NeoGeo Battle Coliseum [PS2] - play as Shin Shishioh / King Leo (sort of)

This is a play-through using King Leo / Shin Shishioh in the PS2 version of NeoGeo Battle Coliseum. Read on below for more information...

King Leo / Shin Shishioh is one of the bosses in this game, and this version of him - which is an alternative flag of regular King Lion - is an unplayable character.

===== About King Leo =====
King Leo, or Shin Shishioh, originates from the game Savage Reign. In NGBC, he has been completely re-designed and re-drawn in the more realistic semi-KOF style. His special and super moves are faithful to his original counterparts in the past games that he has appeared in.

In NGBC, he is technically the same character as regular King Lion / Kage Shishioh. The difference comes when the CPU controls him, as when this happens, a flag in the game's data is activated on King Lion, which turns him into King Leo. This gives him the following extra features:

---- a unique colour palette (dark skin with red and gold attire)

---- a unique pre-fight intro (the cape disintegration)

---- an extra special move called the Hunter Killer (the one where he thrust kicks forward)

---- an extra super move called the King Upper (the upwards version of the King Straight)

---- a unique lifebar icon, VS screen image and winning screen image

Unfortunately even with the flag on a human-controlled King Lion, you still cannot perform the Hunter Killer and King Upper moves. Therefore technically you are still really playing as regular King Lion.

It is similar to the Reptile flag in SNES Mortal Kombat 1 - if you use the flag on a human-controlled Sub-Zero or Scorpion, you only get the green colour, the lifebar name and winner's name. You don't get the Sub-Zero/Scorpion random switching like the CPU Reptile does.

===== The Story/Plot =====
The reasons for the game's story/plot is an interesting one, as there is a message behind it from the developers SNK. It also represents real-life happenings back then.

For starters, in the game, the name of the organization that hosts the tournament is called "WAREZ", which is an obvious play on the word 'warez' (which means illegitimate software), as SNK Playmore blames software copying as one of the reasons for it's company bankruptcy in 2001. Yuki and Ai, the two protagonists, are sent to the tournament by the Federal Government to investigate and stop WAREZ/Goodman... which is also a play on what the authorities should've done to combat it.

Also, the boss Goodman was created to represent the time when SNK and the NeoGeo were under the control of Eolith, so they made him look a bit like Igniz, who of course is Eolith's character.

===== Region Differences =====

There are many differences between the USA and European versions of the game.

---- The European version suffers from incomplete language translation, which is why you don't get any text/dialogue during the boss cut-scenes and character true endings. Also, some character's win quotes on the winning screen just say "dummy4" or "dummy1". The background of the menu screen is also static instead of being animated like in the Japanese and USA versions.

----- The USA version translates the game properly, you will get text/dialogue in the boss cut-scenes and character true endings. The background of the menu screen is animated. Also, the loading times were much faster as well - this was done by stopping the music during loading. Whilst it dramatically shortened the waits between each match, it also meant that it's less authentic to the Arcade version.