredibly simplified version.

One thing I didn't really notice when playing it in the past is that some of the fighting games on the NGPC have grab combos similar to the early KOF games where you could do a jump attack and if you input the grab command it would chain it as a combo. So in MOTM you can do Zangief's splash into SPD/Final Atomic Buster.

Overall I'm enjoying this collection so far, I'm getting to revisit some of the games I've enjoyed in the past as well as playing a couple of them for the first time (Big tournament golf, and Dark Arms).

There's probably a lot more I could write but I'm probably out of practice writing (considering I haven't blogged for almost four years lol) and it's taken me longer than I expected to just type this far.

So to end this, I'd recommend this collection for old fans as well as people who have never experienced playing the NGPC. For £35.99 you're getting good value for money for a decent collection of games.

Fun Fun Funabashi - Game Center / Arcade (Funabashi, Chiba)

2017-07-27T02:10:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since I've posted here but since I have some free time recently, I thought I'd write a little bit about a few of my local game centers just in case anyone visiting Japan may want to pass through.

Starting with Fun Fun Funabashi, located a few minutes away from Funabashi Station.
You can check the location on Google Maps here.

This is probably one of my favourite game centers locally, due to the fact that it has a good mix of old and new games, and most importantly it has a lot of Y50 cabinets lol.

They run a lot of tournaments here, but rarely if ever for SNK games. I think the ones I see most often are for Dengeki Bunko, Guilty Gear or DOA.

Although having said that they do have a lot of MVS/SNK games here.

Just as an example (I may have forgotten some games) as of posting this is a list of some of the SNK games:

KOFXIV (Nesica2) - Y100
KOFXIII, KOF98UMFE, KOF02UM (Nesica) - Y100
Metal Slug, Metal Slug 2, Metal Slug 4, Magical Drop 2, Neo Turf Masters, KOF98, Garou MOTW, Real Bout Special, KOF94, World Heroes Perfect, Fighters History Dynamite (MVS) - Y50
KOF02UM (Non Nesica version) - Y50

As you can probably tell there is quite a nice selection of SNK games here, they also have one of those MAME cabinets towards the back of the arcade so pretty much anything not on it's own cabinet is probably there. I've also seen people request that they swap out one of the MVS carts for a different game, but I've never tried it myself.

They only have a single cabinet for KOFXIV here, so you can't play in store/local versus but you can still connect to players in other game centers for versus.

It's been a little uncommon to have played versus on many of the SNK games here, maybe a couple of times on 02UM, but I usually go during non-peak hours so I'm not sure if there are a lot of players at other times.

Also sometimes quite randomly they'll put the Jackie Chan fighting game in.
I've seen on their Twitter page that they've also held a tournament on it recently too but I only found out about it after it was already over.

I'm not sure I'd necessarily recommend making a day trip to go here, as you can probably find the same games in Tokyo just as easily, if you were passing through or just wanted to go outside of Tokyo it's quite a nice game center to have a look in.

Going from Akihabara to Funabashi is about 30 minutes on the Chuo Sobu line.

Rest in peace community member Toxico.

2017-05-04T07:33:00.000+01:00

I've just seen over on Twitter that fellow FGC community member Toxico (aka Ars Magna, ImbuedGold) has sadly passed away.

It's not often that I write on this blog nowadays, but I felt that as someone who had contributed to the FGC community over the years that I didn't think it would do him justice to just mention it in passing on Twitter.

Although I have never met him in person, we have shared conversations with each online for many years and because of our shared interest in games he was one of my favourite people on the internet.

He had a great knowledge of a variety of games, culture, etc and was always enthusiastic and cheerful when talking about games. I learned a great deal about games when he'd pop over to my blog and leave a comment or on Twitter.

I'd always enjoyed his trivia, the videos he shared, and even checking what game he was playing on PS4.

He was probably the only person I knew that enjoyed playing Dragon's Crown, so it was always a joy being able to learn about the higher levels of that game and to be able to share my enjoyment of that game with him.

