Let's learn about fighting games and get murdered together.

[Great Deceiver]

You are a monocled poster with correct opinions.

I agree that the art direction took a nosedive with 5 (although the reworked animation system in Final Showdown was pure incline), and I especially dislike many of the aesthetic choices they made with Ultimate Showdown (Akira's face for example, he looks like a standard Yakuza thug from the RGG games). Peak VF for me was VF4FT, which never saw a home release - I used to own the Naomi 2 GD version, but the DIMM board died down and I never bothered to fix it. We had a local VF 'scene' for awhile but then the guy I used to play with moved away and it died out.

I don't know who to blame specifically for this shift, but at the time of VF5's arcade release Tekken was already gaining a lot of ground in Japan and AM2 probably felt pressured in some way to go with more 'hip' designs. There's a lot of truly terrible cosmetics in arcade FS, but a lot of great stuff too. I especially liked the special winposes with certain items. The fact that Ultimate Showdown doesn't even have all of FS cosmetics is just a fucking joke honestly.

Anyway, My Harada collaboration comment was mainly based on the Tekken cosmetic pack (which was really a very ill-considered move on their part - it released on VF's anniversary, and in addition everything in it looked like absolute shit), and the fact that Aoki has been a guest in Harada's Bar (his YT talk show). Harada himself has said multiple times that he doesn't feel very motivated anymore after VF disappeared, and that he would love a new instalment for him to flex his muscles against. Deep down I suspect he has always known his game was vastly inferior and has always aspired to something greater, other than making loads of money. I have lots of respect for the guy, even if I hate Tekken.

In any case I'd like to be optimistic and I think there's a fair chance of something being announced soon. You're absolutely right that VF isn't the only franchise that suffers because of Sega's lack of acumen and business sense, they're sitting on top of multiple original IP goldmines but prefer to act as a third-rate publisher of shit modern games instead. Imagine a new release of Virtual On - could be huge! Dual sticks in home consoles have been the norm for so long, I remember the Dreamcast port of VOOT which was unplayable due to a completely retarded control scheme.

It's not a current thing either, they've pretty much always been completely inept from a business point of view, all the way back from the SoA/SoJ 32x debacle.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

As Assisted Living Godzilla has said, SEGA made gold with AM2's work: Last Bronx by AM3 running on the VF2 engine is a fantastic game, and while I don't find Fighting Vipers to be as appealing and enduring as either VF2 or LB it's very fun as well and has interesting peculiarities such as the speed and the meta of smashing the enemy against the wall, and the aforementioned Fighters Megamix might be the best reason to emulate Saturn, a real jewel for VF fans. I would also name Eternal Champions as a representative of SEGA catalogue in 2D, I think it doesn't get enough love and while its animation quality and overall fluidity is limited on account of it being designed for MegaDrive instead of an arcade machine, the vibe with its bright, detailed visuals and excellent soundtrack is unparalleled, while its sequel for SEGA CD Challenge from the Dark Side changed the tone quite a bit to an edgier quasi-MK style while improving the system and adding new characters; going by its lack of popularity I guess it might not be as good as the later iterations of SF2 and the likes of FF3 but it sure is worth checking out, its unique style sets it apart.

While The Last Blade 1&2 do get their deserved recognition here in the Codex as some of the very best 2D fighters ever (in fact, my favourite), among SNK's treasure Savage Reign and its sequel Kizuna Encounter: Super Tag Battle are still mistakenly glossed over: they share the core fighting engine of the Real Bout series but with superb character and stage design, huge, colourful and detailed sprites, and the ability, in Savage Reign, of moving not just to the background but to a different level of the arena from which is sometimes possible to throw objects at the enemy, while Kizuna Encounter ditches the layer switching in favour of a very fast paced tag system where the possibility of changing character is locked to a certain area, adding an element of tactics in restraining the movement of the enemy.

BTW, last time I wrote in this thread it was in reply to someone who asked what was the favourite fighting game of each retard here, and I said at the time it was Dead or Alive 5 Last Round but had the impression that if I had the chance to play Virtua Fighter 5 regularly that would be it instead. It happened, I bought a PS4 Pro just to blast VF5 Ultimate Shodown and now my computer has become little more than a SEGA arcade emulation machine, devotedly playing VF2 and 4 PPPKing with Lau Chan every day. Video games just don't get any better than this.

