King of Fighters XIV ver. 2 has been released today. It’s an update that includes 4 characters (3 returning characters and 1 debuting character) and 2 new stages: a remake of Monaco from KOF 97 and a remake of Terry Bogard’s iconic Fatal Fury train stage. The new stages, along with the balance updates are available free on Playstation Network Store, and the characters can be bought for $5.99 each or in a 4 pack for $19.99. Check out the new character trailers after the jump.
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Hope you had a Merry Christmas poweteers! As our gift to you we’ve packed in some of the biggest fighting game news from this past month. Some of these you might have seen before, some you might not have. Check after the jump to check it out. Also, be here next week for New Year’s beatdowns, where we take a look at some of the worst, and barley adequate, fighting games in existence.

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It’s draft season in the NBA. In the wake of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ historic championship win, NBA teams all across the nation are scrambling to make deals for huge trades, promising rookies, and the hottest free agents available. Already the NBA has been shaken up by Golden State’s signing of former Oklahoma player Kevin Durant and Dwayne Wade’s departure from the Miami Heat to join the Chicago Bulls. However, one deal that could potentially eclipse both of those is the LA Lakers’ signing of point guard Lucky Glauber. At a press conference yesterday afternoon, Lucky told reporters to Wake up. “It’s too early for bedtime! We outweigh nuclear arms!” said an excited Lucky. Then as if looking ahead to the finals, Lucky taunted Lebron and the Cavs. “Yo Lebron! Are you really the number one?” Lucky’s remarks indicate that he has serious championship aspirations this year, and won’t hesitate to step on toes to get to them. He ended his press conference with an open challenge to any team seeking to stand against him and the Lakers: “Golden State, Miami Heat, San Antonio, NESTS, Team Fatal Fury and the rest of ya’ll can challenge me anytime!”
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SNK/Playmore showed off a teaser for the upcoming KOF XIV at this past week’s TGS. Little is known about the game save for the fact it will be adapting a 2.5D presentation a’la Street Fighter 4. Although SNK’s previous efforts in 3D haven’t exactly been anything to write home about, hopefully they’ll get it right for KOF XIV. It’s heading to PS4 sometime in 2016, although it’s unsure as to whether it’s exclusive. KOF XII and XIII have both gone multiplatform with the latter receiving a PC port, so I’d be surprised if this was a console exclusive. We’ll have more TGS news throughout the rest of the week and into the weekend.

It costs more than a 3DS XL and just as much as a Wii, contains (at least a few) games available more cheaply on either the eShop or Wii Virtual Console, and comes with a dock that looks like the AES, but doesn’t actually play Neo Geo carts. And yet we still want one. Or two.

Sean and Vinnk wonder what the heck is wrong with them that they’d blow their hard-earned cash on such a frivolous item. Is it because it’s sexy and iPhone-like? Is it because of nostalgia? Is it because they’re stodgy old-timers who are fed up with a constant parade of uninspiring new games? …nah, but it’s fun to wonder!

Leave your own voicemail at 608-492-1923, or just share your thoughts in the show notes at FamicomDojo.TV:
http://famicomdojo.tv/podcast/59

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Continuing the 16-bit wars after the introduction of the Sega Genesis and TurboGrafx-16, we turn to a “24-bit” system that was truly like the arcade machines that its competitors were trying to emulate.

Direct Link: Famicom Dojo Season 2: The Neo Geo Affair

Head over to our show notes to read more about the history of the Neo Geo and the making of this episode!

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The Wii U is set to launch by the end of 2012… but is it really? We’ve been seeing the same tech demo since E3 2011, but no actual titles running on Wii U hardware. Will Nintendo make the projected launch date, or is it all smoke and mirrors? Sean and Vinnk disagree about what this means, encourage Sony to get out of the hardware market since the PS3 has never gotten above third place in North America, the PS Vita’s launch has been a larger thud than the one for 3DS, and rumors that the Next Xbox from Microsoft will somehow ban used games. RAMPANT SPECULATION!

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Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

The early 90s bought gamers a new genre of video games: the one-on-one fighter. This new genre of games was the offspring of sports games and beat-em-ups. You took one fighter against another, and it was up to you to take him down. These games weren’t controlled by the simple joystick plus 1 or 2 button setups. No, there were anywhere from 3 – 6 buttons, and you performed special moves by pulling off combinations of the joystick and these buttons to pull off special attacks. The key to winning these games was mastering and utilizing these special attacks, stringing them together in combos. To the best fighting game players, this became both art and science. It wasn’t uncommon to see crowds of players standing around a heated fighting game contest that was going on at the local arcade, weather it was Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Power Instinct, or X-men. Capcom was the undisputed leader of the genre, although beside Midway’s Mortal Kombat, there was another competitor, SNK. Of all the game developers who made fighting games, SNK had the most acclaim after Capcom. The developer had released a collection of fighting games for its Neo Geo arcade system/home console, among them were Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting. These two games enjoyed a deep storyline and an interesting cast of characters who were every bit as memorable as Capcom’s fighters. In 1994 however, they would release something that had never before been seen in gaming, the King Of Fighters.
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