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Review: King of Fighters 2001 |
Bloody KOF2K1. For some reason I always seem to be spending money on the thing. It’s way down my list of favourite KOFs but it keeps being released and as a proud fighting game geek/gullible corporate shill, I have to keep buying them.
The PS2 version is the latest release and it comes with a couple of interesting new facets, but at the end of the day is a bit of a waste of time really.
There’s a new intro, with new portraits of a handful of characters sliding about, there’s stylish new presentation, and the horrendous character artwork of Neo-Geo 2K1 has been replaced by the slightly less horrendous character artwork of official Eolith/Playmore artist Nona.
The general effect is the game looks slightly more professional. I have yet to laugh out loud while cycling through the options, which in itself is quite an achievement. Not everything is overhauled - some of the select screens and vs. screens retain some of their past ‘glory’ - it’s still fundamentally 2K1, unfortunately, just a slightly nicer one.
The big ooh and aah of the game is the addition of ‘3D’ backdrops. I use ‘3D’ advisedly, because while they’re polygonal, the added dimensionality, so to speak is non-existent. There’s no panning around distant scenery and no rotating objects - it’s sort of like playing NG 2K1 with a looping MPEG clip in place of parts the background (which incidentally is exactly what the menu screens are.)
Questionable technicalities aside, it must be made clear that it does actually Look Good. Very Good in places - more detail, more colours, FAR better composition. Similar to Dreamcast King of Fighters: Evolution, each stage now has two versions, comprising of different colour schemes and varying elements (people, objects) - elements that sometimes stick out a little, but most of the time are managed well.
My personal favourites are the spiffy sunset O.Zero stage, the China stage in the early morning mist (oh yes) and the orangey evening rendition of the Italy bridge stage. The much-derided ‘racetrack’ stage has been completely redone and now sees the players fighting on a bridge over the track, while FMV cars drive, and sometimes crash underneath.
Some of the alternate stages can look a little empty, but they’re a definite improvement, adding a bit of gravitas and style to proceedings.
The redone backgrounds also have the added effect of making the sprites themselves stand out sharp and clear against the aliased, shaded, textured background. I’m not sure if it’s deliberate, but it’s a good effect, especially when compared to the OTT busyness of the Neo version.
It is possible to unlock the original arcade backgrounds for use, though I cannot see why anyone would want to.
Apart from that the game is business as usual. The sound is identical, clear and loud, the godawful droning, nauseating dirge that passes for a soundtrack is to my infinite regret recreated exactly. The game plays just like you’d expect 2K1 to, the controls, load times, sprites and cutscenes all executed extremely well … but there’s little else to impress. Extras are very thin on the ground as well, the mysterious ‘Party Mode’ being nothing more than yet another tedious survival battle. I’ve never been invited to a party in my life (;_;) - but I’m pretty sure they don’t involve fighting hundreds of fighting game characters each with 1/10 of their lifebar.
Igniz and O.Zero are unlockable (big whoo), and that’s about all. The now-traditional survival/puzzle/gallery modes of the Dreamcast ports totally absent, as is anything else that would prove a draw.
Like I said at the start - a waste of time. It certainly doesn’t ’save’ King of Fighters 2001, it doesn’t redeem Eolith (it’s nothing to do with them, so why should it?) - what we’ve got here is a company releasing a moderately souped-up apology for a game that is now two years old, one that still doesn’t manage to come anywhere near the quality the series enjoyed five, six years ago.
I enjoy the aesthetic revisions, make no mistake, but at the end of the day will take game and game-related extras and additions every single time.
Once I’d gawped at the ten or so background levels and the win portraits - there was literally nothing else for me to do that I hadn’t done already some two years ago. And while revisiting classic fighters can be a great deal of fun, especially when they are true classics - revisiting Eolith’s horrific debut into the genre isn’t.
If by some freak brain misfire I ever find myself wanting to play 2K1, this is undoubtedly the version I will play, but with so many better games, both within the KOF series and outside it, I doubt that will happen that often. Avoid.
