Category: Nintendo News

Much like the first two instalments, The King Of Fighters ’96 gives you a diverse roster of 2D fighters to pick from as you assemble a team of three to punch, kick, throw and brag your way to victory. The third instalment in the series also sees the sprites of old discarded for an instantly familiar hand-drawn style, as well as folding in a series of much-welcomed gameplay tweaks.

For a start, there’s the removal of the sidestepping ability, replaced with a much more tactile and intuitive roll that can be used to avoid attacks. Initially designed to perform the same function as the old sidestep, it enables you to get close to an opponent (or put some distance between you), possibly opening the door for a sweet counter attack. It’s performed by simply pushing a direction with whatever buttons you’ve mapped for Neo Geo’s A and B, although for ease of use this particular button combo is mapped to Switch’s ZR button.

Another change is the ability to run by double-tapping forwards, quickly closing the gap between fighters without the need for a risky jump. Jumping itself is also different this time around as it’s affected by whether you go from a standing or running position. You can also pull off a slight jump animation by quickly tapping up (useful for faking out opponents and potentially gaining the upper hand). The rolls, jumping options and run ability make for fast, frantic fights and offer plenty of player agency during fights, adding significantly to the entertainment (particularly during two-player bouts).

Character-wise, there are 27 fighters to pick from and the lineup is quite similar to that of the ’95 edition, although that game’s boss characters (Saisyu Kusanagi, Omega Rugal) are gone, replaced with new final challengers Chizuru Kagura and Goenitz. As far as playable characters are concerned there are seven newcomers including the popular Leona, but four fighters (including Billy Kane) have been left out.

Should you grab The King of Fighters ’98 from the eShop you’ll find all but one of the ’95 omissions included alongside a chunk of this game’s additions, but not all of them. Art Of Fighting 3’s Kasumi Todoh is in this game, but not ’98 and more notably this game features a Boss Team absent from the Dream Match title. The appeal of this team is that it is headed up by the Fatal Fury series’ ultimate bad egg Geese Howard, joined by Fatal Fury 2’s Krauser and Art Of Fighting’s Mr Big.

In addition to the regular arcade mode, the usual ACA Hi Score and Caravan modes are included, limiting you to one credit and five minutes respectively as you try to gain as many points as possible to move up the online leaderboards. It provides a slightly different way to play, but as with most fighters the modes aren’t as appealing as with other genres. Other than team battles, you can still dive into the options menu and switch the arcade mode to a traditional one-on-one, best of three rounds fighter – although as with its predecessor, cutscenes/endings play out the same as if you had a full team.

Story-wise this is the second part of the Orochi saga, offering up a few scenes to read through towards the end of the game. There’s some replayability in going through the game again too, as each of the set teams have their own endings in addition to the standard one you get from fielding a custom group.

Conclusion

The King of Fighters ’96 offers the usual enjoyable team battles with a good range of fighters to pick from. This particular entry introduces some nifty gameplay changes to the series. Of course, all of this and more would feature in the ultimately better The King of Fighters ’98, but it’s a confident entry in the series nonetheless. If you’re interested in the ongoing story then The King of Fighters ’96 is still a competent fighter, and there’s plenty of entertainment to be had in its hand-drawn brawls.

Nonogram puzzles, with their grid-based picture building by numbers formula, have been a staple on Nintendo consoles since the days of Game Boy. In fact, Switch has barely been out a year and it already has two such titles to its name – Picross S and Piczle Lines DX – and now it has a third in the form of Pic-A-Pix Deluxe. Question is, does this thrice slice of pictorial puzzling justify its existence?

Ironically, for a game that’s slapped the word ‘deluxe’ in its name, Pic-A-Pix doesn’t look, play or feel particularly luxurious. It is, in no uncertain terms, a by-the-numbers ‘picross’ game – a fact that plays both to its benefit and its detriment. With 150 standard puzzles to choose from, there’s certainly a lot of content if you’re a) a fan of nonograms or b) looking for something to tickle your grey matter for five minutes or five hours at a time. It’s just a shame the game doesn’t attempt to crack its own mold, never mind break it.

If you’ve never played a puzzler like this before, the concept straddles that line between achingly simple and blood-boilingly difficult. It’s all about building pixelated pictures by following the numbered clues on either side of a grid. With multiple colours to choose from and numbers to help you work out how big or small each shape should be, this incarnation offers a satisfying and impressively vast vault of brain teasers for the uninitiated, but if you’ve played anything in a similar vein before Pic-A-Pix Deluxe will neither surprise nor shock you.

Being able to access any of its puzzles – ranging from simple 5×5 pixel creations to monster 35×25 illustrations – gives more experienced players the chance to jump into the more challenging conundrums right from the off, so if you’re a picross pro you’ll find a neat open setup that won’t force you through waves of simple pictures. Unfortunately, regardless of whether you take on its toughest grids or its most accessible, that basic aesthetic only serves to hold the overall package back.

While its simple menus and presentation place it in line with Nintendo’s own Picross S, this particular nonogram package lacks the personality of similar titles on Switch, including the Sudoku-esque mashup of Score Studios’ Piczel Lines DX. However, what Pic-A-Pix Deluxe lacks in unique charm, it does try to address with Switch-specific features. The handheld’s capacitive touchscreen supports on-screen controls, and while they’re serviceable, they can make the minute pixel control in the more complicated puzzles difficult to navigate.