It's a shame that Sega lost a golden opportunity with Ultimate Showdown, it's still by far the best 3D fighting game even 12 years after the release of Final Showdown and it's not even close. They really fucked up with that fucking netcode. There's some speculation that something VF related might be announced during Evo Japan (March 31), but I wouldn't hold my breath.

I think Fighters Megamix was a cool curio, but it's a consensus among most people who play or have played VF somewhat competitively (or at least with a competitive mindset) that, as a VF game, it's garbage.

Something you might not already know is that Fighting Vipers' director, Hiroshi Kataoka, went on to produce VF after 4, when Suzuki went crazy. I think he took over VF entirely after VF4 Evo. I like Fighting Vipers, especially 2. It was a cool game that unfortunately never had any kind of appeal outside Japan.

VF deserves so much better than Sega's gross fucking negligence. The series current producer, Seiji Aoki, is friends with Tekken's Harada, and I wouldn't doubt some sort of collaboration could happen after Tekken 8 gets released. I hate Tekken, but at this point, anything would be better than whatever it is Sega is (not) doing.

Ultimate Showdown was just a test, and it sounds like a test they were ultimately happy with. Seems like more Virtua Fighter will be coming of it.

 

[v1rus]

Tyvm for your awesome suggestions folks, gonna check most of these out. Some of these I already have set up on RetroArch (Last Bronx, TechRomancer, Guardian Heroes, Red Earth, Cyberbots (party game thread Nutmeg :V), Golden Axe The Duel, Eternal Champions ). Groove on Fight and Waku Waku 7 look most up in my alley so far.

Here are couple more I came across/have already set up, any further comments/opinions/tips are welcome.

Rival Schools/Project Justice - Messed around with these two for a bit, I really like them for some reason. Has that unique, weird atmosphere I really like, dripping with style and insanity. I remember Great Deceiver approving of it in previously mentioned party game thread.

Star Gladiator/Plasma Sword - same designer as Project Justice/Powerstone afaik, I guess that warrants a try.

Weaponlord - Messed around it with a mate, looks like a good looking but incredibly shallow game. Hope that the first impression is wrong tho, that hyper testesterone artstyle is amazing.

Dark Edge - Real weird. As with previous game, I'm a yuge noob, and I feel like its more of a weird concept than a game.

Primal Rage - DINOSAURS!

Bushido Blade - Does this qualify as a fighter?

Rabbit - Really colorful, weird character design, havent played it at all tho.

Clayfighter 63 1/2 - Just looks real weird.

Ultimate Muscle: Legends vs. New Generation - Ditto.

Also, Nutmeg what makes Art of Fighting 3 unique? On the first glance of my noob eye, it seems like your usual fighting game fare.

 

[v1rus]

Also, seeing how everyone loves The Last Blade 2 and Garou: Mark of the Wolves so much, I decided I wanna give them a try too. Which are the optimal versions tho? I'd favor Dreamcast because I find RAs version of Flycast easy to use, but people seem to bitch and moan about slowdowns and delayed music. PC version, sure, but if i understand correctly, it lacks a character for Last Blade 2, just like the PS2 version does. Neo-Geo CD seems to be the superior version, but I've never tried emulating it.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Also, seeing how everyone loves The Last Blade 2 and Garou: Mark of the Wolves so much, I decided I wanna give them a try too. Which are the optimal versions tho? I'd favor Dreamcast because I find RAs version of Flycast easy to use, but people seem to bitch and moan about slowdowns and delayed music. PC version, sure, but if i understand correctly, it lacks a character for Last Blade 2, just like the PS2 version does. Neo-Geo CD seems to be the superior version, but I've never tried emulating it.

The original versions are always best, especially in the case of NeoGeo games. Go for the MVS versions. NeoCD had less RAM and awful load times.

 

[Nutmeg]

Also, seeing how everyone loves The Last Blade 2 and Garou: Mark of the Wolves so much, I decided I wanna give them a try too. Which are the optimal versions tho? I'd favor Dreamcast because I find RAs version of Flycast easy to use, but people seem to bitch and moan about slowdowns and delayed music. PC version, sure, but if i understand correctly, it lacks a character for Last Blade 2, just like the PS2 version does. Neo-Geo CD seems to be the superior version, but I've never tried emulating it.