From the start of my blog and indeed many of my ventures to create things on the internet he has always been supportive of me, and for that I am eternally grateful to him.

It's not often that I feel sad, but in this case he will be sorely missed.

Rest in peace my friend, it was an honour to have spoken with you.

http://analogiadevideojuegos.blogspot.jp/
https://www.youtube.com/imbuedgold
https://twitter.com/ImbuedGold

Dreamcast - Nakoruru (Ano Hito kara no Okurimono) - A quick look

2017-02-24T01:32:00.000+00:00

Recently one of the hobby shops that I go to was having a closing down sale (between 50-70% off all used goods), so naturally I bought a lot of stuff. Amongst the things that I bought was this Nakoruru game for the Dreamcast.

Although I'd probably heard of it in passing before, I was kinda suprised by it as I usually forget that SNK used to publish or license out a lot of console exclusive games. (Like the Athena RPG).
Apparently it was released on the PC too.

But anyway, today I'd thought I'd take a quick look at the packaging and figure that came with this game. Unfortunately my Dreamcast is not set up (I probably don't know where all the wires are either lol) so I don't have any gameplay footage but I'm sure it's easy enough to find on Youtube.

First of all, as you can see the SNK/Playmore logo is nowhere to be found on the box. From my understanding it was developed by a company called Inter Lets, but it seems the Dreamcast version was released by another company called Kool Kizz. (To be honest I've never heard of any of these companies.)

Inside the box is the game disc and the figure, it's pretty much at this point my disappointment started to set in.

As you may be able to see from the photos the figure is pretty poorly put togethe. Some parts seemed difficult to push into place, others just didn't want to push into place correctly, and the overally design of the figure seems pretty poor. At one point I used to collect the various gashapon figures released by Yujin, and those were a lot higher quality than this figure. (Pretty much most gashapon figures I've come across seem to have a better build quality than this figure.)

Towards the end of trying to put it together I just gave up, took it apart and just put it back in the box. (Where it will probably stay forever.)

Anyway enough about the figure, let's look at the game disc and instructions!

The game disc itself seems simple enough, it's just a monochrome(?) print of the game discs CD cover.

This page did make me laugh quite a bit, the pixel art for Mamahaha on the VMU looks a lot like a featherless chicken. It reminded me of one picture that I saw on Twitter during pre-patch days of KOFXIV.

Lastly the character portraits/story for each of the characters in the game, apologies for some of the sideways images. It happens sometimes with blogspot.
The artwork for this game is pretty nice, and seems to fit in rather well with the character of Nakoruru.

So anyway, in closing this probably isn't the kind of thing I'd recommend buying (unless cheap) but I think it's a pretty interesting bit of SNK history.

Also apparently there's an anime based on this, I haven't watched it yet but there's an unsubbed version on Youtube.

King of Fighters XIV World Championships - Write up

2017-02-20T04:48:00.003+00:00

Finally got some free time today, so I'll write a little bit about my experience going to and watching the KOFXIV World Championships.

Originally I hadn't really had the intention to go, as up until recently I'd been busy with work but on a whim after seeing the SNK official twitter posting about it a few weeks ago I just decided to apply via e-mail.

Just a week before the event I got an e-mail confirming that they had sent out my ticket in the mail and that I should be receiving it shortly, then on the Monday I got my ticket.

The minor touches they put on the invitations were great, in my opinion, things like the letter being signed by Antonov and having his seal on the letter showed to me that they had put some effort into making them.

But anyway fast forward to the actual event itself, I arrived at Akihabara UDX a little after the doors opening time (2:30pm) and as I made my way up the escalators there were staff members dotted around the building to help guests find their way.

Before heading into the UDX Theater area I decided to use the toilet, as I headed towards it I saw Dakou also going to use the toilet. I thought about saying 'Hi' but didn't know whether he spoke English and I don't really like speaking with people while inside the toilet.

