King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match

I bought this game about three months ago. It joins Dead or Alive 5 Last Round, Kings of Kung Fu, and Skullgirls on my Steam library.

I have a thing for fighting games. But what started it all was King of Fighters. Everybody else was on to Street Fighter, but I stayed true to Chin Gentsai and Mai Shiranui. Then, after a few years it was K9999 and Ryuji Yamazaki; I had a brief flirtation with Oswald but by and large I've been a Chin man. Now though I find myself gravitating to Ryuji and Vanessa. Oh, and Kim Kaphwan's moves are pretty cool too...

I gave Street Fighter IV a try when it was free to play on Steam one weekend. I thought I might enjoy Hakan and Rufus - boy was I disappointed. I do believe the game is well-designed, it's just that I couldn't bring myself to care for these characters on the same level as I do DOA's Eliot and Gen Fu, or Skullgirls' Parasoul, or KOF's Chin. And when I can't care about a character, I don't bother playing since it isn't worth it to learn playing anybody in the roster well.

See? I really wanted to love Rufus.

In general, I start liking the quirky, side characters first in a fighting game. I got into Guilty Gear XX #Reload at my local arcade because of Zappa. Chin was among my first in KOF, and the only reason I got into Eliot was because he was the only fun unlocked one in the Xbox 360 version of DOA 4 that I played. I've never gotten into the main protagonists like Ryu or Kyo Kusanagi or Sol Badguy. 

After establishing my quirky main, I start looking for the tactical characters. Venom had so much versatility, I never mastered him at all; darn False Roman Cancel timing always eluded me. Yamazaki is fun too, and even up to now I'm learning all sorts of things. His Nejikomi move, for example, is nice to use while backing up or blocking. Since the keys you need to press for Nejikomi start with a Block movement, it can be buffered from a block. It's a pity I can't test it out on anyone online, everybody's into KOF XIII. Which doesn't have Ryuji or Vanessa.


I like Dead Or Alive because a lot of the characters use Chinese martial arts - not just in name, there are actually identifiable moves from the style that appear in the game. It speaks to my other hobby.