Cheap Cheevos #6 - Tournament Edition

The humble fighting game. The cure for us people that want to beat up our annoying co-workers, the evil authority, and clowns, without wanting to go to jail or sentenced to death by hanging. The fighting game genre is also what keeps us insano crazies relaxed. Okay, it's also a pretty fun gaming genre in it's own right. If you love this genre, this action packed issue is right up your Fighting Street. This week we dedicate Cheap Cheevos to fighting games. Guess what? There are some pretty high profile series in this list and maybe a dodge game that no one has heard of included as well. It's one of my favorite genres and I am proud to present you these five fighters with easy to unlock achievements/trophies. (Click on "Read More" to read the full article).

Bleach: Heat the Soul (Playstation Portable) (Retro Achievements) (OUTDATED)

Retro Achievement set: https://retroachievements.org/game/18088

The Playstation Portable was an excellent, excellent, excellent evolution in the handheld gaming scene. While the Nintendo DS was a great step in the right direction. The PSP went the next step and offered us console quality games on the go. Bleach: Heat the Soul was a good example of this back in the day. It looked and played just liked a 3D anime fighter that you would've seen in games such as Dragonball Z: Budokai and Naruto: Clash of Ninja.

While it is a fun game, it's also incredibly simple and basic. The fighting consists of X for a basic attack, O for a special attack, /\ is to jump (/\ is the triangle button), while [ ] is to create a wall of spiritual energy that will stun your opponent (yup, [ ] is the square button). Pressing [ ] + X will activate a super special move. You do have a special meter and the more full it is, the more powerful your spiritual energy and super moves are.

Character selection is very small. You have five standard characters and a special unlockable sixth character. It's not much, but it is enough. Each character does play differently to which is a plus. You'd be amazed at how many fighters out there have characters that share the same move-sets but have different character models.

The modes are also incredibly basic with modes such as Story, VS, Time Attack, Survival. A unique mode this game has is that it has a Bleach themed version of Breakout. This is one of the many unlockables that can be obtained by collecting Bleach trading cards. You do remember the Bleach TCG right? Me neither, but it's here in digitized form. They are cool to see, but you can't play with them. 

Completing modes will earn you special points which you can spend to unlock the cards. You'll have to do this a lot if you want to unlock modes, characters, and to get all of the achievements. Yeah, enough about how this game plays. Let's get down to huntin' some retro cheevos.

As soon as you turn on the game. Do not. I REPEAT! Do not skip the opening movie. You'll be rewarded with one for watching it. After that, you'll be faced with a ton of very standard achievements that will unlock for beating story and time attack modes with each character. This is super easy as if you press [ ] after every combo, you'll stun lock your opponent. Keep on doing this and this task will be quickly defeated.

You're going to need to remember your cheap combos as you'll be using them quite a bit. Why? You'll need the special points so you can collect all of the cards. ALL OF THE CARDS! It's not difficult, it will take some time though. You could do this in a couple of sessions or one really long one. You'll also need to do this to unlock the secret character and his story mode.  Once you've unlocked those, beat that characters story mode and use him to beat time attack. Now go back to grinding for cards.

Once you've collected all of the cards, go to the movie collection where you'll find a special video called, Radio Kon. Watch this and the final achievement will pop. Congratulations, you've just earned a platinum/master point for a Playstation Portable game. An easy, but super satisfying set to complete.

Overall, I can't really fault this game for being basic. It's an early title for the system after all. Despite all that this is a really neat little fighter that's worth getting if found for cheap. If you want a fighter that's a little deeper, play something else.  

Guilty Gear Petit (Wonderswan Color) (Retro Achievements)

Retro Achievement set: https://retroachievements.org/game/17959

It's Guilty Gear, it's petit and honestly, it's not pretty neat. This is Guilty Gear Petit, a super deformed version of Guilty Gear X for the Bandai Wonderswan Color. Unlike Pocket Fighter, Virtua Kids, or Battle Arena Toshiden Kids, this one doesn't change the characters move sets to fit the theme of the game. I like this as you don't get any of the goofy comedic moves that would get in the way of you kicking butt.  Yes, I'm aware that Pocket Figter also got this right despite being on the comedy side. Virtua Fighter Kids and Battle Arena Toshinden Kids did not.