Upon entering they had a small lobby area set up, where you handed over your ticket to receive your 'Guest pass'

Later on I found out that there were several different coloured passes, I'm not quite sure what each of them meant specifically but the grey one was for the general public.

Entering the theater area it was a little smaller than I had imagined, if you can imagine a small cinema it was probably not much different from that. Staff members guided you to the seats, where they asked if you could fill in the space as they were available. (I originally wanted to sit at the back but was asked to move forward lol)

As the event was being prepared to start they had some KOF music playing (I can't remember specifically which tracks) and they showed some minor information on the screen. (IIRC it was things like turn off your mobile phone, blablabla) I spent most of this time using the free wi-fi to play Pokemon Go.

When the event started there were a few hiccups with getting the intro started, you could see the windows desktop showing up a couple of times but when it was all good to go we were greeted by the introduction screen with Antonov.

The MCs for the event were then introduced, Maxwell Powers(sp?) and Seira Ryu, who are the voice actors for the title screen announcer and Meitenkun. After this they introduced the 15 players who were due to play that day, with the announcement that Reynald was unable to make it due to various circumstances.

You can check out a couple of videos of the winners finals, as well as the trophy ceremony and closing ceremony on my Youtube channel.

They had a couple of breaks in between parts of the tournament for the spectators to use the toilet, or in my case running out about 5 minutes towards the station to use the smoking area.

Overall the tournament was fun to watch live, I don't tend to watch many tournaments nowadays for the full duration but I think the general atmosphere of being there made it more exciting.

As the event finished they asked members of the crowd to exit the theater, with the grey pass holders to be the ones to leave first.

Now to the one negative point that I had with the event, as we were leaving as the information regarding the after party was given in Japanese I was a little confused as to what was going on. I saw some people collecting their present bags that were being handed out at the lobby area so went over to get one.

When I went over I was asked something in Japanese, I didn't catch what the staff member said so I replied I can only speak a little Japanese. (I later figured out that she asked me whether I was going to the after party and that they were only giving out the presents to people leaving.)
She looked a little annoyed handed me the bag and tried to take my pass from me. I then said I was still going to the after party and handed back the bag to her.

Although I understand there are a lot of people in Japan who can't speak English very well (I work as a teacher in public school here), it really annoys me when people who work in situations were they have to deal with people flat out refuse to try to speak to you because 'they can't speak English'.

But anyway, after this we were directed upstairs to were the after party was being held.
On the way out I managed to get a photo with Yasuyuki Oda.

Going into the room where the party was being held they had set up several tables of food and drinks like a buffet. They had things like sushi, karaage (fried chicken), spring rolls, noodles, and some things I have no idea what they were lol. For drinks they had wine, oolong tea, and orange juice. Everything was free and you could eat/drink as much as they had to offer.

They also handed out raffle tickets that were going to be used later on for a prize draw.
As I waited around for the party to be started I spotted Professor from Madman's Cafe, who I haven't seen for a few years, and we chatted for a bit. He introduced me to one of the owners of Arcade Shock too.

Professor also spotted Kei Yamamoto (the director of XIII), so we went over to greet him and I got to take a photo with him.

He was a really nice guy, I didn't really say anything much to him but he was a really nice guy. I only found out afterwards that he works on Metal Slug Attack, which I actually play more than KOF these days, so I was a little sad that I couldn't talk with him about it. But I got his business card so I was really happy about that.

There were a lot of people around to meet and greet but to be honest I didn't really have any idea who most people were, so I just ate, drank, occasionally went to the smoking room and played a game of KOFXIV. (They had maybe 4 set ups there.)

I did get to take a picture with Seira Ryu though.

