Once you beat the boss (and you can do it!) you'll automatically walk up to the exit.
And now you get your incredible ending sequence!
Presented, for the first time on this site, in full! On the older version of this page, we tried in vain to get this properly animated. Back then, our screenshot process was long and arduous, involving us hammering on MAME's screenshot button like we were playing Track & Field then converting each shot into .bmp format one by one, so basically the worst possible way to do it. So we gave up trying to get this bit done properly, and ended up giving you only ten frames of animation. Now though, now our animating process is turbo-powered, allowing us to give Psycho Soldier's ending as many frames as it needs (over 500 in this case, but compression makes our life even easier). Please, enjoy Athena's lively dancing while the Psycho Soldier theme plays (in your head, we haven't ascended to the level of proper embedded videos... Yet) and the text scrolls by. You may also notice an urge to grab a glowstick and purchase Athena merchandise while listening to this song, and that's when it hits you, it finally happened, you've become Idol Trash, this is how they get you, but it's OK, you can join us and join us in Idol Hell forever.
Ahem. Anyway, the ending text is, of course, in SNK's standard English. Less hot dog references than their Neo Geo translations, but good enough.
It's nice to know that SNK respects my spirit and skill though! Anyway, time to close the curtain on this one.
So, Athena gets to take a bow at the end...
And Kensou doesn't.
Kensou. NEVER.
WINS.
At least he gets to participate in HIGH SCORE TABLE TIME!!
So essentially Psycho Soldier is SonSon but now it's not terrible. I could just end this article here and call it a night, but nah, let's get specific. The main element of Psycho Soldier that elevates it above Son Son is the Psycho Ball button. No, really! In SonSon, your only options were 'shoot to kill' or 'run away like a scared monkey' and that's probably why it's so boring. Well, the extremely stiff controls, huge amount of dead space where nothing's happening on-screen and the fact that it's an ugly-lookin' game probably don't help. With the addition of the Psycho Ball in Psycho Soldier, though, your options are far greater- that little window of invincibility it gives you is absolutely crucial in moving to dangerous parts of the screen safely, and it's essentially six different weapons in one (if you count the Super Psycho Ball). The Balls have a lot of different uses, and you're going to need them to get through the game unscathed, thus adding some much-needed oomph to the foundation laid down by SonSon. It's the Balls, as well as the added challenge, prettier graphics and better controls that turn something that didn't do anything for me (SonSon) into a really playable and fun game.
Unsurprisingly, not as many people seem to like Psycho Soldier as much as I do. I've seen complaints on other websites about the length of the levels and the difficulty, but these stages flit by- the game takes roughly 30 minutes to beat, so that's about 5 minutes per stage. There's a few sections that drag out (Stage 4 does go on for a little longer than is strictly necessary, as does Stage 6) but if you're playing well (especially if you're going for a one-credit run) then the stages are an acceptable length. As for the game's difficulty, honestly it peaks on Stage 3, then dips again, and only really reaches SNK levels of difficulty again in time for Stage 6, which is bordering on a little unfair. The bosses usually have an exploitable pattern that's very easily learnt (and with the exception of the final boss, go down quite quickly) and while the screen can get incredibly crowded at times, it's not that hard. This is SNK operating at a Top Hunter level of hard rather than, say, Art of Fighting 2 or The Super Spy. If you stop playing like a jackass and learn how this shit works then it becomes a pretty good game... But not a five-star one. Why? Because it's based on so heavily on SonSon in the first place- it makes tons of improvements, yes, but you can only improve SonSon so much. It's limited by its heritage, is the thing, but don't let that stop you from playing it!
Before we end though, perhaps there's something we should address. In the nearly-ten-years (!) since we first put this article together, we've softened up a little on a few things. The tone of Gaming Hell has changed from antagonistic- as if you have welcomed yourself into our home in an uncouth manner and we have to fend you off by talking about video games until you want to leave- to more amicable- as if we are having a nice bit of tea and biscuits with you as we talk about video games. Hence the rather uncalled-for intro about SNK this article used to have, so we rewrote that to be a bit more diplomatic. One thing we've definitely warmed up to is idols and J-Pop. We didn't like the Psycho Soldier theme or Athena very much when we first put this together, but in the years since, we've been ruined by Love Live! and Hatsune Miku. We stopped worrying and learned to love the idols. Thus, both Athena and the Psycho Soldier theme grew on us quite a bit, especially the later remixes, explaining the slight change in tone on this article as we reworked it!