The original versions are always best, especially in the case of NeoGeo games. Go for the MVS versions. NeoCD had less RAM and awful load times.

The only exception for NeoGeo is sometimes Saturn ports had some cool extras e.g. the Saturn version of Twinkle Star Sprites

 

[Nutmeg]

Also, @Nutmeg what makes Art of Fighting 3 unique?

It's far more grounded (literally) than other 2D fighters and uses rotoscoped animation. Described as Virtual Fighter but 2D, an exaggeration to be sure, but descriptive nonetheless.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Also, Nutmeg what makes Art of Fighting 3 unique? On the first glance of my noob eye, it seems like your usual fighting game fare.

The Art of Fighting series is different from your regular fighting games of that time like Street Fighter 2 and Fatal Fury in that every super uses meter. Like if Street Fighter functioned liked AoF, Ryu would need meter just to do a normal Hadouken.

The series is like a cross between Street Fighter and the old boxing games (or Budokan: The Martial Spirit) where you’d have some match and then train in something to increase stats...this aspect however is held back by being an arcade game. It’s a far more streamlined version than some boxing game you would’ve played at home on the NES or Genesis because they’re not trying to have someone’s ass on a fucking cabinet forever without putting money into the machine.

The Art of Fighting series was also always the best looking fighting game at the time it was out. AoF3 ended up dropping it, but the first two had really nice damage that’d show up on the sprites. The sprite scaling was also really impressive looking in arcades; although looks less impressive on modern digital screens.

The series probably should’ve had the player executing moves like SF6’s modern controls, given they do all take a resource to use anyways. More so today then when Art of Fighting first came out and fighting games were basically new, I have seen people just bounce off the idea of supers with move inputs that also all take meter. The series successor (Buriki One: World Grapple Tournament '99) does drop the traditional fighting game controls and has you doing moves with the joystick and moving with the buttons.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Also, seeing how everyone loves The Last Blade 2 and Garou: Mark of the Wolves so much, I decided I wanna give them a try too. Which are the optimal versions tho? I'd favor Dreamcast because I find RAs version of Flycast easy to use, but people seem to bitch and moan about slowdowns and delayed music. PC version, sure, but if i understand correctly, it lacks a character for Last Blade 2, just like the PS2 version does. Neo-Geo CD seems to be the superior version, but I've never tried emulating it.

The original versions are always best, especially in the case of NeoGeo games. Go for the MVS versions. NeoCD had less RAM and awful load times.

The only exception is sometimes Saturn ports had some cool extras e.g. the Saturn version of Twinkle Star Sprites

Yeah, the original versions of a lot of fighting games aren’t the best. Especially once you get to the Dreamcast. Like, the arcade version of some 2D fighting game is always going to be better than the fucking PSX version, or like some 16-bit era port. But you’ll probably want the Dreamcast version of Street Fighter Alpha 3 over the arcade version...unless you’ve got the arcade version of the Dreamcast version maybe. You’re going to want Sega Saturn Cyberbots with the macha Zero Akuma (and others) over the arcade version. Once you’re in the Dreamcast/PS2/Xbox era, if you’re not playing the console version of a KoF game, you’re going to be missing out on a bunch of characters.

I’d play the Dreamcast version of Garou: Mark of the Wolves. That game has the most fun Survival Mode of any fighting game I’ve ever played. Not a fighting game, but an SNK game all the same, the best version of Metal Slug 3 is still the original Xbox version which has modes like Fat Island and Storming the UFO Mothership.

 

[Nutmeg]

The problem with Dreamcast and I assume Xbox ports of 240p 2D games is that many of them scale or filter the pixel art in a lossy way and if you're really into beautiful, beautiful 240p like I am it's quite the deal breaker.

Saturn CPS2 ports are the same but you can force some weird aspect ratio (I will edit this message later with the exact ratio) to get same PAR as a CPS2 when displayed @ 4:3.

EDIT: The correct display aspect ratio for CPS2 ports on Saturn is 11:9.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Also, seeing how everyone loves The Last Blade 2 and Garou: Mark of the Wolves so much, I decided I wanna give them a try too. Which are the optimal versions tho? I'd favor Dreamcast because I find RAs version of Flycast easy to use, but people seem to bitch and moan about slowdowns and delayed music. PC version, sure, but if i understand correctly, it lacks a character for Last Blade 2, just like the PS2 version does. Neo-Geo CD seems to be the superior version, but I've never tried emulating it.

