Neo Geo

The King of Fighters '95

The electronic music is engaging and helps emphasize the uptempo pace of the battles. Eight skill levels are available, and you can "rank in" to the high score screen with a mere 20K, making it easy to record your high scores. It's not a huge step forward, but King of Fighters 95' does a brilliant job of tweaking an already winning formula.

KOF '95 is one of the best brawlers out there, especially with the Edit feature that creates endless possibilities. Let's hope for a real all-star lineup in 1996.

SNK has done it again. I didn't think they could do it, but they improved upon KOF '94. In KOF '95, they replaced one of their old fighting teams and added a new one. My favorite new option was the added Team Edit Option in which the player can choose any three of the 24 fighters to make their own personal team. The gameplay and animation is top-notch. With these changes and the new backgrounds, SNK has produced perhaps their best fighter yet.

King of Fighters '95 is everything that fans of the KOF series could have wanted in a straight sequel. It combines the already well-polished gameplay from KOF94 with some graphical improvements and the ability to make custom teams to create a very enjoyable gaming experience.

That leaves this edition one of the least renovated. The company was obviously working the formula, inserting some inspired backdrops, and tweaking this just slightly for the next year. It's a small step (though not a bad game by any means), enough to write this one off completely, and ignore it to head straight into '96.

Where King of Fighters excels is the massive amount of playable, diverse characters. Even before Capcom started teaming their fighters up to see who was the better (my bet will always be on Strider), SNK was teaming the Art of Fighting combatants and the Fatal Fury kids with the Ikari Troupe ... all representing a different game SNK developed. I must say, this was always intriguing, and I wished more companies would do things like this. However, as much as I like this game, it seems like they have missed a wonderful oppurtunity to cross some of the Samurai Shodown, or Last Blade characters into the King of Fighters universe. This series has just improved over time, however subtly. And while it's not Street Fighter II, it isn't Time Killers, either. I wish there was more to it, but each of the games is fun to play.