REVIEW : Rhythm Fighter (PC)
SNK Playmore’s King of Fighters line Up is a long-running and fairly popular series of combat games that prides itself on enormous and ever-changing character rosters. Now the sport itself has evolved the genre in the new spin-off The Rhythm of Fighters for Android.
ROF is a rhythm game highlighting music from a diversity of traditional SNK games. As you tap along to the music, your character will slug it out with an enemy in a different sequence of the fight and rhythm genres.
Rhythm fighting
ROF nearly resembles King of Fighters visually, utilizing sprites and environments from the KOF series and other SNK games from which it borrows songs.
A large blue oval hovers in the centre of the screen, just in front of the fighters. As a song/battle starts, various kinds of notes appear as circles along the oval. The aim is to perform the matching tap or action for each note at just the right time and then proceed clockwise to the next one. You can really pat anywhere on the display, as long as you get the timing correct. You needn’t tap the circles themselves.
Most notes are red circles called Tap Notes. These solely have to be hit, but the play has other kinds of inputs too. Blue circles with an indicator on them are “Flick Notes.” You swipe in the direction of the arrow to hit a Flick Note. When numerous flick notes arrive in quick succession, you can swipe back and forth to hit them without raising your finger.
The more notes you tap accurately, the higher your combo builds. This improves both the score and destruction. Doing well essentially makes your character pound on the enemy for a while. Miss or near-miss too much and the opponent will get some blows in. Run out of life and you fail the song.
Seldom a series of gold Special Move Notes gets along during a song. Crash most of them to perform a unique move like a fireball. Get the whole set right and your character will whip out a Super Special Move, dealing extensive damage to the opponent.
The rhythm of Fighters includes a scant three playable characters by default: Kyo Kusanagi Athena Asamiya, and Ryo Sakazaki. Each character has different stats and a unique Super Special Move, allowing you to choose between stronger offence and defence.
That said, they all really excel at something: Iori has his combos, Terry rocks at offence and special moves, and Nakoruru boasts the best defence. Nakoruru’s Super Special Move refills some of her health, making her the best character for less skilled players like me. SNK Playmore just needs to cut the prices down a dollar or two and release more fighters like Mai and Blue Mary…
Arcade and Free Modes
ROF has two modes: Arcade and Free. To open all of the tunes and their three difficulty levels for play in Free Mode, you’ll need to walk through Arcade Mode.
Each stage has a victory condition beyond just completing the song, such as reaching a certain number of Just Hits or beating a specific score. Those extra conditions can be a pain; it took me more than ten tries to hit the target score on 4-5. Level up enough and you might be able to power your way through previously unwinnable situations.
Free Mode simply lets players take on any song they have unlocked, choosing between easy, medium, and hard difficulties if those have been unlocked as well. This is also where you’ll access any song packs you have purchased, as they don’t show up in Arcade Mode (unfortunately).
Songs
ROF currently offers seven premium song packs, with more promised for the future. Like the main game’s songs, every track has a unique background taken from the game that originated it. You can preview the songs in a pack before buying, and even read notes from the composer.
The packs so far include:
- Fatal Fury 2
- Fatal Fury Special
- KOF ’96
- KOF ’97
- Metal Slug 2
- Metal Slug Defense
- Slot Machine Pack
PREVIEW : SUCCUBUS: PROLOGUE (PC)