The only thing comedic/goofy is the artwork itself. You've got big headed, little boded versions of the characters you love. Hell, the reason for this change of art-style is pretty clever.  If you were to take the sprites from the main Guilty Gear games and shrunk them down for a handheld like this, you will lose a lot of the character detail (we'll get back to that topic later on in this article). While this art change does capture a lot of detail that you all love from the characters (minus the huge arse heads).  It's like how SNK handles their fighting games for the Neo Geo Pocket.  They re-designed the sprites to where they were appropriate for the console that they were being made for.

The gameplay though could've been better. You have a good selection of characters with decent move sets, however there's no point in using them. There's no challenge to be found anywhere in this game. You can just smash though the game by using nothing but trapping them at the sides of the screen and just barrage them with heavy attacks. You won't get any new challenge by playing this on maximum difficulty either. The CPU is a complete push-over. The only thing that maximum difficulty adds is that the opponent may attack back. Puny fighting game.

All of these faults is why this game is sooooooooooooooo easy to get all of the achievements. You've got to beat arcade mode with all characters, on the hardest setting, and without losing a match. This sounds a lot harder than what it is. Like as I've said before, the CPU doesn't put up much of a fight and you can just pummel them with heavy attacks.

Second task is to beat time attack mode in under one minute and forty-five seconds with every character. This is the only challenging thing about this game, even so it's not very hard. Just keep on using heavy attacks and bam. However, this method will not work with two characters due to their heavy attacks not being heavy enough. Ky and GG Millia (AKA the secret version of Millia) are the two members of this guilty party. You'll need to use a different method for them.

For Ky, just keep on spamming his hadoken-esk sword fireballs by imputing quarter circle + punch/slash. You may just barely get the time you need, but it's more than effective. For GG Millia, do the exact same thing. It will take a few tries to get the timing, rhythm, and boogie down just right, but it won't take long.

Overall, impressive looking fighter for the Wonderswan, but that's all it is. People looking for strong or even average gameplay are best to look elsewhere. More than petitely guilty. Stick to the Neo Geo Pocket stuff.

SNK Vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium (Steam)

Speak of the Devil, here's one of the good handheld fighters right now. SNK Vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium! Ported to Steam for some unknown reason (although, very thankful for that). This port has a very disappointing, very lazy, and a very easy achievement set for us all to enjoy. But first, the gameplay!

This is your typical fighting game by SNK. Now, now that's not an insult by any means. SNK made some of the smoothest and most fun fighters of all time and very consistently too. To rank this Neo Geo Pocket game with the arcade titles is a huge compliment. That's saying that this isn't your typical handheld fighting game because 99.9% of the time they are terrible. 

Yes, this uses a two button set up as opposed to the four button setups that the SNK arcades would use, however it is handled really well. You won't have any frustrations trying to pull off any moves, nor do you need to do much to get the light and/or heavy attacks to work. It's pretty well optimized.

Character selection is pretty large. You've got characters from Fatal Fury, Street Fighter, Samurai Shodown, Darkstalkers, plus more. They all play just as you'd expect them to, meaning you'll have no problems playing as them in this small two button setup. It's also a really fun game to play as well.

There are three different type of arcade modes. One is the King of Fighters style where you pick a team of three, going around defeating other teams of three. Second is Tag Mode. You pick a team of two and you can swap out between characters during the fight. You won't be able to do that with the three-on-three mode. Lastly, you've got one-on-one mode and it plays exactly as it sounds. It's the standard arcade mode.

That's not all folks. There's a special Olympic Games mode where you'll be doing stuff such as: Survival, Sparring, Shooting, Dancing, and going around collecting bags of gold. There's a lot packed into this one little cartridge.

Now, when I said that this is a disappointing, lazy, and easy set, I really did mean that. All you have to do is win a medal in each of the Olympic games, beat all three arcade modes using special custom teams, and unlock all of the characters. It's that simple.

I don't need to give any tips about how to earn medals in the Olympics. Just get a certain score to earn a bronze medal. One thing I will say is that when you start this mode you'll be given the choice to play as Team SNK or Team Capcom. Both teams will have some exclusive mini-games to play. Make sure to go through and play as both teams.

You'd think that you would get an achievement for beating all three arcade modes. Well, you will, but not as the typical teams. First, you'll have to go into Entry Mode and create a special team for each of the arcade modes. Lastly, you'll have to beat all three arcade modes using those special custom teams. 

