NEED SOME KING OF FIGHTERS AND SAMURAI SHOWDOWN ADVICE

[itobandito]

Hello everyone,
I was wondering if you can give me some advice. I am a little late on getting in to these but I am so glad that I am. I recentley discoverd how good the King of Fighters and Samurai Showdown series are. I played some of them when they first came out but never really got in to them as I did with Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter 2 which I can say I am pretty good at. I feel that both the KOF series and the SSD series are a bit different, they tottaly have their own control style and are more artistic games. I find my self not really knowing what the hell I am doing when I play them. I have played some people online and usually get my ass handed to me. They seem to be pretty combo driven games. So back to my question. I was wondering what game in both series should I start with to get better. Also any suggestions on how I can get better. There aren't many guides available for any of these games. So I guess what my final question would be, how does one get better at these games.???

[DreamTR]

Start at Samurai II and KOF 98.

[ubersaurus]

KOF, go with 98 or 2002. For competitive purposes, they're the best-hell both of them still see plenty of play in Japan, when I was there. KOF is pretty rushdown oriented, and learning good combos(which are easy to do in that series) is key to really tearing shit up.

Samurai Shodown on the other hand is not very combo driven at all, but is more of a slower paced poking game. Combos do exist-and do inordinate amounts of damage-but in most of the games in the series, they aren't the backbone. Samurai Shodown 2 is widely considered to be one of the best in the series. I'd try 4 as well, as generally people who don't like 2, like 4, and vice versa, as 4 doesn't play like the rest of the sam sho games, really. Samurai Shodown V Special is probably the best in the entire series, so that's worth checking out, as well.

[itobandito]

Yeah what is the deal with Samurai Showdow V special. I know it has more characters and finishers in the game. Is this the version released on xbox? If not is it only available for Neo Geo???

[blissfulnoise]

It's out on XBox. I have Samurai Showdown V on MVS and it's broken as hell and I don't really like it. Granted, SSV: Special is supposed to have fixed some of the issues, but I've yet to try it.

Regardless, even if they reinvented Samurai Showdown V it still wouldn't be as good as Showdown II. It's excellent. Extremely excellent. And it continues to be one of our most popular fighters that we play.

But speaking of broken, I LOVE KoF2003. Tizoc is my man. Some people have issues with the Capcom like play-mechanics, but it's probably my favorite KoF game. But I'm a Capcom whore so with careful reasoning I'm sure you can see the connection.

That said, KoF98 is excellent and was the crowning achievement in the series. Short of 2001, it has the best fan service.

[DreamTR]

I thought SSV on XBOX was not SSV Special?

[itobandito]

Yeah I actually own the xbox version, I am fairly new to the series so I don't know the difference. I don't know how to do the fatalities so I can't test it out. I don't think its the special version though. Anyone have any clue??

[blissfulnoise]

I thought SSV on XBOX was not SSV Special?

I assumed it was but it was just based off of the thought that they'd want to port over the highest version.

That isn't the case now that I've read more about it. It is indeed the special-less version and with that, I have even more reason to stay away from it.

[Bleetness]

All you need is right here:
SS Pick the boy with the umbrella :)
KOF Vanessa athena and angel(If you have fast hands) or whip.

[evildead2099]

Samurai Shodown is not based as much around combos as are most other fighters.

blissfulnoise: What do you mean when you say that Sam Sho 5 (regular) is "broken"? What does the Special edition of Sam Sho 5 fix?

[Nez]

I'd start with KOF 2003 thecombos are the easyest to do i that games. And most of the combos you cando in 2k3 you can do in earlier titles but the timing has to be more precice making it a little harder to do.

[Damaramu]

Where does SAMURAI SPIRTS Tenkaiichi Kenkaku Den fit into all of this?

I see it's available as a pre-order only on Yesasia.com.

I have a PS2 and I'd like to import it.....anything like Sam Sho 5?

[blissfulnoise]

Samurai Shodown is not based as much around combos as are most other fighters.

blissfulnoise: What do you mean when you say that Sam Sho 5 (regular) is "broken"? What does the Special edition of Sam Sho 5 fix?

One word: Yoshitora

And to a lesser extent Mina.

You can expect to have "tiered" characters in fighting games, but it is absurd in SSV. Yoshitora can dominate any other character in the hands of a novice before you get to high levels of skill in the game.

I don't know all the details on Special, I've never played it. But it supposedly tweaks the gameplay to make some characters more balanced.

Here is a more indepth changes guide for those who are interested:

http://db.gamefaqs.com/coinop/arcade/file/samurai_shodown_v_special_changes.txt

[ubersaurus]

Samurai Shodown is not based as much around combos as are most other fighters.

blissfulnoise: What do you mean when you say that Sam Sho 5 (regular) is "broken"? What does the Special edition of Sam Sho 5 fix?

