Favorite Tunes #271: SNK Music Has Always Been Great, Really

I had a different set of music lined up for Favorite Tunes but I've decided to hold off on it. Why? Because Terry is here and his music selection in Smash Ultimate is full of absolute bangers! Trust, we will be talking about that music in Smash in an upcoming post. For now, enjoy this week's selection of SNK jams.

Terry wallpaper by Cat with Monocle.

ART of FIGHT - Art of Fighting (NG)

I've been listening to SNK music for years but never heard anything from the Art of Fighting games. After seeing the two Art of Fighting tracks for Terry's stage in Ultimate, I decided it was time to educate myself on those game's soundtracks. Spoilers, they are quite good.

Kurikinton (FATAL FURY 2) - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (NS)

What a funky, lively theme, perfectly suited for Terry. Being Terry's theme music and being so dang good, there are three versions of it in Smash Ultimate: An Ultimate arrangement, a KOF XIV version and of course, the original.

The Sea Knows - FATAL FURY: King of Fighters (NG)

The game that launched the FATAL FURY series and birthed Terry Bogard. It definitely shows its age today and I would recommend other entries over it. The music, however, sounds just as good in the current year as it did in 1991. This song is in Ultimate so head to My Music and crank it all the way up. You can thank me later.

How Can China Have 4000 Years of History - FATAL FURY SPECIAL Image Album Part 2

I was really hoping the original of this track or arrangement would be feature in Ultimate but its hard for me to be too down about it when the song list is 50 tracks. I know I've posted the original of this track way back when, so here is a beautiful arrangement.

Banquet of Nature - SAMURAI SHODOWN (NG)

There is an outstanding arrangement of this track in Ultimate. I just had to check out the original version and no surprise, it sounds awesome. Nakoruru may have missed that invite but she got a Mii costume, a spirit and one beautiful remix.

Flying the Dinosaur - Prehistoric Isle in 1930 (AC)

As Masahiro Sakurai said, SNK music was great even before the NEOGEO. So we're taking it back to the pre NG days to one of SNK's shooters. Prehistoric Isle in 1930 is available as one of the many games on the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection. If you did the original game, check out the sequel, Prehistoric Isle II via the Arcade Archives line.

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OKAY! Terry is Here!

Terry Bogard, main character of the Fatal Fury series and the poster boy for SNK is in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. That may sound unbelievable when one says it aloud but Ultimate is a title where Solid Snake, Ryu & Ken, Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man all occupy the same virtual space along with a copious amount of other video game icons. So as crazy as that may seem, it is getting to be the new normal for Smash and like that old McDonald's slogan, I'm lovin' it.

That King of Fighters stage (based off Fatal Fury and not The King of Fighters) has quickly become one of my favorite battle arenas. Initially, it seemed as if it was going to be a walk off stage but the invisible barriers make it very unique. I've always loved knocking my opponents against walls on levels like Hyrule Castle and Corneria. Having a huge football stadium with invisible walls that can be broken at high percents makes for all sorts of crazy fun. The level of detail that went into creating this stage is highly impressive. I especially love that multiple reps from Fatal Fury, The King of Fighters and Art of Fighting appear at different times on the stage. When we saw Ryo for that brief moment Terry was shown in action back in early September, I speculated that we'd see different SNK characters on that KOF stage. I didn't think the number would be up to twenty, though. Seeing the gang from these SNK games really took me back to the days of playing King of Fighters 2000-2003. Kinda like meeting up with old friends you haven't seen in a long time.

Having played Terry in the Fatal Fury, The King of Fighters and Capcom vs SNK games, I already knew I'd have good time using him. Heck, I dedicated a blog post to discuss my excitement for the character. What I was not prepared for is how insanely good Terry would be. I think Joker is OK (no pun intended). Like, I get that the character has huge appeal despite not playing Persona 5, but he's not a character I play often. I'm happy we got Banjo-Kazooie and Hero is a big favorite of mine. Piranha Plant is cool even outside of the dead memes. But Terry is a character I haven't been this jazzed about playing since I started playing Mega Man in the previous Smash game.

My play style when it comes to fighting games and Smash tends to be more aggressive. I love to spam Smash attacks and pressure my opponents. I suppose that could be why I greatly enjoy playing as Terry so much. Even though I'm a scrub at fighting games, I can still string together some decent combos with Terry and doing so is ultra satisfying. I've seen some comment that not all of his moves are that damaging. I'd like to point out that it isn't always about causing big damage. If even a  weaker attack can put your opponent in a position where they are vulnerable, then that is not a wasted move. That being said, Terry is certainly capable of causing big damage. Even without his GO meter activated, Terry is scary. It has only been a few days since Terry dropped and already people are coming up with crazy combos. As time passes, we're sure to see more of what Terry can do and I can't wait to see what players far more talented than myself can bring out of Mr. Bogard.