[I guess our standards have gone up. Only took us nearly a decade.
- Ed]
Alright, alright, laugh it up.
And now, it's that time, folks!
EXTENDED PLAY!
Onto home ports! Unlike its predecessor Athena, Psycho Soldier never received the dignity of a contemporary console port. I have a feeling this may have something to do with the NES port of Athena being so horrible that I'm amazed Micronics- the masters of awful arcade conversions who were contracted by SNK to port it- weren't immediately blacklisted by SNK, to never work with them ever again, and yet they went on to make Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road fo them anyway. The monsters. Er, anyway, whatever the case may be, Psycho Soldier never received a NES conversion but, for whatever reason, the Famicom Athena was advertised with a rerecorded version of Psycho Soldier by Kaori Shizuma that was also put onto a cassette tape as a bonus with copies of the game. Even though the Famicom Athena is not Psycho Soldier. Oh well. However, in the UK at least, the game received three ports, all for computer systems that had no hope in hell of porting it faithfully. Source, the devteam responsible for these ports, sure tried their best, bless 'em! They also all had boxart by Bob Wakelin which has to be seen to be believed.
First up is the ZX Spectrum version, and I don't think it's that bad. Oh, sure, I'm biased because the ol' Speccy has a very special place in my heart- next to the NES, it's one of the earliest computers I remember playing, and we had The New Zealand Story for it, which is always awesome, and... Er, whoops, got a bit carried away there. Anyway, this version isn't exactly pretty on the eyes, but that's mostly because the ZX Spectrum is a strange beast. When it's doing its own thing, like Sabrewulf or Manic Miner, it can crank out some pretty psychedelic colours, but in the case of arcade conversions with pretty sprites like Psycho Soldier, developers usually went for the detail over colour (see also: Final Fight) and so we get Psycho Soldier: Pea Soup Edition as you see above. As for the actual game, it's a very simplified version of the original, with fewer enemy types, only 3 tiers per stage, and a bit of a slower pace, but in its own right, it's not a bad reinterpretation. It works, let's put it like that.
Next, we have the respectable Commodore 64 version, which still can't pull off an amazing conversion, but does the job well enough. It's a smidgen faster than the Speccy version, and there's obviously more colour, even if Athena has apparently turned blonde and it all looks a bit washed-out. This one keeps the four tiers from the arcade game, and it's also the only home version that lets you control the spaceship after you die. There's not much else to say, really- it's alright. Not particularly painful to play, nor is it a fantastic conversion.
Finally, the Amstrad CPC version certainly looks like it's the best- it's a much brighter version of the C64 game, and it's got a much snazzier title screen. Unfortunately, looks aren't everything, and the Amstrad version is, by far, the worst version of the game. It's nearly unplayable. In fact, it makes the NES Athena look like a masterpiece in comparison. The automatic scrolling from the arcade game is completely gone, replaced by awkward flick-screen action, it's monstrously slow, the enemies will kill you even quicker than in the arcade version, and it's just an absolute mess. I'm amazed that this was even released, but then again, this was the late '80s home computer market in England, and so anything goes. SQIJ! was released, for instance. Ahem.
The most amusing thing about these ports, though, is the fact that the story's changed. Look at the horrible graphics carefully enough, and you'll notice that Athena isn't in her school uniform- it's the Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, that you're controlling here. According to the Spectrum instruction manual, the plot now acts as a direct sequel to the original Athena, as she's been sent to, and I quote, "a bizarre alternate reality where humanity is in thrall to a race of demons, each more fearsome than the last."
This means that Kensou's been ripped out the game mercilessly.
Like a universal constant, Kensou never wins!
Amusingly, SNK knows that they've done Psycho Soldier wrong all these years, and nearly made up for it in 2009. Unfortunately, they did so in the most demeaning way possible- they used Psycho Soldier to advertise their witch-touching DS game, Doki Majo Plus. The game has a fake blog site with posts from the worryingly-young girls in the game, and one of them is a retro game addict who decides to compare the home ports of Psycho Soldier even though they don't exist.