One word: Yoshitora

And to a lesser extent Mina.

You can expect to have "tiered" characters in fighting games, but it is absurd in SSV. Yoshitora can dominate any other character in the hands of a novice before you get to high levels of skill in the game.

I don't know all the details on Special, I've never played it. But it supposedly tweaks the gameplay to make some characters more balanced.

Here is a more indepth changes guide for those who are interested:

http://db.gamefaqs.com/coinop/arcade/file/samurai_shodown_v_special_changes.txt

Huh?
Mina sucks. Anyone with even the basest innkling on how to beat her can do it almost braindead. It all comes down to the fact that she has no defense, and no good way to chip you if you block her attacks. One or two good hits on Mina, and you can just run the clock. All she's got going for her at that point is mixups with the arrows shot down from the sky, which only goes so far.

Yoshitora was good in V, but this was largely due to his easily set up infinite, which took the tried and true sam sho infinite format by getting behind someone and doing shit(dunno if they kept it in the xbox port though). He got nerfed in Special, and nerfed even further in Tenka.

Yunfei was the real rough customer in 5 due to how good enlightenment was, and his runaway game. Kusaregedo was also GODLY if anyone took the time to get the hang of him-fellow who used to run fierceslash was a god with Kuse, even taking his bad matchups like Mina and turning them easily into Kuse's favor.

All in all however Special surpassed V in pretty much every way, and all of it that I've played, I haven't seen anything in it to make it "broken".

[evildead2099]

Is the Xbox port of Sam Sho 5 censored like the Neo Geo edition of Sam Sho 5?

[buttasuperb]

I thought SSV on XBOX was not SSV Special?

It's not.

But supposedly the boss characters from SSVS are unlockable.

From my understanding, since SSVS is the last Neo Geo game, they wanted it to be a Neo Geo only game.

[ubersaurus]

Is the Xbox port of Sam Sho 5 censored like the Neo Geo edition of Sam Sho 5?

No, there's blood aplenty. Hell, they even translated the japanese story mode that every single fucking fanboy on neo-geo got all up in arms about because it wasn't in the english mode on the neogeo itself.

[Tron 2.0]

Where does SAMURAI SPIRTS Tenkaiichi Kenkaku Den fit into all of this?

I see it's available as a pre-order only on Yesasia.com.

I have a PS2 and I'd like to import it.....anything like Sam Sho 5?
I guess you could call it the 6th game in the serise.

It ran on Sammy Atomiswave in the arcades.

Pretty much it's gonna be a port of that.

I got no clue how good it is, but i've watch the trailer on it and i think it looks sweet.

[ClubNinja]

Where does SAMURAI SPIRTS Tenkaiichi Kenkaku Den fit into all of this?

I got no clue how good it is

It's very good.

[evildead2099]

I picked up Sam Sho V for Xbox, and I must admit that I am disappointed. The game plays well enough, but the graphics are very low grade; the SNK 2D fighter games that were ported to the DC look better than does this title.

I was more impressed with the visual style of Sam Sho IV (Neo Geo), to be honest.

The game plays well, so it is not disposable, but I recommend buying Guilty Gear X for the Xbox instead (Not only was it bargain priced upon release, but it's especially cheap due to how long ago it came out)

[ubersaurus]

I picked up Sam Sho V for Xbox, and I must admit that I am disappointed. The game plays well enough, but the graphics are very low grade; the SNK 2D fighter games that were ported to the DC look better than does this title.

I was more impressed with the visual style of Sam Sho IV (Neo Geo), to be honest.

The game plays well, so it is not disposable, but I recommend buying Guilty Gear X for the Xbox instead (Not only was it bargain priced upon release, but it's especially cheap due to how long ago it came out)

It's the same graphics style as samurai shodown 4. Most of the graphics are the exact same.

[evildead2099]

I picked up Sam Sho V for Xbox, and I must admit that I am disappointed. The game plays well enough, but the graphics are very low grade; the SNK 2D fighter games that were ported to the DC look better than does this title.

I was more impressed with the visual style of Sam Sho IV (Neo Geo), to be honest.

The game plays well, so it is not disposable, but I recommend buying Guilty Gear X for the Xbox instead (Not only was it bargain priced upon release, but it's especially cheap due to how long ago it came out)

It's the same graphics style as samurai shodown 4. Most of the graphics are the exact same.

REally? Sam sho IV looks better to me.

I do remember Sam Sho IV's backgrounds featuring a lot more animated changes than those of Sam Sho V. Sam Sho V's backgrounds are more or less static, and seem like cheap recreations of the backgrounds from Sam Sho I & II.

[XianXi]

Go with:

KOF '98
Samurai Shodown II

Then when you get a chance dip into Mark of the wolves.