As the event was winding to a close, they started up the raffle, with Maxwell Powers and Seira Ryu being the MCs again. The prizes were 10 steel cases (no game inside) for KOFXIV, 3 KOFXIV OSTs, and the KOFXIV hori stick. Annoyingly they called out all the numbers near mine (45), and the last prize was number 44!!! Missed it by just one!!!!! (-_-)

Leaving they had a small table set up with the present bags again, I had to hand in my pass (which I would have liked to had kept) and they asked what size tshirt we'd like.

All members got a tshirt, towel and drink.

Also as we left the president(?) of SNK greeted everyone as we left, and personally shook people's hands (or at least he did to me) and thanked us for attending. Which I thought was really nice.

Overall it was a really nice event, and I enjoyed it a lot. I'm glad that I got to attend and would do so again if they held any more events in the future.

May have left some things out but as always feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions.

Hi Score Girl Exhibition @ METOR, Nakano

2016-07-26T18:58:00.002+01:00

I've had work training for the past couple of days in Nakano, Tokyo. So was pretty excited to hear that not only was there an exhibition for the Hi Score Girl manga but it was only 5 minutes walk from where I was going to be.

Although I wouldn't say that I'm a huge fan of the manga, largely because it doesn't have furigana and I can't read much kanji, I do feel somewhat fond of it. I think possibly because of the kind of romantic comedy nature of it and it's setting often being game centers (arcades) and around the time I bought the first issue of it I was actually trying to chat up a girl in the local game center lol.

But anyway, the exhibition is held in the basement of METEOR which is probably most famous for the Famicase exhibition that I believe it runs every year. I'm not sure of the specifics but I think it may actually be a couple of different stores or something in one building, since I'm pretty broke at the moment I only had a look at the exhibition and not the store on the 1st floor.

As soon as you enter the exhibition there are a couple of those kind of big cardboard cut out things that you can take photos with, and then the first wall that you come to has some of the original manga panel sketches.
I've not been to many exhibitions in Japan, so it was quite interesting to see how manga artists lay things out before it gets printed into the final product. For example, I never knew that they sometimes actually cut out another drawing and stick it into the panel, rather than just drawing it into it.

Notably it seemed that SNK themed stuff was absent from all of the panels lol. I only saw mainly SF Zero and Virtua Fighter.

On the back wall they had an area where you could stick a post-it message (I assume to the manga's artist), doing so would enter you into some kind of raffle where you would either receive an IC card sticker or an original piece of artwork. Unfortunately I didn't win so I just got the IC card sticker...

The next wall had the original artwork that you could win and then the last wall was where they were hanging some of the merchandise like t-shirts, etc.

The merchandise they had available was things like Nendoroids, t-shirts, clear files, keyrings, mugs, stickers, and they had a gashapon machine which had badges.
A lot of the merchandise was a little pricey (especially since I didn't have a lot of money with me) so I opted to just buy a keyring for now, even though thinking back now I should have just bought a badge from the gashapon instead.

Overall it was a pretty nice exhibition, not particularly amazing but I think worth checking out if you're in the Tokyo area. (Also free so you can't complain.) It was kinda smaller than I had imagined, but then I guess realistically buildings/shops in Japan are generally a bit small.

I think I might pop down there again when I get paid, since I want to check out the shop upstairs anyways.

Unfortunately photography isn't permitted, which is why there's a lack of photos in this post, but you can see some photos on the MHzSHOP twitter page.

Famitsu - KOFXIV Article - 28/04/2016

2016-04-29T04:55:00.001+01:00

I don't tend to pick up magazines often in Japan (mainly because my reading ability is really low), but since I was out and about yesterday I decided to pick up the latest issue of Famitsu to have a look at the KOFXIV article.

Apologies for the sideways photos, for some reason blogspot likes to format photos in a certain way and I've never figure out how to fix it.

A few pages into the magazine there's this advertisement for a game called Reco Love , which is due to come out for the PS Vita, I thought it was pretty amusing.