The original versions are always best, especially in the case of NeoGeo games. Go for the MVS versions. NeoCD had less RAM and awful load times.

The only exception is sometimes Saturn ports had some cool extras e.g. the Saturn version of Twinkle Star Sprites

Yeah, the original versions of a lot of fighting games aren’t the best. Especially once you get to the Dreamcast. Like, the arcade version of some 2D fighting game is always going to be better than the fucking PSX version, or like some 16-bit era port. But you’ll probably want the Dreamcast version of Street Fighter Alpha 3 over the arcade version...unless you’ve got the arcade version of the Dreamcast version maybe. You’re going to want Sega Saturn Cyberbots with the macha Zero Akuma (and others) over the arcade version. Once you’re in the Dreamcast/PS2/Xbox era, if you’re not playing the console version of a KoF game, you’re going to be missing out on a bunch of characters.

I’d play the Dreamcast version of Garou: Mark of the Wolves. That game has the most fun Survival Mode of any fighting game I’ve ever played. Not a fighting game, but an SNK game all the same, the best version of Metal Slug 3 is still the original Xbox version which has modes like Fat Island and Storming the UFO Mothership.

No, you wouldn't want to play SFZ3 Upper over the CPS2 original, because the resolution is shit and sprites look botched, and plus the balance changes were pretty much universally hated by people who actually played the game. There's also additional input delay. I had the Naomi version set up for awhile and everyone here preferred playing the CPS2 original.

Barring very few exceptions, playing ports of these old games is for filthy casuals, especially in this day and age when emulation is so advanced. The only reason people dealt with inferior ports back in the day was because there was simply no other choice, and no, in a competitive game superfluous shit like "survival mode" doesn't make up for everything else being worse.

Imagine thinking, for example, that the Dreamcast version of KoF 98, with its completely botched gameplay, disproportionately small and poorly scaled sprites on top of distracting 3d background elements is superior to the original. What a joke.

The Dreamcast had a great reputation as a FG console because at the time there were a lot of popular arcade games on Naomi, most notably CvS2 and MvC2, so since the hardware was pretty much equivalent it was like having a native version running at home. Not because of fucking NeoGeo ports LOL

 

[Nutmeg]

I do like my console original modes added to arcade games, even my 16-bit demakes of sorts when talking about that particular era, but they have to get their fundies right to "replace" the original, as opposed to being supplementary material.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Nothing wrong with that, I dig some original modes too! But as you say they're just extra stuff, and in many respects added in exactly because the main game itself was inferior, so they had to make it up somehow.

 

[Nutmeg]

Oh v1rus how could I forget Asuka Limit Over on the Saturn.

See Asuka 120% is a venerable 2 button fighter series spanning many systems by Fill-in-Cafe (a developer that started out making games for Japanese PC systems, as many of the best oddball Japanese game devs did), but Limit Over in particular is interesting for being kind of an experimental black label released by employees after the dev went bankrupt, thus freeing them from any market related pressure to conform to the game design of more successful titles. One thing I particularly enjoy and that makes it ideal for "party" play with casuals is how they used all the other buttons on the Saturn pad as macros for command moves.

Maybe less "obscure" now after Skullgirls devs popularized it a great deal - Skullgirls itself being a spirtual sequel of sorts crossed with MvC2.

Here's a video of (one of?) the Skullgirls devs playing and talking about it:

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Also, seeing how everyone loves The Last Blade 2 and Garou: Mark of the Wolves so much, I decided I wanna give them a try too. Which are the optimal versions tho? I'd favor Dreamcast because I find RAs version of Flycast easy to use, but people seem to bitch and moan about slowdowns and delayed music. PC version, sure, but if i understand correctly, it lacks a character for Last Blade 2, just like the PS2 version does. Neo-Geo CD seems to be the superior version, but I've never tried emulating it.

The original versions are always best, especially in the case of NeoGeo games. Go for the MVS versions. NeoCD had less RAM and awful load times.