Everything that makes Terry a lovable character has been brought over with the utmost care in Smash Ultimate. Broken English? Check. I will never get tired of hearing Terry ask "Are you OK?" or hearing him shout "OK!" with such enthusiasm as he tosses his hat on the victory screen. It is so easy to see why he is the face of SNK. Sakurai and his team handled this character so well. I'm a big fan of the blue alt for Terry and the classic NEOGEO color, complete with "NEOGEO" on his hat. I'm a little bummed that the famous Mark of the Wolves Terry was not used as an alt, but you can't have everything. That would be more work on the development team and they've already given us so much with Terry and all those cameos in his stage.

I haven't checked my playtime with Terry yet but I'm sure it has already surpassed a good chunk of other characters. I've already poured a lot of hours into DRAGON QUEST III and my playtime with that game has taken a hit due to Mr. Bogard's arrival.

Best thing about Terry being in Smash? The outfit Kirby gets from him.

If your heart doesn't melt when Kirby says "Power Wave" you have no soul.

Blizzard's Garbage Apology is Garbage

So BlizzCon happened this past weekend. With the PR crap storm that was the Blitzchung banning in early October, I think many of us were eagerly anticipating this event, even those of us that weren't going to attend.

J. Allen Brack, president of Blizzard took the stage and apologized for the poor, poor handling of the Blitzchung fiasco. And by "apology", I mean, the man did nothing of the sort.

That was not an apology. What that was was another display of corporate BS that is spewed out on a regular basis. Blitzchung's name was not mentioned at all, nor was his banning or the banning of the two casters. I'm going to put "apology" in quotation marks but just know that there is not a big enough font/number to properly display just how utterly gutter trash Blizzard's "apology" was.

Cripes, Blizzard, how tight of a grip does China have on your balls? This company cannot tell us that China does not own their souls. "Every voice matters"? Get outta here with that. Sure, every voice matters, except the voices that could cause our great and powerful China overlords to get angry and those voices could end up making us lose money. I guess money truly is more valued over having a dang spine or some integrity because Blizzard clearly dumped those things in the trash a long time ago.

And what was up with all the applause during Brack's "apology"? The people in the audience were either paid actors, the biggest sheep I've ever seen, or it was some stock applause. I don't think I heard a single boo during that entire "apology."

Keep effin' up, Blizz. I'm sure EA appreciates you taking some of the heat off of them.

DRAGON QUEST: The Return

DRAGON QUEST fever is running wild, thanks in no small part to the release of DRAGON QUEST XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition (did they even try to come up with a shorter title) and the release of the mobile versions of DRAGON QUEST I-III on the Switch. All four of these games dropped on the same day, September 27th, a month that was already packed with tons of quality game releases. It was almost too much for my poor wallet to handle but thanks to some extra cash, I managed to snag all four DRAGON QUEST titles. Rather than fire up DRAGON QUEST XI S (extremely tempting seeing as how I was drooling over this game when they showed off that 2D mode), I opted to play a quest that I was somewhat familiar with because I knew it would be less time consuming, the original game that started it all, DRAGON QUEST.

Even for the standards of retro RPGs, DRAGON QUEST is incredibly basic. The game is light on plot and has no character development whatsoever. Heck, you don't even travel in a party. You are a lone hero traveling the world to save it from the evil that has been unleashed by the Dragonlord. Also, there is a missing princess to find (should you bother to find her at all). Fighting monsters (lots of them in fact), gathering information on what you need to do to complete your mission, the usual old school RPG fare. Except with DRAGON QUEST, it is very bare bones. This game was originally released in 1986, after all (1989 in America) and is very much a product of its time. And yet for all of the slim trimmings, DRAGON QUEST somehow managed to hold my attention when I first played it at the age of 14 and playing the mobile port on the Switch felt like coming home again.

I did not expect to set aside Link's Awakening or Super Mario Maker 2 for DRAGON QUEST. I thought I would play a bit of the game and and resume my current day titles. But the best laid plans and all that. Before I knew it, I was looking to find Princess Gwaelin, seeking the Mark of Erdrick to prove to all these idiot doubters that I was his descendant, and combing parts of the world I had never reached in the NES release.

When I had time to game, DRAGON QUEST is what I played. I was leveling up LOTO (a name that gives your character better stats), getting more money for better weapons and armor and stomping monsters that used to give me trouble as a teenager. A few encounters even had me sweating bullets. The Green Dragon that guards Princess Gwaelin is one tough customer and I honestly cannot remember the last time I've been on pins and needles in a retro RPG boss fight.

