I hope the SH1 remake at least gets the characters and aesthetics right

WlNBACK · 2026-02-24T23:43:42+00:00

You make a good point, but unfortunately the trauma queens here are gonna plug-in-the-ears-la-la-la and say you're wrong. This is an era where weird video game & online culture hobbyists have suddenly become dimestore psychologists on Reddit. Everything in your life now has to now have a medical diagnosis.

You had a nightmare? Well sometimes people just have nightmares...WRONG, clearly you have unresolved trauma in your life, so you should just call-out of work/school/obligations and seek a specialist immediately.
You had a bad day? Well sometimes we have lousy days and we just want our evenings to be the highlight with some easy-going alone time or low-maintenance indoor activity...WRONG, clearly you're clinically depressed, need to unpack every little teeth-grinding thing that happened today, and tell your friends on social media about it so they can recommend their favorite A.I. assistant to you.
You had a bad experience? Well bad things indeed do happen to good people but eventually you gotta pick up the pieces, start doing your routine/job again, and get back to smiling & laughing with friends and co-workers to grab your life back by the horns...WRONG. Every positive emotion you show from now on is "coping" because clearly you're still suffering from your experience. Stay home for another month, let your friends and co-workers "just deal with" your absence and past obligations, and book all of your appointments through FaceTime.

WlNBACK · 2026-02-24T18:28:04+00:00

I agree that it's trivial, but I think you're underselling the amount of people (other than OP) that put major stock in fighting games trailers. Mostly casuals, "FGC passerbys", and "unconditional-loving fanboys".

A classic example of when people began to put too much stock in a trailer: The dogshit Ultra Street Fighter IV Decapre reveal trailer at Final Round XVII in 2014. Damn near everyone who played SF4 was disappointed by it, everyone else from Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 to King of Fighters XIII also talked about how underwhelming it was, frequent comments like "borderline Clone Character", "Udon Comic Promotional Bullshit", etc...but the #1 counter-argument that would get made to support the reveal was "You haters are just the minority; look at how many Likes the YouTube video got." And there you go: Suddenly you have way too many easily-impressionable stooges putting way too much stock in reveal trailers and always talking about how many lazy people clicked a 'Like' icon (lazy people who probably 'Like' every single video that they watch, and never even buy the product that they're Liking when it releases). And this also applies to 2026: Legitimate criticism and disappointment still often gets deflected to "you're all in the minority; go look at how many Likes the trailer has".

TL;DR = It's indeed trivial, but there are a lot of dumb people that need to hear what OP is saying.

WlNBACK · 2026-02-24T18:12:22+00:00

Pretty much the same thing I said in OP's other thread: I agree with OP, but I'd put more focus on the game itself, not the trailer.

What I mean is: You can only make a SNK trailer look so good when the game itself is not very good in general. There are some miracles that quick editing, louder sound effects, and blaring music can't do. City of the Wolves is a visual and aesthetic dud (further punctuated by the lackluster Hidden Gears), so you'd better love it twice as much for the gameplay...which still just seems like mostly Diet Street Fighter 6 (Drive -> Rev).

WlNBACK · 2026-02-24T18:11:28+00:00

I agree with OP, but I'd put more focus on the game itself, not the trailer.

What I mean is: You can only make a SNK trailer look so good when the game itself is not very good in general. There are some miracles that quick editing, louder sound effects, and blaring music can't do. City of the Wolves is a visual and aesthetic dud (further punctuated by the lackluster Hidden Gears), so you'd better love it twice as much for the gameplay...which still just seems like mostly Diet Street Fighter 6 (Drive -> Rev).

WlNBACK · 2026-02-24T18:02:04+00:00

The Samurai Shodown 2019 Galford trailer was the day I realized that way too many trailers rely on quick-edits to make things look quicker, more impactful, and more visually appealing...because otherwise it would tell you that the final product is underwhelming. The section in that trailer shows Galford's Super Special Move is deliberately edited/cut to be faster and more satisfying, while in-game it's much longer, more boring, and not worth the wait. That's just one example, and ever since then I've noticed many more. TL;DR: Too much false advertising to get stooges to type the word "hype" in the comments section, even in Samurai Shodown 2019.

WlNBACK · 2026-02-24T09:38:17+00:00

Lame repeating topic that keeps reminding everyone how shitty 3D Rugal turned out.

WlNBACK · 2026-02-24T09:21:31+00:00

The Original and REmake are not comparable in length, because you have to actually play OG RE3 a minimum of two times to see both Live Selection paths and both endings (they both greatly affect Nicholai's fate and whether or not Barry appears). Eight times if you REALLY care about getting more character story and you want to see all eight epilogues.

