PlayStation

The King of Fighters '99

King of Fighters is viewed by many as the poor man’s Street Fighter, but if you were to say that to a fan, they would surely have more than a word or two to say about that. For anime fans, the nice thing about the series is that it has always stuck to its cell-based animation, but over the years, KoF hasn’t really benefited from large budgets like the Street Fighters series, and its animations show some age. The fighting, on the other hand, has always been fresh, with plenty of moves to master and combos to unleash. When you put the whole package together, however, KoF comes up short. The new Striker combos are a nice touch, and all the art to unlock is interesting to look at, but this game certainly isn’t heading in a new direction or doing anything impressive. Fans of the series will be happy to get a new version, but SNK really needs to expand this game if they want to make a ground-breaking fighter. As it is, this game is just KoF status quo.

King of Fighters '99 is a year or two late, but still a fine specimen of a fighting game. The home version tries to spice up the standard three-on-three-plus-strikers formula from the arcade version by adding a Single play mode. Two fighters-one active, one a striker-fight their way through the rest of the cast in an old school best-of-three brawl. The mode simply doesn't fit in the King of Fighters series, though, and is more of a novelty than a game mode. The sounds and animations of the Neo Geo were apparently too much for the PlayStation to handle, and the quality is significantly lower. Load times also bog down the PlayStation version, making an excellent arcade fighting game a PSX rental, at best. Hardcore fans should note it includes an art gallery and color edit mode which are really nice bonuses for SNK die-hards.

The King of Fighters '99 for the PlayStation is a fairly good port in and of itself, especially considering the limitations of the aging PlayStation hardware. It features all of the background stages of the original game, as well as the full arranged soundtrack. Unfortunately, the game's voice samples are distorted and the animations are short a few frames. Otherwise, it's a decent port - but it's a decent port of an inherently disappointing game.

The only really big new thing is that you can bring a fourth character along, whose only purpose is to be activated for Striker moves that heal the player or spring a nasty attack on your enemies. Unfortunately, you can usually see the moves coming from a mile away, making them more of a novelty than a deadly new maneuver. I'm sure thousands of loyal fans will go out and buy this game the second it hits the stores, but I don't really see the point.