On the other hand, the ability to play in co-op with up to three other players is a great addition and embraces Switch’s local multiplayer ethos perfectly. Sure, it’s not the sexiest of games to play with friends but considering how well Lightwood Games has retained the classic picross formula, you’ll be surprised just how addictive it can be when played in company. There’s also an 150 extra puzzles hidden away in the game’s Extra section, which embrace the nonogram’s black and white origins to add a little retro chic to the picross party. Further packs can be purchased for a few pounds/dollars, making Pic-A-Pix Deluxe a relatively cost effective way to scratch that puzzle itch on the go or at home.

There’s also plenty of replay value in trying to rack up the best score on each puzzle. Since each one has a timer that tracks your performance and the ability to check your current progress for errors (with a simple press of ‘Y’) there’s a real benefit to using logic to solve each conundrum as you go. Alternatively, if you’re new to this numerical brain teasers, the power to check your work for erroneous pixels will help educate you on your mistakes.

Conclusion

Basic in both presentation and premise, Pic-A-Pix Deluxe serves up a dish of picross puzzling that will test your brain capacity but does little to innovate on a well-worn conundrum recipe. Still, with some Switch-specific features – including four-player multiplayer support – and plenty of nonograms to its name, Lightwood Games’ pixel puzzler is right at home on Nintendo’s new handheld home.

The lush pre-rendered visuals of Donkey Kong Country certainly impressed in 1994, so it seemed inevitable that other companies would employ the technique in an attempt to draw admiring glances. So it was that Aicom released Pulstar the following year on Neo Geo. The end results was both visually impressive and lots of fun to play, as well as providing a tough challenge to boot.

Pulstar takes place across eight stages, offering you the rather empowering ability to choose which order you tackle the first four – although this does reduce the opportunity to acquire upgrades going into each consecutive level. If playing two-player, you can even start from different stages as you take alternating turns rather than team up to defeat the enemy menace. Co-operative play would be more enjoyable, but it’s difficult to see how that would work with the level design; often you are forced along a set path and thread your way through gaps that are tight for one ship, never mind two.

Gameplay-wise, there’s a real R-Type vibe to some of its enemies. There’s only so many ways something can move in a shmup, so similarities to Irem’s classic – which include some familiar-looking backgrounds – in that regard are not particularly surprising. One stage even features a battle with a huge ship. Actually, it’s more of a large armoured creature, but much like R-Type you’ll find yourself avoiding fire as you blast bits off and try to avoid being crushed against the scenery.

Your ship has plenty of instantly recognisable abilities too, tapping away to fire quickly or charge up a powerful shot to unleash. Power-ups provide the likes of zinging angled lasers and rockets, while a pod can be collected to provide additional fire power – although here it stays fixed to the front of your ship which limits your options. One feature it does have is the ability to damage enemies en mass when surrounded, which would be useful if it didn’t leave your ship vulnerable until you’ve replaced it.

Something else you’ll notice as you play Pulstar is just how tough it is. Swarms of enemies fly in from different directions and bullets come at you from all angles, requiring careful maneuvering to avoid and sometimes criss-crossing into a net of death should you wait too long to begin evasive action. You need to stay alert for dangers as your ship moves quite slowly, which in itself can be challenging until you’ve settled into the rhythm of the game.

Some additional difficulty comes from the visuals. Bullets are brightly coloured and easy to follow, but sometimes enemies and objects can blend into the background, with you either noticing them just before you burst into flames or the exact nature of your destruction being unclear. Generally, the art style works well, with a good range of enemies that feature plenty of detail. It’s not particularly noticeable on smaller craft (or your own ship), but the larger hostiles you encounter are very impressive. The game does suffer slowdown should a lot of activity be occurring on screen (and there’s a noticeable pause before your ship explodes), but it’s not particularly off-putting.

Special mention should be made of the superb music that uses a mix of instruments and sounds to provide a memorable little soundtrack. Often adventurous and upbeat, the tracklisting will detour into chilled or mysterious sounding pieces before heading into more otherworldly and ominous ones. The music enhances the onscreen events and a sound test option would have been a welcome inclusion to experience the tracks without having to concentrate on blasting away at things.

As a ACA Neo Geo release, you have unlimited continues to try and clear the game, but this just serves as a way to replay levels until you’ve cracked them. Memorisation is key as you learn which enemies to shoot and when to take then down, the moment to charge up an attack and which dangers are best avoided. Positioning is also important as lines of ships can streak onto screen suddenly, but learning and exploiting these attack patterns offers an exciting if challenging setup.

The mix of attacks and avoidance tactics used makes for enjoyable gameplay, but for many sections of the game there’s little room for improvisation and you’ll find only one way through that pattern of fire as you line up to slip through a tiny passageway. The difficulty can be adjusted in the options menu, but should you have made a wrong move this often just delays the inevitable as encircled attackers slowly close in on you. In a way the boss battles are simpler than the route to them. Though not easy, the dangers (and their patterns) can be seen onscreen and while deaths occur they’re often avoiding through a little trial and error.

HAMSTER’s usual Hi Score mode is also included, giving you just the one credit to try and clear the game as well as the five minute Caravan mode. As always these provide enjoyable alternative challenges as you focus on pushing up your score to improve your placing on new online leaderboards.

Conclusion

Slower paced than many shmups, Pulstar is still fun to play through as you avoid enemy attacks, take shots at your attackers and look for an opportunity to unleash a charged attack. Despite some elements blending into the background on occasion and moments of slowdown, the visuals in the game are well done. The music is great and enhances the experience greatly. A detachable pod would be a good option to add some choice to how you tackle the challenge and too often you must rely on memorisation to get through the dangers, but nevertheless Pulstar remains an tough yet enjoyable retro offering.