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MFFA Monthly Judgment - January 2019


RicePigeon

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Welcome to the first edition of MFFA Monthly Judgment. This is where, every month, we gather a team of members of the community to give their thoughts on some of the month's hottest releases. Each judge will collectively agree to a set of characters released or updated during that month, which the entire panel will judge based on 2 main areas: Presentation and Functionality.

 

Each score is then tallied into a total, which will receive a letter grade based on the following criteria:

S:  95%~100%

A: 85%~94%

B: 70%~84%

C: 50%~69%

F: <50%

 

For the first installment of Monthly Judgment, we asked @Nep Heart, @PlasmoidThunder, and @Mister Fael for their opinions on some of January 2019's releases.

 

Click any of the following to jump right to the reviews:

 

 

 

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First up is an unlikely contender: Peppa Pig by KadirV

 


Nep Heart's Judgment

 

Presentation:

A few minutes of research will tell you that Peppa Pig's origins is from a Western children's cartoon literature series. At first, you'd be alarmed by this notion when taking the reputation of these kind of characters in MUGEN history, but we have a complete subversion here. Peppa actually looks quite polished with a sprite style that perfectly fits the looks and sounds that you would expect from a children's cartoon character. All are very simplistic and goofy that blends together a cutesy charm as higher quality graphical effects and realistic or action packed sounds would subtract from the character as they would look very off on someone simplistic looking as like Peppa, so, kudos on the author with keeping the aesthetics on the same level of the character... sometimes, high-end quality aesthetics don't work on some characters and the author seems to understand that.  You know when they say simple is better? Well, this is the perfect example in MUGEN. Presentation score: 4/5

 

Functionality:

To continue emphasizing an actually good Western toon being converted into MUGEN, it seems the author has a decent grasp on fighting game concepts when he designed Peppa in mind. From first impression, KadirV took some inspiration from the Marvel vs Capcom series, but the gameplay is otherwise custom and much more streamlined to be minimized. The author also took some balancing measures into consideration as Peppa sports below average life to offset her above average damage output and ability to play a sort of "jack of all trades" style. Some small downsides do exist when factoring that Peppa relies on some default MUGEN graphical and sound attributes as well as limited attack-cancel-on-hit options that can hold back Peppa's hit confirm capabilities. You can tell KadirV wanted to play a favorite character not from a fighting game in fighting game format as opposed to converting a character in MUGEN merely for the sake of it that plagues many Western cartoon characters in MUGEN. What impresses me more is that this the author is pretty young for a MUGEN character creator and he still managed to nail it pretty solidly on the first go. Goes to show that anyone with enough will and understanding can give us good things for an otherwise aging engine. Kudos to you, KadirV. Functionality score: 8.5/10

 

Judge's notes:

Just simply polish her attack cancels and include an informative read me so that it would be easier to figure her out.

 


Mister Fael's Judgment

 

Presentation:

Out of the four, this one I was the more skeptical of before testing because...well, it's a cartoon character. There's no need for words about how negative the stigma is when it comes to cartoon characters in mugen. Anyway, spritewise, Peppa looks exactly like she does in the show (granted it's a simplistic of an artstyle, but I'm counting it as a positive.), some of the sounds are rather cute to listen to. Presentation score: 5/5

 

Functionality:

Peppa Pig's gameplay uses Marvel VS Capcom system, being 6-buttons instead of four. While the normals flows well with each other, I wasn't able to chain them with specials and supers unfortunately. It's the guy's first character so I won't be too harsh on him, slip ups can happen. Haven't found any bugs...like at all. (Not even debug errors. Either he was lucky on not getting them or he was attentive enough to spot them. Either way, it's a plus.) One more thing...I feel like her hitboxes are rather minuscule, which means her players might have trouble getting close. Functionality score: 7.5/10

 

Judge's notes:

 Gameplay-wise, improve the size of her attacks a bit and give her some more tools to help her get close to the opponent. I can see a lot of potential in her. 

