Samurai Shodown II [SNK + DotEmu] - $8.99

When it comes to iOS games, there’s a select few that can be described with the words ’hardcore’ ’insane’ and ’difficult’. Well, last week ushered in a new contender for the ‘hardest game in the AppStore’ title, SNK and DotEmu’s Samurai Shodown II. And while most fighters on the iOS’s touch screen are difficult because they don’t have the tactile feedback that most of these games scream for, they are still playable, manageable and beatable, even more-so if you’ve got an iCade and can play with the tactile feedback that the games were meant to be experienced with. But SSII has ramped up the difficulty so incredibly high, even on it’s lowest difficulty setting, that after 5 hours, countless continues and an immeasurable amount of frustration, I’ve only made it to the 3rd opponent. 

That’s not to say that I dislike this game. The virtual controls are about as good as they can be, considering. If you’re familiar with the controls from Street Fighter or King Of Fighters and are comfortable with them, you’ll feel right at home here. Like any other DotEmu port, you are able to move the controls anywhere on the screen, which helps to make the game play comfortably on most devices. However, on the iPad it can be hard to reach the buttons and parts of the directional stick. Hopefully a resize option will be added, or at the very least, that the controls on the iPad will be adjusted in a future update. 

You’re also able to change the aspect ratio from 4:3 to 16:9 (widescreen) or windowed mode (which has the gameplay area take up about half of the screen, which actually looks very nice if you’re playing on an iPad or iPad Mini). You can also set the video filtering on or off, giving the edges smooth curves or having the original pixilated graphics in all their beautiful glory and set scanlines to 50 or 100%, as well as leaving them completely absent. Along with all of the typical DotEmu settings and preferences you can also choose to play the game on 1 of 8 difficulties. That’s right, at the beginning of each game you’re given the option to change the difficulty setting from 1-8.

Now, just because I haven’t made it past the third opponent doesn’t mean that I haven’t been having a blast playing the game. Is it frustrating? Yes. Is the difficulty set too high? Probably. Am I left feeling like I’m getting better with each game that I play? Most definitely. While I do remember playing Samurai Shodown II at the local bowling ally every weekend when I was about 12 and blowing $5 worth of quarters in 20 minutes and being able to almost make it through the entire game, I do not feel that the touch-screen controls are why I’m having such a hard time with this game. Tactile feedback for many gamers is a must when it comes to this genre, but for others, being able to slide your fingers along the smooth surface of the iDevice can make pulling off some of the more complex moves easier than with a physical controller. And, as mentioned already, SSII does have iCade support, so those of you who are lucky enough to own an iCade can have a near perfect arcade experience. But the difficulty settings, even on the lowest option available, could use some tweaking. 

Aside from that this port, like all DotEmu ports, is perfect. The framerate is improved from the original and the gameplay is insanely smooth with no hiccups or drops in framerate (unless intentional) to be found. All of the characters from the original arcade title can be found here as well as all of the little mechanics that make the gameplay slightly deeper than most fighters; backward and forward rolling, ducking, small hops and parries/offensive blocking, The fatalities have also been thrown in for good measure. All of this showing that Samurai Shodown II can still hold it’s own among the best of the best fighters in the gaming world almost 20 years since it appeared. 

Like most iOS ports of classic games, GameCenter leaderboards and achievements have been added and do help to add some drive to the already insanely high replay value of the game with 15 achievements and 3 leaderboards fleshing out the gameplay. While some players might be turned off by the crazy high difficulty or the virtual controls, if you’re familiar with KoF’s controls, you’ll pretty much know what to expect here. I do hope that a transparency gauge is added, because as it is now, the controls begin to fade away after you touch them, and then go back to full view fairly quickly, usually blocking the gameplay area, unless you’re playing in Windowed View. But priced at $8.99, being Universal, including widescreen support, and also having Bluetooth 2-player gameplay, along with being one of the best fighters ever, make Samurai Shodown II a very easy game to recommend.

Read More

Kinetic Damage [Benjamin Merchand] - $2.99

Fighting games on the touch screen are a bit of a niche genre. While there are tons (and I do mean TONS) of fighting game mongers out there, it’s hard to really get the same feeling of playing a console fighter when you have no tactile feedback from your controller. Because of this, most fighting games have been ‘dumbed down’ so that they are easily playable on the touch screen, usually giving us single buttons that can pull off massive combos instead of having to input a series of moves on a flat surface to achieve the same effect. While this option can also be turned off, the touch screen’s lack of any raised surface so that players can tell where their thumbs are, or give players that sense of total control over their character definitely makes it near impossible to get the same type of gameplay experience on the iOS as with an actual controller. Though this is becoming less and less of an issue with more and more Bluetooth controls hitting the market, it’s still a problem that developers of these games have to struggle with and gamers have to adjust to. 

While some brawlers have done a very good job of developing the gameplay around the touch screen (Mutant Fridge Mayhem will always be a very good example of this and more recently, Combo Crew and Best Park In The Universe have done a great job as well), the first fighting game that I’ve personally felt completely comfortable with while using the touch screen and not an iCade is Benjamin Marchand’s Kinetic Damage, an incredibly deep and insanely impressive title, especially considering that it’s all been created by the hands of one man, and when you get into the game you’ll see why development of this amazing title took a whopping 4 years to complete. 