Yes, SNK went to the trouble of faking screenshots for ports of the game that never existed- the 'Nanicon' version (left screenshot, clearly a NES/Famicom game), the 'Point III' (middle screenshot, obviously a Master System/Mark III game) the 'ZMX' version (right screenshot, actually an MSX game) and the 'CP Motor' version (above, based on the Turbo-Grafx CD/PC-Engine CD which has cutscenes as pictured). Of course, the hilarious thing is that these shots really do look like Psycho Soldier would look on their respective consoles- the colour palettes are absolutely spot-on, and if this was put somewhere other than the bleedin' Doki Majo Plus website, I'd give SNK a medal for their efforts. I can't give them a medal this time though, considering where these shots show up, and especially since bloody Doki Majo Plus is the only way to play Star Radish.
That's... that's rough.
Well, SNK finally decided to give Psycho Soldier an actual rerelease in 2011, when the oft-delayed SNK Arcade Classics 0 for the PSP finally lurched from development hell and found its way into Japanese homes, courtesy of mysterious developers G1M2. As well as including the likes of Prehistoric Isle in 1930, Armored Scrum Object and the entire Ikari Warriors series (including Victory Road, the hardest video game ever made) the collection has Psycho Soldier, the first proper port of the game. How long did it take? Only 24 years. Is it any cop? Well, kind-of.
It's as faithful as you can reasonably expect (based on the Japanese version, so no English lyrics) with everything as it should be, but there's a few foibles. The most pressing concern is one that occurs in all the games on the collection- the game must pause to load every music track. I thought my PSP was on its way out because it takes an inordinately long time to load, which means that half-way through Stage 1 the game freezes to load the karaoke version of the Psycho Soldier theme (also, Siguda Davide (Stage 6's theme) is broken and doesn't loop correctly). However, that is how these ports work, as we'll see in a second. The other problem comes in the form of options- you can't alter the dip-switches, and if you set the screen to Stretched, it's an absolute mess- ugly doubled pixels everywhere, especially on the energy bar. There also might be a smidgen more slowdown, but it's only noticeable on the final boss. Still, it could've been worse (see also: Midway Arcade Treasures Extended Play) and the collection is probably worth it for Guevara and SAR - Search and Rescue by themselves.
Or it would be, if there wasn't a better alternative for Sony consoles out there. Although the US and Europe didn't get SNK Arcade Classics 0 in the end (which did not surprise me in the least- a collection that includes Vanguard II but not Vanguard is a tough sell), we got individually downloadable PSP Minis versions of most of the games included in the collection instead (and we also got Vanguard and Ozma Wars). Psycho Soldier was one of them. This standalone version costs just £1.99 in the UK (the price of all the SNK PSP Minis) and it has at least one improvement from its SAC0 counterpart- you can alter the amount of lives you have and the difficulty. On the downside, it still pauses to load the music. It's not even running off a bloody UMD! Really, G1M2....
The last thing to talk about for home ports is, of course, SNK 40th Anniversary Collection for the Switch and PS4.
Not much to say here, as we covered this collection quite extensively over here but with regards to Psycho Soldier specifically, this version does indeed have both the US and Japanese versions, meaning you can hear both versions of the Psycho Soldier theme here. The emulation is better than in SNK Arcade Classics 0, you can rewind and make a single save state, and the Museum has a ton of rare Psycho Soldier artwork and useful bits of trivia. Did you know Sie Kensou's name is supposed to read as the word 'sequence'? Now you do! If you want to play the game at home legally, this is absolutely the way to go, although those who want an arcade stick should either get the PS4 version or get a controller convertor for the Switch. In either case, this is a much better option to play Psycho Soldier at home.
So, as you probably know, Athena Asamiya went on to star in the King of Fighters series, along with Kensou.
Now, I'm almost positive you're expecting me to go through the whole rigmarole of talking about this particular aspect of SNK lore. You're probably expecting a full gallery of the different costumes she wears- because she changes her wardrobe in every KOF game- in both art and sprite form, her effectiveness in battle and useful strategies, her team's storyline and the various roster changes it's seen, and all sorts of amusing snippets of trivia like how she had a brief crush on Kyo Kusanagi (explored in the PS1-only King of Fighters: Kyo RPG, because where else would you find such info) and the amusing in-joke that Athena doesn't like Terry Bogard because he took over her place as SNK's mascot and...
Well, we're not going to do that. Once again, Gaming Hell disappoints!
