"Back to the roots, 2k2 brings back Dream Match"

To hear that another Dream Match-esque King of Fighters was being brought back, I was very please to hear. In my opinion, I was sorely disappointed in 2001, and I had little faith in Eolith's taking over of the KoF series. So naturally, I had little hope in 2002 being any good. Thankfully, it squashed a lot of my pretenses with this release.

Graphics & sound: 8/10
Eolith/Playmore again shows how to really push the limits of the dated MVS hardware even further. For what it's worth, it still looks great.

Athena's new costume looks...well more modern anyhow. The backgrounds are fun to look at because various SNK characters will be doing weird stuff.

Sound effects, still has the bone crushing sounds of KoF that I love. A few parts fall short, but I still appreciate the real ''oomph'' with Clark and Ralf.

Music is not bad, a few themes remixed here and there, but nothing special in particular. It's typically KoF. A lot less subtle than 2k1.

Presentation & gameplay: 8/10
Compared to 2001, this feels more like 2000. It's not as juggle happy, and reliant on the striker system (which is thankfully not in this version). While of course juggles and infinites can't be avoided, there's not as many exploits with this version.

Which brings me to my other praise: there's no striker system to worry about; this game is purely 3-on-3, classic pre-98 style. Even the order select screen feels like the older KoF.

Difficulty is...well if you play KoF, it's the same. In fact, I found some of the characters' difficulties not as skewed. In fact, I felt the difficulty was improved about and made more consistent. Until you get to Rugal of course, with that, good luck; he's much harder than he was in '94, '95, and '98.

Story: 4/10
Story? What story? This is the second KoF without a story, mainly due to the fact that it's just pure fighting. It has no relevance to the 2nd story arc of Nests. Or even the 1st Orochi story arc for that matter (even with the revival of Rugal).

Overall: 8/10
It could be better. There's parts where it feels like Eolith/Playmore fell short. But as a fighter, it's solid. It doesn't experiment with new things like juggling and tweaking of the striker system (which I thought was a big mistake in 2001. If you're a fan of the old school KoF, you'll want to take a look into this one.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/09/03, Updated 04/09/03