Greetings

[Nocturnus]

Hello all, I'm an old school fighting gamer returning to the ever beautiful game that is KOF after what seemed like an eternity. I remember a time when I spent all my little life playing, eating, sleeping and shitting anything snk. MOSTLY The King of Fighters series.

Back in the days there were many many times when I skipped school and spent all my lunch money on the arcades. Been caught a couple of times too. Been grounded for it but I kept coming back at it! :D Ahh miss those times! I owe a great deal of my childhood to snk games so to speak.

A little background of my fighter games experience: Started with SF2 like most people on the arcades. Played a bit of mortal combat on some old consoles and the pc. SF never really did anything for me and thank God I wasn't the only one who felt that way. Most of the people in the arcade would leave sf machines alone and play KOF instead which is what caught my attention.

Didn't play much of kof 94-95 on the arcades and was rather a spectator most of the times. Started playing with kof 96 a lot. Participated in some local tourneys and got my arse kicked by older players at the time. Pretty much skipped 97 on the arcades too. (played through on emu)
KOF 98 was the reason why all the mates in the arcade, old and young forgot about their life and spent all day and night on it. Crazy times.
Loved kof99, story wise the nests saga was my favourite. (Yes K' is my fav character and NO i couldn't give a rats arse about tiers =/ ) KOF 2000 is still my personal favourite to this day. Kof2001 wasnt the best and many arcade players didnt play it as much. Many players returned at kof2002 and had some great competitive games on it. After that though, things started to slow down, arcades were getting closed down, players left etc.
Mostly played kof2003 on emu. Wasn't a big fan of the tag system tbh. After that it was pretty much done. Played kofxi on the console for a very short time but due to lack of arcades and players that was pretty much it for the glorious kof days. Never played kofxii. Moved places and countries and slowly forgot about all this, still hoping to get back one day.

It's been 5 years since I have touched an arcade control but I'm delighted to see kofxiii and I feel a part of my life that has been lost has returned! I'm buying a console and fight sticks just for the sake of playing xiii, fuck everything else. I also want to visit any arcade that has xiii hopefully. Looking forward to that as soon as I sort things out in my personal life.

Other SNK games I played:
Played almost all the titles available through emulator.
On the arcade I played a good deal of
- Last Blade 1,2
- Samurai Showdown 2,4,5
- Garou
- Rage of the Dragons
- Metal slug etc etc just to name some common games at the top of my head.

So yea, that can pretty much sum up as my gaming life of the arcades or just life in short. Congratulation to anyone who have read through the walls of text. :p Sorry for the long introduction but I needed to let out all these things. Played a lot of shit games while kof was away (non fighters) and now I feel its finally time to get back. So here I am. I have been closely following all news and videos and I rejoice at the advent of KOFxiii.

Cheers to all.

[Delta]

Welcome to the family, it's good to see another K' user around. Hope you enjoy your time here.
And cool avatar bro

[Kane317]

Nocturnus, welcome to DC and nice write up!  You'll find many ppl in similar situations as yourself, I stopped pretty much after XI for 4-5 years and didn't think I would ever really get back into it till '98UM came out.  I got a PS3 (thanks Reynald) for XII and I only play the KOF series (bought a stick for it as well).

XIII is really going to make comeback for all the old schoolers!

[omegaryuji]

Welcome to DC

Thanks for the detailed write-up.  A lot of it sounds similar to myself (starting on 96, long break after a while, getting back into things with XIII).  Hope your transition to actively playing again goes smooth.

[Nocturnus]

Thanks guys. =) Good to be here. I have been lurking in most of the KOF community forums, podcasts etc found the answer to most of the technical stuffs of xiii on DC thanks to the great wiki page you guys have put up. I got the hang of K's b&bs and most of the cancels, haven't mastered hd combo's yet. Been working on Kula and am currently looking for a 3rd as main. I like how Maxima plays so I might end up with the full team lowl. I want to play Ralf but find him a bit lacking. =/

@Delta: After watching most of the videos, I'm not sure if you are particularly happy to see yet another K' user. :p And thanks bro, glad you like it. 

@Kane137: I know how it felt mate. Yes I have high hopes Kofxiii will get the recognition Kof always deserved, its such a great game as it really takes the best out of all the past series and puts it in one. Looking forward to old schooler, new fans and the poor souls that indulge in Shit Fighters to pick it up and pwn some faces.

@omegaryuji: Thanks mate, glad to see I can relate to you guys. Hopefully I won't be owned too bad! ;p Cheers. =)