Tag Archives: SNK

King of Fighters 2002/2003 Review

Posted on by
Reply


King of Fighters has had many games over the years. There are very few who can say that they have played all of them. Even for me thanks to the elusive 99 I won’t be able to say that but I will have basically played through the whole series so that feels like a rather massive W if you ask me. These two games are pretty fun and continue the game on a rather high note.

First up the 2002 game doesn’t really have a story. So for that game you’re really playing through the arcade mode to have a general sense of the controls and you get to beat up a revived Rugal again which is always intense. Definitely not a boss that you want to mess with. In 2003 you’re mainly playing with Ash as you try to get more power and then get wrapped up into another big villain conspiracy. Looks like the Orochi factions aren’t quite done yet but Ash can hold his own.

At this point King of Fighters has so many different factions and it’s always fun to see all of them being active a the same time. That’s not something that you usually see so that’s pretty different compared to other fighting game titles. You have the Orochi revivers, the NEST remnants, Ash basically counts since he’s trying to absorb more power, Rugal’s kids, etc. The game would really be able to do a whole lot as an RPG with this many characters to play around with.

The gameplay is pretty classic as you would expect. There are different mechanics that get added and removed as the games go on but the classic core of the gameplay is still the same. Use your attacks and special moves to take your opponents down. The arcade mode will take you down the path to taking down the main villains. After playing so many of them in a row, I do think it’s impressive how consistent the games are. They all tend to generally follow the same patterns and schedules.

It’s mainly the story that changes and of course some specifics in the actual gameplay like I mentioned. I wonder if the hardcore fans could immediately tell you which game it is based on the win screens after a match. That would be a fun test for some of the more intense fans. I naturally wouldn’t be able to clear that quite yet but I do think I would be able to put up a decent fight since they’re all really fresh in my mind.

The graphics are good as always. I definitely have no problem with them. I do miss Terry’s old design with the cap but since he gave it to a girl at the end of one of the games, it makes sense that he no longer has it. It was so iconic though. I forget if he ever gets it back in the newer games but hopefully he does. He still has it in all of the spinoffs after all. The soundtrack is also good. I felt like we got some more memorable tracks this time around although it might be difficult to find them. I suppose I’d just have to listen to the full soundtrack to pick it out.

As always there is no limit to the replay value here. Just keep on playing with a friend and you could do that all day. If you’re only playing by yourself then that might not be quite as fun but that’s always been the case historically. So it’s not unique to King of Fighters or anything like that. These games were made to be enjoyed by everyone and that way you can also learn how to fight the right way. In a lot of ways fighting the computer teaches you the wrong things since you are focused on exploiting the AI and your moves may not be optimal. Like overusing the jump kick to sweep kick combo may work on the computers but if you keep on doing that against a real opponent then you’re going to be countered real hard.

As always get ready for some real crazy final bosses. These aren’t the craziest to be sure but you’ll likely still die a few times an need the bonus. It’s still very impressive that the bosses are always this tough though. It’s like a point of pride for the series and it is definitely well earned. That kind of difficulty doesn’t just appear on its own. The developers had to work really hard on that one.

Overall, These two games were fun as expected. They had some fun tunes and the gameplay was good as always. You really get to test your limits in these games as well as your reaction times. You’re not going to go down very easily that’s for sure. I’ll be having more King of Fighters reviews up pretty soon so get ready for that. It is definitely a really fun franchise and if the developers were willing to go just a bit harder with it on the next big title, it could really start to make waves on the fighting game scene. Give us a story like Street Fighter V or what Tekken always has. The characters in KoF and their backstories are definitely detailed and expansive enough to support this.

Overall 7/10

King of Fighters 2000 & 2001 Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for some King of Fighters hype! It’s pretty fun to be playing through all of the games in the series. These two start to feel a bit more modern on the PS2 but you’ve still got enough retro elements in the game to make it feel nostalgic. You’ve also got some real stories going on here which is always fun. It would be nice if there was a longer story for everybody but I’m still satisfied. There is basically always a cliffhanger here as well to keep things moving.