 


PlasmoidThunder's Judgment

 

It's no secret that cartoon characters carry a bit of a stigma in the M.U.G.E.N community, with the likes of Derrick D. Rowell's characters, Warner's stuff, Team SMRT's Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin, and anything WlanmaniaX puts out being what most people think of; thing is, they're not typically held in high regard past nostalgia and generally set the standard for what most people expect from these sorts of things... And yet, KadirV's Peppa Pig, a character originating from the children's cartoon of the same name, has been making waves lately. Could it be that against all odds, this character isn't actually half-bad?

 

Presentation:

While I can't say I've ever watched the cartoon myself, I've seen enough of Peppa in advertisements and the videos of a certain Irish YouTuber to tell that KadirV has put great effort into making sure this character is as visually accurate to the source media as possible, to the point where it's almost as if the graphics were ripped from official material. Peppa is as colourful and simplistic as the cartoon itself, never feeling the need to go overboard on sounds and effects, instead resulting in a character that is easy on the eyes but not devoid of charm, though what lets it down is that this aesthetic isn't entirely consistent across the board, as it disappointingly uses system effects for hitsparks and the like instead of its own; had this not been the case, I don't think I could've faulted it at all.  Presentation score: 4/5

 

Functionality:

Peppa is a six-button character that attempts a pseudo-MvC style of sorts with its zig-zag Normal chaining, launchers, and air combos, which is fair enough and usually a go-to system for this sort of character, but that's really where the functional similarities end as none of the other system mechanics are present; there's unfortunately nothing else in their place outside of a forward dodge and EX Specials, so the character comes across as a bit lacking in my eyes. Given that the character's sprites are original, it's rather disappointing that her heavy Normals are identical to each other across all statetypes, with her crouching and standing heavies all functioning as a launcher instead of at least one of them being a trip, though j.5Z/j.5C being an OTG instant overhead is definitely something.

 

Owing to the fact that she's a child, Peppa is understandably on the smaller scale but fortunately doesn't fall into the trap of being too small for the sake of accuracy, instead reaching to just about over half a Kung Fu Man and can thankfully be hit by the majority of standing Normals; however, her large head and tiny limbs result in a large amount of stubby Normals that make it difficult for the character to hit the opponent, which has negatively influenced the way her combos work by effectively giving her attacks minimal knockback just so they can connect properly in a chain, which some may know as 'Brazilian combos' for reasons I won't get into. On the subject of combos, she can't cancel into Specials or Hypers; I don't know if this is intentional or not, but it certainly doesn't help shift my opinion of how lacking the character feels.

 

In terms of her moveset, Peppa does much of what you'd expect an anthropomorphic pig child to do (throw a football, splash in some mud, call in her younger brother to terrorise the opponent for all eternity, etc.), though fortunately they don't feel like filler moves that exist solely to reference the source material, not that there's many moves at her disposal to begin with mind you. The football is a reasonably fast bouncing projectile that murders any and all Helper-type projectiles in its path without going away, though it does have a fixed travel distance and its hitbox doesn't always match the position of the graphic, but in general it's a good move to use to compensate for the character's lack of range. Muddy Attack is a quick (albeit short-ranged) move that appears to leave the opponent in extended hitstun, though this—in combination with the fact that the attack applies no knockback whatsoever—results in the B version becoming an infinite if timed properly. Call George is an attack I hold issue with, as it has Peppa summon a demonic apparition that hastily stalks the opponent and attacks them over and over again, only going away once he's hit, but then that causes him to attack the opponent one final time with a large shower of tears; for 2000 Power, it's pretty busted.

