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Review: King of Fighters ‘99 |
Playstation ports of 2D fighting games are pretty much the junk food of my fighting game habit. They’re empty, incomplete, and often include fancy extras to make up for the lack of nutritive value within.
And they can drive you nuts. But I just can’t seem to put them down, and often end up buying them. Exhibit A and Exhibit B are a testament to this. And so when I saw a copy of King of Fighters ‘99 for the PSX, I immediately fell for it, like how guys fall for Athena in hentai manga.
Kinda like this
Controversial! Sensational! Radical! Metrosexual! These are but a few words that neatly describe the King of Fighters ‘99. It’s not easy to follow up after a great game like KOF ‘98, and I’m pretty sure SNK had that in mind when making KOF ‘99. Thus a lot of new changes were implemented. Tweaks were made on 98’s engine, and a new gameplay features were but a few were welcome (if odd) changes made in KOF ‘99. Add a few characters new to KOF, and you’ve got a decent game. Interested? Let us further investigate.
King of Fighters ‘99 is like a hybrid of 98’s Advanced and Extra modes, as it has some features of each mode. It has the three-tiered super meter and DM’s of Advanced. It also has the SDM-at-red-life-only proviso and dodge of Extra mode. The C+D and counter C+D attacks that both modes share are also present of course. It is the dodge the really gives this game’s engine that “hybrid” feel. It lets you avoid attacks like a “normal” dodge would, but like a roll, it actually moves you forward. Slide dodge is probably the best way to describe it, and I admit that using it was quite weird at first. The old back roll command of back A+B is even weirder. I expected it to merely be a slide dodge in reverse gear. But I was surprised with that this command actually causes your character to do a small hop forward, once the back slide is completed. I understand that the hop is cancelable, and it is meant to put you back on offense once you’ve finished dodging. However, I found it annoying at first as well, as I kept thinking, “Wow, thanks for nothing, game engine, now my character hops straight into the attack that she meant to avoid in the first place”!
Max modes and strikers are the brave innovations in the gameplay of King of Fighters ‘99. There are two types of max mode, Counter Mode (accessed with A+B+C once all three super stocks are filled) and Armor Mode (accessed with B+C+D under the same condition). The former allows for certain normal-to-special-to-super cancels to be performed, and the ability to perform DM’s repeatedly as long as the timer is running; the latter gives the character a power and defense boost, and immunity to knockdowns. Strikers, on the other hand, are accessed using B+C. It causes your fourth character to briefly hop in and perform a certain attack. This can be used to stall, to extend combos, etc. It’s no doubt akin to the helper attacks in the first Marvel vs. Capcom, as the number of striker attacks usable is finite by default, as indicated by “S” icons at the bottom of the screen. Personally, I found the Striker system in ‘99 to be middle ground. Strikers aren’t on the OMG LOL FUCK BROKEN level that they were in KOF 2000, and they weren’t quite reduced to insignificance like they were in KOF 2001’s weird ratio system. It’s just right, though it can get annoying or even boring at times. If they bother you that much, you can switch them off in the Options menu-just be sure to do so for both 1P and 2P sides. :B
Strikers also mean that four characters are needed to complete a team: three point characters and one striker. Eight teams-well okay, seven teams plus Kyo in triplicate and Iori. The three versions of Kyo are Kyo-1, Kyo-2, and True Kyo. Kyo-1 is the fireball-throwing Kyo of old; Kyo-2 is the contemporary Aragami chain, Final Showdown Kyo of ‘97/’98. True Kyo is a more or less a tweaked contemporary Kyo. He has the Aragami and Dokugami chains, the Oniyaki, the useful juggle kick and RED kick, the Orochinagi and a new DM. And he has a brand-spanking new outfit, too! Why all the Kusanagi’s running around, you ask? It’s all storyline-related.