(Hours of fun)

Anyway on to the actual article. There's not much to say as I think most information shown here has already been revealed, or has been all over Twitter recently, but there were a couple of things I didn't really know about. (Mostly because I haven't been keeping up with news.)

Bare in mind, as I mentioned my Japanese reading ability is a bit low so might make some mistakes in what I'm saying here.

- You can do super -> climax or super -> max super -> climax, I haven't played it for a while but I think that's similar to XIII. Max super is only available whilst in Max mode.
- The "Rush" combo in this game is done by pressing the Square button repeatedly, and if you have a power bar then it will lead into super. (I'm assuming this works like some recent games like Persona, or Dengki Fighting Climax.)
- Unfortunately I can't understand the story section so well (too much kanji), but it's something about how KOF has become a big business. I think it mentions something like the first champion is Antonov.
- I think it also says development is about 90% complete.

On a side note, isn't Yuri's head rather strangely shaped? lol.
Anyway as mentioned my Japanese reading ability isn't the best, so maybe some mistakes but there wasn't much new information there anyway.

King of Fighter XIV Demo Event - esports square akihabara 25/04/16

2016-04-25T14:16:00.000+01:00

Got home about an hour ago from the KOFXIV demo event held today in Akihabara.
As you'll probably know if you follow me on Twitter, I actually made the mistake of going yesterday because I didn't read the dates/information properly, and almost didn't go today as I had a full day of work training. (I've basically been awake since 5am, and had to carry a bag full of about 8 textbooks with me!!)

But anyway, I wasn't dead tired from training as I had a couple of Redbulls so I decided to go in the end and I'm glad I did. Aside from the KOFXIII Climax Edition arcade event a few years ago, this is the first KOF to be released while I've been in Japan so I thought why not?

I got to Akiba at about 5ish, had a quick smoke and walked as fast as I could to the event. When I got there the line looked pretty small, but I was then told by the staff that the line actually started from across the street!! Luckily the line wasn't as long as I thought but it took maybe 20-30 minutes for them to slowly get everyone into lines and slowly into the venue.

Once inside we were greeted by staff who were all wearing blue KOF t-shirts with BURN TO FIGHT written on them, and then greeted by two really cute cosplayers who were dressed as Mai and Nakoruru respectively and handing out the event goods. (Luckily I made it in time to receive the full package of towel, drink, and fan.) I was given my goodie bag by Nakoruru but I was secretly hoping to have been given it by Mai. :(

(I tried to grab a quick photo but it didn't come out very well :( )

Anyway once inside the actual gaming area we were lined up in rows of two in a winding queue as they played the latest trailer on multiple screens.

They teased quite a few of the new characters, I haven't checked Youtube yet but I'm sure they've already uploaded it or it should be up sometime soon.

Whilst lining up they were asking players who wanted to play on pad to come forward and go ahead of everyone else as most players wanted to play on arcade sticks.

My back was really hurting from carrying my bag but I was just trying to focus on who I wanted to pick and concentrating on watching the stream on the TVs.

There was a French guy standing in front of me and just it was getting up to his turn to play he asked me if I wanted to switch places with him so that he could play with his friend who he came with, as I was alone and didn't really care who I played against I agreed and we switched places.

Just as it got to my turn to play the players on stream had just finished so I got ready to sit down on the machine that was being streamed!! If you were watching it live or check the live recording you can see me playing from about 59:50.

Anyway on to my impressions of the actual game.
(Please bare in mind it's been a really long time since I've touched any KOF game so I'm incredibly rusty at the game and I couldn't get a really good feel for the game in just one game.)

First up I'll say that I was a huge critic of how the game looks, and I still do think that some parts of it look incredibly ugly but I felt that once I sat down and was actually playing it I didn't care so much.
The game does look a bit clunky at times, but I couldn't say that it really bothered me while playing.

I picked Mai, Clark and Athena. I had wanted to try Sylvie but I felt a lot of players were already using her so I wanted to use characters I felt more familiar with to try and compare it to past experience.