The Dragonlord was a heavy hitter in his final form. I was at level 21 when I faced him so I wasn't sure if I could win unless I was at level 30. When he went down, a dropped my controller and thew my hands up in the air with a huge smile on my face. It has been quite some time since I had that kind of reaction from vanquishing a final boss. When the credits rolled and I checked my Switch for the amount of hours clocked in for DRAGON QUEST, it read "Played for 15 hours or more."

I enjoyed every hour I poured into DRAGON QUEST. True, there is a certain satisfaction that comes from finishing a game you didn't beat when you were a kid/teen but I think it says something about an old game if you can have a blast with it even when you can see its obvious flaws. Yeah, this version has things that make it superior to the original NES release, but even taking those things into account, DRAGON QUEST is still a super old game, even with the modern day conveniences this version offers. But like Super Mario Bros., DRAGON QUEST is a game I can see myself coming back to on multiple occasions. DRAGON QUEST was 15 hours well spent. One quest has ended but another Dragon Quest has already begun and more are sure to follow.

Terry Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Hype

November is almost here, which means a number of things. Thanks Giving, one of my favorite holidays is fast approaching. More games to get excited for and wonder just when I'll get around to playing. It also means another fighter will be joining the ever growing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster: Terry of SNK/Fatal Fury/King of Fighters fame.

When Ken showed up to join his best friend and rival, Ryu in Smash Ultimate, I always thought Terry would make a great fit. I wasn't too surprised when he was announced (and I somehow managed to avoid finding out about him being leaked, thankfully) but I was nonetheless thrilled that Terry was getting the chance to thrown down in Smash Ultimate.

Back in the head-days of game magazines, I would read GamePro religiously and it was in those pages that I've first read about SNK's NEO-GEO, the home console version of SNK's hit MVS hardware. The $600 price tag for the unit and $250 for each game, ensured that I would never own one, but the games on the NEO-GEO still caught my attention. Fast forward to the early 2000s and SNK is releasing their old games on systems I actually owned such as the PS and PS2. After years of playing Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter and only being able to see Terry and the gang on websites and game mags, I was finally able to play some KOF and Fatal Fury titles. King of Fighters 2000/2001 on the PS2 and King of Fighters 2002/2003 were among some of my most played fighting games with my friends even though I wasn't great at fighting games (still not great BTW). In the late 2000s, I picked up Fatal Fury Battle Archives Vol. 1, not knowing at the time that this was the series that birthed Terry. The first Fatal Fury certainly felt ridged, which was to be expected from the first game. Fatal Fury  2/Special and Fatal Fury 3 were much more enjoyable fighters. Capcom vs SNK 2 only gave me a greater appreciation for Terry and company.

Between the Fatal Fury and KOF games, Terry was always a fun, easy character to pick up, which is import for any fighting game to have. Terry's truck-driver like character design is also quite humorous as well as his broken English and that seems to be in tact for Ultimate. I think fans would riot if that part about Terry was dropped. Hearing "Busta Wolf! Power Wave!" and the like without that broken English in Smash just wouldn't feel right.

SNK games have some killer music so as stoked as I am for Terry getting in Ultimate, I'm just as jazzed for the music selection we'll get for his stage. If Suzaku Castle is any indication (we got all of the Street Fighter II CPS-I and CPS-II themes), we'll more than likely get all of the stage themes from the first Fatal Fury. This includes Michael Max Theme, Tung Fu Rue Theme, and of course, Geese Howard's Theme. Some Fatal Fury 2/Special tracks could be used as well, if not original tracks, arrangements. Before Ken was in Smash, his theme made it into Ryu's stage in the previous game so I'd say Pasta (the title of Andy's theme and Andy being Terry's brother) is a safe bet.

With Terry being a big player in the King of Fighters games, I hope we get some KOF beats as well. I really, really want ESAKA from KOF '94 to make it in. Nettou King of Fighters is a lesser known game but anyone that has played some Mega Man ROM hacks has more than likely come across Mr. Karate's Theme, a fantastic chiptuine jam and I'd love for it to get arranged in Ultimate. The latest KOF entry, KOF XIV has some bangers and if I had my say, I'd definitely go with Saxophone Under the Moon and Survivors Under the Sky. I wouldn't mind a few Metal Slug tracks being in the game as well, but I realize that is quite the long shot. Regardless, I'm looking forward to seeing the full selection of music tracks on Terry's stage. Now come on and give us that November Direct, Nintendo!

