Shingo ness.
Oriya! Who can hate Shingo, there's nothing to hate. As Kyo's deciple, he joins the KOF, but not as a SF 2 Ken. Everything about Shingo besides his moves origins is different. Five bucks says SNK was playing around with Kyo and cut his hair. After seeing some of his punches without the fire animations, they got this idea. At least that's one way you can look at the Shingo idea.
After seeing the King Of Fighters '96 on T.V., Shingo knew that the coolest guy in the world was Kyo Kusanagi, a guy who happened to attend his school! kyo probably got some slack-jaw offers from people, but Shingo was serious, and Kyo, all ready to exploit someone, took him in as his "desciple." Why did Shingo wait until '96? Well, '95 & '94 were NOT a social attraction as much as '96/'97 were, so they were all hidden and stuff (kind of). The training Shingo recieves is different than most training a deciple recieves from his sensei. Kyo has Shing get all of his food and locker items for him (since he's all lazy and stuff) and then he'll show Shingo a move or two, only he shows him once and then leaves, leaving Shingo to practice by himself.
Shingo wasn't about to just be a nothing. kyo was surprised at how efficient Shingo was, since Shingo notes all of the moves in his notebook. The only problem is that Shingo depends on it too much sometimes (and values it almost as much as his girlfriend). Shingo easily proved to Kyo that he was dead-end dedicated and determined, but he wanted to go a step further, and after only a year of training Shingo joins the KOF '97 tournament AND passes the preliminary rounds. How's that for dedication. kyo sees the seriousness now, and gives Shingo his gloves, which Shingo gets really hyped over (doing the cool '95 index finger up pose). of course Kyo just went to his drawer and got another pair....
Now Shingo is in '98. This guy is going all out. With his painted blue gloves, he's ready to summon flames, only he can't. Shingo REALLY wants to, but he never will. This used to bother me, but half the fun of Shingo is his misfortune: Falling during some moves, forgetting moves, and no fire. If he got fire what would he be? <Mysterious Man: Kyo. Shut up Mysterious man, no one asked you. Shingo should just go talk to Mai, or Billy, neither of which have any special ancestry but can flame on. (Hmmm.. Billy is on his team if I had my way). How come Kyo chose Shingo as his deciple? Weren't there a lot of people who could kiss up? Well my view is, kyo's just another homey where he's from. At his school he's just kyo, the girls think he's cute, and the guys are indifferent. Since he's no celebrity in the homeland, it was pretty easy for Shingo to just up and approach, that's my take at least.
Shingo is a nothing. he's smart and all (if Kyo's still in school, they might graduate together), and his life is perfectly normal, aside from the KOF tournaments. I'm sure he has both parents and a girlfriend he'll never have to whoop the crap out of (Andy). He's just normal, that's why I like him better than Kyo. Shingo is also stronger than Kyo, really. That doesn't say he's a better fighter, but without the flames, he's got to do something to put a little UMPH! into this one. So he's got to become stronger. The guy has to fight by himself (In '98, don't you take him on with three people?). He says cool fun to say things and he's all natural. you gotta give props to a guy who trains for only one year and can be just as good as the rest of them. SNK could have taken two other random characters from other games and put them in as originally solo entries but the tournament people teamed them up. (Eiji and Geese would be nice to see). I think Shingo still has a future, even though SNK will not be making anymore KOF games (so I've heard, they should at least make a '00). But Shingo might be used, since SNK is probably not just going to drop some characters out of the ring (like Kyo, Iori, and Athena).
I can't see how anyone can be better with Shingo than Kyo. I am WAY better with Shingo. I've beat people AND expert computer opponents in 12 SECONDS! Four seconds slower than with Heathen Mode Iori! His combos are definite, the will almost always connect all the hits. His Aragami makes the "Body Ga Amaize" worthless, because it's stronger and it hits twice AND it hits more early on in the animation. I believe in '98 he has an inguardable elbow drop. his triple kick takes off a lot of damage and can be comboed off a close hard kick. It's harder to hit him out of his uppercut than it is to hit Kyo and Iori. His "sad supers" are a force to be reckoned with when they connect, and that's not hard to do. The Burning Shingo can be used hunting air style IF you're slick. The Rushing Elbow can be comboed off a close hard punch (as can the Burning Shingo) so just find a nice uppercut or something to hit them after when they miss and it's goodbye lot o' health. That super rivals the Galactica phantom (a bit stronger) and Yashiro's super Punch (about the same) in power, but it can be comboed or used after a missed move! You see! When I was an inexperienced player, I thought he was a lost cause, but then again, I wasn't familiar with the '97 combo system (until a fateful day practicing with Chris) Now it's all about the combo's, and that makes Shingo one of my best characters. Try the simple Jumping Hard Kick (easy to combo off of), close hard puch, Aragami combo. Then do it again. That's almost 50% health! Doesn't look like much at first, but they get dizzy within the third time of this combo. Shingo KIIIICK!!
-Sho Reppadan-
Shingo: "Mai and Billy have fire huh? Better write that down."
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