Sorry to say, but for Mai fans IMO she is no where near as good as I think she should be.
My favorite versions of Mai (in KOF games) are probably the ones from the UM series where she has her down-forward kick slide and the half-circle back fan swipe thing. In this game she had neither.
She seemed almost identical to her KOFXIII counterpart where she seemed a bit like Mai-lite or a bit budget in terms of her move list. As far as I could tell the only new thing she has is her super from Real Bout (?) where she stands in place and fire shoots up.

Clark seems a little changed from XIII also, it's been a while since I played that game but I seemed to remember he could do taps into his spinning punch into another spinning punch, but couldn't seem to get the second to connect. Also I didn't try it myself but saw someone do his EX grab and that seemed to put them into a bouncing property unlike his XIII counterpart.

As for Athena, out of the characters I tried she seemed the most like the previous game. Most of her bread and butters seem to work still and she probably felt the most familiar for me to play as.

Anyway, I'm pretty worn out and I have a few things I need to sort out before another half day of work tomorrow so I'm just gonna close up this post here. I pretty much came out of the event feeling a lot more positive towards the game than I have, and will now definitely be picking it up at launch.

Any questions please feel free to leave a comment here, twitter or youtube.

Thanks.

Blister Comics - Tokyo, Akihabara / Joe Higashi Fatal Fury Special toy

2016-04-20T15:44:00.000+01:00

I'd been wanting to check out this store in Akihabara for quite some time now, especially after wanting to get back into reading American comics, but because I rarely head into Tokyo these days I hadn't had the chance to have a look until today.

Located just behind the main street, it's a small store packed full of comic books with quite a large selection of budget Y100 titles as well as a lot of newer ones too.

I didn't have a great look at everything as I got there in the evening so it was a little busy, and considering the size of the store it didn't give me a great deal of space to rummage around and look at a lot of things carefully.

I did manage to find an issue of the Inhumans for Y100 and a variant cover of the first Secret Wars comic for Y800. Had been wanting to read Secret Wars for some time now, and also wanted to try and familarise myself with the Inhumans as the movie is due to come out in a few years.

(Apologies for the sideways photo.)

Was actually trying to find some TMNT stuff, as I'm quite into that recently, but couldn't find any.

It's a really nice store though and will definitely pop in again to pick up a few more comics next time I pass through Tokyo.

You can check out their website and Facebook page for more details, and photos of the store.

In a bit of an unrelated note, I also stopped by Mandarake whilst in Akiba (again looking for TMNT stuff lol), and managed to pick up this Joe toy for Y300.

Haven't seen any SNKP related stuff for quite a while, so thought I should pick it up. It's not the greatest looking figure but as I say, I don't see a lot of SNKP merchandise often so still quite happy with it.

According to the packaging there's some sort of game that you can play with other figures from the same series. I can't understand the rules very well unfortunately (nor do I have any others or even anyone to play with lol) but I've taken some photos of the packaging so you can have a look.

A Quick Look At: Taito Prize - Automatic Ticket Dispenser 1/12 scale

2016-04-16T16:48:00.001+01:00

Popped into the Sega game center on the way home to play a couple of games of UFO catchers and managed to snag this 1/12 scale automatic ticket dispenser from one of the machines.

The box isn't very exciting and to be honest I only tried getting it because there was nothing else I really wanted there today, but it's actually pretty cool.

Because it's 1/12 scale it's perfect for figures like Figmas or Revoltech.

The item itself is based on the ticket machines that they have here in train stations where you can buy your various tickets, top up your pass, etc.. and even includes the little door where the staff pop their heads out if you need assistance. Honestly it makes me laugh every time it happens...

But anyway it's pretty well detailed, and manages to capture the likeness really well. The one thing I didn't like so much was the stickers are really fiddly to get into place and I managed to stick a few of them pretty bent.