The only exception is sometimes Saturn ports had some cool extras e.g. the Saturn version of Twinkle Star Sprites

Yeah, the original versions of a lot of fighting games aren’t the best. Especially once you get to the Dreamcast. Like, the arcade version of some 2D fighting game is always going to be better than the fucking PSX version, or like some 16-bit era port. But you’ll probably want the Dreamcast version of Street Fighter Alpha 3 over the arcade version...unless you’ve got the arcade version of the Dreamcast version maybe. You’re going to want Sega Saturn Cyberbots with the macha Zero Akuma (and others) over the arcade version. Once you’re in the Dreamcast/PS2/Xbox era, if you’re not playing the console version of a KoF game, you’re going to be missing out on a bunch of characters.

I’d play the Dreamcast version of Garou: Mark of the Wolves. That game has the most fun Survival Mode of any fighting game I’ve ever played. Not a fighting game, but an SNK game all the same, the best version of Metal Slug 3 is still the original Xbox version which has modes like Fat Island and Storming the UFO Mothership.

No, you wouldn't want to play SFZ3 Upper over the CPS2 original, because the resolution is shit and sprites look botched, and plus the balance changes were pretty much universally hated by people who actually played the game. There's also additional input delay. I had the Naomi version set up for awhile and everyone here preferred playing the CPS2 original.

Barring very few exceptions, playing ports of these old games is for filthy casuals, especially in this day and age when emulation is so advanced. The only reason people dealt with inferior ports back in the day was because there was simply no other choice, and no, in a competitive game superfluous shit like "survival mode" doesn't make up for everything else being worse.

Imagine thinking, for example, that the Dreamcast version of KoF 98, with its completely botched gameplay, disproportionately small and poorly scaled sprites on top of distracting 3d background elements is superior to the original. What a joke.

Generally people would rather have the Dreamcast version of SFA3 with its six new characters over the arcade version. Also not sure many people could even point out the visual difference between the original arcade version and the upscaled Dreamcast version.

You’re not a fucking competitive gamer when it comes to fighting games and I doubt anyone else in here is either so I’m not sure why you’re talking about it like you’re headed off to EVO or something. Yeah, a fun Survival Mode is a plus, which Mark of the Wolves has. 99% of the time Survival Mode wouldn’t mean anything, but the version of it in Mark of the Wolves is fun enough it’s worth mentioning. Sometime when you’re playing a fighting game, you aren’t playing it with other people, and sometimes it’s fun to mix things up from the regular mode of play.

It’s also fun to fuck around with the dip switch setting if the game gives you the option. Like, the system direction stuff with Third Strike in the Street Fighter Anniversary Collection and Dreamcast version which lets you turn air blocks on a stuff. If you’re just playing the game to have fun, and not training for some tournament, these are fun things to play around with.

I didn’t even mention KoF ‘98. Although your average person is going to get more out of the later Ultimate Match versions of ‘98 which add in the missing Orochi Saga era KoF characters minus the previous Rugals...which it should’ve included.

 

[Nutmeg]

Generally people would rather have the Dreamcast version of SFA3 with its six new characters over the arcade version. Also not sure many people could even point out the visual difference between the original arcade version and the upscaled Dreamcast version.

I disagree with this. Many people, such as myself, are "less is more" kind of people. To give an example, one of my favorite "downgrade" ports is the PC Engine version of Detana Twinbee, which is missing 2 stages present in the arcade version, not to mention many nice graphical effects as the arcade board was much much more powerful than the PCE. Despite this, it had a better hitbox on the ship and the reduced game length was actually a welcome alternative due to the 2 loop format.

I'm not very familiar with SFA3 on the DC (at some point I settled on the Arcade and Saturn versions for reasons now lost to me), but if the visual issues are anything like e.g. for Mars Matrix, then it'd be quite noticable.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

 

[Parsifarka]

Bushido Blade - Does this qualify as a fighter?

