Post
by PenPen » Thu Mar 20, 2008 18:36
Played it today.
Basically, the progression is the same in the old 98 1 player mode, save for that between-match screen. You don't get that screen with question marks and such now. After the fourth round however, it's like KOF 97 where it shows your current progression with a bracket, and the character portraits (with sleeker looks). Unfortunately, IIRC before you face the final boss, you don't get to see their intro cutscenes. I think I'm kinda lucky to play 1 player mode because the 2P side is being occupied by someone who's watching his friend play (selfish bastard).
I only faced Shingo and Kasumi as midbosses but I don't know how I got to them (think they challenge you at the same time as before). As for final bosses, I only faced O. Rugal, he's a tough cookie, it seemed like whatever you did against him, it only took off a bit of his life (I think this is the machine setting since playing against normal opponents take longer than usual). The CPU is harder too. If you think Daimon was a bitch to play against in the old 98, check out his UM iteration where you pretty much have no idea how to beat him.
There's zero loading time. Controls and timing are exactly like it was in KOF 98, there's no input lag whatsoever.
Looking at trends, Advance mode is still the top (iirc one machine saying 80%), even though Ultimate gets some playing time as well. Extra is still, well, unused pretty much. You can see mode trends and character usage when the game isn't being played, along with high scores.
Regarding SDMs I still think you need a stock burst to execute them. I tried doing the motion with two buttons without stock bursting and the DM version came out. I'll try again when I get to play it next time.
The game is still choke full of the usual suspects in terms of usage: Kyo, Iori, Daimon, Clark, O. Yashiro, Chris & O. Chris, Beni. That's prolly because they were the most used in HK in 98 and 2k2.
Thankfully people still got the guts to use new characters, especially EX Mary and EX Yamazaki. They'll be covered in their respective threads in the UM forum. EX King, even though hailed as a really good character, didn't get to see much playing time. I saw EX Geese and Krauser.
I think 98 UM didn't disappoint me at all. The problem is whether people are accepting the game here, since they got used to 2k2. A few players said that this isn't 2k2 and don't like it because of that (screw them), but overall the 5 machines are always occupied. So 98 UM is here to stay.
Edit:
For those sound effect whores who really want to know whether EX Kyo has the 95 sounds, he does. It's quite...out of place.