Overall it's a pretty nice item, and worth picking up if you see one floating around on eBay or whatever online shops may have it for sale. I'd actually like a couple more to put alongside it to make it look even more like a train station ticket stand, but we'll have to see if they still have them in the machine next time I go there (or even if I can win another one again lol.)

It's become the new home for my Creepy Woody figure lol.

A Quick Look At Sega Hard Girls

2016-04-11T17:02:00.000+01:00

I recently discovered this series whilst out and about searching for eBay stock. I came across the Dreamcast figure in one of my local stores, and thought it was just something to do with Hyper Dimension Neptunia. Turns out it it's an anime, light novel and most recently a collaboration with Hyper Dimension Neptunia.

But anyway, I started selling the Dreamcast figures on eBay but also decided to keep one for myself, because it's quite a nice figure.

A few days ago I came across the Megadrive figure in a game center in Makuhari, so decided to give it a try and after about Y1000 I managed to get one.

So of course having two out of three figures I thought I might as well buy Sega Saturn too...and...

Now I have all three lol.

Aside from Megadrive I think they are pretty decent, I was a bit annoyed though because my Dreamcast figure has some manufacturing defects with some bit of color rubbed onto the white areas...

Would like to have the space so that I could display them on top of the actual consoles, but my apartment is a bit cluttered at the moment...

Anyway onto the anime series, I'm about halfway through watching it at the moment. It's quite funny at times with some of the SEGA game jokes, but other times it can be a bit silly (borderline stupid).

I'm not the biggest SEGA fan so I don't understand all of the references that are being made in the series, I did laugh out loud a few times though.

Well worth a watch if you have the time.

Rambled on a bit (actually kinda half asleep at the moment), but just wanted to share something I've been a bit interested in lately.

I watched some of the Nico live stream of KOFXIV recently, and thought that it's starting to look quite interesting. There's a demo event in Akihabara later in the month that I might go to if I can be bothered to go into Tokyo (not my favourtie place tbh.)

But I'll probably try and write some thoughts on KOFXIV when I get the chance.

DBZ Extreme Butouden Finally Has Online VS Mode !!

2016-04-08T07:14:00.001+01:00

Just found out this morning reading TinyCartridge that DBZ Extreme Butouden was unexpectedly patched with an online VS mode recently. It was already pretty cool that they patched in a training mode a while ago (even if it did feel a bit late), but to have continued support for this game is above and beyond.

I had been playing this game a lot when it first came out, and only stopped once I felt I had done everything I wanted with it but with training mode and online vs it feels like it's been given a new breathe of life.

I have only tried one match online so far (got some other things I need to take care of today first), but it seemed OK. A little lag here and there, so it's not perfect, but better than nothing I suppose.

Will try to get some videos up on my YouTube channel later hopefully of some VS matches!

Edit: Here we go, first of three videos of matches I had online, the others are currently uploading/processing but you can find them on my YoutTube channel:

Played for quite a long time against this guy, learnt quite a lot of new tricks but got pretty much destroyed by him lol. It's all good though, I think I learnt as much as I could VS cpu, so good to learn how some different assists work .

In a bit of unrelated news, I heard Donnie Yen was going to be in one of the new Star Wars movies.
Not a huge fan of Star Wars, but good to see Donnie Yen in there. Hoping he'll challenge 10 Storm Troopers to a fight ala Ip Man.

KOFXIV New Character - Kyary Pamyu Pamyu

2016-03-18T03:33:00.002+00:00

A new character was announced/shown in the latest KOFXIV trailer, not too sure what to think of it so far, my general feeling towards KOFXIV has been fairly mixed. Kind of excited yet it doesn't look too great (in my opinion).

Hopefully want to get back to writing on this blog a bit more, have been really busy these past couple of years with work and eBay. Recently I've mainly been playing SF5, Dragon Quest Builders, and a few iOS games here and there.

Anyway I'll think of something to write maybe later today.

BTW, if you play Metal Slug Attack feel free to join my guild > KusoGuild id: 3269.

