Fighting games

[GrooveMan.exe]

Waku Waku 7 [Neo Geo/Arcade]

One of those fighters you've probably never heard of, Waku Waku 7 is a strange, obscure fighter created by SUNSOFT and published by SNK for the Neo Geo. There are 7 playable characters and 2 bonus characters in the game. Despite the small roster, this game is deep and each character plays different enough to the point where it always feels fresh. Every character has the basic priority, special, super moves, etc. There are DokiDoki moves, which are your basic super move, powerful stuff, and then each character has at least one HaraHara move, which is another form of super move, different in the way that it is easy to execute, are unblockable, hard to avoid, but the character using it has to charge it up, leaving them completely open to attack. The combo system is simple, but effective, and each character has a unique flavor to them, giving the game a charm that most other games can't match.



The Last Blade 2 [Neo Geo/Dreamcast/PS2/Arcade

The Last Blade series is a sleeper hit from SNK-- many haven't heard of it, but the ones that have are probably dedicated fans of the series. The Last Blade 2 is a weapon-based 2D fighting game featuring 17 playable characters, each with a completely different fighting style. Every character has 2 versions: A "Power" version (attacks are strong, and characters get powerful super moves), and a "Speed" version (heavily reliant on creating huge combo chains with normal moves and special moves, and features a custom combo system)-- allowing fans of both "deeper" fighting games, as well as more "classic" fighting games, to be appeased equally, and even duke it out against each other. While many compare Last Blade and Samurai Shodown, the two games are completely different entities.

Quoting these two asa badass games that I've played and can heartily endorse.; Especially Last Blade 2. I went into that not knowing anything about the game, and leaning how the mechanics worked as I played against similarly clueless friends was a great experience.