The King of Fighters: Dream Match 1999

"Capcom who?"

The King of Fighters Dream Match 1999 is definitely a great 2-D fighter. I consider myself to be a Capcom fan boy and hadn't really heard much about SNK until now. I knew they had made a few fighting games in the past, but that was it. This game is definitely a great change of pace from Capcom fighters.

Game Play

There are thirty eight characters in this slugfest, coming from a bunch of different SNK games. All with their own style, strengths, weaknesses, etc. You have regular attacks, special attacks, and super special attacks. There are also two play styles to choose from, advance power gauge and extra power gauge. In advanced you gain levels on your gauge by using special moves and taking damage. In extra you gain levels by charging with the X, Y, and A buttons. When you have gained levels you can perform a super special attack. These are usually super strong moves or combos that do a bunch of damage. If you are in advanced mode, you can press X, Y, and A to get a temporary power up (if you have one level on your gauge). If you have another level on your gauge you can perform a Max power super special move. These do major damage and are extensions of the original super special move that do even more damage and tack on more hits. The system sounds complicated, but is very simple to learn and it makes you a more vicious opponent once you figure out how to master these skills.

With these characters and moves you can play several different modes. Single play mode, which you play like an arcade fighting game with one character and move on through the game until you lose or get to the last fighter. Team play mode, where you pick three characters and take on a team of three until you get to the boss, which is just one character. In this game, there is no switching in or calling for team mate attacks. It is just a one-on-one match until one of the teams loses all their vitality for the first team mate. There is then a second round, and the player who won the first round has the advantage, because he gets to keep his first fighter in, with a little added life for the first round win. The first team to have all three characters K.O.'ed loses the match. This can make for up to five rounds, which can get pretty intense if it's close. If you do happen to be the loser, when you continue, you play a little slot game where you can get little cheats like go to the next round, start the computer player/team with 1/3 of their life, take away the computers power gauge, etc. Survivor mode is kind of like a time attack mode. You play a few characters in a row gaining back a small sum of your life when you win. The point is to survive and win as fast as you can. You can continue, but it adds to your time because you have to play the rounds over until you win. Of course practice mode, where you can practice your moves and screw around if you like. Of course there is two player team and single matches also when you have friends over.

There is also a neat little feature you can use if you are one of the lucky people to have a Neo-Geo Pocket system. You can transfer data between your Dream Match 1999 game and your King of Fighters R-2 game. I have not tried this however, because I don't own a Neo-Geo Pocket.

Audio/Video

The characters are a major part of the sound effects. Most of the characters say the name of the move they are doing when they perform it. The Japanese voices are pretty funny when they say the moves in English, but it's a good funny. And there are of course several sound effects for special attacks, K.O.'s and the like. There are also several different songs which go with the game well.

I didn't think the graphics of this game were as good as some of the other fighters on the Dreamcast but they work well none-the-less. The graphics give the game the SNK feel though. You can tell from the title screen that it is an SNK game. This is some of SNK's best work in the graphics department to date though, and most of the graphics look good if not great.

Replay

With the ability to play team and single matches and the gauge system and moves, this game gives in to old school and new school players alike. The ability to play both these modes with friends just adds to the fun. With thirty eight characters the matches are never dull. And if you are one of those people who jumps back and forth from all kinds of different fighting games like I do, this will be one you play more often than others ranking up there with today and yesterdays best.

Overall

The game definitely gets it done in the game play section and has the unique SNK style to it that is refreshing and original. If you are a fan of SNK or someone who has never heard of SNK, you should give this game a go for sure.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/13/01, Updated 03/13/01