The King of Fighters '98: The Slugfest

""Say what? It's not a fluke. That's why I'm here every year." - Terry Bogard"

Welcome to the King of Fighters Tournament of 1998! Fellow KOF fans have hailed this year’s tournament as the best KOF Tournament ever! “Why is that be?” might be the question in mind. Does it contain some new characters? A killer storyline? Is Orochi playable? The answer to all those questions are sadly no; however, this is the first tournament to feature almost all the previous fighter in one massive dream match! As it’s subtitle says, “Dream Match Never Ends.” So let’s get this dream match going. Welcome to King of Fighters ’98!

“So, what is a dream match anyway?” said the newcomer of the series. A dream match usually contains absolutely no storyline thus giving characters that died (Vice, Mature, Regal, etc…) a second chance to redeem themselves. Plus, give the crowd what they want. My personal favorite team, the USA team, is back for vengeance after being dogged by SNK for the last three tournaments. Some other notable addition is the fact that Regal Bernstein is playable in this year’s game. Luckily (or unluckily), he is in his normal form (KOF 94) so he won't be as much of a treat like when goes berserk in his Riot of Blood form. While you’re counting your blessings, include the fact the Boss Team of 96, Geese Howard, Wolfgang Krauser, and Mr. Big, are not in this tournament as well.

The controls have basically stayed the same since a year ago in 1997’s tournament. The only difference that’s clearly noticeable is the power gauges. Like last year, there’s a selection of two power gauges between the Extra or Advance gauges. They function the same way and all but there’s still a great advantage to getting your butt whooped to your last person. As you lose a round to your opposition, your Extra Gauge’s charging time gets lowered to the point where it’s half the gauge it once was. As for the Advance Gauge every time you lose, you gain one more power stock to hold a DM or possibly a SDM. Another cool thing about the Advance Gauge is the fact you can pull off as many SDMs you can while your timer thing still runs!

Wow, the backgrounds are freakin’ cool this year! A really cool locale is Japan. Here we fight under a bridge with a crowd of people cheering on the mayhem! We have people on bicycles go by, guys in suits on their cells presumably giving the play by play to someone, and even some people jumping up and down the side of a 4x4! Then we have Korea’s ocean port with not one but two boats swaying in the wavy waters and there’s even the Middle East stage filled with open markets. With graphic details like waves and a reflection, it’s hard to top that! SNK is going in a positive direction!

You got to love the music presented in this game. The tempo is high, the way fight music should be. The music is enthusiastic, the way fight music should be. The music reflects personality, the way fight music should be. All this is featured this year, as it steps up to the suite of the fighting music hotel. What a great improvement from a year ago. BTW, the ’97 team, Blue Mary, Billy Kane, and Ryuji Yamazaki, have their own music. So when you fight their team, prepare to listen to three different background music themes. I bet the Psycho Soldier team is pretty outraged that SNK didn’t do that with them.

Now since this is a dream match, so questions may arise. As a dream match, the SNK people can add any boss they want. “So who is it? It’s not Geonitz is it?” a logical answer may sound like that. Thank the lucky stars that he is not the boss. This year, we are faced with no other than Riot of Blood Regal! With a roll/dodge command, this should be a lot easier fight than the first two times facing him. The crazy thing about him is the fact that he got faster, uh oh.

Now here’s the new innovations introduced for the first time, and even the only time in King of Fighters history. First up, you may have noticed Shingo Yabuki is a single entry. If you dominate the competition, you fight against him 3 on 1 around the forth stage. The little pest can be annoying, because he is the only person in the roster that can produce critical hits! Another neat thing happens when you die. There’s a roulette spinning with various handicaps to implement on the deserving CPU opposition. Of course if you want to do this like a real man or woman, you can always fight a normal game by pressing D. The endings aren’t comprehensive like before. All the endings are a bunch of (funny) screenshots. There are also secret teams to gain extra endings. I especially, like the team of Mature, King, and Shingo’s ending. Try to find them all!

Now wrap up another spectacular year of King of Fighters! We have learned that getting a butt whooping is actually a good thing, graphics and sound have hit a heavenly peak of greatness, and Regal is back for more. More importantly, we haven’t learned is what going to happen next year’s tournament. As it continues it’s storyline adventures, we loss two of out favorite characters, Iori and Kyo! What has happened to them? What’s with the extra character to each team? All this and more featured next year’s tournament. Until then we have marked the end of a great tournament. Give it up for King of Fighters ’98!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/28/03