The Mugen Fighters Guild - Umezono's MUGEN Character Reviews (latest: October COTM candidates!)

The Review

An Act in 2 Parts

ACT 1

We fade to an empty park at the dead of night. Daybreak is near but you wouldn't know it. NOIR MUSIC is playing. Stepping into center view, dressed in a classiest of fedoras and overcoat, UMEZONO steps onto the scene.

UMEZONO: They told me I'd never review again. Told me I wasn't ready for the big leagues. Told me MUGEN was better off without me.

UMEZONO pauses and tips his fedora for max ownage.

UMEZONO: They were wrong. So mistakes were made... sometimes a man can make an improper judgement about frame advantage and it seems like the whole worlds out to get him.... but they were wrong. Nothing can stop a man from reviewing when he wants to review. They can chain me down with the writer's block and I'll just keep testing BNBs till I'm free. The people need a hero. The people don't need someone who will restate readmes with minimum analysis. They need someone who is willing to playtest the character for 3 hours with nothing but a bottle of vodka and a prayer. I'm that someone. I ain't a curse to me no more.... it's a blessing.

UMEZONO: Sometimes I feel like I'm all alone this world. Ain't got nothing but MUGEN 1.0 and a notepad to my name. Sometimes I'd cut corners, just cop out and list peoples moves and call it a night, but a man's gotta eat. And shit man, I've been hungry. This time though, I ain't going for the kiddie burger. I want the steak.

AGENT AGENTMAN walks on scene. He is a grizzly looking fellow with an equally epic awesome fedora.

AGENTMAN: This is it, UMEZONO. We're reinstating YOUR LICENSE TO REVIEW. The world's eyes are on you. I need you in Training mode asap. I need you taking screenshots, writing notes, coming up with bnbs, and finding better ways to numerically score subjective things. But mark my words, ZONO... one false move, we take you down. We know your type. Gets a little high on success and boom, he's making fun of POTS styles cause he think he's superior. Save that garbage for the junk tabloids, kid. We cant have that in the agency. Times have changed, ZONO. The world has changed. Make one mistake, and next thing you know you'll be flipping old reviews of kfm edits for dimes on the street corner.

UMEZONO: Don't play games with me AGENTMAN. I know the world's changed. But let me tell you this, if the world's changing UMEZONO is changing too. This will be a new era of reviews. *UMEZONO tips his fedora again* I'm going to tackle the big characters and let the people know. No collision box will escape my eye. it's been a long tough ride for me, but this is a new horizon. But don't think I'll let you MFG AGENTS keep me down. I'm an eagle, AGENTMAN, you just got let me spread my wings and fly.

Umezono unleashes his might EAGLE WINGS. The NOIR MUSIC has turned into the AMERICAN NATIONAL ANTHEM. The regal appendages lush with white plumage shoot out from either side of him like plane wings. WIth a might eagle's cry, UMEZONO transforms completely into a bird. He is the REVIEW BIRD. He sets forth into the distance, towards the sun that is just beginning to break out onto this dreary park scene. AGENTMAN smiles, and tips his fedora so far down his eyes are naught but a mysterious shadow, reaching peak fedora class.

AGENTMAN: You failed once Agent UMEZONO... don't let it happen again.

AGENTMAN exits. End scene.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

ACT 2

So to get back into it I will be reviewing Clone Koakuma by Daniel. He has been bugging me for awhile now to do it, but truth be told I was reluctant to do so. I have probably written and rewritten this 3 times before scrapping the whole thing and starting a new direction for it altogether. This partly because my opinion of the character has somewhat fluctuated. However now I can confidently say I am ready to review and I have a proper notion of what I want to say about it. I would like to preface this by saying I am trying a new form of writing style in regards to the reviews. I studied a couple other reviewers stuff and decided a couple of more general paragraphs with a screenshot for each will really help these become more of an enjoyable read. I'll test it out here. But first some background on exactly what Clone Koakuma is would probably be neccesary.