  

There's potential here, and while what we've currently got isn't exactly bad, it's not particularly interesting either. Functionality score: 5/10

 

Judge's notes:

 So to answer the original question while echoing the above, it's not necessarily a bad character, as the few moves she has still hold some utility, but the character just doesn't feel very fun or interesting to play and is really held back by the lack of things she can do. On the other hand, addressing these shortcomings and fixing some of the more questionable aspects of the character (instant overhead j.5Z/j.5C and Call George, for instance) could result in something that far surpasses the standard we've come to expect from cartoon characters.

 


Final Scores

Presentation: 13/15 - A

Functionality: 21/30 - B

 

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Next up is: Kirito by Sennou-Room

 


Nep Heart's Judgment

 

Presentation:

As a competently designed PotS inspired, Sennou-Room went all the way with trying his very best in emulating the original author's aesthetics from the crisp hi-res effects to the clear sounds that are all carefully timed and placed. Furthermore, the beauty of this style actually meshes extremely well with Kirito's highly detailed and eye-stunning sprite style derived from DBFC. So, when it comes to aesthetics as a whole, Sennou-Room knows exactly what he's doing and makes sure everything fits neatly. We may be tired of the carbon copy homogeneity of the PotS style that has been rehashed to death, but whenever it's done competently, it's always a sight to behold.  Presentation score: 5/5

 

Functionality:

As with all of Sennou-Room's creations, Kirito was made with care to iron out as many glaring flaws as possible all while making him accessible to both inexperienced and elite players alike. His gameplay is fluid and straight-to-the point in thanks to Kirito's chain combos that can be extended with supers/ex moves and end with supers that can cancel into each other to an extent, accessible command scheme as well as nothing too complicated to grasp in his overall kit that seems geared towards rush down gameplay. To top it all off, Sennou-Room went the extra mile to give Kirito an alternative mode known as "Ex" on top of his "Normal" mode that can be chosen between each other at the start of a match, giving Kirito greater depth in his replayability. Kirito, like all of Sennou's characters, is a very solid PotS inspired creation that we rarely get nowadays.

 

 However, it would be naive to write this character off as flawless, too, as Kirito shares some of the same issues that Sennou-Room's characters normally possess.

 

 First off, while he does have his own quirks that distinguish him, Kirito's gameplay is a bit monotonous when you consider virtually all of Sennou-Room's characters practically have the same combo routes to the point that all of them can do the same combo variations that barely separate them from each other in this regard. While this benefits in making Kirito familiar enough to pick up right away for anyone who has played this author's characters, this also comes with the side effect of becoming stale after a while. To further compound this issue, Sennou-Room also has a habit of not utilizing the concept of Ex Specials to their full potential as they rarely seem to have an extra bonus attached to them beyond increased damage and priority, barely giving incentive to use them over Kirito's supers as far as meter management goes. In essence, a lot of Sennou's stuff can feel very same-ish... however, these negatives should not detract from the fact that Kirito is otherwise still a very strong contender for fun in the gameplay department as long as you consider him on his own merits. Functionality score: 7.5/10

 

Judge's notes:

Kirito's gameplay could use more differences to stand out better from Sennou-Room's stuff as well as make his Ex Specials have far more interesting benefits to encourage their use.

 


Mister Fael's Judgment

 

Presentation:

No negatives here. Sennou got his animations and hitboxes right, both sound and graphic effects are on point (I'll admit that I can see why people likes using pots graphics.) and there's no bugs at all. (Unless someone somewhere did some super specific shit to find a bug but eh...) Presentation score: 5/5

 

Functionality:

(Note: This is with Chain and Air Combos turned ON in the config.) Much like Sennou's Ex-Yuuki, This is basically a version of Kirito being reimagined as shoto, having several specials and supers exclusive to that mode. Unlike Ex-Yuuki however, his 214 LP/MP/HP (Yeah, I got used to keyboard notation instead of direction inputs.) is an overhead move which travels different ranges depending of the button pressed, giving him a mix-up option he didn't have in his normal mode. Most of his specials and super are unsafe on block, which I'm fine with. Overall, he plays well and he's a nice pick if you enjoy simple zig-zag chain combos.

