"A worthy addition to the series"

Graphics
Maybe it's just me, but I feel the background graphics have taken a dip in quality since KOF2000. The locations being depicted are more interesting - instead of fighting in boring locations such as a desert or aquarium, you're now fighting in front of a kabuki play, or a wintry... um... garden, or possibly palace wall, in Korea with lots of interested onlookers. (Including one waving a ''Kim'' sign and some dressing up as the Korea team!) However, the locations themselves have been drawn in a more KOF97 style, rather than KOF98's more colourful style. You wonder why there was the step back.

But at least the locations are much more interesting this year.

The character sprites are the usual, with realistic shading and not a lot of animation frames. Combining this lack of animation with the background graphics, the game looks four years old already. I don't have a problem with this, but new players will be turned away.

The character art is certainly... different, this year. A new artist has taken over from Shinkiro. Gone are the incredible efforts of Shinkiro - characters now look more comic-like, both design and colour wise. However! The character art grows on you, and I must admit that the characters look much more dynamic than before. Instead of just standing in place and scowling or smiling at the camera, they actually pose, and more of their personality is revealed.

Hmm. Obviously, it's grown on me. :)

Sound
I can't even *hear* the music in the arcade, and can barely make out the voices. So I'll pass on this one.

Though from what I've heard all the music is now techno. This is a shame, as one of the niftier parts of KOF was the soundtrack. The music wasn't always suited to a fighting game (KOF96's fatal fury team theme, for example) but was generally well done.

Gameplay
The biggest problem with KOF2000 was the Active Striker system, where you could call out a Striker at any time. This let players extend a combo dramatically, or call out a striker after messing up a move, at not a lot of cost. (This screwed up the risk/reward ratio bigtime.) KOF2000 should have been called ''King of Strikers'' instead.

KOF2001, has, for the most part, fixed the problem. While you still have the Active Striker system and can call them out in the middle of a combo or to cover a mistake, it now costs a super bar instead of a Striker bomb, and building up a super bar takes longer this time. Also, after calling out a striker, the damage you do is reduced, so you have to work harder to do decent damage. These two changes increase the risk of Strikers drastically, and thus you see a lot less Striker abuse than in KOF2000. The game now plays a lot like KOF98, which is definitely a good thing.

Counter mode and Armour mode are now almost completely gone. Counter mode sort of lives on, though, in that you can cancel some special moves into supers anytime you like. However, just the supercancel itself requires a super bar. On top of that you then have the super bar requirements of the DM / SDM you're cancelling into; you need *three* just to supercancel into an SDM. This is a high cost, so you have to have a very good reason for the supercancel. You would typically supercancel not for damage but for strategy reasons.

The last of the main changes in gameplay is that now, as well as choosing the order of your fighters, you can choose who is an active fighter and who is a Striker. Having less fighter characters gives you advantages such as shorter super bars, more super bars, more power and less damage taken. It's similar to the Ratio system in Capcom vs SNK and is a nice addition. It also, obviously, changes the way you play:

1 fighter, 3 strikers: You have 4 super bars, all of them very short and easy to charge up. As a result, you can play this a lot like the Striker madness of KOF2000. Your fighter also has the highest offensive and defensive power, meaning you can do a lot of damage very quickly. You can also afford to waste super bars on CD Counters and MAX Rolls if you have to.

2 fighters, 2 strikers: You have 3 super bars, and the length is a bit longer now. Strikers are still viable but not used as much.

3 fighters, 1 striker: The good old KOF99 / KOF2K system, and also the most popular. You have 2 super bars, which take a good while to charge fully up. You can no longer supercancel into SDMs, and calling out a Striker is not something you do lightly.

4 fighters, 0 strikers: Only 1 super bar, very long. Obviously, you can't call out strikers or perform supercancels. Also, you don't do CD Counters or MAX Rolls, as it'll be a waste of the super bar you've taken ages to build up. This is a DM-only mode. Also, the characters hit the weakest and take the most damage in this mode, so you have to work a lot harder to win matches.

Characters
There are four new characters and three returning characters. Jhun and Kasumi, however, have left.

As is usual, some of the old characters have gained new moves and lost old ones. The biggest changes have to be to Chang and Heidern. While they have no new moves of note, they're now motion characters rather than charge ones. This lets Heidern move around a lot more. Chang... is still Chang, big and slow. But his moves are a bit more reliable.

Bizarrely, Andy Bogard has had a very noticeable change of clothes but no new moves added. You wonder why they bothered changing his look if they weren't going to change his moves.

Regarding the character balance... hoo boy. With 40 characters, there are of course going to be stronger characters, and weaker ones. However, Eolith has propped up popular characters and let the unpopular ones stay down the bottom of the heap.

For examples... Iori is now an absolute monster, though not quite as bad as his KOF96 version, and has the best SDM in the game. Kyo has a command grab move in addition to his old juggle combos, making him more dangerous. New character May Lee can do a completely safe seven hit combo starting from a low kick, giving her plenty of time to decide what to do next.

However, there is at least a variety of characters at the top of the roster.

Regarding the bosses, SNK always seemed to have really overpowered, cheesy bosses. Well, Eolith seems to be attempting to outdo SNK in terms of boss cheesiness. I swear, the KOF bosses this time are the worst ever seen. One can even perform an unblockable super any time he likes. They definitely look cool, though.

Interesting sidenote: There are no single entries this year. This is the first time since KOF96 that that's happened.

Story
The story this time is a confused mess trying to deal with the end of the NESTS storyline that started in KOF99. The team introductions and endings are generally confusing or just plain stupid. For example, the women team's ending and the AOF team's endings are just comic fluff that don't advance things any and further entrench these teams as jokes. The women team's ending also completely murder Hinako's character.

There are occasional gems, though. For example, the Fatal Fury team's ending.

But who really plays fighting games for the story these days? ;p

Overall
I give the game an eight out of ten: A big thumbs up and a ''Very fun indeed'' ringing endorsement, but with mild problems of sub-par graphics and character balance.

In terms of the other games, in case you were wondering: I rate KOF98 as the best of the series, with a 9/10, and KOF2001 equal second with KOF97. In fact, ''I give the game an eight out of ten: A big thumbs up and a ''Very fun indeed'' ringing endorsement, but with mild problems of sub-par graphics and character balance.'' is how I describe KOF97, too. :)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/13/02, Updated 02/13/02