The seven teams and flame users galore sets the character count to 32. The Orochi saga characters have gone and in their place, brave new characters and some returning ones. And as with the previous KOF games, it is the newcomers who make an impact:
Gone is the Kyo-Iori rivalry of old. The new hero is K’, a scrawny, tanned, white-haired wonder. With his flame “trigger” attacks, funky supers, tight leather suit, and sunglasses, he exudes that twin feeling of gay and coolness that only SNK character designs can deliver. K’s burly Canadian boyfriend sidekick is Maxima. He’s a cyborg and thus is a power character with tons of priority and dishes out damage with unusual ways (VAPOH CANOOOON). Did I mention he has gnarly sideburns? K’, Maxima, Benimaru, and Shingo form the ‘99 Hero Team. Surely, no other KOF team pre-2003 had such a dense concentration of homoerotic innuendo. :) The Korean and Ikari teams also gained one new member apiece. The former welcomes Jhun Hoon, a white-haired tae kwon do master who is as every bit dashing, psychotic, and hypocritical as his old pal Kim; the latter proudly advertises Whip, a girl who, as her name implies, uses weapons and has wicked long range bondage-a-licious attacks.
And last but certainly not the least, the infamous Bao. Yes, the psychic wunderkind with the big orange hat and small stature. He raised the Annoy-o-meter readings for the already annoying Psycho Soldiers by a few points. And without a doubt, he changed Saigado Comics forever. :(
I’m probably gonna get killed by the majority for this, but playing as Bao was interesting to say the least. He’s fast, hard to hit, and has Athena’s power of cheese. He has the psycho-balls, a reflector (it deals considerable chip damage) and odd variations of the Phoenix Arrow (i.e. he cannonballs horizontally or vertically). He’s the top tier of this game, and I got to give credit for that. However, I don’t think I’ll be able to stomach him character-wise, design-wise, doujin-wise or whatever-wise anytime soon. Bah.
I’m young! I’m psychic! I was supposed to be a girl
The story. Uh. Call me biased towards the Orochi saga, but frankly, the story broke my brain. The King of Fighters ‘99 is the first game in the infamous NESTS cartel saga. This means that for three KOF games, from ‘99 through 2001, plot revolves around cloning, technology, and bad fashion sense. Yeargh!
The year 1999 is two years after the last KOF, as ‘98 was a dream match. Kyo has gone missing, and KOF turns out to be a front (zzzzz) for NESTS to gather fighting data. Apparently, they need this “data” to activate an army of Kyo clones (akjsfskjhdksjhfjadsfbshdsbn) so they can take over the world. K’, it turns out, is a person whose ability to wield flames stems from the fact that he was infused with the Kusanagi flame gene. He and Maxima are runaway NESTS agents. Okay. Thank you, goodbye; I’d rather have my story of cursed bloodlines and blood riots and secretaries who couldn’t protect their own virginities. Call it a personal preference, but I’d take legend-based shtick over sci-fi cheese any day. But of course this is prime canon stuff that should keep storyline scrubs happy.
I died and Jesus sent me to yaoi fangirl heaven by mistake
Single player mode is surprisingly short, with only five team-based fights until you encounter the boss, Krizalid. As mentioned above, he’s organized this KOF to collect fighting data to activate the Kyo clones (akjsfskjhdksjhfjadsfbshdsbn). He is a fighter of the same vein as K’, white-haired, wielding borrowed Kusanagi flames, and clothed in the same odd cyberpunk fashion. I understand that his name is derived from “chrysalis”, or cocoon; in other words, he’s a NESTS work in progress. Still, I can’t help but notice that the name sounds like the name of a girl that I had a crush on for the longest time. Sniff. What an incredible boss. But I’m getting ahead of myself here.
