THE COMPLETE KUROKO FAQ (v. 3.0)
Directory:
* Playing CPU Kuroko
* How To Beat Kuroko
* Playing Human Kuroko
* Kuroko Facts
* Kuroko Taunts
* Normal Attacks
* Special Attacks
* Credits
Playing CPU Kuroko
There are two ways to get Kuroko:
The first is completely by random. I've gotten him after the third,
fourth, fifth, and other opponents myself. Time, life left, whether
you've continued, human opponents, and any other factors do NOT affect
whether he comes out or not. Once I got him after beating third
opponent Sieger through a timeout, when I had a sliver of life more
than he had. This was a 2-1 match, after I had continued twice already.
So playing quality has NOTHING to do with it!
This second method is sure-fire, and was discovered by Greg Kasavin.
For the 6th, 8th, and 10th opponents, you must beat your opponent in
two rounds. For the second round, you must finish off your opponent
with your Super Move, with under 20 seconds on the clock. Kuroko will
come out after that.
To make this easier, a human player can join in. If either wins 2-0,
winning the second round through the conditions above, Kuroko will
still come out.
Also, a memory card saved at the appropriate opponent WILL work. So home
players can get Kuroko easily by loading the saved position, and beating
a "dummy" player while satisfying the conditions.
How to beat Kuroko
General tactics Kuroko uses--this is on my system, and I don't know if
the CPU uses the same strategy in other systems, but I don't see why
not.
Most of the time, Kuroko will advance toward you, or throw fireballs if
you are far away. If you try to jump him, he will often hit you first
with his ground slash, or leap into the air and hit you with an air
slash. If you throw a fireball, he will often reflect it. If you do
special moves, he will often retaliate with his chain extension. When
he's hit, he will often do the "split" trick.
Note that Kuroko doesn't have any low attacks except for his short-ranged
crouch kicks. So you don't have to crouch all the time.
When Kuroko's powered up, watch out. He will run up, then slide toward
you. If you try ANY counterattack, he will cream you with his Super. If
you block, he will keep on trying to slide into you, ticking off points.
He will eventually throw you if he can't hit you with the Super. The best
way to counter this is probably to jump over him. If he hits you, you will
most likely be powered up afterwards (assuming you're still alive). Kuroko
does NOT move away after hitting you, so while going through your "mad"
animation, you have a free throw against him while he's right next to you.
In general, play conservatively most of the time, because he can cream you
easily with his many moves if you try anything funny. To beat him
consistently, you have to exploit his patterns.
I've noticed three patterns that allow you to get a shot at him.
1) Kuroko rolls in and tries to AB slash or throw you. He will often do
this if you try making quick, non-low attacks against him; i.e. he rolls
through your attack and hits you. A variant on this is when he sends out
his electrical sphere, then rolls under it and tries to throw you.
2) Kuroko jumps at you, almost always with his C kick. As soon as he
lands he either does an AB slash or throws you.
3) If you do a D-kick in front of him and miss, he will often do a fireball
in return for some odd reason. There is a pause right before and after he
does the fireball, and he's right in front of you so take advantage of
this!
Here's an almost sure-fire way to win with Charlotte:
Tactic 1: Thrust him to keep him away. Watch out, as he can hit you first
occasionally with his AB slash. You will get backed into a corner. Kuroko
will then start jumping at you--when he does, jump and AB him. You may
get hit by his C kick first, but you can still jump up and cream him with
your AB afterwards.
Tactic 2: Do a crouching D-kick in front of him and miss. When you see him
gearing up to do a fireball, do a crouch AB. You will always hit first if
you are fast enough (i.e. prepare to do the AB UNLESS you see him doing
nothing immediately afterwards). You can also jump and AB him, but this is
risky because if he throws the HaohShoKhoKhen, you may get hit by it.
Crouching AB is a lot easier and does as much damage.
If he splits into two, I can crouch AB the first one and still recover in
time if it's the wrong half. Sometimes her slash goes THROUGH Kuroko
when she guesses right, though! So if you slash through the first half, but
the second half starts wiggling, throw the first half right away!
If Kuroko throws the electrical sphere, jump over it and kick him when he
jumps at you.
Sometimes he does the chain extension when you're landing from a jump and
misses. A crouch AB immediately will often hit for good damage.
When he gets mad, you can still try D-kicking him. You'll both get hit if
he slides into your kick, but you'll take only minor damage. And he'll still
often through fireballs anyway.
Don't try jumping him first unless you're desperate. Like Mizuki, he seems
to eat the first AB triangle, but learns after that.
After practicing, I can beat him 2-0 with Charlotte frequently, and I
think Tactic 1 will work with anyone with a fast low AB, and Tactic 2 will
work with anyone with a good air attack. For instance, Ukyo can do a
crouching AB whenever he sees Kuroko about to throw a fireball, and I think
Nakoruru can jump and AB him if he tries jumping on her.
For those that don't have either, try the Kyoshiro strategy instead.
For Kyoshiro, I fend off Kuroko with standing B-slashes. I eventually get
backed into a corner. When Kuroko jumps up and does his C kick, jump
straight up and get hit with it. It does little damage, and when Kuroko
lands, he still does his AB slash. By the time Kyoshiro lands, he can throw
the recovering Kuroko. This strategy works because Kyoshiro does a lot of
throwing damage against Kuroko for some reason, so Kyoshiro comes out
ahead. This strategy also works for Sieger, but many other characters
DON'T do that much damage with throws, so this strategy is not the best for
everyone.
