SNK presents King of Fighters...SkyStage?

[Danny]

I actually like this game. Not the best Shmup you'll ever play but it's certainly serviceable and if this was released during the last generation of consoles it would of been sold at full retail in Japan only most likely! :S

Anyway managed to get stage one down to the point where I can taunt most the way though the level and taunt Althena's final pattern for some cheeky extra points as Kyo. This could be a nice gateway for new Shmupers, I mean it's main scoring fundamentals are based on being aggressive and getting up close which is a good skill to have when playing these types of games.

What need to go away though is the horrid dubbing, seriously Kyo sounds more like a jackass then a badass main hero of a long running fighting game franchise. Also what's up with Kula? I mean her shot pattern is literally the worst I have seen in a Shmup for some time. Luckily there is character individual score boards because that's the only way she is going to get on top of ANY score board at this rate...

[PsychoGun]

This game really needs extends, it's fucking bullshit the way it's set up.

I've found an extend in stage 3. Destroy all of the large floating island enemies and the last one will drop a dumpling that'll refill 1/3 of your health meter.

I've been maining Mai recently (managed to break 4 million last night)... her level 1 charge is fantastic for damaging larger enemies and generally clearing out portions of the screen while her level 2 charge allows you to cheese through difficult bullet patterns (the only problem is that it can drop you off in an awkward position). Her level 3 charge is useless though since it only lasts about 3 seconds.

Wow, good find. The trouble is, the level 2 boss usually rapes me well enough that I die shortly after stage 3 starts.

Any idea how to trigger the "intruding" boss?

I am about to break 3 million but wish I knew how to fight Kyo instead of Orochi Iori on stage 2, I want the easy route since the deaths are so cheap in this game.

[nZero]

This game really needs extends, it's fucking bullshit the way it's set up.

I've found an extend in stage 3. Destroy all of the large floating island enemies and the last one will drop a dumpling that'll refill 1/3 of your health meter.

I've been maining Mai recently (managed to break 4 million last night)... her level 1 charge is fantastic for damaging larger enemies and generally clearing out portions of the screen while her level 2 charge allows you to cheese through difficult bullet patterns (the only problem is that it can drop you off in an awkward position). Her level 3 charge is useless though since it only lasts about 3 seconds.

Wow, good find. The trouble is, the level 2 boss usually rapes me well enough that I die shortly after stage 3 starts.

Any idea how to trigger the "intruding" boss?

I am about to break 3 million but wish I knew how to fight Kyo instead of Orochi Iori on stage 2, I want the easy route since the deaths are so cheap in this game.

The Stage 2, 3 & 4 bosses are determined by your position on screen after you defeat the boss of the previous stage.

Finish stage 1 on the left side for Kusanagi, right side for Orochi Iori in St.2
Finish stage 2 on the left side for Orochi Shermie, right side for Rugal in St.3
Finish stage 3 on the left side for Orochi Yashiro, right side for Goenitz in St.4

There are a few requirements for the 1-EX Boss (intruding boss), one of them I don't quite understand. 1st loop, normal play, no continue through 1st 3 stages, and something about finishing at least one of the first 3 stage bosses' last lifebar off with a Lvl.3 super or a bomb(?)

[PsychoGun]

woh, great info, thanks.

[TodayIsForgotten]

The Stage 2, 3 & 4 bosses are determined by your position on screen after you defeat the boss of the previous stage.

Finish stage 1 on the left side for Kusanagi, right side for Orochi Iori in St.2
Finish stage 2 on the left side for Orochi Shermie, right side for Rugal in St.3
Finish stage 3 on the left side for Orochi Yashiro, right side for Goenitz in St.4

There are a few requirements for the 1-EX Boss (intruding boss), one of them I don't quite understand. 1st loop, normal play, no continue through 1st 3 stages, and something about finishing at least one of the first 3 stage bosses' last lifebar off with a Lvl.3 super or a bomb(?)

Cool find. I think I like this game. I have all the stages down pat but I need to work on a couple of the bosses patterns. To me, the game feels tiny and nudge movements I think im messing up at times becuase im not use to controlling a character. I dont know. Kiken is making me want to put more time into it.

As for triggering intruding boss. It is a no continue situation up and after beating the level 3 boss. I think it is more tied to your score. I've triggered the boss on easy and normal and the ditzed around in practice and would get him to appear 3 out of 4 times. I am almost positive the 1 time was due to me not even trying for score.

