"Does Eolith spoil the KOF series or make it better than ever?"

YAY! SNK's most popular franchise returns again! However, this time it's being co-developed by Eolith. Does Eolith spoil the KOF series or make it better than ever? Read on...

Graphics
The graphics are the same as KOF 2K/'99/'98 etc. that is because KOF 2K1 is still being made using the 11 year old MVS system. It is also slightly pixelated because of it.
You may also notice that KOF 2K1's backgrounds are a LOT more colorful than '99 and 2K and I like it. If you've played KOF '97, you'll know what the backgrounds are like. The character art is so-so, you'll either love it or hate it. It's similar to Garou: Mark of the Wolves character art. The life bars, character select and the win quote screens look kinda plain but it's tolerable.

Sound
Like every other arcade, it's really loud with all of those dancing games so I can't hear the music very well but I can tell that the character voices are great. They seem much more professional and polished now. Iori has a new maniacal laugh while doing his new DM which is hella cool. Also, K' 9999's voice is absolutely great, but what do you expect, the voice actor for him also done Tetsuo's voice in Akira.

Gameplay
After playing '98 for a long time, 2K seemed really slow. 2K1 is now back to the fast gameplay like '98! YAY! Every character has sped up, making KOF a much faster game, which it should be.

System
The system this year is similar to CvS and CvS2, the ratio system. You select four characters, then you can select whether you want 4 fighters, no strikers or 3 fighters, 1 striker, 2 fighters, 2 strikers or 1 fighter 3 strikers. Of course the less fighters you have, the stronger the fighter/s will be, for balancing issues. Strength is not the only thing that changes with the number of fighters. If you have 4 fighters, you can only have 1 power stock, which means you can't super cancel into DMs or have SDMs. If you have 3 fighters, you get 2 power stocks and so on.
Strikers this year don't use striker bombs to be able to come out, you need 1 power stock to call them out, which hopefully will make players use them less. Also, AB evade and CD counters while blocking happen a lot less now, since power stocks are so precious. I never used them much anyway. :)
There is also a new feature in fights called the wire-attack system. If you've played Waku Waku 7, it's similar to that but it happens rarely so if you hate it, it shouldn't be a problem.
Overall I love the new gameplay system, it's much better than 2K and '99.

Characters
There are now 10!!!!! 10 teams in KOF this year, making it 40 characters! More than any other KOF (unless you include all those alternate versions of characters in KOF '98)!
There may also be hidden characters no one has discovered yet. Roulette is still there. :) There is 1 all female team and 1 all male team, there are also fighters from all over the globe, making it the most unisex and interracial KOF ever!

Overall
KOF 2K1 is a great fighting game, one of the best I've ever played, even on par with KOF '98! It is however, newbie unfriendly, so if you haven't played KOF before or aren't very good at it, read some of the FAQs here at GameFAQs or practice on the PSX or DC ports of earlier KOFs if you have them. If you are a KOF veteran, you'll feel right at home with 2K1, however don't think it'll be a breeze to beat, Ignis is one hard mofo!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/29/01, Updated 11/29/01