When fans learned about KOF XV standardizing the input command for all characters climax supers, they weren't all enthusiastic about it. It is true that in past games, one of the aspects that could make
a character unique and memorable is a tough as nail, hard to execute super, that, once it's perfectly done, rewards you with the most delicious feeling of accomplishment. That can't be said for all of them tough. While some of these supers can be really powerful or at the very least look pretty cool, others on the other hand,
seem to be overly complicated just for the sake of breaking your controller or bursting one of your veins out of frustration. And as someone who had to go through many of hypertension inducing motion inputs, I think that having the
same input for all climaxes isn't that bad of an idea. At first, this video was meant
to be a regular top 10 list. But the more I researched, the more questionable supers with
abominable inputs I discovered, not including the ones that
traumatized me personally in the past and refuse to be forgotten. There are just too many that I felt bad leaving behind so many nightmarish supers. So I decided to make it a top 20 list instead. With a substantial honorable mention section for those that didn't make the cut. And even with all that I'm confident that there are many others that aren't present, which I'm sure you won't fail
to mention in the comments. Without further ado, here's the top 20 hardest
supers to execute in KOF. As a new character of the UM version of KOF
2002, Xiangfei is a very fun character to play. Her short ranged fire balls are quite
strong. She has a fast overhead, a decent Dp, and a respectable number of supers. The best among
them in my opinion, is Cho Pai Ron, the number 20 of this list. But it can be tricky to learn its
execution though. To activate it, you only need to press the A and C buttons simultaneously with
no motion input requirement. But that's only the first step. After that you need to execute two
other motion inputs as quickly as possible if you want all the attacks of the super to combo.
If you correctly landed the super, it will cause your opponent to wall bounce and gives you the
opportunity to follow it with different attacks, including other supers. But even if the super
gets blocked, it still causes a guard crash to your enemy. I wouldn't say Cho Pai Ron is hard,
but it's certainly very unique and demands a little bit of time to get it consistently right.
This is easily one of Xiangfei strongest assets. Iori Yagami had many supers throughout
the series. One of them stands out for being quite unique though, as it serves as
a follow up move that can only be executed at the very end of his classic super, Maiden
Masher. The super in question is Wolf Bloom. To pull this bad boy out you need to perform 4
quarter circles forward + AC. The challenge is not to enter this command quickly, as you have
enough time to do it during the Maiden Masher. The real challenge is to time it so that you press
the AC buttons just as Iori finishes his attack. Or you can do it my way, A.K.A the lazy noob way
and just keep rotating that stick as many times as you can then press those buttons when the time
comes. Wolf Bloom is not a very damaging super, but if it guarantees that it'll KO the opponent,
then there is no reason for you to hold back from doing it. I think it's still worth it
just to hear that mad laughter from Iori. It comes with no surprise that one of
the hardest characters to play in KOF, good girl Angel, has also the most
unorthodox supers in the franchise. Her Blue Monday Parade and Loyalty
Test for Liberalists are weird enough, execution wise. But the one that takes the cake
is her hidden desperate move, Survivors Banquette, also known among her fans as the people's elbow.
Now to be honest, the command itself, albeit not the most common combination, is not difficult.
You need to push down 3 times + the CD buttons. However, the super will only work against already
knock down enemies. And since people get one their feet pretty quickly in these games, you have a
very strict short window of time to execute it, hence its difficulty. When it's perfectly
done, you'll get to see Angel make a cool reference to the Rock's famous wrestling move.
In recent games, this super is still kinda there, but instead of being its own thing, it had
became part of her other counter super. Benimaru is a main stay in the KOF series and he
is not necessarily known for being a difficult character to play. Yet, for some twisted reason,
they gave his hidden desperate move one of the most awkward motion inputs in 2002, both vanilla
and UM. Many characters had strange inputs for their supers in 2002 vanilla, but they got
simplified in UM. Benimaru's is NOT one of them. At first I thought we were dealing with
some kind of relative of the Pretzel input until I realized that there is an easier way to execute
it. I just did a Forward, Half circle Forward motion (just like a Haoh Sho Ko Ken for example)
and back forward. It's still a bit complicated, but it's a lot more manageable if you look at it
this way. Depending on what button you'll press, an electric orb will be created somewhere around
Beni's body, acting as a shield and a mean to pressure the opponent. Though creating the orb
on his foot is the best option in my opinion. This place goes to multiple supers belonging to
three different characters. Namless's Shakuhou and Zetsuei, K9999's The Moon and You Get Lost Too!