[TaygetaVendetta]

I've been maining Mai recently (managed to break 4 million last night)... her level 1 charge is fantastic for damaging larger enemies and generally clearing out portions of the screen while her level 2 charge allows you to cheese through difficult bullet patterns (the only problem is that it can drop you off in an awkward position). Her level 3 charge is useless though since it only lasts about 3 seconds.

I found the fans Mai shoots out to be really distracting and it really throws me off. Her level 2 charge is indeed great for getting through tough spots.

The Stage 2, 3 & 4 bosses are determined by your position on screen after you defeat the boss of the previous stage.

Finish stage 1 on the left side for Kusanagi, right side for Orochi Iori in St.2
Finish stage 2 on the left side for Orochi Shermie, right side for Rugal in St.3
Finish stage 3 on the left side for Orochi Yashiro, right side for Goenitz in St.4

Thanks for this info, I was really wanting to see what Yashiro played like. Are all the left side bosses easier than the right? I've fought Shermie very few times, but Kusanagi is a cakewalk compared to Orochi Iori.

[Danny]

I am guessing beat all three Orochi guys for a special Orochi themed boss? (Orochi himself?)

P.S: Is anyone here actually taunting the bosses? They gain extra attack patterns and you get a bonus score for beating them while they are provoked. So far I can only taunt the entire way though the first boss.

[MachineAres 1CC]

I am guessing beat all three Orochi guys for a special Orochi themed boss? (Orochi himself?)

Orochi is already the boss of the 5th stage no matter what...after you fight Chris he turns into Orochi.

[TodayIsForgotten]

I was messing around with proximity scoring vs chaining the entire level. My best score with proximity on level 1 with i'd guesstimate 75-116 chain was 1.22m. My best score with a decent amount of proximity and a 146 chain was 1.21m. Seems if the medals are too distraction work on chaining the levels.

[PsychoGun]

I don't understand the taunting.

I get almost the same score after the 1st level (1.2 millions) whether I taunt or not.

I've also taunted right before I blasted athena with a level 3 to kill her, same bonus.

[PsychoGun]

I've had moments where I thought I was getting into this game, but no.

Final Verdict: this is the shittiest shmup ever made.

The graphics are terrible, the music is boring, the gameplay is cheap and uninspired and it has nothing to do with KOF until you get to a boss. Honestly I don't think any thought went into this title, it could have been some shitty doujin game that SNK bought and stuck their character skins on. I've never yelled so much during a game ever, even DOJ. This is just a completely shitty game and the only reason I've stuck with it this long as I refuse to let a shitty game like this get the best of me, but it has, I'm fucking done. I'd rather spend my time on something else.

[TodayIsForgotten]

I don't understand the taunting.

I get almost the same score after the 1st level (1.2 millions) whether I taunt or not.

I've also taunted right before I blasted athena with a level 3 to kill her, same bonus.

Looking back I didn't taunt on the 146 chain. Taunting just makes things harder but you get silver medal drops at any distance and of course gold close up.

I don't hold such a high-standard for these games. If it's remotely fun, I am interested. I originally thought the game was going to be shit, but to be fair, it isn't a bad game. Is it a game I'd recommend to people before others? No.

Sure it has its downfalls. Dull graphics, bullets and medal drops that make things hard to see what is going on but it is a pretty fun game. IMHO.

[PsychoGun]

Would someone who knows how to play this game worth a damn mind putting up a replay?

It sucks it doesn't support them on the leaderboards, the bosses are really just pissing me off.

[seiatsu]

Nothing major but selecting your character with start changes the color of your character (if that was already posted I missed it).

To me, this isn't a bad game at all for $10. I think the six characters play differently enough to give it enough flavor (some seem more focused on medaling while others on chaining).

The one thing I can't quite figure out is what are the random pick-ups all about (aside from the medals). Or...what is the standalone enemy that goes across the screen from left to right mid way through the first stage. He doesn't fire or anything...not quite sure what the purpose of these seemingly random type events are but otherwise, the game isn't bad.

Maybe if we start putting all the nuances that we come across (like the boss triggers, characters special attack properties, etc) we can start to see if there is truly something behind this title.

[PsychoGun]

the static KOF sprites you see in each stage drop an invitation, you need to get all 5 and not die (I think) to get to the second loop and see the true last boss. i would just get them cause they give you 30k points. The falling Geese Howard one made me laugh the first time I saw it.

i wish I knew correct chaining and boss techniques. how people chain all of stage 1 I don't know, I can get like 76 max on that stage. my counter always drops at the bigger enemies.

[drauch]

I've had moments where I thought I was getting into this game, but no.

Final Verdict: this is the shittiest shmup ever made.

