@-wc- Whether it applies to you or not and whether you've seen such things or not are immaterial to my statement. I've seen it (many times), and am therefore not making it up, however much you may wish otherwise. Again, money is money.

I notice you say "I won't buy from anything that MBS has controlling stake in." So by your own standard, you have no trouble buying Capcom, Nintendo, Rockstar, etc. games, even though some portion of that money goes to MBS and thereby supports him and his regime. But you're here to loudly crow about how evil he is on every story involving SNK. 🥳 Congratulations, you're the most noble of us all. Selective ethics FTW. But hey, at least you're not alone.

@-wc- I'm not inventing something to attack. If one boycotts SNK because they don't want their money to support MBS, but has no issue rationalizing their support of other companies that MBS profits from, that's simple hypocrisy. Money is money.

Buy what you wish to, don't buy what you don't wish to. Makes no nevermind to me. But be consistent.

MBS owns a substantial (if not controlling) stake in many game companies. I'd wager he gets more from his 10% stake in Capcom, his 7% stake in Nintendo, or his 8% stake in Embracer Group than his 96% stake in SNK.

It would be nice if people were consistent in their ethical stances, but that is very rarely the case. SNK does make for a convenient punching bag, though.

Back in 1990, my world was upended by going to a boutique import gaming rental shop called "Power Up" in Columbia, SC. It's how I experienced the Super Famicom before the SNES existed, but more significantly, how I discovered the TurboGrafx-16 (and by extension, Ys) and the Neo*Geo (and by extension, Samurai Shodown).

Silly as it sounds, walking through that door reshaped my entire future.

"Pyskick?" Is that a typo or is that actually what the game says?

@Shiryu Probably. Supply issues are not projected to improve any time soon.

The reaper keeps missing and the good ones are catching the strays.

Everything is subject to some relative of entropy. Time is a thief.

By far the easiest version of this game. Fun, though not a patch on Oath in Felghana.

@Porco Very true. The artificial inflation of difficulty in the 90s to defy the rental market was a big one...

Maybe it's because I grew up with my favorite series being Ys, Samurai Shodown, and Ninja Gaiden (all of which have undergone WILD swings in both gameplay and overall quality in their decades)... but I find the insistence of fans that a series should basically be trapped in amber once it reaches some kind of "pinnacle" to be blinkered and, frankly, a bit stupid. Things have to grow and change or they die. I expect and want new installments to surprise me at least a little. If a game isn't for me, it would be juvenile in the extreme to decry it as the "worst game ever" or that kind of idiocy, even if I'm personally disappointed.

Fans, as ever, collectively create orthodoxy and stifle creativity. "Not to your taste" is not a synonym for "bad." Change is good. There is ample room for classic and modern approaches to gameplay. This is not worth getting mad over.

@KingMike Pop Rocks

@TheTexMurphy For the life of me, I have never understood the appeal of steelbooks, for precisely that reason. They look nice under glass, so to speak, but they're stupidly delicate for being named for a metal known for its strength and durability.

@Johnny_Arthur Wasn't Demon Sword/不動明王伝 on the NES a sequel?

Love Jaki Crush. Every bit as good as Devil's Crush and the music is stunning. One of the true hidden gems in the Super Famicom library.

AI is a relevant aspect of the news story. I don't like hearing about it any more than anyone else, but it's bad journalism not to include it.

I don't like hearing about Trump, either, but it doesn't change the fact that the ***** he pulls on an hourly basis has an impact on my life and the lives of my loved ones.

News isn't about comfort (or at least, it shouldn't be). It's about relevance.

@jygsaw Yeah, they glossed over the historical and religious aspects of the Shimabara Rebellion entirely in the fighting games. All of that was just in the lore (and extant cultural understanding of who Amakusa was). Even the RPG doesn't go out of its way to explain things. It really assumes at every turn that the player has a base of understanding about that aspect of Japanese history, which was probably another reason why it didn't get localized.

@Serpenterror A lot of it has to do with the overtly religious aspects to the story. To the point where it couldn't be wallpapered over with script changes in localization. You could get away with it NOW, probably, but certainly not back in the 90s.

Hypothetically, the work I'm currently doing on the Saturn version should map over more or less directly with the PS1 version, should someone choose to take that on. No such luck with going NGCD-to-Saturn. There are some script differences here and there, but most of the process is grunt work: just finding the corresponding line in the NGCD script and copying the translation over.