Absolutely, and a remarkable one. Very much worth checking out, the high lethality and commitment to the attacks turn out a unique experience, plus it boasts a peculiar setting with samurai but an uncertain level of technology and a desolate vibe that makes it intriguing.
Also, I forgot to mention Ninja Master's, the last fighter by ADK for the NeoGeo. Visually, it's an odd release because though the character design is good (except for the mandatory loli character), the animation very decent (the female ninja is particularly well done) and the stages pretty with some animation in them, the size of the sprites is singularly small for releases of that time in the system and I think it played very much against its popularity. Its voice samples are of a rare good quality, I'd say. Its peculiarity in terms of system lies in that each character starts the fight barehand but can produce a weapon anytime (and lose it as in SamSho) that will slightly alter his moveset, and hide it again at will returning to the original stance. It follows the classic four button convention of FF/Garou but to my liking it plays better than most of them.
And, as Groove on Fight had already been mentioned I did not think of it as it might be assumed together with that recommendation, but anyone looking for a fast, fun, weird looking and sounding fighter with comical (or perhaps borderline obnoxious, your mileage may vary) elements of nipponic silliness should try out Power Instinct and its sequels. Matrimelee is probably the most popular, but it ditches too many good, iconic characters and the visual style deviated too much for my liking, so I'd say the tag Gogetsuji Legends was the best release.

 

[Nutmeg]

You can't tell anything from these videos where it's just emulator output with PAR 1:1 non integer scaled (sometimes with 2xSAI or similar ugh) to the video resolution or whatever

 

[Lagole Gon]

HER trailer is finally here!

What's up with the purple-shadow-crow-thingy attack?

Is it vanilla Jun thing? Or some Unkown reference?

 

[v1rus]

Bushido Blade - Does this qualify as a fighter?

Absolutely, and a remarkable one. Very much worth checking out, the high lethality and commitment to the attacks turn out a unique experience, plus it boasts a peculiar setting with samurai but an uncertain level of technology and a desolate vibe that makes it intriguing.

Is the second game also worth it?

Power Instinct does look wonderful. Besides Groove on Fight, I checked out Matrimelee (Nutmegs recommendation too) but the differences between Arcade and PS2 (PS2 is actually the sequel? But it drops 4 guest characters?) confused me a bit. Gonna check out Ninja Masters and Gogetsuji Legends too.

 

[Lucumo]

You're absolutely right that VF isn't the only franchise that suffers because of Sega's lack of acumen and business sense, they're sitting on top of multiple original IP goldmines but prefer to act as a third-rate publisher of shit modern games instead. Imagine a new release of Virtual On - could be huge! Dual sticks in home consoles have been the norm for so long, I remember the Dreamcast port of VOOT which was unplayable due to a completely retarded control scheme.

That would depend on Sega being competent enough to release a good/great game. I have my doubts about that. And they have already shat all over the Sakura Taisen series for instance.

 

[d1r]

And another one!



v1rus
Matrimelee is a pretty simple, but very fun fighting game. The presentation (especially the soundtrack) and character roster are top notch. Arcade version has additional characters from another nice fighting game called Rage of the Dragons. These characters however didn't make it into the PS2 version of Matrimelee. The PS2 version however has characters from older Power Instinct entries + a special guest character which is a black Japanese comedian.

There is also a 3rd version of this game out there, called Gōketsuji Ichizoku: Senzo Kuyō which only appeared on Japanese arcades. It lost guest characters from both previous versions, and instead introduced completely new characters to the series. Gameplay has been improved as well.

All three versions are worth checking out.

Also a little video I created years ago about the wackyness of the series:

 

[v1rus]

See Asuka 120% is a venerable 2 button fighter series spanning many systems...

I have a strange little situation going around, and since you recommended it, and I know you are using RA, I might as well ask, here. I'm using Beetle Saturn, and I got Limit Over and tried setting it up - when I enter options, there is an auto-save off/on option. But no matter what I do, I cant set it to on, and its been frustrating me very much. Any tips? Does it even matter? It doesnt save changed options when I quit the game, which is manageable, I guess, but if there are any unlockables, its going to be a pain.

All three versions are worth checking out.

I completely missed the arcade version! Ty.

 

[Parsifarka]

Is the second [Bushido Blade] game also worth it?

I can't say for sure: I only played it briefly and regarded it is as a downgrade starting with the visuals and the very menu design, while the control scheme changed drastically into a command system I don't recall the particulars of but found cumbersome and left me confused (even checking the manual now I can't neither understand nor remember what the buttons do) as the original already was very intuitive and precise, and the single player mode mixed regular duels with new, excessive trash mobs and a higher number of PSX rendered dark cutscenes that I found of little interest, clashing with the austere yet colourful and elegant presentation of the story/arcade mode of the original. So, pretty quickly I decided it was inferior and went back to the first entry; I might have been hasty in my judgement and it could still have some merits, but I'm pretty confident in saying the first one was a more accomplished work that looked and played better.