The graphics are terrible, the music is boring, the gameplay is cheap and uninspired and it has nothing to do with KOF until you get to a boss. Honestly I don't think any thought went into this title, it could have been some shitty doujin game that SNK bought and stuck their character skins on. I've never yelled so much during a game ever, even DOJ. This is just a completely shitty game and the only reason I've stuck with it this long as I refuse to let a shitty game like this get the best of me, but it has, I'm fucking done. I'd rather spend my time on something else.

I agree, the music is terribly lacking. That bass line at the beginning got annoying in like thirty seconds. Overall, I enjoyed it, but it certainly wasn't anything exceptional. The voice acting was pretty brutally terrible. I kind of didn't like how big the characters were, as I was having a hard time focusing on my hit box most of the time.

[PsychoGun]

I finally broke 3 million and can get to the stage 3 boss. I'm thinking once I get to stage 5 I'm gonna retire it and just say I wasn't good enough. I swear it seems like sometimes a boss rapes the shit out of me and sometimes I can beat them without a hitch, it seems like the bullet patterns change from time to time, which pisses me off.

I can score higher with Athena abusing her level 3, but she sucks ass on the bosses because her level 3 doesn't inflict more damage and her level 2 is kind of shitty, as is her level 1 teleport, it's complete shit for canceling bullets (because it doesnt), half the time it moves me into another bullet and I die.

I can make it farther into the game with Kyo, because his level 1 cancel is awesome and his level 3 is almost like an unlimited bomb. Just sucks that you can't cancel everything on certain bosses.

I also still hate the hit box, they should have just not had one and made the bullet patterns more fucking organized. Or just copy ESP II or some other flying game worth a damn.

[MachineAres 1CC]

the static KOF sprites you see in each stage drop an invitation, you need to get all 5 and not die (I think) to get to the second loop and see the true last boss. i would just get them cause they give you 30k points. The falling Geese Howard one made me laugh the first time I saw it.

This is correct. Omega Rugal only appears at the end of the second loop, which you have to 1cc the first loop and collect all 5 invitations to get to it. You can continue on the second loop, but getting there is the problem. I did it last night with some practice and learning to spam the shit out of Kula (I heart her) and learn Rugal and Orochi's patterns and the second loop is super difficult, and after you get there, you can start on second loop any time.

Other observations:
Athena is really weak but her charge is decent.
Iori's shot sucks and his charge move doesn't even cancel any bullets at all, just slows some of them in a certain proximity down.
Terry is slow as fucking molasses and is basically unplayable to me since he has probably the most narrow shot area of anyone in the game to go along with that.
Kyo was pretty meh.
Haven't used Mai at all, her fans look annoying.
Kula is basically the only way I enjoy playing this game.

[PsychoGun]

the static KOF sprites you see in each stage drop an invitation, you need to get all 5 and not die (I think) to get to the second loop and see the true last boss. i would just get them cause they give you 30k points. The falling Geese Howard one made me laugh the first time I saw it.

This is correct. Omega Rugal only appears at the end of the second loop, which you have to 1cc the first loop and collect all 5 invitations to get to it. You can continue on the second loop, but getting there is the problem. I did it last night with some practice and learning to spam the shit out of Kula (I heart her) and learn Rugal and Orochi's patterns and the second loop is super difficult, and after you get there, you can start on second loop any time.

Other observations:
Athena is really weak but her charge is decent.
Iori's shot sucks and his charge move doesn't even cancel any bullets at all, just slows some of them in a certain proximity down.
Terry is slow as fucking molasses and is basically unplayable to me since he has probably the most narrow shot area of anyone in the game to go along with that.
Kyo was pretty meh.
Haven't used Mai at all, her fans look annoying.
Kula is basically the only way I enjoy playing this game.

What is the secret to Kula?

With Kyo I have more power and bullet escape. With Athena I can spam her charge 3 and rack up points like crazy, but she's weak as fuck.

Is Kula a better option?

[TodayIsForgotten]

I finally broke 3 million and can get to the stage 3 boss. I'm thinking once I get to stage 5 I'm gonna retire it and just say I wasn't good enough. I swear it seems like sometimes a boss rapes the shit out of me and sometimes I can beat them without a hitch, it seems like the bullet patterns change from time to time, which pisses me off.

If you look up a bit, nzero posted how you trigger the alternate bosses. Each have different attack patterns. But, their patterns never vary.

Kyo is the best character in the game, I think. Aside from that blue bitches entire covering gun, which if you're medal collecting does more harm than good IMHO.