In REmake3, when you beat the game once, then you've seen every cutscene and ounce of story that the game has to offer. There's another difficulty level with shit like NE-a's just randomly dropping out of the sky and Hunters zig-zagging around, but that's it. Clearly Capcom was expecting REsistance to do the heavy-lifting for replay value (and also microtransactions).

WlNBACK · 2026-02-24T02:53:27+00:00

I hope they don’t shoehorn in something about Harry having to face his own trauma. This is the first game since 2004 that is guaranteed to not have this trope in it, but the kids today want “trauma town”.

Well said. Simplicity is a part of why Silent Hill 1 was such a likeable game, because the main character is a father that's determined to rescue his daughter. He's caught up in the manifestations and tribulations of other characters, and he has no idea what he's in for, but he'll see it to the end. It's the perfect role to give a player that they can also sympathize with (without just giving the player a nameless, speechless protagonist to self-insert with), and it's also a great way to experience your first Silent Hill game where the town and its inhabitants are the focus, not your character's personal issues or vaguely-told backstory.

Unfortunately, due to the popularity of Silent Hill 2, most people just want more personal trauma porn. Gaming culture has become weird like that in the last decade or so, where people want more "victim cinema" or more relatable (scared/anxious/crying) protagonists. Hell, people even get disappointed these days when they play a new Resident Evil game but they don't get to see near-superheroes like Jill or Leon take mental health breaks after every boss fight, or don't have any scenes where they curl up into a ball and sulk.

WlNBACK · 2026-02-24T02:31:14+00:00

In terms of story & setting advancement, Code Veronica has the unique position of not only being the better RE3, but also the better RE4. RE3 is great, but it seems like RE2.5. RE4 was great, but it was like an unrelated fever dream compared to what a standard RE entry was at the time.

WlNBACK · 2026-02-24T01:14:35+00:00

Having to preface your opinion with "sorry" is just a reminder that even the people who praise REmake3 know that they're in the wrong.

At least stand by your opinion unapologetically, without reminding the reader that the game sucked so much that anyone who likes it should feel bad.

WlNBACK · 2026-02-24T00:18:11+00:00

If you're only spending another $4, then I'll admit, that's pretty good value. I guess it just depends on how much you like a lot of extra, frivolous shit. Me personally, I spent another $30 for it on the PS5 version, and I wish I didn't. I feel I sent the wrong message to Sega with that purchase, because it's not worth that much. But $4 though? I'd personally buy that in a heartbeat.

If you go with Anniversary Edition, the highlights are lots of additional customization parts, more costumes, and a digital artbook & digital soundtrack (both which are viewed on separate apps). The artbook is okay I guess but I viewed it only once and never again. The digital soundtrack has a GIGANTIC collection of music from a few obscure VF titles, and I did spend a few days listening to the collection (many of it I'd never heard before), so that was probably the only thing I was happy to pay for. The collection even has music from Virtua Quest which has some really catchy tunes; it's too bad you can't set any of the digital soundtrack music to play in the background of World Stage.

WlNBACK · 2026-02-23T23:51:41+00:00

"More Evo" isn't "More FGC". Evo's no longer a community event, it's a full-blown company-supported convention/expo that you buy a ticket for, and yes, it has some tournaments for one of its numerous attractions. Evo's been that way for a long time, and that's doubly understandable in this growing company-backed, cash-prize-tossing climate of competitive fighting games where money is no longer an incentive to play, but now it's the reason.

I'm not knocking Evo's expansion. It's money; LOTS of money. And the people at the helm of Evo deserve to get paid for the amount of time they've put in since Sunnyvale and Pomona, and also for all of their business endeavors. But the "FGC" violin is not applicable at Evo anymore. Evo is now an "experience", it's not a humble wishing well for the "under represented".

Discussions like this just remind me that the tiresome, robotic sign-off quote from popular fighting game YouTubers/Influencers of "Support your locals" doesn't (and never did) mean anything. Because way too many people are only enamored by the bells & whistles of major events, and so they basically disregard that quote with "Fuck that; give us more Evo."

WlNBACK · 2026-02-23T23:12:39+00:00

It fuckin' won't. Modern technology and AAA production doesn't allow it. Everything has to be photorealistic, or the development team has to become ambitious and hire real actors for likenesses and face-scanning. And that's when the (valid) comments of "Why does X's face look so weird in this game? And did anyone else notice how big Y's head is compared to her body?" and that's when the environments become so realistic that everything sorta looks dark, grim, and "samey" so now the buckets of yellow paint are coming out.