Metal Slug Defense - Mission mode - Missions 1 - 10

2014-07-22T02:01:00.002+01:00

Have been a little busy since starting my new job, so haven't had the time to come on here often to update. (I tend to update my Youtube channel more often recently.)

Anyways finished uploading the videos for the Mission mode on Metal Slug Defense last night.

Mission 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoKehHfaEMk
Mission 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15g2Fhr2CFE
Mission 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09zBXKC7Bvk
Mission 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9mHJZPD_DA
Mission 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0y8igPN24c
Mission 6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5BzsU9CVqg
Mission 7: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0Q5hMzTIJs
Mission 8: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G45S8RNvsc
Mission 9: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtsyN0NFyqE
Mission 10: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDElB8o7d6k

I'll try to update on here as much as I can during my summer break, but for more frequent updates check out (and subscribe to) my Youtube channel.

[iOS / Android] Metal Slug Defense Out Now!

2014-05-02T18:38:00.000+01:00

Was supposed to post up about this last night but I think I probably got distracted trying to kill mosquitoes (before they kill me!). Anyways Metal Slug Defense came out recently for iOS and for Android.

I've been testing it out a little bit, unfortunately my iPad is low on power and takes forever to charge via USB, and so far it seems like a fun little app. It's a huge improvement over the previous Metal Slug Wars game, which although I also enjoyed playing for a while was a pretty poor game.

As the title of the game kind of implies it's a bit like a tower defence game, you have to try and destroy the opponent's base whilst trying to protect your own. At some point I'll probably try to do a proper video review, but for now please have a look at the gameplay videos I made. (Apologies for the low volume.)

Shin Koihime Musou Otome Taisen Sangokushi - Kanu Basic [Loli]Combos

2014-05-01T04:16:00.001+01:00

Just a quick video I made yesterday afternoon. Discovered this game quite randomly from related videos whilst trying to remember the name of a girl fighting game on the Wii was called (Twinkle Queen).

To be honest I was expecting it to be a bit like other recent girl fighting games (lots of air dashing abd dial-a-combos) but it does play kinda different from those games. The combo system appears to be largely centred around a counter system, where if you hit the opponent with a certain kind of attack (usually fwd+medium/heavy) it puts them into a kind of crumple and then you can bounce them into a combo. (Probably makes more sense if you watch the video.)

I should hopefully be making at least one or two more videos for this game, I've already got some ideas for combos for a different character.

But anyway it's worth checking out, I'm playing the PC version at the moment but hopefully when I find a job I'll be looking to pick up the PS3 version.

A Quick Look At All About Street Fighter III : New Generation The Fighting Bible and The Characters.

2014-04-25T11:54:00.000+01:00

I had a bit of free time today, so decided to make another video featuring the All About books.

This time the video is about the Street Fighter III: New Generation books, although I'm not quite a fan of the SF3 series I do quite like these books and the artwork from the game.

The narration is a bit off in places as I found a problem using a video recorded with the iPad in that the sound doesn't convert at all when using Movie Maker. So I had to re-record the narration with Movie Maker.

The image quality is a lot better than my previous video though, so at least next time I'll be a bit more prepared since I know that I'll have to record the narration separately next time.

I think for my next video I'll be doing both SF Zero books at the same time.

Monster Hunter 4G Second Trailer

2014-04-21T15:29:00.000+01:00

New trailer uploaded by Capcom today, shows off some of the returning monsters to 4, the new subspecies, and that you can now jump-attack after being knocked into the air by another player!!

Spent a bit too much time playing MH4 (I think my save file is about 300hours!!), but still looking forward to this.

majijam - KOF02 Iori Combo

2014-04-21T04:24:00.000+01:00

Just a short video from majijam's Youtube channel featuring a 5 bar combo on KOF02 with Iori.

Not quite sure what happens halfway through the combo but it's a pretty interesting bug.