Krizalid attacks in two stages. The first one is a goofy, coat-and-feathers form. This form is rather easy, the attacks I noted were a slow piercing fireball and an even slower kick move. In the second form, Kriz gets serious. He burns off the coat with his power and goes into cheap-mode. Here, he reveals quite a shocking and titillating power: he can fire tornadoes from his crotch! There are two versions to his crotch wind-the first one is a static reflector one. No biggie. The second one is a nigh full-screen “oh good God fuck you cheap augh” one. It’s fast, travels horizontally, has excellent horizontal and vertical range, and builds Krizalid’s meter quickly. It also overrides nearly every attack you attempt-of all the moves I’ve tried against his mobile crotch wind, only Maxima’s vapor cannon could at least neutralize it. Everything else just gets eaten alive. Combined with an uppercut of Genocide Cutter levels of atrocity, a God Press like move, and devastating DM’s, you can almost see his name next to this dictionary entry. Admittedly, he’s a little easier in the PSX than the arcade version, but he’s still frustrating hard work to the newcomer. His AI tornado and uppercut patterns are absolutely horrendous at the highest difficulty settings. But as with other SNK monsters, he is by no means unbeatable. Try doing repetitions of Whip’s assassin time on him sometime. ;)
RAWRGH HELLO I AM PRINCE FOR SOME REASON
So, now that the most important non-port points have been addressed, how does the King of Fighters ‘99 fare as a PSX port? In a nutshell, it is arguably the best KOF PSX port, but like the preceding ones, it’s just average at best. Aside from the regular Team and Single modes, there’s a feature called “Single Play”. It’s like a much more lenient Survival mode wherein you face all 32 characters and your performance is gauged using a regular score system. For the life of me, I couldn’t quite decipher the mechanics behind the new Battle Ability Points system that the arcade mode offers.
Other nifty features of the PSX port include:
- Color Edit mode, should the need to make a Shadow Bao or a Neon K’ arise;
- A Voice Collection, where you can sample the various VA’s; and
- As with the previous KOF ports, a handsome art gallery. The usual official- and fan-made delights are here. And for laughs and intrigue, SNK decided to include the concept art sketches too. It is worth noting that one illustration has a sketch of a young man and a young woman who eventually became Adelheid and Rose in KOF 2003.
Graphically, the game is average, both for a KOF and a PSX title. The in-game art is one of the best for a KOF game. Only KOF 2000 rivals it in terms of gorgeous artwork. If only the same could be said for the sprites and the backgrounds. The sprites seem to be slightly less detailed than in the arcade version, presumably to reduce load times and to be more accommodating to the PSX. Sadly, the old problem of the previous of jerkiness and frame cuts is still evident in the animations (especially with the “ranbu” supers). There’s nothing to be excited about with regards to the backgrounds, either. While I did like the rainy stage, some of them bordered the “what were they thinking” zone. The sewer and the “man chasing a dog” stage come to mind. For most part the backgrounds are boring and forgettable. I’m sorry, but fighting in a dinosaur museum in the dead of night is not going to cut it.
The soundtrack is magical. As with the previous ports, the AST is utilized for the enjoyment of PSX users. It is hands down the best ST of the series not named KOF ‘96. From the Powerpuff Girls-like beat to the Psycho Soldiers theme to the awesome as always tune of the Koreans to the whirrs and beeps of Krizalid’s stage, the AST captivates and pleases like no other. In fact I whistle KD-0079 and the FF Team’s tune on a daily basis. :) Were it not for the soundtrack, I believe this game would be really boring. My only problems with the sound are a) it usually builds up after a round is finished and an enemy is KO’d; and b) the track is divided into two; this means that every other round one segment of the track will loop. This tends to get annoying in the long run.
How I looked after playing through this port
The King of Fighters ‘99 is an okay addition to the series. It’s not such a shabby sequel to ‘98 and the game engine and aesthetic innovations are decent. However, I found it as quite possibly the most boring KOF game to play, ever. It’s not awe-inspiring and adrenaline pumped as KOF ‘98 or KOF 2003, and at the same time not as hilarious (-ly bad) like the first two KOF games or KOF 2001. In other words, it’s good for at least a few hours of playing through, though I suggest that you approach it with caution. End transmission.
