Hows about Garou and KOF 98 on XBLA?



The First of SNK's XBLA Double Whammy. Garou is every bit as great as it was in arcades It's better than the flawed Dreamcast port and the XBLA version is in fact a port of the PS2 version, which in it self was great. That said It is missing a few bells and whistles the Gallery Mode is gone and the arrange soundtrack while not radically better than the Original is also gone.



There is a neat extra which actally works for All SNK games on XBLA if you set your system language to Japanese, the Game will be in Japanese and any achivements you get while said game is in Japanese will be displayed in Japanese. Neat plus Kushnood Butt can get his proper name and be Marco Rodriguez again.



This is every bit the Garou I remember and the great thing about Garou is just how great the last is. Even the annoying little shit Hokotomaru is fun to use (AND A BASTARD I HATE NARUTO JR) It's a great cast and all are well animated for a 10 year old game (yeah can you believe it this game is a decade old) it's aged well and is as fresh now as it was then. The Achivements aren't too bad some are a bit tricky like:

Invincible Wolf (20)

Clear STORY MODE, don't lose any round, any continue, don't encount KAIN *In default BATTLE SETTING

I didn't know that was even possible.....

and

Impregnable Defense (20) Take "Just Defense" more than 10 times in one match. *STORY MODE only

Is that just defend 10 times in a match or make the dumb AI Just defend 10 times.... the engrish tells me nothing

The game is not without it's flaws, Controls aren't nearly as tight as they could be though I had trouble getting supers off the rest came out ok but something was off, this is the case with other SNK titles on XBLA due to the controller motions it's a little easier to pull things off. But I really can't say controls are tight here.

Alot of people are complaining about the online I personally have not had a laggy match the same is the case with KOF 98 UM. But online has been decent for me. I don't like how it's set up it's the most basic of basic online and nowhere near as great the wonderful HD Remix's lobbies and quarter matches.

But looking past these it's SNK's Masterpiece for $10 and it's well worth it if you haven't played before or want to face other humans in it. As this is SNK's only real tourney worthy fighter.



As if Garou wasn't enough SNK saw fit to tide those waiting for their preordered Amazon copies of Blazblue to arrive with King of Fighters 98 Ultimate match. While still a great update to what many consider the best KOF it was in fact an incredibly half assed port. Yes is has Mai x2 and that's all well and good BUT... well I'll list the problems

-The game WAS NOT EVEN TRANSLATED Victory quotes and the menu that shows up when you choose ultimate is in Japanese. There's no excuse for this Siloconera explained it Still NO EXCUSE

- As that stated this is a port of the Type X arcade game and NOT the far superior PS2 version so this means the gorgeous background int he PS2 version aren't there a shame as the 3d backgrounds in the ps2 version were a huge step up from the Dreamcast's 98 port.

-No arrange soundtrack. KOF music is some of the best in all of fighting gamedom. Now this is a port of the arcade version I understand but why a game running on something like type X didn't get the arrange to begin witch baffles me they could have fixed it here.

I don't think size is an issue as the game only clocks in at 124mb, it would not have been much more to add the 3d backgrounds and arrange soundtrack I don't think and it still would have clocked in under the XBLA limit.



What SNK DID bother to keep is neo-geo mode. You can play KOF 98 as it was on the AES so you get 2 games for one, however regular 98 does not get it's own set of achivements.

If you haven't picked up the superior PS2 version yet here's what Ultimate match adds to the table. Eiji, Kasumi, Geese, Krauser, Mr big, Orochi, Goenitz, Riot blood Leona and Riot blood Iori. Also if you don't want to fight Rugal you don't have to getting a certian number of DM finishes nets you a battle with either Goenitz or Orochi while both are hard battles it's not nearly as bad as if you have to face Rugal. Beating these bosses unlocks them.

Online is exactly the same as Garou and unlike Garou I have had one weird laggy match This is a problem for achivement whores if the game is laggy online as half the achivements are online based.

If you want KOF 98 on line here it is. If you want the best most complete version of KOF 98 get it on PS2.