The King of Fighters 2000

"A potential answer to Capcom's Street Fighter franchise. Also a great improvement on the striker system (Love it or hate it)."

SNK has been one of my favorite game companies since I was eight, mainly for their famous Metal Slug franchise and their fighting games. Surely everyone has a number one reason why they love SNK, and that's their fighting games. Although they had produced many flawful and distasteful fighters during the 90's, they made it up with the KOF - King of Fighters.

I was visiting Shanghai five years ago, my cousins introduced me to KOF with KOF '98 and '99, and I played the series ever since. Later, I stumbled upon a rather large arcade located next to a mall. I took a step in and saw no one playing Time Crisis, Virtua Cop, or Tekken. Instead of the 3D games, they all gathered around a 2D fighting arcade machine titled "King of Fighters 2000". They already developed another game?, thought I. I found out the game was just released, and since I was as excited as everyone else, I waited my turn. I watched the How to Play tutorial and realized that the gameplay was the same as '99, only that 2000 had a bigger roster.

Graphics - *8* Don't get angry with me, I loved the animation (even though it's a little lacking in frames) and character select format, but the reason I took two points off was because it had the same, choppy, dotty backgrounds. Figures, KOF is still running on the old Neo Geo hardware KOF '94 ran on, so it was nothing new.

Controls - *9* Definitely not newbie-friendly, but if they can understand the basics (A+B to dodge, and B+C for striker call, etc.), then they can make it 'til stage 5. You have your old four buttons - Weak and Strong Punch and Weak and Strong Kick. The Dodging and Thrust attacks were unique from games such as Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat.

Sound - *8* The music was not as thrilling as '98, and the voices still sound the same. But they're still sweet-sounding, don't you think so?

Gameplay - *10* The best element of the game, the gameplay. You have three characters and a special striker character, whom you can call into the stage whenever you're having a rough time. Speaking of striker, its system has undergone a very significant improvement since its debut on '99. Tag-team features weren't added on until KOF 2003. You also have your two special fighting modes -- Counter and Armor. Counter Mode enables the character to cancel their moves and start a new one, which, in other words, makes the character fight "faster". Armor Mode makes your characters endure small blows and can cancel the opponent's attacks with a move of their own. These two modes were also in '99, but they were also improved for 2000.

Replay Value - 8

Pros
>Character Roster is nice.
>Counter and Armor Modes makes a smooth return from '99.

Cons
>Infinite Striker calls = No Fun At All.
>Computer opponents can be annoying at times.

Bottom Line -- if you're no fan of the striker system, get KOF 2003 instead. Otherwise, you're in for a treat.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/08/05