[Kiken]

I can score higher with Athena abusing her level 3, but she sucks ass on the bosses because her level 3 doesn't inflict more damage and her level 2 is kind of shitty, as is her level 1 teleport, it's complete shit for canceling bullets (because it doesnt), half the time it moves me into another bullet and I die.

Athena's Level 3 is simply there to give you a Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card from heavier bullet patterns as well as allowing ridiculous levels of point-blanking during the regular stages. Her actual shot damage is pretty high to begin with. My biggest issue with her Level 3 is that there is no audio cue or visual timer to tell you that it's over.. it just peters out suddenly. Her Level 2 is pretty useless... her Level 1 is ok for corner-juking (mostly in the second half of level 5) but can be rather dangerous during boss patterns.

I also still hate the hit box, they should have just not had one and made the bullet patterns more fucking organized. Or just copy ESP II or some other flying game worth a damn.

The biggest problem is that only one of the character hitboxes is centered in relation to the sprite.. all the others are off-center (many are too high and 1 or 2 are off to the left slightly). The second problem stems from the lack of a danmaku-standard focussed-slowdown shot. I often find that tapping moves the character too far, and MOSS being MOSS love to use really high-speed patterns.

I wish I knew correct chaining and boss techniques. how people chain all of stage 1 I don't know, I can get like 76 max on that stage. my counter always drops at the bigger enemies.

It's easier to chain the whole level with Athena. Just use sporadic shooting during the smaller enemies to suspend the chain (allow the homing balls to kill the odd enemy or two and use that time to charge up your level 3 to point-blank the larger enemies).

[Travellinman]

Does anyone of you know, if the "Collect 50 Gold Medals" Achievement is flawed? Tried (and succeeded) on "Practice" and "Easy" but didn't get the achievement. Is there a requierement that isn't listed in the achievement's description?

Same btw for the "Don't use the Bomb!" achievement. Coin-feeded the last stage without using the bomb and didn't get the achievement. Is there "no continue" or "difficulty must be X" requierement that isn't listed?

Thanks for an answer if you know...

Greetings,
Trav

[Kiken]

Does anyone of you know, if the "Collect 50 Gold Medals" Achievement is flawed? Tried (and succeeded) on "Practice" and "Easy" but didn't get the achievement. Is there a requierement that isn't listed in the achievement's description?

I've had no luck with unlocking this achievement. Despite finishing the first stage with well over 70 medals on multiple runs (at Normal difficulty), this achievement still hasn't unlocked for me.

Same btw for the "Don't use the Bomb!" achievement. Coin-feeded the last stage without using the bomb and didn't get the achievement. Is there "no continue" or "difficulty must be X" requierement that isn't listed?

You have to beat the entire first loop without bombing (you may continue), starting from stage 1, you must play through all five levels.

[Kron]

The 50 gold medals in one stage made no sense to me either and after reading something this morning it turns out the description is wrong. What you need to do is...

Achievement can be done on any difficulty. But the description is off. It should say by using only special attacks so do not use primary fire at all.

[nZero]

That's not quite true, although the English achievement description is wrong/misleading. It just has to be 50+ gold medals without collecting any other (silver/blue) medals. Abusing Athena's lvl3 special or Mai's lvl2 special into large groups of popcorn is by far and away the easiest way to get this, though.

A reminder that we have a whole thread in strategy for achievement discussion, along with a guide that already covered this.

[PsychoGun]

The achievements in this game are a joke, you can even use training difficulty to cheat and get the TLB one.

Anyway, I tried using Kula, but fuck does she suck to me for some reason. I like her level 2 bullet cancel, but it takes too long to charge.

Kyo is still the most practical character for me, if Athena wasn't so god damn weak she'd be the best character in the game because of her level 3 medal whoring.

[CptRansom]

Picked this up last night and I'm enjoying it. It's nice and simple just the way I like it.

I wish I had known about how to get that stupid gold medal achievement last night! I replayed stage 1 a couple times trying to no-miss it thinking it would only unlock if the end-of-level medal tally was >50. I'm sure you can imagine my irritation when I finished stage 1 with 92 gold medals and nothing unlocked. OMG MAH CHEEVOS I NEEDS THEM TO HAVES THE FUNS

[PsychoGun]

anyone wanna make a high score thread for this??

[Travellinman]

Hey everyone!

Thank you for clearing things up!

Greetings,
Trav

[originalz]

For the 50 gold, does it have to all be without taking damage? I can get over 50 no problem on a normal run, maybe I can do it just by using Athena's shield but bloody hell does it seem annoying, since it'll make for some tough times while the power meter recharges.