(Yes, that's a super's name) and Geese's Raging Strom. You guessed it! The one thing in common
between these supers is their input command, the infamous Pretzel input. There might be other
supers using this input, but only these ones come to my mind now. I don't know how or why they
came up with such a convoluted motion. It's super awkward. The way I learned to do it is to charge
Down Backward for a bit before I continue with the rest of the input. I know it's not mandatory
to charge it at first but I realized that it somehow make things easier and I manage
to pull it out more frequently this way. This input requires you to be fast and consistent
as many of the supers with the Pretzel input act as Anti air moves, meaning there is no
room for mistakes. The fact that it's so low in the list means that the best is
yet to come. Brace yourselves everyone. Let's stay with K9999 for a while with one of the
weirdest supers in probably all fighting games. The weirdness comes from its name, the way it
looks and the input to execute it. To perform K9999's hidden desperate move in vanilla
2002, you need to be in the air and push back then forward 4 times. No additional
button press is needed to confirm it. Because of how gravity works, I never managed
to pull this super out as it was intended. K9999 always touches the ground before I could push
all the buttons. There is an easier way to do it though, inconstant but doable. Just spam back
and forward while on the ground and watch K9999 performing this silly dance. At some point
he will back dash and the game considers that as being air born. With little luck, the
input will be registered and the super executed. I'm not sure how effective that
would be against a human opponent though. And now with the first type of
supers that I like to call QTES, short for Quick Time Events on Steroids.
Like quick time events in action games, you have to push specific buttons during a
short period of the time. The twist with KOF is that the timing is a lot tighter and you
have no button prompt on the screen telling you what button to push. You have to memorize the
whole sequence, and it's often pretty lengthy. So get that memory of yours to work. Richard Meyer,
who made an appearance in KOF Maximum Impact 2, uses this kind of inputs in his level 3 super,
Wild Dance. What makes his super even harder, is the fact that you need to enter entire
motions and not just simple buttons. Thankfully, the Maximum Impact series is pretty forgiving when
it comes to registering motion inputs, making Wild Dance one of the easiest supers in this category.
Otherwise, it would be a lot higher on the list. How about we take a dive through time, and go
back to simpler but aggravating times with KOF 94. Even though what I'm about to say is true for most
supers in this title, I think that Kensou's is a good representative for the total B.S we had to
deal with. What Makes Shin Ryuu Tenbu Kyaku hard, other than pronouncing its name, is KOF 94.
Pretty much everything is hard to do in that game. The supers being the worst. Some
are more manageable than others of course, but the harder ones are going to make you pull
your hair out of frustration. For instance, the motion of this super, although not very
common, doesn't look that complicated. Yet for some sick arbitrary reason, it just refuses to
register. I did manage to pull it out sometimes, but I'll be damned if I know what I did
differently from the times where I failed. It's so random. The best part is, it's far
from being the hardest to execute in 94. Don't you just love it when the developers decide
to give a character an air super that is also a throw super, with an input motion that looks
like this. That's Vice's Overkill. Just how am I supposed to have the speed, reflexes and skill
to execute this abomination of input efficiently. A simple air throw requires a good deal of
reflexes let alone this thing. To capture footage for Overkill I just kept jumping like an
idiot hoping that the opponent jumps towards me and having enough time to execute the super. Which
is easier said than done obviously. I either kept missing the input execution or getting it
right when the opponent was far from me. I just can't see how Overkill can be
done how it was meant to be in 2002 UM. Thankfully in recent games, the super fits
better in Vice's move list, as it can be done after cancelling her plunging attack,
Splash. The execution is still hard though. Going back to Maximum Impact 2, Luise
Meyrink, the well meaning alien who serves as the sub boss of the game, has an unnecessary
complicated and infuriating super to execute. Minuet of Damnation, I'm not even sure if
that's how it's pronounced, is a throw super that requires you to be close to the opponent.