In 2000, we get to play as K who is fighting for his memories and to take down the villains like NEST. He enters the King of Fighters tournament to deal some serious damage and along the way the villains make their move as well. Kula also gets involved which is fun because for me she’s one of the more nostalgic characters. I played as her a lot in one of the spinoff games. So to see her with more of a starring role was definitely a lot of fun, her ice abilities also work pretty well in the gameplay.

The game has the striker system active so you can summon assists like in Marvel vs Capcom. It’s pretty fun although it never really works on the bosses all that much. This is the only game where the final boss isn’t too crazy though. You can actually fight him like a normal boss and eventually win as opposed to just being cheesy the whole time and staying in the corner. Hey, you have to win whatever it takes right? So no shame there, you just look forward to actually rushing in and fighting so this was a fun change of pace. Part of King of Fighters’ whole appeal is the insane difficulty though. These final bosses are really made to make you work to find whatever exploit you can in order to win.

2001 adds another extra mechanic to the striker system. This time you can have up to 3 strikers. So you can use all 4 fighters to attack the enemy or only have one. The balance is up to you but one thing to keep in mind is that the final boss will have more health if you opt to go with 4 fighters. I didn’t even realize that so for a while there he was dominating me and had tons of health. Fortunately every time you die you can readjust your team so after a bunch of losses I put everyone into being a striker except my main guy and then I used him to win the day. It was still extremely difficult to be sure and I just barely pulled it off but that does seem like the play. You are basically banking on RNG here to be able to beat the final boss.

You need him to make the wrong choices just a few times on 2001 and then you will be able to finish him off with minimal difficulty. I suppose the one drawback is you will be getting sent to the game over screen a lot quicker this way as your one fighter will keep on going down quickly but at the end of the day it’s still worth it. I still advise going through this way. Also, make sure you do not use your summons. They will never land a hit anyway and only exist to get in your way. Activating them is basically ensuring your own defeat. So definitely make sure that you don’t do that. In the split second it takes to call them out the boss will inevitably use a wide energy wave to take down both of you.

The final boss is also able to use super attacks without using up any magical energy. This means that blocking forever is only worth it if you are aiming for a timeout but otherwise it’s not like you’re going to tire this guy out. So definitely just keep an eye out on that. For most battles you still want to go with the tried and true tactic of an aerial kick into a sweeping kick but you never want to approach these final bosses. Let them come to you and you just stick to punishing their mistakes. Each small hit will eventually add up and then you’re good.

As you would expect the graphics for both games are pretty good. In general you can see the graphics improving s the games go on but it still will take some time before they’re completely up to PS5 level or anything like that. The sprites are very colorful though and that’s why I recommend them as an artstyle. They will never get out of date and will always look very pleasant no matter how many years go by. The soundtrack is another okay one as well. The themes match the stages but aren’t something you would necessarily be looking up on Youtube.

That’s good enough though, at the end of the day this is a fighting game and one that is a lot of fun. I enjoy all of the combos and the big character roster. It’s a game that really never has to stop giving you entertainment since you can have endless vs battles. The replay value is there and since the gameplay itself is really solid, that’s all you need. It’s certainly possible that you won’t need to play this one if you have the sequels but at least this will still work out. Terry is still my favorite character even if I’ve had to play as the other characters lately for the story.

Overall, King of Fighters is a solid series that has certainly had a lot of games. This collection does a good job of bringing two of the games in and they work really well together. I’ve certainly improved my King of Fighter fundamentals even if I would not exactly be tournament ready just yet. I would really need to stud the games for that and get used to the combos. In the meantime, going through story mode is definitely the right amount of investment for me. I don’t really need anything more. Of course if we ever do get a massive cinematic story mode then I would have to really learn the controls because I would not want to miss that!

