Samurai Spirits, now in 3D!

[HexElf]

Go here to watch the intro featuring Haohmaru looking better than ever. www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OMqo9WNGN4 the sound is pretty terrible though.

Other games announced are KOFMI2 for arcade which will feature the return of Ash Crimson!
Also KOFXII was announced, but of course we already knew it was coming

[Goemon]

hexelf said:

Go here to watch the intro featuring Haohmaru looking better than ever. www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OMqo9WNGN4 the sound is pretty terrible though.

If i've ever seen marketing off nostalgia... I knew 3D Samsho was coming but it still pisses me off to see it. I know my mind must seem very closed after that comment but considering what they did to kof i'm certianly not excited.

Anyways, much thanks for the news HexElf. I just checked insertcredit.com and found more info:

"While it won't be open to the non-professional public till tomorrow, the 44th issue of the AM Show started yesterday, and some sites are already reporting the event, so let's see what can we steal from them. The most commented-on news has come from the Taito booth, where it has announced its new agreement with SNK Playmore, which will be developing the next episode in the King of Fighters series (namely 'XII'), as well as another couple of games for the PC-based Type-X 2 system, after finishing its relationship with Sega-Sammy (Brandon's note: Those games are KOF Maximum Impact Regulation A and Samurai Spirits Sen). This confirms the company as a mere 'third party' in the arcade game industry, which seems to have lost the potential to publish its own games."

Of course there's no telling if Taito is going to make a difference yet but i really like them so it's exciting news to me.

[Edge]

Here's a comparision chart between the Taito Type-X system (Note: Not the upgraded Tatio Type-X2 system) and the Atomiswave, taken from System16.com...

Atomiswave:
CPU : Hitachi SH-4 32-bit RISC CPU (200 MHz 360 MIPS / 1.4 GFLOPS)
Graphic Engine : PowerVR 2 (PVR2DC)
Sound Engine : ARM7 Yamaha AICA 45 MHZ (with internal 32-bit RISC CPU, 64 channel ADPCM)
Main Ram : 32 megs
Main Memory : 16 MByte
Graphic Memory : 16 MByte
Sound Memory : 8 MByte
Media : ROM Board
Simultaneous Number of Colors : Approx. 16,770,000 (24bits)
Polygons : 2.5 Million polys/sec
Rendering Speed : 500 M pixel/sec
Additional Features : Bump Mapping, Fog, Alpha-Bending (transparency), Mip Mapping (polygon-texture auto switch), Tri-Linear Filtering, Anti-Aliasing, Environment Mapping, and Specular Effect.
Network : It is possible to connect the systems on the network using both 56K modem or broadband connection using the AW-Net.

Type-X:
OS : Windows XP Embedded (customized)
CPU : Celeron 2.5Ghz (upgradable to Pentium 4 2.8GHz)
FSB : 400MHz (Upgradable to 800MHz)
Chipset : Intel 865G
Memory : DDR266 DIMM 256MB (upgradable to DDR400 2GB)
Graphics Board : AGP Radeon 9200SE (128 MB) through to X800XT (256 MB) (complete ATI Radeon Range)
Audio : AC97 onboard 6 channel audio CODEC
Lan : On-board 10/100Base-TX
USB : 4ch (ver 1.1 & 2.0 compatible)
Parallel port : 1 port
PS/2 port : keyboard, mouse
PCI : 2 slots
IDE : 2ch U-DMA(100/66/33)
Serial ATA : 2ch
Audio inputs : Microphone (stereo pin-jack), line-in (stereo pin-jack)
Audio outputs : line-out (stereo pin-jack), SPDI/F
Power : ATX AC 100v

From the look of both systems, it seems the Taito Type-X outperforms the Atomiswave (Not sure about that), judging by it's faster processor and rendering capabilities. However, the specs. on the Taito Type-X2 have yet to be revealed. If the Type-X2 is basically a "beefed-up" Type-X system, then there won't be too much of a difference in specs. between the two.

[Kazuya_UK]

Even if the X2 is more powerful, are any of us really expecting SNKP to use it? It's more likely that we'll be seeing the same sprites re-used on yet another piece of hardware, although if they keep releasing stuff of the quality of KOF XI and SS Tenka that's not so bad. Would still be nice to have a hi-res KOF but I gave up hoping for that to happen a long time back.

3D Samurai Shodown might be fun, but I won't expect anything at all. I did the same with Max Impact and that turned out fun, so I'll be hoping for the same with SS3D. I still think Max Impact 2 is a very very good game, even if I can understand why many aren't keen.

Kaz

[dmac0424]

I gotta agree with you there Kaz. I kind of gave up hope for hi-res KOF sprites awhile back as well. But maybe if the fans start complaining then quite possibly SNK might wanna make some graphical upgrades to the franchise. I think that may be one of the reasons why people scoff at KOF. SNK needs to use their new capabilities to the best of their abilities in order to wow us again like they did so many years prior. And I hope KOF XI comes to America-b/c im sick of looking at combo vids!!!!

[Edge]

Apparently, Iggy from the MMCafe forums, posted a rumour about KOFXII having new graphics, hence the move from the Atomiswave to the Type-X2.

I totally missed it then, but when asked why they were moving to Type X 2 for KOF XII, the SNK spokeman answered it was because lots of fans were tired of the same old sprites and they wanted to make everything more pretty to make the jump to the next-gen.

Not that it means anything, of course, Imoya never was a company to be believed.
Also, the logo of KOF XII is reminicent of the 2001 logo.
With all of this, and XII being an uneven KOF, my money is on a very bad KOF that will evolve in a great XIII.

[Goemon]

Nice, thanks for the info Edge.

I'll be happy if they do, but really doesn't matter to me anymore if SNK improves the visuals as long as they remain 2d. I'm content with the visual style of kof XI, I just hope the next kof is more balanced.

Not that it matters, but i used to check up on the mmcafe boards before and it seems to me that Iggy doesn't like SNK much.

[dmac0424]

Thxs Edge-wat do u think will happen (storywise) after KOF XII?

[Edge]

dmac0424 said:

Thxs Edge-wat do u think will happen (storywise) after KOF XII?

I was actually hoping they would expand on Ash Crimson, his background, and his connection to Elisabeth. However, with KOFXII being the finale of this chapter (I wish there was two more chapters to "The Tales of Ash"), SNKP will have everything summed up for the reasons of "Those from the Past" trying to reawaken the Orochi.

Who knows? Maybe this saga will extend or tie into the next King of Fighters series.