No thread for this so thought I would chip in.
This got caned upon arcade release, a quick search of this site will reveal that. I have played the arcade version, and was not impressed with the Neo sprite rips and pixellated blocky characters.
But I was impressed with the game , which to me plays as smoothly and efficiently as any KOF to date. Sure, it is no '96 or '98, but it is still as solid a 2D fighter as you will find. And the PS2 version is, in my humble opinion, excellent.
Why? Well to start off with you have the smoothing/filtering abilities of the PS2 that eliminate the jagged edges. Once you turn this on the sprites look lovely. the hi-res backgrounds also look very nice, particularly the one with all the flowers.
On top of this the presentation in the front end and between bouts is superb, I really like the art style used for this game, and the loading times are minimal when compared to those in PS2 NGBC and Sam Sho Zero. Sonically the game is tight, with some nice jazzified music and an option to choose original or arrange soundtrack.
Playability wise, well, it is KOF. Team mode returns, and is as familiar as ever. All the gang are present, with bosses including a long haired Geese and unspeakably evil kraut arms dealer Rugal. Loads of unlockable artwork and a few unlockable characters as well. Fun survival mode as ever, character edit mode and practice mode.
Fighting systems wise you have the addition of the "heat mode", a fifth button that allows.......well I won't go into all the intricacies. There are others on here who can do a better job of explaining the beat 'em up systems than I can. All I can say is that I really enjoyed this game, prefer it to the arcade version, and would recommend it to anyone who is a KOF fan. It is terrific in 2 player as well, ovbviously.
This got caned upon arcade release, a quick search of this site will reveal that. I have played the arcade version, and was not impressed with the Neo sprite rips and pixellated blocky characters.
But I was impressed with the game , which to me plays as smoothly and efficiently as any KOF to date. Sure, it is no '96 or '98, but it is still as solid a 2D fighter as you will find. And the PS2 version is, in my humble opinion, excellent.
Why? Well to start off with you have the smoothing/filtering abilities of the PS2 that eliminate the jagged edges. Once you turn this on the sprites look lovely. the hi-res backgrounds also look very nice, particularly the one with all the flowers.
On top of this the presentation in the front end and between bouts is superb, I really like the art style used for this game, and the loading times are minimal when compared to those in PS2 NGBC and Sam Sho Zero. Sonically the game is tight, with some nice jazzified music and an option to choose original or arrange soundtrack.
Playability wise, well, it is KOF. Team mode returns, and is as familiar as ever. All the gang are present, with bosses including a long haired Geese and unspeakably evil kraut arms dealer Rugal. Loads of unlockable artwork and a few unlockable characters as well. Fun survival mode as ever, character edit mode and practice mode.
Fighting systems wise you have the addition of the "heat mode", a fifth button that allows.......well I won't go into all the intricacies. There are others on here who can do a better job of explaining the beat 'em up systems than I can. All I can say is that I really enjoyed this game, prefer it to the arcade version, and would recommend it to anyone who is a KOF fan. It is terrific in 2 player as well, ovbviously.
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