 

However, if you're searching for something more complex, this maybe isn't for you. The EX Moves of Sennou's chars doesn't have much in terms of extra properties. The EX Version of 214 P while it travels full-screen (granted you're not using zoom.) doesn't have anythingelse, and it feels like a waste using it on a combo where you can just use the meter to chain three lv1 supers. Counter hits also feels like they are just there, they don't grant any sort of bonus for punishing the opponent. Functionality score: 8/10

 

Judge's notes:

 I know this is easier said than done, but again, Sennou needs to be a bit more creative with the EX-Moves. 

 


PlasmoidThunder's Judgment

 

Sword Art Online is something I know very little about, but I've heard plenty of...interesting things about it to say the list. Regardless, here we have Kirito by Sennou-Room, though I'll be reviewing the EX Mode as it was added last month in one of the creator's big sweeping updates.

 

Presentation:

Kirito uses sprites from Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax that have been lovingly crafted by the folks at French Bread; of course, I can't give points for the prettiness of the sprites since they're not custom, but the lack of outlines means he doesn't scale too badly at lower resolutions compared to the likes of BlazBlue characters, which is always nice. Right off the bat, you're greeted with a Palette Selector that lets you select from Kirito's reasonable handful of alt colours, followed by a Mode Selector with the options of Normal Mode and EX Mode (the one we're interested in today). Visually, the GUI for the selectors certainly gets the job done, but I feel the two could've been merged into one to speed the selection process up a bit by tying the Mode Select to up/down and leaving the Palette Select as left/right; additionally, the speed at which you can tap a direction could do with being sped up since it takes a little while to cycle through his palettes.

 

Everywhere else, Kirito certainly hits the mark in terms of maintaining a pleasing level of flashiness without going into excess, making great use of sound effects and visual effects to really give a sense of impact to everything he does. Even if it's probably something he does in Fighting Climax, it's still pretty cool that his idle stance changes after using moves that involve both swords; just little things like that bring a smile to my face.  Presentation score: 4/5

 

Functionality:

Sennou-Room's stuff is described as 'Infinite style', which is basically six-button Capcom vs. SNK 2 EX Groove with Marvel vs. Capcom cancel logic (or MvC PotS if you prefer), but I've tried Infinite's stuff before and Kirito feels a lot more solid in his execution. What caught me off-guard is that despite being a character from an 'anime fighter' (excuse my profanity), Kirito's hitboxes aren't excessively large and the priority on his attacks isn't very high at all—despite wielding a sword—which means normal characters can actually trade or beat him out instead of just getting stuffed for all eternity because they weren't graced with being developed by ArcSys or French Bread/Ecole, which is nice.

 

In general, Kirito is a pretty quick fellow with decent range thanks to his sword(s), exhibiting the ability to really lock the opponent down should he get in, but then he's going to need to keep doing that since he's damage isn't anything special. His toolkit works well to give him a variety of options and the ability to keep the pressure up on the opponent, with his Vertical Special granting him a decent amount of projectile invulnerability while he charges forwards to slash the opponent. I really can't think of any way Kirito could be better, as he's pretty fun to play as and his combos feel satisfying to perform, and as Yuzuriha once said in Under Night, "Fighting games are all about using cool moves to win!". Functionality score: 10/10

 

Judge's notes:

Kirito certainly comes across as an incredibly solid character with both modes offering something different to the player, even if the EX Mode was the point of interest for the sake of this review. Sennou-Room has really done well to create something that's fun to play as and well-designed, with the only real issue being more of a nitpick from me to be honest, but I'm nitpicky about graphics so that's to be expected.