Unlocking all of the secret characters is going to be a little bit of a grind, but not a hard one. Every time you beat arcade mode and receive the good ending, you'll remove some parts of a picture that appears post-credits. Once all of these parts disappear, a new character will unlock. Now, depending on the difficulty you choose, it can either take a short or a long time to complete. The higher the difficulty that you play, the more quickly the characters will unlock.

Don't worry, you can unlock all of the characters playing on the easy difficulty. I wouldn't recommend playing this on the novice setting. Sure, you'll unlock some characters, but they'll stop unlocking with this difficulty at some point. In order to get the good ending you'll have to defeat Evil Ryu or Ororchi Iori as the final boss. In order to unlock this fight you'll have to defeat your rival whom appears in the middle of the game. You won't have to worry about losing while playing on easy though. The computer doesn't put up much of a fight and you'll more than likely beat this game without using any continues.

If you are after a bigger challenge with the achievements for this game, I have some awesome news for you. The Steam version comes with the rom of this game officially as a bonus. Using this rom with RetroArch or RALibRetro will give you access to a special second, more harder achievement set. Yup, this game has RetroAchievements, baby. You can check out that set here: https://retroachievements.org/game/10236

Even if you aren't a fellow trophy/achievement hunter, I recommend playing this game. It has got all of the fun from a full-sized arcade cabinet, but shrunken down to fit into your greasy hands... Unless you are playing this port. That way you'll be playing this via computer. It may have been a shame that the Neo Geo Pocket wasn't as big as it should've been, but thank goodness that we have re-releases of some of these hidden gems (I'm not paying that much more popular Weird Al look-a-like to use the term, "hidden gems" by the way).

Guilty Gear X Advanced Edition (Game Boy Advance) (Retro Achievements)

Retro Achievement Set: https://retroachievements.org/game/6209

From a weak super deformed handheld version for the Wonderswan to a weak serious version for the Game Boy Advance. This is Guilty Gear X Advance Edition. If you think that this is going to be a pocket sized version of the fast-paced arcade classic, you'd be correct. The high impact action is here, the quick gameplay is here. Heck, even the proper control layout is here.

Sadly, there had to be some sacrifices made in order to get this ported to the GBA. First of all, the graphics take a huge hit. The lively backgrounds have been resorted to being lifeless still images with a lot of details removed. The sprites are nearly a one to one conversion from the arcade, nearly. They have not only been re-sized, most of the characters are missing their faces! This doesn't look too bad on a small screen, but when playing this on a larger one, it's super distracting.

Music is the next to be changed. Thankfully, what you get is a pretty sweet 16-bit rendition of the original soundtrack. It won't sound as good as the arcade, but it does keep some of the powerful hard rock that the arcade version contains. 

What kills the game for me isn't the graphics, nor the controls. Nah, mates, the thing that kills this game for me is the challenge. The CPU refuses to put up a single fight. Even on the highest difficulty you'll find the opponents to be complete pushovers. Much like Guilty Gear Petit, you'll have the opponent stuck in the corner while you hammer them with heavy attacks. It's pitiful, it's pathetic, it's perfect for this list.

Most of the achievements require you beating arcade mode with every version of every character. There are sixteen characters and each have three different versions. Normal, Extra, and GG. Each option gives you a modified move-set. To be honest, a lot of the changes aren't noticeable. Extra and GG versions also have to be unlocked. 

Normally, you'll have to unlock the Extra and GG move-sets by fighting a special version of a character while in Survival Mode. An annoying quest for sure, but there's an easier way. While you are on the title screen (the screen that says "press start") press the following: Right, Down, Left, Right Shoulder Button, Right Shoulder Button. That will unlock all of the Extra Mode sets. To unlock all of the GG sets, use this code on the same title screen: Left, Down, Right, Left Shoulder Button, Left Shoulder Button. You'll hear a special sound if you have inputted the code correctly. 

The two boss characters also need to be unlocked. You can just do that by beating arcade mode. Make sure that your first arcade run is by beating it on the hardest difficulty. It's no more difficult than playing it on any other setting. Just hammer your opponent with heavy attacks. You should also get the achievement for having a score of one-million points along the way.