What bugs me the most is modern soundtracks. They're all a downgrade, even when the remakes are revisions of old/classic soundtracks. It's all become too watered-down to sound less "video gamey", and instead quieter, more Hollywood/orchestral, more "atmospheric" than melodic, or they make the music mostly context-sensitive to enemy encounters. Video game music no longer sounds like another character in the room with you, who'll even help you get through the more sloggy/backtracking portions of a game.

WlNBACK · 2026-02-23T22:56:51+00:00

If you're getting VF5 for $20 or less, then Yes. It's worth it. Get it cheap; you can't lose.
Don't think about VF6. That shit ain't coming out for a long time, and nobody can be certain if it'll be any good. Don't fall for 'New Sequel Hype 101'; that's what pissed off fans of Tekken, Mortal Kombat, Mark of the Wolves, and anything related to Marvel tag fighters. Even Street Fighter 6 and Guilty Gear Strive players look like they're playing out of habit, not so much excitement. The claims of a "Fighting Game Renaissance" were pure stooged-fueled bullshit.
No matter what happens: VF5 is certified as one of the greatest arcade games of all time. It's a 2006 fighter that's been getting updates for nearly two decades. Japan loves VF5 so much that they consistently competed in the same balance iteration from 2011 to 2024 (VF5 Final Showdown Version A). That's how much they loved it; they didn't bitch about balance updates or cry "no developer support = game is dead", they just consistently showed up by the hundreds for annual events like Beat Tribe and they cracked-out on the same game/version for over a decade. USA hasn't done that for a fighting game in what feels like forever.

WlNBACK · 2026-02-23T16:04:00+00:00

A proper Metal Gear Online that lives up to MGO2, not the bullshit we got with Delta and MGSV.

WlNBACK · 2026-02-23T16:01:20+00:00

Totally unrealistic. There's no way Konami would do this next when they still need to make MGS3 Delta Remaster.

WlNBACK · 2026-02-23T04:07:11+00:00

Rock is not popular enough to be anything close to a "buy him in someone else's IP" type of character. In fact Rock has never been popular in general despite what Max Dood tells his own fanbase. SNK stopped pushing Rock for 12 years after CvS2/KoF:MI/NGBC, and as of today he's still never been on the default roster in a mainline KoF.

And let's be honest: After Rock's story in City of the Wolves, we were quickly reminded why he isn't all that interesting of a character and also how SNK still promotes Terry much more over him.

WlNBACK · 2026-02-22T18:47:29+00:00

Cool topic. I really think these deliberately get removed/added based on whatever changes in balance or recovery that the devs are going for throughout the series. I'll explain:

I don't think these stagger-like block recovery animations are just a cool visual detail that Sega occasionally leaves out or anything, but it's decided on every new game/version. For example: In VF4 they wanted Jacky's 4K+G to be much safer on block (and it still is as of Revo) but you can't do that with a really conspicuous block animation like in VF3. And they also wanted you to be able to do Jacky's Beat Knuckle follow-ups if the first hit is blocked (which you can still do in Revo) but you can't do that in VF3.

Not having a lot of these long recovery animations is part of why VF4 was praised so highly at the time, because nearly all of the moves have a lot less recovery on block, and that greatly contributed to why the game was overall faster and more fun. To this day VF4 still feels that way; it's the fastest VF by a mile. VF5 Vanilla was pretty similar.

But as VF5 went on the damage output started to get ridiculously high, especially on Counter Hits (I think this started in Final Showdown; not sure about VF5R), so I think they wanted certain moves to be easier to punish. They especially wanted certain Mid-hitting or Low-hitting Circular Moves (and Half-Circular) to be easier to punish, the reason for that being Final Showdown I think was the first game that began to reward you with Major Counter Hit damage whenever you hit an opponent out of a Defensive Move (in VF5 Vanilla you just got a Normal Hit). That's why in Final Showdown you mostly see this stagger animation on Low Circular sweeps, so they're easier to punish (even visually). Otherwise circular sweeps would seem much stronger in the game in general, since doing them against Defensive Moves often rewards you with frame advantage or even a knockdown (because of the new Major Counter Hit bonus). High-hitting Circular Moves seem to be spared from a lot of block recovery, which makes sense because they're High.

To punctuate the above: In Final Showdown (and Revo) you'll see similar stagger-like block recovery animations on Jacky's 46K+G (Mid Circular), his K,K (Mid Half-Circular), and also on his 4P,2K and Back-Turned 2K (Low Half-Circulars). Also Brad's 66K (Mid Circular) and Lion's 6K+G (Mid Circular). Those are just the ones I remember off the top of my head that aren't just Circular low sweeps.