@Sketcz Ultimately, it always came down to the skill of the person programming for the sound chip. Yeah, the SPC700 certainly could punch above its weight with stuff like Donkey Kong Country, Squaresoft releases, etc., but there were also plenty of games that did NOT have good audio, like Ys III, Ninja Gaiden Trilogy, Run Saber, etc. Genesis is at a disadvantage in retrospect, as it's often easier to sell people on the quality of something using PCM wavetable synth than straight FM synthesis, because the former is generally more likely to sound like what the average person thinks of as "real" music.

But then, when someone is skilled with it, FM synth can sound amazing. For instance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mAtYZg_lkQ&list=RD0mAtYZg_lkQ&start_radio=1

@Coalescence Yeah, you're not wrong. Yamane is a fantastic composer, but her CV-adjacent work is very much "of a kind," and her more recent efforts do feel like she's not as inspired as she used to be. Which is perfectly understandable, really. How does one (even of her caliber) find the inspiration to say something new about a series/vibe you've been working on for... *****, almost four decades? I don't blame her one bit, and I'm fine with letting other composers take the helm.

@Quick_Man Yep. People can have whatever opinion of Max and his position in the FGC, but I don't think it's possible to dispute that he genuinely loves fighting games and he puts his money where his mouth is (literally and figuratively). And that, I can respect, even if our individual priorities in what makes a good FG don't always align.

The NGPC stick is still the best controller interface of any portable system. Possibly any controller ever.

Minor correction to the author:

The expression is "new lease on life."

@X68000 Hardly surprising, if one is even remotely familiar with that site.

"No politics" is, as it has ever been, code for "stop making me think about other people."

@Sketcz I can't imagine it's all that feasible, but I'd still be amused as hell to see it happen.

@TonyHoro Whoosh.

I have a simple two-criteria formula:

1. Can you still buy new games at first-run retail or an authorized digital storefront?
2. Does the manufacturer still offer repair service?

If "no" to both, it's retro. People just don't like feeling old (though they are). 🤷‍♂️

@tonyhoro You give the impression that you've never put anything for free out into the world for public consumption.

There are none so ungrateful as those who receive something for nothing.

@The_Nintend_Pedant Honestly, it's one of my top three OG Mega Man games. The formula was well-worn by that point, but every part of it is polished. Damn fine game.

@RetroGames The English scripts in these fan translations are free to use for the purposes of actually playing the game, but they belong to the people who make them and taking them without permission puts the company in a legally actionable position. They would be considered deliverables to the company who licensed them, as XSEED did for mine of Oath in Felghana.

This is sleazy AF, and translators whose work gets used in commercial releases deserve to be compensated for their work. Retro-bit's "legitimacy" does not entitle them to anyone's writing. Otherwise they're just bootlegs like every unofficial repro out there.

I have one of these, as well as a backlit IPS screen. Both are must-haves for anyone getting into this system.

@Razieluigi "This is an industry with a long history of big promises that don't deliver — I'd argue the entire current generation is one"

In terms of power, it's kind of what last gen should have been. PS4 visuals at a rock solid 60fps is about as far as graphics should ever need to go, in my book.

@swankyone You seem upset.

So Samurai Shodown Sen is HIS fault... ;P

@Spider-Kev What a mind-shearingly stupid thing to say. "Real" sports aren't real either, and none of those players should be making millions of dollars. It's still just a game.

Why are you even here? You have nothing to say.

@sdelfin Thank you. I cannot even begin to guess at how many hundreds of hours I sank into this project. It is still surreal to think that it's finally done.

Only one minor error has been found (since fixed, but not released). I'll compile them as they get reported and release an update in a few months.

@KGRAMR Thank you. It's surreal to think it's finally done and no longer hanging over my head. As for another translation project, if someone wants to take it up and hand me a script dump for the other versions, I'd be happy to help them get it in parity with the NGCD version. The only real reason I'd be interested in them, though, is because the other versions have different bonus material which needs to be translated. With the additional features added to the NGCD translation by Justin Gibbins, the bonus material is the only thing that is missing.

@Sketcz There is no PS/SS translation planned. And if it ever happens, I won't be involved in it. The NGCD version is far superior in every way other than bonus materials, besides. More animation, more features, significant differences to the combat.

@KingMike Waning viability in the West for 2D visuals in 1997, a niche IP, and subject matter that would have earned unwelcome scrutiny from religious types. There was zero chance that it would get an official localization.

As for SS5, yes, the English version removes the story entirely. A translated version with story came out on Xbox.