Clone Koakuma, who will be hereafter referred to as C. Koa, is Daniel's custom gameplay edit of a Touhou character. A cursory look at Koakuma's article on the MUGEN wiki (I have no idea who she is) reveals she was a midboss for the Touhou Project's Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil. Apparently there have been a couple 2hu fighting games which he took the sprites from, but I have not played or even looked at them. So it's good that this is a custom version of Koa or I would be at a loss for what to say. I'd have literally no idea if it was accurate or not. Let that be a lesson to people who ask me to review source accurate characters. Though to be honest, based on some testing I did on Ricepigeon's creation, the tech from the Touhou fighting game is interesting enough that I could get some decent review mileage out of it without ever having to get into accuracy.

C. Koa is an interesting character, to say the least. The major draw of C. Koa is she has custom gameplay with Daniel's strange little touches added to it. To start, she is a 6 button character who's system is apparently (ACCORDING TO THE MUGEN WIKI SO IDK) modeled after Clayfighter 63 1/3, another interesting game I have never had the fortune of playing. However, Daniel also opted to add in a lot of other crap, which includes items from DKC2, HUDs that still make no sense, a combo counter that insults you if you're just doing short bnbs/suck (probably lifted from Clayfighter), and a little anime girl that randomly pops up and expresses glee at whatever the fuck C. Koa has just did. Though seemingly random in execution, a lot of what he puts has actual gameplay use. However I feel with some of the stuff its not even worth it (particularly her DKC2 reward system) because she has a very strong and easy to use normal combo game and good regular supers to boot. Presentation-wise she is really very creative, and has a lot of character, even boasting her own hand-drawn big portrait rather than some render of official art. The use of sprites and sounds is rather random but it all meshes well into your typical offbeat custom character. Some of the design tastes reminds me of the cool twists and easter eggs The_None puts in his work. the fact that C. Koa seems to have been an exercise in coding different states and shit makes it pretty impressive. Creative is a good description and really all I can parrot at this point, because I lack the mental capacity to use different words. I'm deducting sound points to be a dick cause the combo counter kinda gets on my nerves after awhile. "itty bitty combo! itty bitty combo! itty bitty combo!"

all this hud shit man where to begin

She boasts a very loose combo system with some near overpowered frame advantages, at least on her jump-ins. The basic gameplay is very fast and smooth. She has very easy to do ABC combos with forgiving execution window thanks to the good amount of frames each basic gives you. Regardless of how you are starting it if you manage to confirm its very easy to just X > A > A > B > C or A > X > X > Y > Z.. Her jump-ins are what give you real edge and are probably some of the most excellent combo starters she has. Based on testing her jumping punches alone: I found that (off neutral/"empty" jumps) j. X nets +10 on hit, j. Y gives about +14, and j. Z a whopping +16 (I've seen it give me +20.) Luckily, Daniel knows that proper balnce means trading one good thing for another. The jumping have very long startup times and low priority and are actually pretty timing intensive to confirm. They are easily punished but once they confirm you can easily pull shenanigans like j. Z > X > A > A > B > C > qcb. Z for a free 265 damage alone. This is like the amount of a decent Level 1, which you can do super easy and meterless. If you add meter to her bnbs she quickly becomes something of a deadly weapon in the correct hands. Not mine though. My hands are cold and dead from years of mashing.

Spoiler, click to toggle visibilty

i put in a shot of the j. Z, and frame data afterwards, ignore these were taken at two completely different times LOL

She has solid collision work, with interesting properties on many of her moves. Her crouching Y will knockdown airborne opponents but does not boast very good anti-air properties, at least hitbox wise. Daniel paid good attention to frames and how they work, and actually made tactful use of invincibility frames, as all variations of her qcb. Ks (called Aerial Aura) are invincible on the first frame/frames. As far as other random tech go, she has the ability to do a knock-up with down, back + c. C (HK) which allows her to fllow up with one aerial. Otherwise she has absolutely no air combo game which is welcome from the many custom characters who do. At least it's welcome to me cause air combos are lame. I think overall her combo system is really excellent and inviting to newcomers but a little to easy to net a ton of damage with super cancels, but thats really applicable to a lot of fighting games. Just because there is no pressing challenge does not make it any less cool. It just feels a bit less rewarding. And Daniel told me he copped POT's damage scaling code so it shouldn't be -too- bad.