The problem is that the input looks like this. You can see it right? that ugly arrow pointing
up? Whenever you see an input command with an upward arrow, you know a rough time is awaiting
you. Your character is always gonna jump before you push the final button to confirm, making the
execution of the super impossible. The only times I can think of where this kind of supers are
doable are when you are already knocked down, entering the command before you stand up
can prevent your character from jumping or you can jump on your own beforehand,
perform the input while you are air born, and hit the conform button just as you land.
However, the Maximum Impact series are 3D games and the jumps there are very limited. Thankfully,
Luise has an air dash allowing her to stay in the air a bit longer, and because I needed to stay
close to the opponent, I had to do those air dashes around them. You're right! This is
not gonna work outside the training mode. Remember when I told you that we're not
done yet with KOF 94's supers? Well, here's what I meant. Athena's desperation move,
Shining Crystal Bit, is notorious for being one of the hardest things to do in all classic
fighting games. And for those who had discovered the series recently and don't understand what I'm
talking about, because Athena's super is just a double half circles backward, I envy you. This
is how Shining Crystal Bit used to look in its infancy. Just look at this chaos. Why
the input ends with a upward back arrow, this is plain evil from the developers. It's as
if you're telling Athena to stay away and go home. And you don't want her to stay away. She needs
to be close to the opponent for her super to hit. It just defeats its whole purpose. Cherry on
the cake, you need to confirm with two buttons. And let me remind you, this is a retro game,
the timing is super tight. If you push one button a fraction of a second before or after the
other, the command won't register. And of course, you can't map those two buttons to a
single one like in recent games. In KOF 95, this super exists with the same inputs.
But I find it much more doable there. The timing and the input registration are far
more forgiving. But in 94, it's a true nightmare. "Is there a way to make an input command
more aggravating and exasperating than the one we made for Athena's super?" is probably the
question the developers asked themselves before coming up with the motion input for Heidern's
super, Final Bringer. They probably were like "Oh! you figured out a way to execute her super
by jumping beforehand so you can avoid that she jumps at the end of the execution! Let's us
ruin that for you". And so they made the first input in Heidern's super a charge motion. And
the last input an upward arrow, because of course they did. I'm sure that they already
knew that most players aren't gonna be able to do those supers. That's why in the Orochi
collection, they had the generosity to include a demo option that lets you watch how the special
moves and supers look like. How kind of them. You'd be sorely mistaken if your think that Raging
Storm and its Pretzel input is the hardest thing they include in Geese's move list. Let me
introduce Deadly Rave, another recurring super of the Southtown boss. Not as famous as Raging
Storm, but far more complicated to do. And yes, it is one of the aforementioned QTES. From
now on, we're gonna see a lot of those. Starting with command throw like motion,
you'll need to activate the super with the B,C and D buttons together. And then the
real fun begins, You'll have to push A twice, B twice, C twice and D twice. Then,
assuming you got the timing right, you'll need to do a quarter circle backward
+ CD to perform the final blow of the super. What makes Deadly Rave harder than Richard's
wild dance is the incredibly precise timing required during those button pressing. And
trust me, it's a very easy thing to mess up. What can be harder than a super
that's called Deadly Rave? Peach Combo Doremi of course. And it's
just as cutesy as it sounds. Actually, it's not cute at all. This is how it looks. To be
fair, you don't need to press all those buttons, far from it. Peach Combo Doremi has 7 variations
but you only need to execute one of them. Of course, Momoko, the owner of this Desperation
Move, will perform different attacks depending on the buttons that were pressed. I did go through
all the variations for the sake of capturing footage, but if you want my advice, just pick
one with an easy to remember combination for you. What makes this super harder than Geese's, is
KOF 11. There is a fifth button in that game that is integrated in the super and makes
things a little bit more complicated. That and the order of the button pressing that
is not as obvious as Geese's Deadly Rave It's pretty ironic that one of the nicest and
cutest characters in KOF has some of the toughest and cruelest supers in the series. After her
Shining Crystal bit was updated with a much more manageable execution input in 96, Athena comes
back in 2002 with a hidden desperate move that will put your memory, skill and sense of rhythm
into a harsh test. After a simple Quarter circle forward + all four buttons, comes a sequence of
button pressing with a strict timing and order. Make a simple mistake, and Athena falls on her
butt in a clear tell that the super failed, and then, you better brace yourself for the punish.
