(no subject)
I picked up King of Fighters Neowave. I'm glad to say I'm quite pleased. Wasn't sure what to expect but it's one of the best offerings from playmore yet.
My only real gripe is that SNK-Playmore still doesn't know how to make their games control like old SNK. It's kinda sad when my standard PS2 controller is more manageable than my SF anniversary controller. Be that as it may it's still a good game and worth importing since it's questionable if it'll see a PS2 release in the states.
As for the visuals, they basically give you control of what the sprites look like. You can go to the options menu and apply various filters to sharpen and enhance the sprites (similar to what a lot of emulators offer), or you can make them look like the classic MVS sprites. With all the filters applied the sprites look blurry and kinda stupid, but with the right combo they're very sharp and sophisticated and look great against the 3D backdrops. Aside from Guilty Gear this is probably the best game at not making the 2D sprites look out of place against a 3D background.
Can't Argue with the roster either. 48 playable characters with pretty much all of my personal favorites in there. Sadly there's only one "New" character. Young Geese. He's pretty badass and as a last boss he stands up to SNK's "how the fuck am I supposed to win" tradition. You can play as a dumbed down version of him right from the start. Here's what he looks like:
Pretty badass. And he has his Capcom vs SNK style broken english to boot.
"You meh wit mai Dithcus" (You've met with my disgust)
While I think it's impossible to choose just one King of Fighters as the only one to play, this one is definately the only one I'll be playing on my PS2 for quite some time. If you have the cash for the steep cost of japaneese games (generally around $65 for a new release) and you're a KOF fan, it's worth your money.