Spoiler, click to toggle visibilty

again taken at completely different times, i opted here to show the collision on her aerial aura. there really wasnt a lot to take a picture with c koa lol

Koa's DKC2/star/HUD system is probably what stands out the most about her. Firstly, Koa has a point system that just adds up as you get items or pull of the sick ass comboz. It doesn't really do anything else but look nice and help you feel better about yourself. She also has a life system, indicated by the number next to her small port. As long as she has a life, she will be able to use here level 3 life regen super (about 200 HP restored), which is pretty clever. Otherwise the item system is just there because he wanted to code in something cool. Daniel told me this himself so I'm not just assuming this here.

Flaffy said, February 04, 2014, 04:34:49 am

[Other than its intended uses] the whole item system is there for "the funsies" and coding fun hehe.

I made a handy chart as a primer before I get into it.

i used comic sans for comedic effect here!

The items can be achieved randomly by using her qcf+p Blunt Object and all focus on gaining lives. Blunt Object otherwise just functions as your usual fireball (does 75 damage straight) You can get a KONG letter, star or balloon. Ten stars or a full KONG nets one life. Start will give you stars or a KONG letter so there is no real challenge to getting them, and even though this is mostly for fun it kinda kills the appeal a little. The balloons are red, green and blue; which net you +1, +2 or +3 lives respectively. While this seems a little unfair because C. Koa would be able to revive 200 hp a ton of times with the proper meter, Daniel made the balloons appear right at the impact zone and fly straight up. This means you have to jump for it right within the range of the opponent, which is to say the least extremely unsafe. You can also get a glitched balloon at random that will take away 1 life. It flies straight at you making it pretty hard to avoid. In general I find the life system pretty cool, because it can and does have a big impact on gameplay. It's also just funny to see DKC2 sprites implemented into a touhou character. Did I mention DKC2 is one of my favorite games. David Wise is the GOAT european vgm composer, perhaps the GOAT vgm composer of the west. That game is godlike lol.

Spoiler, click to toggle visibilty

rare balloon tech footage. you always get the red one. the blue one is as rare as your parents showing you support. woops

since were talking about dkc

So even though I'm not going through each individual move I'd like to talk a little bit about her supers, all of which can be cancelled off her specials. It is recommended doing any of her level 1s (Triple Aura, Continuum Charge or Lightning Look-out off the first frames of Aerial Aura or my personal favorite move; the qcb + P Swerving Sword, which works like an autocombo, does good damage, and is actually excellent for pressure with -1 frame on hit for the Y variant and -3 for the Z variant. Her Level 2s are far more interesting. Foe Heave (performed with dp, dp + any K) has her throw a bunch of helpers at the enemy, but actually has her stand still till they are all off screen leaving her easily punished on whiff. These kinds of touches are actually quite nice as they make a juggernaut like C. Koa vulnerable to stupid mistakes. In general though, if you ahve good reads and can predict well is a very heavy-hitting super. It's a very tense game of reaction time and I think could make for some interesting situations if there was ever some sort of competitive Daniel9999999999999999 fullgame. Get on that son. Her throw super, which has the fucking awesome name of Eternal Heart Failure is also notable for the music it plays and the random poses that make it look all sexual and weird. Its not that funny after the second time it happens but its amusing.

warning what youre looking at is actually illegal

So overall this was one of the first legitimately enjoyable releases I have reviewed for this website. C. Koa is a solid choice for anybody with a "fun" or more madcap roster where it isn't about uniformity and more about creativity. The scope of ideas in here are pretty well implemented and play very good. I think she is a very good character in general thanks to her sexy frame advantages and sensual damage. I'd wife those anime super cancels in a second. I have to commend Daniel for attention to detail on clsn and frame stuff, even if some of it is a bit too good. I couldn't really find much to complain about and her item system can be a blast if you don't cop out with the start spam. The clayfighter HUD + anime girl can get invasive but its also pretty creative otherwise. Not so creative I'd spend my life savings on Koakuma merchandise and body pillows, but pretty damn creative. (If you want me to throw my life savings of Koakuma body pillows..... you can't. She looks like a little girl. They all do.) Anyways, this gets a good rating overall, great job to Daniel on this enjoyable release.

digging the hand-drawn stuff tho, wheover drew it

Download Link: http://ricepigeon.webs.com/hostedcharacters.htm

Presentation: 4/5

Sprites: 4/5

Sounds: 3.5/5

Fun: 4/5

Gameplay: 3.7/5

Overall/Average: 3.84/5

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