#828 King of Fighters Maximum Impact 2 (PS2) Hidden Characters (10/13): Hattori Hanzo gameplay.

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AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters

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Published on February 5, 2018 6:28:18 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9ArBxD7Hnw

Game:

KOF: Maximum Impact 2 (2006)

Duration: 5:57

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Gameplay of the hidden character Hattori Hanzo in SNK’s King of Fighters Maximum Impact 2/King of Fighters 2006.

This is where we start to get on to really interesting hiddens in this game. SNK made some odd but brilliant choices for hidden characters in this game, and the next few choices really exemplify that.

This is Hanzo Hattori from SNK’s Samurai Shodown series. Yes. A Tokugawa Shogunate-era character in a KOF game. Needless to say his inclusion is non-canon (this whole sub-series is non-canon anyway), but holy fuck is it amazing. This is one of those out of left field choices which any long-time fan would have never expected to happen, but SNK knows how to bring out the fanservice when it wants to and Hanzo’s inclusion is one of the best examples of that. Hell, one of Hanzo’s alternate colours is even Galford, also from the Samurai Shodown series. Galford was a headswap of Hanzo in that series, a fact which his inclusion here references. It’s just brilliant; as I keep saying I adore it, and this game really is a treasure for those who know extensively about SNK titles on the whole.

Hanzo is a ninja, so of course he has all the stereotypical ninja moves, including trademark techniques of his such as his ground-fireball, and his spinning dive command grab, as well as teleportation and teleporting sword strikes. Oh, and of course the ability to throw shurikens, like all good ninjas. Hanzo can be a bit of a difficult character to use, as like a Samurai Shodown character the majority of his specials moves exist as counters or pressure moves, not to be utilised in combos. In fact, it’s his command grab which is the most useful, as Hanzo’s dial-a-combos (once you get them down) are insanely fast, tear through the opponent’s health and can nearly always be finished off with a command grab or a super throw. In this way he’s quite good, but can’t quite “combo from everything” in the same way that most of the characters in this game can. Still, he’s definitely a competent character, and quite unique as a sort of combo-er/grappler hybrid.

Hanzo even has his own background, which even features a cameo from Mizuki of all people. Yeah. A 3D-rendered model of Mizuki. Makes me a little sad they didn’t bother to make her into a full character, but Hanzo is a decent replacement I won’t deny.

Up next, another non-canon guest character, and a particularly interesting one at that.

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