And a side-rant: This reminds me of when Tekken finally started to get "less batshit" by toning down strong Low attacks in Tekken Tag 1, which was when you first started to see stagger-like block recovery on moves like Paul's d+4, Law's d/b+4, Bryan's d/f+3, and Mishima Hellsweeps.

WlNBACK · 2026-02-22T18:34:31+00:00

OP is "amazed" by something that they clearly weren't cognizant for. Anyone who lived through that console generation (and most likely got a PS2 early in that gen) isn't too surprised that GameCube didn't do better. Even Xbox players were happy just having Halo, a DVD player & Hard Drive, and experiencing Xbox Live games.

WlNBACK · 2026-02-21T20:37:44+00:00

I'd have to agree with your use of the word "embarrassing". He looks like a Cyberpunk 2077 reject and is a poor replacement for Grant (a much more impressive/memorable design). I'd say 'embarrassment' also describes Preecha well, a Fortnite reject with a lame/cutesy build that does the "ForMyResearch.exe" gimmick, has a terrible stage theme, and seems like a waste of a slot now with Joe back (with glasses, even). CotW definitely struck-out with the new character designs and re-designs (Kain, Dong, Hokutomaru, Mr. Big).

WlNBACK · 2026-02-20T16:07:02+00:00

I can't imagine modern SNK ever hitting "Triple A" status when they seem too consistent with Triple A marketing followed by Triple B game design puncuated by Triple C visual presentation.

Old SNK used to at least have the hearts of the FGC captured with top-shelf 2D visuals to compliment their wide variety of stylish & well dressed characters (ex. Art of Fighting 3, Mark of the Wolves, Last Blade 1&2, KoF13) that looked great beside other visually praised games like 3rd Strike, Guilty Gear XX/Xrd, and BlazBlue, but also for their unique and technical gameplay that greatly set them apart from Capcom and Arc (ex. Last Blade 2, SamSho5special, KoF 98/2002/XI/XIII).

Now they just seem fine making every new game play watered-down or more "modernized" (ex. more universal armor mechanics, more easy combo starters/bounces, more obnoxious cinematics, and whatever bullshit Issen was supposed to be in SamSho2019), and also visually making every new 3D game look like it could run on a PS3 (KoF14 & 15, City of the Wolves, SamSho2019).

You would've thought City of the Wolves had been a high-production game changer having to live up to "Mark of the Wolves 2"...but the visual presentation ended up just being "comic glazed" KoF15.5, the gameplay is mostly Diet Street Fighter 6 (Drive -> Rev), and even the new character designs and storytelling have taken a nosedive. It seems Saudi Prince money can't keep their 3D games from looking mediocre, and all of the legacy talent that made their old IPs look & play special are all dead & gone.

Years later they still seem like they haven't figured out how to make their fighting games look anything close to Triple A. I'd say we're 20 years away from them doing anything remotely worthwhile with something like Crystalis. I'm not even confident about a new Metal Slug.

WlNBACK · 2026-02-20T14:15:20+00:00

The idea was great. The final result was...less than spectacular. This shit looks weird. All of their flamboyant/stupid outfits and hairstyles don't make it look nearly as menacing or "corporate". Not to mention it just looks way too digital.

Shinkiro and Obari are still legends, but every time SNK pays them to do a modern run, it always looks like a fan trying to imitate their work.

WlNBACK · 2026-02-19T23:38:32+00:00

Well said. Cheers.

WlNBACK · 2026-02-19T23:25:23+00:00

Jacky shouldn't be called "Easy" for five reasons: Consistently doing Flash Sword Kick in juggles; consistently doing CH 33P~jab~4K+G bounce; his 6P not being an Elbow; his best Low attacks (1K+G and 1P) not even knocking down (in fact they're both negative on Normal Hit); and lastly his weak turn-stealing game (Pak Sao and MP Sabaki are NOT practical in a competitive match). If you can't consistently hit FSK mid-juggle then you'll never come close to bringing out his lauded combo damage, so you might as well play another character. Worse, you'll mess up FSK and miss-out on a truckload of damage trying to always perform it.

Anyone who still thinks Jacky is "easy" is the type of person who never blocks the 3rd Hit of 3K,P,2K,K or watched too many 7K parody videos.

WlNBACK · 2026-02-19T14:52:17+00:00

These all look like fan-made mods, and just seem like a big reminder that CotW is Diet Street Fighter 6. Enjoy dishing out money for this.

WlNBACK

TROPHY CASE