However, if you get everything right including the last finishing move with quarter circle forward,
then you'll get to see a pretty cool display of Athena's every costume from 2002 all the way back
to 94. Then she goes even beyond that, becoming princess Athena, school girl Athena, Bikini
Athena, and whatever that is Athena. There are two options to end the super, one prioritizes healing
Athena, while the other goes for an explosive finisher. Just for its show, I think this super
is actually worth the trouble learning it. Making just one appearance in the KOF series, Duck
King didn't forget to bring his weird moves and supers with him. His Break Spiral has the same
awkward motion input that it had in Fatal Fury. But I found it easier to do in 11, especially
after a roll or a jump, Even with the arrow pointing up forward. That's why this place
actually goes to his other super, Beat Rush. Admittedly, this super looks just like Athena's
in the previous entry with some small differences. Beat Rush starts with a Half Circle Backward
Forward motion, requires 8 button pressing instead of 7, meaning one potential occasion to
screw things up, and finally, it ends with a DP motion. A DP is technically more complicated than
a quarter circle. Taking all that into account, that makes Beat rush harder than Psycho Medley.
But I still think Athena's super looks better. Remember Richard Meyer and his Wild Dance. What
if we took that super and integrated it in a game with a lot less forgiving timing? That's the
closest thing we can use to describe Clark's hidden desperate move in 02 UM, Roaring
Sphere. Unlike Athena and Duck's supers, with Clark we have to perform entire
motions instead of just button pressing, in a specific order and precise timing. After
the initial double Half circles Forward + BD, you'll need to execute a Dp + D just as Clark
reaches his opponent. After that it's gonna be a chain of Half Circle Punch, Half Circle Kick,
Double Down Kick, and Finally Double Down + All four buttons. Needless to specify that you
need to be quick and you need to be precise. If you are familiar with Clark's moveset then
that would definitely ease things up for you, as those motions are his special moves. Something
that helped me out personally when I noticed it. You thought we're done with Geese Howard? Wrong!
His nightmare version has still some unpleasant surprises for our arcade sticks. Raising
Storm, not to confuse with Raging Storm, is the other level 2 Desperation Move that
he has, and by far the most convoluted super in his move list. No input command for any
other super looks like it, and it doesn't fit in any category. Starting with a Forward, Half
Circle Forward + BD, You need to press Down + C. After that you press C again and then you perform
a last motion with a Quarter Circle Backward, Forward, + CD. This seemingly random combination
of motions, directional buttons and simple button pressing makes the input so hard to remember and
extremely easy to drop. But I guess it's just fitting for the alternative version of Geese
to have such a nightmarish super to execute. In all honesty, I think this entry is the worst
of the worst in the QTES category. And until the very end of the making of this video, I was
convinced that this is the hardest and most annoying and frustrating super in KOF. This honor
goes to Gai Tendo's Rush. So what makes Rush more aggravating than the likes of Deadly Rave, Psycho
Medley or Roaring Sphere? Three things in fact. The first is the rhythm in which the buttons must
be pressed. Unlike the aforementioned supers, Gai hits his opponent in different rhythms.
