"Fun, or not?"

Each time that a new year arrives, there are some things that are almost certain. A new fifa game, new consoles, more games... and the arrival of a new " king of fighters " game is usually one of them. Although I can't compare them with the games from the previous years (mainly because I never got to play those...), I will try to review this game as a standalone product.

As in most fighting games, you will have 4 attack keys. Two of them perform kicks and the other two are used in order for you to perform punches. It may seem simple, but some of the characters can use weapons, others are able to use impressive combo moves which will surely make your opponent think twice before attacking you... Yeah, as you may suppose, there are lots of characters in the game, and each of them with their own strengths and weaknesses.

Also, I'm not sure if this already appeared in the other games before this one, but you can battle in a tag mode (you get to pick 3 characters, and each of them will have a single life bar) or in a single mode, in which you just pick a character and both him and the opponent guy will have 3 life bars, all of which, once depleted, will grant the opposite player a win.

Concerning the moves, I must say that some of them are rather easy to perform, but those which are really strong and impressive (visually...) are hard to perform and you may surely have an hard time learning them... I must also state that the game has different endings, depending on your selections, which grants it some extra fun...

Oh, you will also have to spend much money in this game, in order to be able to master most of the characters (and their moves), granting this game an higher play time and some replay value, since you may want to see the many endings sequences contained in the game.

As for the story, its advance depends on each character (or characters) you pick, but the starting is always the same... The character receive an invitation to get into the new king of fighters tournament, and there starts the game (and your adventure)...

Since this is an arcade game, the sound seems to be quite nice, mainly the ones of the attacks and the many sounds heard in the middle of the levels. However, the graphics could be somehow better, since sometimes you can see some minor glitches.

As you may think, this game is generally nice... provided you are into fighting games, i think you will probably enjoy it! In case you aren't, you can give it at least a single try.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/13/04, Updated 05/24/06