 


Final Scores

Presentation: 14/15 - S

Functionality: 25.5/30 - A

 

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Third character in line is: Yuuki Terumi by OHMSBY

 


Nep Heart's Judgment

 

Presentation:

OHMSBY is back with another to add to his surprisingly extensive collection accumulated in less than a year and he keeps his unwritten promise to give his characters a Guilty Gear inspired flare to the many characters of his choice. This means you'll expect the hi-res graphics as well as many of the crunch sound effects of said fighting game series' older entries with the added bonus of character coded color schemes and Terumi receives a toxic green palette for many of his graphics befitting of the character's venomous nature. Of course, this extends right down to the character's animations themselves as BlazBlue's renown sprite style is always excellent when scaled down to the correct ratio. The biggest strike against this character is the large file size, but this is inevitable when very high quality sprites are utilized to retain consistent aesthetics no matter how much the author tries his very best to optimize. The animations fluctuate in flow, going from gracefully slow to haphazardly fast that they can kinda throw you off, but it isn't overwhelmingly noticeable in gameplay thankfully as it would only be something you catch if paying attention too hard... they're pretty passable at least. The other weakness that is noticeable, however is a lot of usage of MUGEN's default sounds and graphics for stuff like hitfalls and hitsparks, so, it keeps Terumi from reaching a 100% score in presentation here.  Presentation score: 4.5/5

 

Functionality:

Being an OHMBY series character, Terumi is surprisingly more complex to master compared to the author's previous works as the player requires to have a good understanding of his frame data as well as optimal combos, blockstrings, meter management and cancels to play his highly aggressive close-quarters playstyle properly. While is still accessible to inexperienced characters, Terumi is nonetheless the type who requires a bit of dedication to truly enjoy his potential. That's not necessarily a bad thing as this helps make Terumi more distinct from the rest of the OHMSBY cast and some people do enjoy higher execution characters by the standards of this custom game mechanic.

 Terumi is also more distinct compared to OHMSBY's earlier characters from the fact this is the author's first attempt at custom AI. Usually, I tend to purposely overlook this trait since I don't consider it priority when it comes to a solid character release, but this case does stand out a bit. While a decent challenge for competent players, he can be a little overwhelming for inexperienced players as the AI has a basic grasp of his own capabilities. He's extremely susceptible to anti-air tactics and overextends periodically, diminishing his challenge level against highly perceptive players. Not a bad first attempt otherwise and it does help expand on replayability factor at least. Functionality score: 8/10

 

Judge's notes:

AI could be polished a little bit more, but otherwise, not bad for a first attempt as aforementioned. Also, the counter hit mechanic should have a purpose beyond aesthetics such as bonus damage, increased hitstun, etc.

 


Mister Fael's Judgment

 

Presentation:

I actually had the opportunity to beta-test Terumi. While I did find some stuff that he fixed before the official release, this char shows how much he improved as a creator. Right now, Terumi isn't in Cross Tag proper (yet, only time will tell.) Although, this is a nice what-if idea on what if he really was there. I'll just be a shill and give it Presentation score: 5/5

 

Functionality:

Terumi uses a Custom Cross Tag gameplay with elements took from other Arc Sys games. Them being Roman/Rapid Cancels which compensates for a lack of a tag-parter, meaning you can extend your combos as well as use meter to save yourself from a misplaced unsafe. There's also the running attacks from Under Night In-Birth, each with their own properties. Dodges from Persona 4 Arena and throws based more on Guilty Gear (which might be a throw-off from some people since they can't be rejected unlike other Arc Sys games.)

 

His attack buttons works like autocombos (no, not like Stylish combos from Blazblue.) which again, might not be everyone's cup of tea, but Cross Tag was built with console players in mind instead of arcade ones, as a result, the difficulty curve was severely toned down to accommodate. But oh well, what is here works well. I would mention that the hitpauses also aren't acurrate to the game, but it's not something that gets in the way. Functionality score: 9/10

 

Judge's notes:

Well, nothing else to say really. I do feel like the animation of his astral goes off too fast, but eh...