Once you start out, you’ll quickly realize how deep the gameplay actually is. You’ll be able to create your own character, selecting how they look, what clothes they’ll wear as well as what color you want everything to be. Along with these purely cosmetic features you’re also able to choose which fighting style you’ll like to use; Jeet Kun Do, Tai Chi Chuan, Shaolin Kung Fu, Ninjutsu, Krav Maga, Taekwondo, Muay Thai or Break. Each of these styles have different stats for Speed, Strength, Range, Critical Hit, Combo, Health, Recovery, Precision, Endurance and Energy. Yeah, pretty intense already, wouldn’t you say? And we haven’t even gotten into the different modes, combos, or incredibly deep AI yet. 

Once you choose your character and fighting style, you’ll be taken to the main area where you’ll choose your fights. There are 4 options here, Fight Lab, Olympic Resort, Grand Strike Casino and the Dojo. Now, you will need to start off in either the Dojo or Fight Lab as these are the only two areas where you can enter fights without an admission fee. In the Dojo, you’ll be able to hire a partner, which gives you the chance to train another fighter, create an event where you can select the difficulty and type of fighting mode (Tournament - you compete against 7 fighters, Team Spirit - ‘regular fight, where enemies can become friends’, Team Survival, King Of The Hill and a whole lot more [24 different options to be exact]), sparring, where you’ll be able to slowly earn some easy money with no penalties for loosing and the special shop, where you’ll be able to customize and evolve your fighter with the credits that you’ll earn by winning fights, but we’ll come back to that a little later.

The Fight Lab area will give you 3 random battles to enter each with a different gameplay style, like Dance, where your character will loose 5% of their HP if they’re not in a randomized stance that changes every 5 seconds, Weak Spots, where each character stars with 30% of their normal HP, Breath Cutter, where attacks reduce the enemies energy regeneration by 18% for 3 seconds and many, many more. Here, you’ll earn money for a win as well as some enhanced stats for your next fight, like +25% precision, +15% critical, ect. But if you loose, you’ll also get the opposite stats for the next fight, like -25% precision or -15% critical. Each of the 3 fights is also set at a random difficulty level with the winnings directly reflecting the difficulty, which means that you’ll earn more currency for harder fights. In Olympic Resort you’ll also have the option of 3 randomized fights to choose from, also varying in difficulty, but here you’ll have the chance to earn quite a bit of coinage or extra boosts, like a random implant (which we’ll talk about when we bring up the shop). Grand Strike Casino has the potential to earn you loads of currency though, with prizes bringing money multipliers to the table it’s probably the best way to earn loads of cash once you’ve got a decent handle on the game. 

The Special Shop. Something that I’ve been hoping to see in more fighting games since playing Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero. Kinetic Damage has taken this, like most everything else in the game, to the next level. You’re able to purchase 6 combos ranging in price from 500 to 1,500 credits, 8 different implants which permanently upgrade your speed, strength, vitality, endurance, prevision, energy regeneration, recovery and critical. You’re also able to purchase up to 4 special moves (though you’re given one random special right off the bat for free when you create your character). You can also change your characters look, outfit or fighting style here as well. Needless to say, this is where the majority of your currency will be spent. 

The controls are pretty much what you would expect in a fighting game. A movement joystick on the left side of the screen with 4 buttons on the right, 2 for punches, 2 for kicks. There’s also a special button right next to the movement joystick which, when pressed, changes the punch/kick buttons into special buttons. While Kinetic Damage does incorporate the one touch special moves that other fighter games on the touch screen use, to pull off combos you’ll need to memorize a series of punch/kick inputs. This mix of ‘easy’ and ‘hardcore’ controls works incredibly well within the game. Movements are not needed for combo inputs, however, you will need to time the button taps perfectly in order to pull them off. For this to work as intended, the controls need to be incredibly responsive, and Kinetic Damage nails it.

As for the opponent AI, it’s got to be one of the most impressive systems I’ve ever come across in a fighting game (note, this is not explained in the game, rather it was explained by the developer on the Touch Arcade forums). Enemies and how they fight are determined by 3 different stats; Aggressivity, Reactivity and Analysis. Each character  is crafted from a pool of 6 to 25 personality points which are distributed to their stats using 3 random ‘dice rolls‘. Because of this, the game is able to have multiple behaviors for fighters in the same difficulty and even in the same fighting style. On top of this, the opponents are also able to ‘learn’ mid-fight, able to redistribute their stat points depending on their ‘mind type’ and how you are playing. The end result? There’s between 4,000 and 16,000 different opponents in the game, depending on the difficulty levels that you choose. Impressive, no?

Combine all of this with incredibly precise and responsive controls, top notch animations, smooth gameplay that’s focused more on blocking, timing and skill than button mashing, pinpoint hitbox areas and not one little bit of IAP in sight, and what you’ve got could easily be considered the best fighting game on the iOS and arguably one of the best fighting games on any gaming platform to date. Put an insane price of $2.99 on it, and you’ve got a game that fans of the genre would be crazy to pass up. Scratch that, that all gamers would be crazy to pass up. With Multiplayer on the horizon, Kinetic Damage could replace every single fighting game on your device very soon. I really can not recommend this one enough, but if you’re still weary, there’s a lite version that you can check out which contains 2 of the 8 fighting styles and access to the ‘Match’ gameplay mode where you choose between 2 of the 8 areas that are in the full version, and be given 2 random specials for each fight. It’s a great way to get a feel for the game, and since it’s free to try, there’s no sense in not checking it out if you’re still on the fence. My advice? Skip the lite version and get the full. Now. You will not regret it one little bit.

Read More