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Review: King of Fighters ‘96 |
Since the inception of Neo Geo, I’ve always kinda kept my distance from their 2-D fighters. I dismissed Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, and their many sequels as “unoriginal” and “uninspired”.
The Samurai Spirits (Shodown in the US) series sparked my interest (Lord knows, I have 1, 3, 4, and the RPG). However, the rest never really blew up my dress. “GET ON WITH IT!!” Oh yeah, right. Anyways, the strangest part was that I suddenly had this undying urge to play King of Fighters about a week ago. So, I went to my local import store and picked up a copy of KoF ‘96 for the Saturn (w/o RAM Cart) for $45. Well, I haven’t been converted, but I’m at least less skeptical.
The KoF series revolves around a dream tournament in which all of the greatest fighters from all walks of Neo Geo life, whether they be from Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury, Ikari Warriors, or misc. (some are actually new character designs ) compete to stop some madman. In KoF ‘94 + ‘95 it was Omega Rugal, a beefy, yet relatively unchallenging gent who looked a tad bit like Wolfgang Krauser from the Fatal Fury series. The new crazed powerhouse in ‘96 is a man by the name of Goenitz. In any case, the story revolves around the Orochi (devil/demon) power that is constantly being toyed with. You choose 3 fighters from 27 characters/9 teams of 3. You can choose all three from the same team, meaning you’ll get a special ending, or you can just any 3 you damn well please. You fight it out in a survival style. First two fight, who ever wins, stays. The loser must go to the next guy on their team. Pretty simple, right?
The presentation of this game is where I find fault. The concept is still fairly fresh, and the wide range of characters is a welcome change, but the graphics and sound on this Saturn version suffer a little, even with the RAM cart helping out. After witnessing the marvels that can be done with 2-D (Capcom’s latest masterpieces, Samurai 4 on Saturn), I find KoF’s graphics to be rather bland. The colors aren’t vibrant, the animation’s nothing to write home about, and the backgrounds scream “Blah!”. The RAM cart does make a significant difference, and I probably wouldn’t want to have this game w/o it, but I’m categorically unimpressed with this conversion, aesthetically speaking.
The sounds are fairly stereotypical Saturn fare. It’s unfortunate, seeing as how we’ve seen Saturn’s sound capabilities used properly.
Despite the way the game looks and sounds, I still enjoy the way it plays. I may be spoiled by the arcade perfect XSF, but if this was a tag game, I’d probably play KoF more often. The normals, specials, and supers all are done in SF style (Rolls of the joystick and charges mainly), and all come out on call every time. The wide variety in character playing styles makes for a welcome change. The only qualm I have gameplay wise is the unlimited super usage once you get down to “Desperation” level. Gets old quick.
This is the kinda game I’ll be playing three months down the road ‘cuz I’m tired of playing all my other stuff. It’s cool. It’s just not my cup of tea.
Everyone keeps tellin’ me I should go see KoF ‘97. Now that my interest is mildly aroused, I just might. :) In all honesty, I can’t recommend this game to everyone. The avid SNK fanatic probably already has it on his CDZ anyways, but if you’re in to SNK’s stuff, go for it. If you’re not, avoid it. This won’t be the one to get you hooked.
Bottom Line: It’s KoF. You love it or you hate it. Make your decision accordingly.
- Dark Schneider