 


PlasmoidThunder's Judgment

 

So of the four characters I've reviewed, this was my personal pick since I know who this guy is and have plenty of experience with the game the creator has based him on. That said, I've yet to actually sit down with one of OHMSBY's characters outside of Mika, so this is a better opportunity than any to properly experience what people have been praising all this time.

 

Presentation:

Being a BlazBlue character, one thing I was expecting was a lot of flashiness and effects that take up half the screen... Well, maybe not that extreme, but what we have here is something on almost the exact opposite of the scale that feels really empty, using the default system effects which in my case are quite dull; obviously your mileage may vary, but not having a standardised set of hitsparks and all that for me at least means that Terumi's hits lack visual impact and don't feel overly satisfying to land. The sound direction is all over the place, using audio of varying quality and compression from the likes of Smash 64, Guilty Gear, and other sources, though I can't fault the way OHMSBY has used the audio, with even little things like Terumi's run animation featuring a grating sound effect as he runs his knife along the ground, complete with a little dust trail.  Presentation score: 3/5

 

Functionality:

Given that OHMSBY has chosen to take an existing character with an established moveset and adapt it into the simplified style of Cross Tag, even if said character isn't in that game (yet), there's at least something established to work with here and it's interesting to see just how the creator went about doing it. For those that aren't aware, OHMSBY's gameplay style is best described as a modified version of Cross Tag that still features the Smart Combo system which involves mashing the A and B for autocombos, but incorporates mechanics such as Air Dodging, Burst, and Roman Cancels that aren't present in Cross Tag to add an extra layer of depth to the character while not bogging it down with unnecessary systems.

 

So just how has OHMSBY worked Terumi's moveset into this simplified form? Well, I'll be honest and admit Terumi isn't one of the characters I've ever played in BlazBlue so I couldn't give you an experienced rundown of the whole thing, but one aspect I can't say I'm particularly fond of is that there's no real consistency to the Specials outside of those that are activated with C use Power; why is it that some Specials have three versions, while others only have two or even just one, leaving the other button(s) unused? While this is shown off in the included movelist image, it just doesn't come across as coherent to me; if a Special doesn't occupy all three buttons in Cross Tag, the other button(s) would activate a different Special instead of nothing at all. For the moveset itself though, it gives Terumi a decent array of options to make use it and grind the opponent into dust, with Snake Bite being a very quick approach option that covers a great distance, Rising Fang/Twin Blades being an excellent reversal and anti-air, and Retaliating Fang acting as a strong command grab that can be used to extend combos; there's something to be said about the combos this guy can pull off, that's for sure, though his ability to jump cancel grounded Normals doesn't really come about since nothing pops the opponent up outside of 5AAA, which doesn't lead to anything that impressive anyway. I think it goes without saying that some of Terumi's attacks are a bit silly in regards to their range and/or priority, with both his 5A and j.5A having genuinely ridiculous amounts of both on top of the ability to destroy projectiles.

 

What we have here then is a character that has some incredibly strong options at his disposal that allow him to do a number of crazy things (for better or worse), but a combo game that's effectively stuck to the ground despite the nature of the source material and the system this character is based on, which I feel limits the fun factor of the character somewhat. Functionality score: 7/10

 

Judge's notes:

 I don't know if it was the best idea to stick Terumi's Drives on his B Normals as they're too good with their high priority, range, and projectile-nullification properties, but I can see the issue with not having them be at the start of a Smart Combo. If we go with the notion that an official interpretation of Terumi makes use of his Drives in the same manner, I have my doubts that they'd be as ridiculous as they are here; on that subject, if Terumi finds his way into Cross Tag, it'll definitely be interesting to compare the two.