Compared to when this article was first splatted on the internet, our knowledge of The King of Fighters has grown considerably, no longer limited to exposure via other means such as Capcom Vs. SNK, KOF Sky Stage and the amazing Neo Geo Pocket Color fighting games. We can now tell you the differences between the games from '94 to '98 (NESTS saga still pending, be kind to us), we know how to break '96 with Chin Gentsai and play with maximum grime, and we know much of the deep lore, like why Leona was missing from XI and who the Best Girl is (spoiler, it's Shermie). Still, for an SNK fan who's still working through their old fighting games (Kizuna Encounter 4 lyf), we would not consider ourselves even close to an expert on the series. At least we admit it, though! So, what follows is an extremely brief list of Psycho Soldier things that crop up in the King of Fighters series, then we'll leave it at that, shall we?:
* The costumes Athena and Kensou wear in Psycho Soldier make appearances every now and then. Athena's intros in the earlier games have her wearing her old costume before blowing it away (with one of her '98 intros starting with it, then moving through all her other costumes in the KOF games thus far) although it's always a white seifuku rather than her dark blue one; the secret Old Hero team ending (Athena, Ralf and Clark) in '97 shows Kensou in his old clothes; a version of Kensou wearing his Psycho Soldier costume is a special striker in 2000; and both characters get back into their Psycho Soldier duds for XII, as demonstrated above, as well as XIII, although Athena swaps out her blue seifuku for a white one there because reasons. I 'borrowed' those sprites from- where else- the SNK Wiki which, I'll say again, is a mind-boggling resource on everything SNK related.
* Obviously, the theme from Psycho Soldier appears several times in the series as the theme music for the Psycho Soldier team. It can be found in '94, '96, '97 and 2002, as well as the 'arrange' soundtracks for those games. A vocal version of Wounded Blue Moon also appears in XI as Athena's theme when she's the Leader character.
* A few of the attacks from Psycho Soldier are represented in Athena's move sets for most of the KOF gamss. At the beginning of the series, she's got the Psycho Ball (a basic fireball attack) and Shining Crystal Bits as her Super Desperation Move (which both use the Psycho Balls), and she also has Phoenix Arrow (which references her Phoenix transformation), in '96 she gets the Psycho Sword attack (an uppercut which hits multiple times) and in XI her Leader Desparation Move has her turn into a giant flaming Phoenix, again a nod to the Phoenix transformation. Doesn't look a thing like it, of course, but eh, close enough.
And that's your lot. As you can see, I've obviously read up on all this KOF stuff, I just don't play the damn things enough. Now, in KOF XIV they did give me Nakoruru and characters from their pachinko games, so that's a start, but for XV clearly they should bring the Sports Team back and put in a Cyber-Lip / Search and Rescue / Metal Slug combo-team in (you know you'd love that, secretly). And then they should throw in a World Heroes team. And a Scrolling Brawler team with Duke (Burning Fight), the dude with the cowboy hat (Sengoku) and the Kyo look-alike (Mutation Nation). And while we're doing some wishful thinking, I'd like a pony and a bacon sandwich, please.
Finally, as a point of interest, how many times has the Psycho Soldier theme appeared in video games?
A list appears, suddenly and without warning, as they appear on their respective soundtracks (ta, VGMDB!:
Psycho Soldier - Psycho Soldier
The King of Fighters '94 - Psycho Soldier "K.O.F Version" (China Stage)
he King of Fighters '96 - Psycho Soldier REMIX'96 (Psycho Soldier Team Theme)
The King of Fighters '97 - Psycho Soldier REMIX'97 (Athena Asamiya)
The King of Fighters Kyo - Psycho Soldier New MIX
The King of Fighters Kyo - Psycho Soldier 97 MIX
The King of Fighters R-1 - Psycho Soldier REMIX '97 (Athena Asamiya)
SNK Vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium - Psycho Soldier REMIX '97 (Athena Asamiya)
The King of Fighters 2002 - Psycho Soldier (Psycho Soldier Team)
The King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match - Psycho Soldier ~Super Chinese Remix~
Athena on Stage - Psycho Soldier
KOF Sky Stage - Psycho Soldier
NEOGEO HEROES Ultimate Shooting - Psycho Soldier
The answer is quite a few
And so, another SNK game is dealt with. Will Athena return to Gaming Hell? Maybe...