For instance, the two jabs at the beginning come out pretty fast, after that his attacks
get slower. This change in tempo will mess up your button pressing rhythm more often than
you think. The second thing that make this super harder, is the fact that you need to press
directional buttons. Yep, it's those ups, downs, rights and lefts, and even diagonals, because
why the heck not. I don't know if it's just me, but I find it a lot harder to remember the
correct order of the directional buttons than the regular ones. This is the only super where
I actually had to take a picture of the input, and use it to execute the super. I just
couldn't remember the order. And finally, you may have already guessed it, if you
perform this super from the player 2 side, then the inputs become inverted. Of course
they do! But not all of them mind you, Ups and Downs are still ups and downs in both
sides, obviously. But the diagonal one becomes the other diagonal. You can see why this becomes
unbearably confusing. Seriously, F this super. Before unveiling what could possibly top Gai
Tendo's rush, here's some honorable mentions. Orochi Yashiro's Armageddon in Vanilla
2002 is pretty unorthodox to execute. It's true that you won't need to use your stick of
D pad, but if there is some latency in your button pressing or if you can't map several buttons to
a single one, you may struggle with this super. Still in the same game, Whip and Maxima have
similar input commands for their supers. They're not very hard per se but they demand a
bit of time to get used to. Krauser's Gigantic Cyclone in 98 UM, requires a third half circle
backward to execute. It may not sound that bad, but that extra motion makes the super a lot
harder to do than one may think. The input for K''s Crimson Star Road looks simple enough,
but if you don't how much time you need to wait before you push that last button, you're gonna
struggle. Once you figure out the right timing, it's pretty easy. Some supers necessitate that
you press a sequence of buttons very fast without using the stick. The timing can be tricky, and
some of these supers, like Duo Lon's requires you to be close to your opponent to activate,
which they forgot to tell you in the move list. Daimon has a three steps super where you have to
execute extra motion inputs in a very specific timing. Otherwise, you won't see the super at its
full potential. Finally Ralf's in 02 UM doesn't require much input wise. But the frame perfect
timing that that Galactica Phantom at the end requires, makes the super insanely difficult
to land, but so much enjoyable if you succeed. I have something to confess to you. Before
starting making this video, I didn't even know this super existed. When I asked you in that post
what super is the hardest to execute for you, it's when I learned of its existence. And at first, I
thought it was troll. I mean, Ryo Sakazaki has a hard super, I know Ryo's moveset, and none of his
supers is hard, or so I thought. But then I saw more of you people mentioning it, so I wanted
to know what it looked like. And this is what I got. And then I was what the heck? that's
just Ryuko Ranbu : Rage his hidden DM in 02, that's not hard to do at all. Only then I noticed
that Ryo has actually 2 hidden desperate moves that seemingly look the same but have different
inputs. Ryuko Ranbu : Destroy has a deceptively easier input command. I mean it's just a quarter
Circle Forward + C and then you press A. How hard can this be? Well if you try doing the super
as it's told in the move list, you'll just keep spamming fire balls all day long. I was confused.
I was wondering may be it's a counter super. May be it acts as a follow up. None of that is right.
This is the only super where I had to look it up to know what the heck am I supposed to do. It
turns out, this super can only be done if you cancel it from another move. Of course they never
mention that in the move list. But even knowing that I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying
this method and finally succeeded in doing it once after I canceled it from a Max mode activation. I
tried doing it again later, but just couldn't. The question that you are probably asking yourself
now is, why even bother? Just execute the Rage variation with its straightforward motion input.
It's true that Rage and Destroy look exactly the same and probably deal the same amount of damage,
there is one crucial difference between the two. Ryuko Ranbu : Destroy is unblockable.
And because it looks the same as Rage, you can see why this is a huge advantage as
you can easily trick your opponent with it. Because it's so mysterious and sneaky and because
its input looks simple at first but is actually incredibly hard to do, Ryuko Ranbu: Destroy wins
the title of the hardest super to execute in KOF. So, which one of these supers haunts
your nightmares? or is there others that I didn't mention in the list? Share
your answer with us in the comments. Special thanks to my generous patrons for
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