 


Final Scores

Presentation: 12.5/15 - A

Functionality: 24/30 - B

 

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Last, but not least, we have: Steel by Mr. Giang

 


Nep Heart's Judgment

 

Presentation:

Utilizing the many resources available in Steel and adding some of his own aesthetic ideas of choice, the editor of this character managed to still distinguish him from the original in attempt to do that; give the character his own flare. It's quite a decent and competent job as it assures those who download this character that its look will be as different as how his gameplay was retooled. Everything is placed and timed neatly, not to mention the explosions have a really crispy effect. Mr. Giang also wanted to emphasize that Steel is a man in power armored and, so, he made it so that many of his movements have a lot of weight and solidity behind them as the sounds will indicate.  Sadly, he does still rely on some of MUGEN's default aesthetics, but they're not massive takeaways from what Steel offers in sounds and looks.  Presentation score: 4/5

 

Functionality:

Steel is actually the most difficult to use of all the characters being reviewed here who was clearly designed for players with extensive experience and understanding of the character, making him not very friendly for beginners. This can make Steel limited in accessibility as he requires precision and dedication to make the most of his skill set, potentially turning off those who simply want to get into a character. However, that is not the say one cannot have fun with this character, far from it as it is also made apparent that Mr. Giang wanted to give his character enough depth for anyone willing to put time into Steel to truly think while taking the genius engineer for a test drive and appreciate his incredibly high replay value. Although I haven't mastered this character, a few days of putting practice has proven to me that Steel is actually very effective in battle thanks to his above average health combined with surprisingly good mobility and will deal some fairly nice damage if you can get his rather advanced combos down.

 

 If you thought that wasn't enough, what makes Steel really stand out is his built in UNO Tag system compatibility that only further bolsters his immense replayability. When paired with certain characters he is compatible with, this armored hero will make a normally frustrating mode to play much funner than usual as a tag system is a far more sound idea than MUGEN's shoddy attempt at simul mode. Steel even gain access to some new stuff through this mode that will give you an arcade fighting game-esque experience that is both chaotic, yet well-thought out.

 

Basically, you'll feel confused at first when picking him up, but really sticking to the character can be very satisfying.  here is one big issue that hurts Steel that really does factor into gameplay if you value your frame rate in that he suffers from quite a bit of debug most likely attributed to the complexity of his tag system, however, the author admitted he's still trying to find a way around this problem, so, I'll take his word for it. Functionality score: 8.5/10

 

Judge's notes:

His read me is insufficiently informative, which is also a problem when taking his complexity into consideration even if the editor includes a moveset list and description of mechanics in Steel's release video and threads. 

 


Mister Fael's Judgment

 

Presentation:

I'll confess that I wasn't much a fan of Giang's stuff in his early days. (Wasn't really a fan of his Doctor Strange.) This pretty much shows how much he has improved over time. This edit is a massive improvement over the original version. So yeah, no oddities as far as I can tell so I guess it's max score for presentation. Presentation score: 5/5

 

Functionality:

Steel gameplay is based on the Marvel VS Capcom series, as usual for Comic Book characters in mugen. As I said before, this edit massively improved over the original with bug fixes, CLSN adjustments as well as frame data changes and even aditions of new moves. Whether you prefer 6-buttons over 4, I still recommend giving this Steel a try, since he has very fluid and fair gameplay and is a great exception to the "Comic book chars in mugen are always bad" stigma. Oh right, he also has a built-in tag mechanic for simul mode, though I didn't feel like testing it, There won't any effects the score. Functionality score: 9/10

 

Judge's notes:

Sometimes, It did feel like his Y attack whiffed during a combo. His launcher is a bit odd, once you press up to jump after the foe, Steel then starts flying after he reaches a certain height. Since Steel can already use Flight mode with any attack button+a, maybe keep the normal way of using launcher without triggering the flight mode. Also, have a more detailed readme, cause I'm sure not everyone is going to remember to check the video on his thread for the moves.

 


PlasmoidThunder's Judgment

 

I'll be honest, I had no idea who Steel was prior to composing this review outside of figuring he was involved with Superman somehow, which it seems he is. Created by Mr. Giang, this caped colossus is a reworking of Bizarro_Toro's version, which seems to be Mr. Giang's thing; by the sounds of it, he's been doing pretty well so far, so let's see if Steel continues this trend. For the purpose of this review, I did download the original just to compare the two.