Overall 7/10

King of Fighters XI Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time to jump to another King of Fighters title. XI really gets modern in a lot of ways as it just feels newer than some of the others. The gameplay is really crisp and it’s all on point but they definitely do ramp up the difficulty quite a bit here. I was definitely not prepared for the bullet hell final boss where he was just spamming all kinds of attacks. Certainly not a boss for the faint of heart.

The villains are all making their moves during the King of Fighters tournament which makes sense. We fight Rugal’s kid again and in the climax we’re up against more people trying to harness the powers of Orochi. It’s easy to see why they want this kind of power because it seems like it consistently pushes you to near the top of the verse. So that’s an incredibly handy ability to have. Of course the heroes aren’t about to let that happen so easily. As long as there are heroes left to defend the world, Orochi will not be revived without a fight!

Good luck beating the final boss though, he actually did end up vanquishing me this time. So here’s the tough part, he has many different projectile moves. He can shoot these large orbs that move slowly but bounce a lot. Then he has his lightning fast purple energy blasts. If you get close he has an energy uppercut that deals massive amounts of damage. The guy can also teleport so he will suddenly appear behind you and go for a command grab. You must not let him grab you! I cannot stress this enough, if he grabs you then it’s all over. You’re not going to stand a chance here.

You also can’t time him out this time because the rules have changed. Even if you have more health than the boss, he will win when the counter goes down. It seems like the health is based as a percentage since you had 3 characters to his one. There’s really no chance you are going to triple his health though because all of his energy attacks deal chip damage. So what this means is that you are going to have to take the attack to him. Of course we already know that approaching him is not a good idea because of the uppercut so what other options do you have?

Well, one of them is to try and roll towards the boss. You roll under the energy blast and land a sweeping kick. Of course the problem is that he will often teleport away or hit you as you approach. It’s also not so easy to time the energy attacks and when you roll because of how fast they are. So while the plan itself may be good, that doesn’t mean that it will be successful. In the end you may end up getting absolutely destroyed anyway. No matter how many times I fought the guy, I kept on losing.

That’s even including the bonus they give you after losing where the opponent starts with a lower amount of health. It’s not quite the 1/3 health that it used to be but it’s still a good bonus. I don’t get why this gives the boss so much more defense though. In a way it starts to completely offset the advantage of his having low health in the first place so I really don’t get it. Not a great move if you ask me, I wanted to have a way to defeat this guy. Ah well, major props to anyone who succeeded here.

I didn’t really talk about the gameplay but at its core it is the classic kind of King of Fighters gameplay. It’s a 2D 3 on 3 fighter where you beat up on your opponents. The goal is to knock all of them out before they knock you out. You can use various special moves although the button combinations are rather difficult. In most games I can button mash and get the special attacks out easily but not in this one. Usually your best bet is to use an aerial kick and then a sweeping kick either way though. It’s a 2 hit combo that is incredibly hard for the computer to resist.

Meanwhile the graphics are fairly sharp. I’d say they have aged well and the sprite based style is just a lot of fun in general. The cutscenes themselves are also nostalgic with the different images popping in and out. As always the dialogue can be rather quick though so you need to bring your A game. The soundtrack is also pretty good. Not the best one in the series but it does work pretty well in general so it gets a thumbs up.

In terms of replay value, there is naturally a whole lot here. The vs mode means that you can play that part of the game forever and ever. There are certainly a lot of characters after all and fighting games never really have to end. They can keep on going so long as you have someone to play with. If that is the case then you will be in really good hands. The price isn’t bad either, you could buy this online right now.

Overall, King of Fighters delivers with another really fun game here. The final boss may even be the toughest in some ways just because the game removes the option to cheese him via time out. Rugal still feels like the toughest to me but I was ultimately able to beat most versions of him. (Just not the first one) So I suppose KOF 94 will go down as the hardest and this will be in second place. One thing’s for sure, if you’re looking for a challenge then you have absolutely come to the right place.

Overall 7/10