For other characters, see which of the above strategies works best and then
modify it for your own character.
Playing human Kuroko
This will work for home Neo Geo systems only.
You can only play him in a two player game. You cannot load any saved
positions either.
After either player wins, the game ends. Whoever wins gets his/her face
shown on the "Game Over" screen, just as if he had won a normal game.
To get Kuroko with either joystick, enter this code, courtesy of Geese
Howard:
O | O- O | -O + A (i.e. hold the joystick forward and press A)
| O | O
The joystick movements are the same for EITHER side--don't reverse them!
Note you can play a mirror match with Kuroko. However, Kuroko doesn't
have an alternate color, so the two will look exactly the same!
Kuroko facts:
Kuroko cannot have his weapons broken or lost in a clash.
Kuroko cannot be thrown normally. He is thrown just like Earthquake.
Note this still can do substantial damage!
Kuroko can still be SPDed by the ninjas.
Kuroko can be dizzied.
If you split Kuroko in two, anatomical (not valentine's) hearts spill
out.
Taunts:
AC -- Says "Ora! Ora!" (Ryo Sakazaki, AOF)
BD -- Fans himself with a Japanaese fan (Mai Shiranui, FFS)
Normal Attacks:
Standing Far
A and B -- Flag thrust
AB -- Down slash (Haohmaru, SS)
C and D -- High kick
CD -- Slower high kick
Standing Close
A and B -- Elbow
AB -- Up then down slash (Haohmaru, SS)
C and D -- High kick
CD -- Triple kick (Nakoruru, SS)
Crouching Far
A and B -- Short flag swing
AB -- Up slash (Haohmaru, SS)
C and D -- Crouch kick
CD -- Longer crouch kick
Crouching Close
A and B -- Elbow
AB -- Up slash (Haohmaru, SS)
C and D -- Crouch kick
CD -- Longer crouch kick
Jump
A and B -- Diagonal flag thrust (A flag is extended throughout jump)
AB -- Down slash (Haohmaru, SS)
C and D -- Down kick (C kick is extended throughout jump)
CD -- Down kick
Special Attacks:
Adopted from the SS2 moves FAQ--all of these movements have been
confirmed, and simplified in some cases. These are all of Kuroko's
moves that I have seen.
Note: "." means hold the joystick in that position for about 2 seconds.
,____________________________________________________________________,
| | \ -O A Kohken (Ryo Sakazaki, AOF) |
| O O |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| O- | / A Double Kohken (Wolfgang Krauser, |
| O O FFS) |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| | \ -O B Mega Smash (John Crawley, AOF) |
| O O |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| -O | \ A HaohShoKohKen (Ryo Sakazaki, AOF) |
| O O |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| | \ -O | / O- A Cross Cutter (Heidern, KOF) |
| O O O O |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| | / O- | \ -O BC Spikey Black Object |
| O O O O |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| / -O A Double Senbei Shuriken (Jubei |
| O. Yamada, FFS) |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| / -O BC Electrical Sphere |
| O. |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| | / O- A Flag Extension (dizzies and pulls |
| O O closer) |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Tap C repeatedly Gekiho (Tung Fu Rue, FFS) |
| |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| -O ABC Missile Reflection |
| |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| -O BCD Reflection Slash (unlike above, |
| will also hit opponent) |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| ABC or BCD when attacked Death Fake |
| ABC -- front half explodes |
| BCD -- back half explodes |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| O- / | \ -O (x2), D Super Deformed |
| O O O |
|____________________________________________________________________|
,_ Throws ___________________________________________________________,
| -O B, AB, D, CD RessenKyaku (Tung Fu Rue, FFS) |
|____________________________________________________________________|
,_ Power Specials ___________________________________________________,
| -O \ | / O- -O AB RyuukoRanbu (Ryo Sakazaki, AOF) |
| O O O |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| O- / | \ -O (x2), CD RyuukoRanbu (Kuroko pauses to |
| O O O take a breather) |
|____________________________________________________________________|
Notes: The most useful fireballs are the Haohshokohken (HUGE--hard to
jump over) and the Mega Smash (very fast). The Electrical Sphere is
slow, and useful for setting up throws (like Hanzo's A slinky).
The Sembei Toss and Electrical Sphere do not come out consistently at
all, while the Double Kohken and Flag Extension can be easily mixed up,
since their joystick movements are similar.
To do the two moves consistently, try this: move the joystick B, DB, B,
but NOT D. For the Flag Extension, move the joystick DF, D, DB,
B. Basically, avoid doing a normal quarter circle either way.
Despite the similar appearance to Mizuki's Curse Ball, the Electrical
Sphere does normal damage and does NOT turn you into a pig.
You can be hit after doing the Death Fake, if your opponent picks the
right one to hit.
Kuroko seems to have very high throw priority.
Kuroko's Power Special is the best in the game. It is hard to spot, because
he slides toward you without any big warning. You can block it, taking a
hit of blocking damage, but if you don't he nails you with his Super Combo.
And his recovery time is almost zero after it's blocked, so he can do it
repeatedly. Also, it's hard or impossible to knock him out of the slide
without getting creamed in return. Finally, the Power Special does TONS of
damage, unlike a lot of other Power Specials. I think the CD version does
more damage than the AB one.
Credits:
Galen Komatsu--various comments and suggestions
Geese Howard -- getting Kuroko as human opponent
Scott Fujimoto, Geese Howard, Galen Komatsu, Joab Kong -- Kuroko's
moves
Greg Kasavin (Shrike) -- getting Kuroko as CPU opponent
