WarioTheLegend
1996
Kirby Super Star is widely viewed as being largely outclassed by its DS remake these days, but the original is still a nice time that holds up to this day. It stands out from other Kirby games by being broken up into 6 different mini-stories each with their own gameplay elements. Many series staples would end up being introduced in this entry, and the various games included all offer a unique take on the same refined gameplay formula; this being the first game in the series to expand upon Copy Ability movesets instead of locking them to one or two moves. If you want to delve into the Kirby franchise, this entry isn't a bad place to start.
I stumbled across this game while looking at PS1 games and decided to give it a try. Was quite surprised a Fatal Fury game using the low-poly PS1 model style existed at all, and it’s a nice change of pace compared to SNK’s sprite based fighters.
The story is a retelling of the original Fatal Fury game, complete with a CGI cutscene depicting Jeff Bogard’s death. However, Geese doesn’t fall to his demise at the end this time. Not much of a retcon when his fall in the original Fatal Fury didn’t kill him for good, but still strange. Wild Ambition adds some new elements to the gameplay like the unblockable Heat Blow attacks, but isn’t the most refined fighting game compared to some of its contemporaries. A big change from the original Fatal Fury is the inclusion of various characters from later installments as playable characters in this one, alongside two brand new characters exclusive to this game. Touji and Tsugumi are pretty fun additions and it’s a shame they never made it out of this game. I particularly liked Tsugumi’s Cosmic Bowling stage, it had a nice vibe to it! The music was solid as always, though a part of me does miss Geese’s classic theme which isn’t present alongside him for once.
A rather notable shortcoming is that Wild Ambition doesn’t offer any modes beyond the standard Arcade, Versus, and Training modes, so there’s nothing really to do beyond playing through Arcade Mode. You probably won't get much use out of the Versus mode as I don’t think many people would be gunning to play this over SNK’s countless other fighting games just because it has cute PS1 models. Despite this, Wild Ambition was a novel time for me, and while it will remain an obscure title in SNK's history and it doesn't offer much, I think it’s an interesting game.
The story is a retelling of the original Fatal Fury game, complete with a CGI cutscene depicting Jeff Bogard’s death. However, Geese doesn’t fall to his demise at the end this time. Not much of a retcon when his fall in the original Fatal Fury didn’t kill him for good, but still strange. Wild Ambition adds some new elements to the gameplay like the unblockable Heat Blow attacks, but isn’t the most refined fighting game compared to some of its contemporaries. A big change from the original Fatal Fury is the inclusion of various characters from later installments as playable characters in this one, alongside two brand new characters exclusive to this game. Touji and Tsugumi are pretty fun additions and it’s a shame they never made it out of this game. I particularly liked Tsugumi’s Cosmic Bowling stage, it had a nice vibe to it! The music was solid as always, though a part of me does miss Geese’s classic theme which isn’t present alongside him for once.
A rather notable shortcoming is that Wild Ambition doesn’t offer any modes beyond the standard Arcade, Versus, and Training modes, so there’s nothing really to do beyond playing through Arcade Mode. You probably won't get much use out of the Versus mode as I don’t think many people would be gunning to play this over SNK’s countless other fighting games just because it has cute PS1 models. Despite this, Wild Ambition was a novel time for me, and while it will remain an obscure title in SNK's history and it doesn't offer much, I think it’s an interesting game.