People used to say the same about KOF 2001.
I actually do like the art style but I have zero interest in playing this stage:
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That kind of stuff was frustrating enough when I was a kid and Battletoads was one of the few games I had for the SNES.
Hah, this sub-stage is pretty easy. The mini-games we have are pretty easy and are more palette cleansers and something other to do than walk right as opposed to being hard as nails Battletoads-style gatekeepers. We have three mini-games, all of which play different (well, four if you count a different version of the last one). None of them are hard or intended to be hard.
I'm gonna go into TLDR here, so my apologies for the long'ish winded post. But some context is probably best as to understand our goals with VH.
As for the visuals, you're right. We went for a Saturday morning carton style that is of the era. The main animator is one of the animators for Shredder's Revenge and is an old crusty guy like most of us and loves that era. We were not going for the same grungy gritty style that a lot of other Neo-Geo games use (there are outliers as you know in the library). We are going for our own vision of what we wanted to make using NG hardware to stand out and try to expand the library. Especially in a genre that isn't super well represented on the platform. The idea is that this is something you might see on the NG if devs still developed for it in 2024.
This same philosophy doesn't just apply to the visuals either. This game does not play like most era beat'em'ups as it has a LOT of options for play styles and combos that can get pretty crazy. Especially in two player. You don't just hit a few buttons and make enemies fall down. You hit them with multiple different moves and make them fly in the air and across the screen. You then try to keep the in the air. Then you try to splat them against the wall, or bounce them off the wall or hit them with an OTG (off the ground) to bounce them back up and try to maximize the amount of damage you do while also remaining safe. The game play has more in common with Marvel vs. Capcom than it does most era beat'em'ups that kept everything super simple. The game play is designed for people who just want to mash a few buttons to do cool stuff randomly. But it's also designed for people to really sink their teeth into if they want to go all in on learn mechanics for each of the playable characters. We wanted depth in the game so that you have options to avoid beat'em'up fatigue.
So this game was not meant to simply copy the looks, sound and game play of that era of games. It is literally meant to be a new game on the Neo-Geo designed with a more modern take while still being era appropriate. I know some will not like some or even all of what I described. And that is not just fine, it's expected. You can't make anything that appeases everyone. However, we really like what we've made. And, hopefully, we can get a demo out to you guys and you can judge for yourselves without any investment.
So, yeah, long winded way of saying what we hoped to accomplish with the game. Hopefully it clears up a few things for some of you. Feel free to ping me with any questions/concerns/feedback/vitriole. I'm pretty good with all of it.