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.