You won't be able to get the achievement for having a score of two-million points by playing arcade mode.  Well, unless you are really, really good at this game. Instead, play Survival Mode. You won't see your score pop-up over your name, but rest assured, it is there. Just keep playing this until you've unlocked the achievement.

Last of the cheevos are combo based. Getting a combo consisting of 10, 15, and 20 hits to be exact. This is the only challenge to be found in the game. You can gain all of these by just going into Training Mode and experiment with some combos. I unlocked them by using the GG move set version of Sol Badguy. I just kept on using supers while using the special cancel moves. Aim for getting the twenty hit combo. The other two achievements will unlock during this huge combo.

Overall, could've been a great version of Guilty Gear X to have on the go. If you are curious to see a GBA port of Guilty Gear X, be my guest and check this out. You won't be getting any fun out of it though. 

Fight Angel - Special Edition (Steam)

Last, but not least comes a sexy all-female one on one boob 'em up called Fight Angel - Special Edition. If you've played one modern fighting game then you'll already know how to play this. This system is as standard as they come. Light and heavy attacks, special bars and special moves. This doesn't offer anything much new to the table. It uses the T&A heavy cast to distract you from all that and it does an excellent, excellent, excellent job at it.

All of the women are tall and bouncy as you'd expect from a game like this. You'll be able to knock each others clothes off to see more skin. This game does go one step beyond that. This game includes a character creator option to where you can make your ultimate babe. More than what Weird Science could ever pull off. Full of sexy costumes and body morph options, you'll have a ball or two with this. You can even make your characters fully naked. No clever censorship. You'll see the whole shebang! You can give your characters all of that wap, so you can fap until you go bap.

Other than that you'll have some pretty bad load times, weird and clippy animations, and a godawful soundtrack. Seeing as this is a "Special Edition" you will get something special.  Scratch that, you won't. All of the really good costumes are all locked under paid for DLC. You are just really getting a standard game. 

This achievement set is about as shameless as the game itself. First of all, make yourself a custom character. You can make her look tasteful, or you can make her look like a bimbo. It doesn't bother me, just make sure you complete this step first. Next, complete all of the tutorials. After that, beat arcade mode with your custom character. You'll unlock a bunch of cheevos from doing this. Scoring a perfect victory along the way will earn you another one.

Next, play one match of Local Verses Mode. Final step is to play Story Mode until you've unlocked the last cheevo. That's it. A lot of plot (a lot of boob too), a lot of character, and a whole bunch of easy achievements. Overall, you'll only be playing this for the T&A... Triumphing and achievements. Woo!

Q&A

Now enough of the fighting. Let's get to the Q&A. This week my secret P.O. Box is located inside of a well groomed elderly person named Max.

A Tap Dancing Frog asks: Shouldn't you have saved Fight Angel for the second adults only edition of Cheap Cheevos? Kids could be reading your gross words... I mean. I like your gross words, but the kids may not. Oh, who the hell am I kidding? Kids would laugh for miles at the words,"Boob 'em up"... Hang on a second? That would imply that you think that beat 'em ups and fighting games are the same thing! Nah, I'm just assuming that you think that, so I'll just ask you this. Do you think that beat 'em ups and fighting games are the same thing?

I dance back: Nope. Only a fool would think that. Sure, you fight in beat 'em ups. You also beat them up in fighting games. However, they are not the same genre! Beat 'em ups are scrolling games where you go through enemy ridden stages. Fighting games have you fight one-on-one or sometimes two-on two (or more) in something the represents a more sporty style such as karate, sumo, or wrestling. Beat 'em ups are more like Die Hard style action movies.

Although, there are actually some fighting games that play in the style of beat 'em ups. Pit Fighter and Street Smarts are two games that are just that. They play like crap though. That's why we don't make those kinds of fighters anymore. Unless you're some hip, trendy, s#!t stirring indie dev that has an FTW (F__k the World) mentality that only does that because they are K*taku levels of desperate for attention. 

Some Old Guy grumps at me: I know you've been asked this before, but I just have to ask. Are you sure that you're not just ripping off Strong Bad's E-Mails?

I grump back: No. This style of humor has been around longer than that funny show. Look at Space Ghost Coast to Coast, The Simpsons, and even The Goodies. All of them have done the crazy letter gag. It's easy, it works, now bend over and beg daddy for forgiveness!

Fjord D. Mann Asks: When will the third question return to the Q&A?

I nervously whimper: I don't know.