What kind of game is Waku Waku 7?
Waku Waku 7 is an obscure, hidden gem of a fighting game, developed by Sunsoft. The game has a lot of common features found in SNK games, like the 4 buttons scheme, the screen Zoom, etc... Waku offers a lot of unique mechanics such as the ability to launch your opponent to the side of the screen, being able to jump from the wall for certain characters and rebounding when being thrown to the wall.
Waku is a more Footsies neutral heavy game, punishing in this game usually lead to big damage, jump ins are high risk high reward options, being a more slow paced game.
How do most people play this game?
Waku Waku 7 is primarily played on Fightcade 2, Fightcade is a matchmaking platform for retro gaming, bundled with different emulators for seamless online play. Fightcade is a free application that can be downloaded from the official Fightcade site.
How do I access a training mode?
If you are emulating the arcade version on Fightcade 2 you can download the fbneo-training-mode scripts developed by Fee Bee and peon2 which includes full support for Waku Waku 7 to turn your offline play session into a training mode.
- Unzip the files to their own folder
- In the emulator, go to "Game -> Lua Scripting -> New Lua Script Window"
- Browse in the newly unzipped folder and open up "fbneo-training-mode.lua"
- Click Run
- Enter a 2 player versus game to begin.
The Sunsoft Collection for PlayStation 2 also features a training mode, but emulation performance is significantly worse in comparison to the above method.
Are there any other resources for this game?
- Waku Waku 7 (Neo Geo) at GameFAQs has several guides, Afroshouji's guides are the primary reference of this wiki.
- Gamest Mook Vol. 63 was made for Waku Waku 7.
Which characters are good for beginners?
If you're just getting started try Arina, Rai or Mauru. Arina and Rai are shoto archetype characters while Mauru has simple but effective tools as a rushdown character.
Tesse and Politank Z carry the zoner playstyle which may be harder to pick up for total beginners but are exactly what you may be looking for if that's your thing. Dandy J and Slash are have unique movement options and more complicated inputs to handle, which may be less approachable in exchange for their flashy tools.
How can I play as Bonus Kun or Fernandez?
Because Fernandez and Bonus Kun were exclusive to the home versions of the game they are not available to play via Fightcade 2's online play (using the arcade ROM). You can play with them through the Sunsoft Collection or via the wakuwak7bh.zip romhack.