 

Presentation:

Comic book characters that don't originate from any of the official video games tend to have a bit of a reputation for being obvious headswaps or edits of characters that do, complete with dropped frames and awkward frankenspriting, but what we have here is something that's at the very least quite passable; I can't really give Mr. Giang any flak or credit here since he's only using what's available, but what he did use seems decent enough, even if it's not up to the standard of those official sprites. While Mr. Giang hasn't changed too much visually in comparison to the original version, he has helped give Steel a more weighted feel by making great use of EnvShake, hitpause, and clunky metal landing sounds to really sell this character, and it's things like this that honestly do make a difference in my opinion; what would've been nice is if the jets didn't disappear when attacking during Flight Mode, as it looks a bit weird.  Presentation score: 4/5

 

Functionality:

It's well-known that I'm a fan of three-button characters and I'm a fan of charge characters because I have low IQ, so naturally someone like Steel—who just so happens to be both of these things—should be right up my alley, but that's not a surefire way to my heart I'm afraid. But yeah, while he primarily uses three buttons (X/Y/Z), Steel also uses A as a dash shortcut, B to grab, and C as a missile attack of sorts that's usable anywhere and makes for a handy projectile on a character that is otherwise exclusively melee.

 

Steel isn't just a charge character for the sake of it and has been pretty substantially modified from the original so that the charge motions don't feel tacked-on and actually make sense; for instance, the relative sluggishness of his Normals (particularly his 5Z) gives you ample time to buffer in a back charge so you can cancel into AmerTek Charge after a standing chain and go from there, especially since said move is a fantastic combo tool with its followups. Not all of his moveset feels necessary though, with his Flight Mode somewhat working against his charge buffer since he can't simply hold down+back to back charge without moving, though it's likely this move is more for mobility as if Steel wasn't already pretty nimble; additionally, his Fortify move (which has been borrowed verbatim from S.H.A.D.E.s of Manhattan 3's Castle) gives him an additional hit of Super Armour each time it's used, up to a limit of 4, but I have to question why he needs this when he's already really mobile and has plenty of range on his moves.

 

In all, despite some odd choices in the moveset department, he's pretty fun to play as and I imagine he can pull off some really cool combos. He also supports tag, but I'm afraid I didn't feel like setting that up just for this review, so while I haven't experienced everything he has to offer, I certainly enjoyed what there was. Functionality score: 8/10

 

Judge's notes:

 I didn't bring this up above, but his hurtboxes could still do with further tweaking; even though I can tell Mr. Giang has tried to sort most of them out from the horror show that was the original version, there's a lot of hurtbox shifting during animations where they should be stationary. The character could absolutely do with a movelist or some sort of actual ReadMe so people don't go into the character without knowing what he can do and the gist of how he plays.

 


Final Scores

Presentation: 13/15 - A

Functionality: 25.5/30 - A

 

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Neato. The reviews are quite interesting to read and it's really cool to see my Steel get a spot here. Gotta agree that I feel him a bit too powerful, especially with the armor (but it fits him too well, I just simply can't remove it). That being said, I will definitely try to nerf him in other aspects (recovery, damage value,...). Also, Plas did overlook one aspect of my Steel:

On 3/8/2019 at 11:16 PM, Ricepigeon said:

with his Flight Mode somewhat working against his charge buffer since he can't simply hold down+back to back charge without moving

 

This is where his trait shines. His projectile attack can also work as a way to keep him stay still mid-air so he can charge back, which is quite important for his air to ground game.

 

Also:

On 3/8/2019 at 11:16 PM, Ricepigeon said:

His launcher is a bit odd, once you press up to jump after the foe, Steel then starts flying after he reaches a certain height.

 

It was intended so he could perform some Fly Loop in corner. Odd as it is but it's part of his corner combo 😛

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