KoF XI, Sonic, & Wrestlemania

Tried out 2 of my newly aquired PS2 games today.

First up, King of Fighters XI.

I love Fatal Fury, I love the characters, I love the Anime OVAs & Movies, and more importantly the games. I'm not that great at fighters, but they are VERY fun. KoF XI is the first of the series that didn't go by a year, instead going by Roman Numerals.

I did a quick single play of the game and this edition apparently takes place after the final Fatal Fury game (Garou: Mark of the Wolves), evident by the lack of a Red Jacket with Terry Bogard. Also, there being no Andy Bogard or Joe Higashi (No Rock Howard either). I always play on easy, so I looked through the options and noticed that you can max the power meter, which is nice for beginners. The Final Boss Magaki, for easy mode, showed that he can be a bother if you're not careful. I can only imagine how he is on Normal or Hard.

I then notice that there is a character options mode, which is basically KoF's version of Fire Pro Wrestling's EDIT Mode. You can not only customize the colors of the fighters, but of their energy attacks as well. I love this, and now want all 2D fighters to have this. I customed a Terry to have Blue Fire normally and Red Fire on the final attacks. I'm gonna sometime custom a Ryo to be Dan Hibiki.


I also took a stab at Sonic Unleashed. If there's one thing Sonic Team can get right, it's cutscenes. The Opening vid is incredibly made. I had played the demo for this on the 360, but I played through the tutorial & 1st stage. I'm looking forward to see how this "Modified Internal Engine" (Wii/PS2) compares to the "Hedgehog Engine" (360/PS3).

Speaking of Sonic, I spoiled myself and looked up the Final Boss for Sonic & The Black Knight. And man...It's this boss fight's dialog that makes me feel that Sonic will forever be as great a Video Game Hero as Mario, Link, & Lucas. Sonic's story will never end, because he'll just keep running.


Mania was okay. Orton is just incredible right now. He knows exactly when to make a movement, How to make the movement, and how to convey the movement. I called for McIntyre to win, but Swagger winning was a surprise. However, he's a complete idiot to not cash in after the World Title Match, that's just bad booking and/or bad communication. Bret v Vince was exactly what it needed to be, if you were expecting Hogan v Vince, you missed the point. It was all about screwjobs, and have one side be the dominator was to be expected, Bret being the logical choice. Vickie with the Eddie tights and the Frog Splash was sad, not a pathetic sad, but just sad. I love Shawn Michaels, but I felt he should have stayed retired when he did in 98. not because of storyline or that he started wrestling badly, but that I didn't want him hurt anymore. I glad that he lost (Even though I thought it'd be a draw, Taker stayed Undefeated and Shawn would wrestle more), now he can go home and rest that weary body. Whether you like him or not, you know there will never be another Shawn Michaels.

Back to the Past/Future/Present...Wibbily-Wobbly, Timey-Whimey...Man, this is heavy.

So, for whatever reason, I am no longer able to access Strong Style Spirit (www.puroresufan.com) and it's message board. So from the outside, I'm gonna try to move on past SSS, willing or not, and see if I can get expand my creativity.

I wasn't limited to SSS before, but more people looked at the pieces there than if I were to here. So hopefully, since I'm outcasted, people will read on this blog on on my Twitter account (@tackangel).

So big news of the day is that a local Hollywood Video is closing down thanks to the evil greatness that is Netflix. The result, as always, is everything must go!

The Result of my Treasure Hunting?
de Blob (Wii)
Megaman Network Transmission (GC)
Raiden III (PS2)
King of Fighters XI, The (PS2)
Ratchet & Clank Going Commando (PS2)
Ratchet Deadlocked (PS2)
Jak 3 (PS2)
Sonic Unleashed (PS2)
SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom (XBOX)
Street Fighter IV (360)
Digimon The Movie (DVD)
100-Pack of Blank Single DVD Cases

All games were 70% off (New & Used) and all DVDs were $1.99. The Blank DVD Cases were $0.10 each. So I made out like a bandit and joked to the family that I just shopped at my version of IKEA.

So now yes, I am now able to face off against you guys on 360 with SFIV. I'm a little late to the party but with SSFIV coming soon, I'm sure more people will play up to it's release (As evident by the 3 challenges that were made as I tried to play the first battle in Arcade Mode).


So now, non-gaming news.

I'm almost done with my Series Bible and am cooking up ideas for the first story of my Not High School Romance/Manga-less Manga/Fan Service/Episodic Release Story. If I had the talent to draw a manga, the stories would be more vivid. Hopefully though, you'll be able to imagine what I'm trying to create.

The story (Not named yet) will have 6 Main Characters, 4 of them not being references to real or fictional people but have traits taken from such. 2 of the characters are from a fictional source and it will be my own spin on the characters as they interact in this new world (oops, a hint).

There are a few Main Side Characters, all are new, as well as interaction with the Main Character's Families. There are also other side characters that are COMPLETE fan-service, not of any SSS user though (But you guys are referenced).

More information, as I continue to build the Series Bible.


That's all for now, any updates and comments can be found on Twitter (@tackangel).

Later