The Blizzard Backlash

Oh, Blizzard. Bliz. Blizzy, Blizzy, Blizzyyyy. I am 100% certain that EA, Ubisoft and any other scummy video game company is super glad they are not you right now. Heck, I'll bet any game company is glad they are not Blizzard right now because it sucks to be Blizzard despite all the money they've got. When Blizzard banned Hearthstone player Bliztchung from the Grandmasters tourney for shouting "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our age!" during a post-game interview, they initiated what could very well be the biggest PR disaster the gaming industry has ever witnessed. Initially, Bliztchung was banned for a year and his prize money that he had already won was rescinded. In the days that have since followed, his ban was shortened to six months and his prize money was given back. Blizzard stated that the actions they took to ban Blitzchung had nothing to do with China, but come on, let's be real here: anyone with half a functioning brain cell knows that Blizzard brought down the ban hammer because they did not want to upset their Chinese overlords. Blizzard can hide behind their vague YouTube-ish rules all they want, but no one is buying it.

So just how badly did Blizzard screw up? When the mainstream media picks up on the story and it spreads around like wildfire, you know you've gone and made quite the oopsie. Oh, but it gets even better. Congress caught wind of this whole fiasco and fired off a letter to Blizzard. This letter was signed by republicans as well as democrats and if either of those two bickering parties can find something to agree on, you should be very, very afraid. My favorite part about the letter? The final two sentences. "You have the opportunity to reverse course. We urge you to take it." That is basically a polite way of saying "Don't make me take off my belt." The letter, clearly written at a time before Blizzard cut Blitzchung's banning and gave him his prize money back, is one of those rare time's I've been very proud of congress.

Blizzard's response to banning Blitzchung has been your typical corporate robot crap but for the most part, they've stuck their heads in the sand over this. Nintendo announced that the Overwatch launch event for the Switch version of the game that was to be held at the Nintendo store in NYC was canceled and by Blizzard, no less. Blizzard can suppress free speech to protect their bottom line but they can't be bothered to announce the cancellation of one of their own events? Wow, classy. Nintendo has done little to promote Overwatch on their US social media pages. The cancelling of the Overwatch event may have had something to do with it but I kinda think Blizzard's terrible decisions are the reason for the Big N's beef with them. The Switch prints money so getting on the bad side of the console manufacture? Just another bad move from Blizzard, something they are excelling at as of late.

I do wonder just how much of an impact the Blizzard backlash will have on the Switch version of Overwatch. Following Blitzhung's ban, there have been numerous walkouts from Blizzard employees and they've banned three more Hearthstone players. I've heard of hardcore World of Warcraft players quitting the game out of disgust for Blizzards latest course of actions and I'm pretty sure boycott Blizzard is a trending hashtag. No doubt Overwatch on Switch is gonna see some sales but had it hit a year or so earlier or before Blizzard's PR nightmare, I can't help but think it would have sold so much more. I don't begrudge anyone that wants to pick the game up, nor any other Blizzard products for that matter. No matter what happens, all eyes are on you, Blizzard, for the wrong reasons and it is entirely your own fault.

Favorite Tunes #270: Venture Forth

What do we have for this week's Favorite Tunes after a two month hiatus? A darn good selection of music and even some Nintendo tunes. Until Nintendo nukes all of their music off YouTube, it will continue to be featured here.

A Lonely Youth (Dragon Quest II) - Dragon Quest I-II (SFC)

A century of peace is shattered when Hargon shows up and ruins everyone's day. Fortunately, the hero from the first Dragon Quest wed Princess Gwaelin and bore descendants so the people of the world in Dragon Quest II have heroes that can take him on. If you're playing the mobile or Switch version of DQII (like I am) this theme would sound a little bit different than the Super Famicom version. Nevertheless, this is still an amazing track and easily one of my top DQ jams.

Drive - River City Girls (PC, NS, PS4, XBO)

Kunio and Rikki were the stars of River City Ransom but they've been kidnapped and it is up to their girlfriends, Kyoko and Misako to save them in River City Girls, an awesome sequel to the beloved NES classic. River City Ransom was known for it's banger of a soundtrack and River City Girls is no slouch in that department (or many others for that matter).

Mabe Village - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (NS)

You come back to Mabe Village pretty often in Link's Awakening, a place home to some of the funniest, quirky characters in the game.The original GB tune was one of my favorites from the game and this holds true for this splendid remake.

Title Screen - Tiny Barbarian DX (PC, NS)

My nephew started playing Tiny Barbarian DX and he likes the game quite a bit, even though it is causing him some frustration. Watching him play and hearing Jeff Ball's amazing chiptune soundtrack reminded me of how good this score is and that it was long overdue for some love here. If that title music doesn't put you in the mood to elbow drop fools, nothing will.

Glut - Descent II (PC)

While I was introduced to Descent and Descent II on the PS, the series got its start on PC, both games have some rocking soundtracks and come with redbook audio, meaning you can pop the disc in any device that will play music and listen to those awesome jams straight off the game disc.

Just Do It Up - Command & Conquer (PC)

I was no serious C&C player but even I knew how baller that soundtrack was. Pick a song, any song. Nearly ever one of those beats are straight fire. I am so happy that we live in a world where you can listen to Just Do It Up while you work.

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