The King of Fighters: Dream Match 1999

"Not the best port but a gem to gamers just the same."

First off I’d like to say that while I’ve played pretty much every good or excellent game available for the DC, The King of Fighters: Dream Match 1999 still ranks as my all time favorite.

To start with I’d like to point out that this game is really KOF ’98 in disguise. Yes don’t let the Dream Match 1999 in the title fool you this game is simply a port. The only difference between the DC and Neo Geo version is the opening intro sequence. The DC version contains a short anime video of an all out battle between Kyo and Iori with quick shots of the game’s other characters shown in between. Now granted I’m sure most KOF fans will love this little tidbit (I know I did) but beyond this there’s really nothing unique about this game to set it apart from the Neo Geo version.

So I take it you’re wondering how I can still give this game such a high score right? Well if you can look beyond the fact that this game is a port and not an A+ port at that you’ll find that it is actually an excellent fighting game and IMO one of the best available for the DC. What I really love about this game is the sheer variety of characters, moves, and game play options. The fact that I’d already played The King of Fighters: Evolution and had taken a real shine to it made me appreciate what this game has to offer all the more strongly. Let get right down to it and review the different areas of the game.

Storyline:

As the title suggests this game is a Dream Match or collaboration of all of the popular characters and elements of the KOF series without regard for storyline consistency. Therefore The King of Fighters: Dream Match 1999 (which I’ll refer to as DM for the rest of the review) has no story period. Of course given the sheer number of game play options available the loss of a story is no big deal as far as I’m concerned. There is however some reference given to elements in the KOF storyline in the way certain characters interact at the start of each round (ex: when Heidern is facing Rugal he says that he will defeat him to avenge the death of his family). Of course unless you have some good general knowledge of the KOF storyline it’s difficult to make sense of most of these exchanges. If you’re unfamiliar with the story I would recommend checking out KLantis’s excellent Story Faq, which can be found here at GameFaqs. It will tell you pretty much everything you could ever want to know (and then some) about the story and each individual character in the KOF universe.

A nice little inclusion that I especially liked being the big KOF fan that I am was the special team pictures at the end of the game. You see after the game credits roll you are treated to either a picture of the entire KOF cast if you use a basic edited team or a special picture if you have a certain combination of characters together. Each of the twelve default teams gives you a special ending picture but you can also get additional ones by creating certain edited teams. I won’t ruin it by telling you which combinations will give you a special ending but I will tell you that they’re well worth uncovering and many are quite funny.

Graphics:

Eh, I have mixed feelings about DM’s graphics. Let me start with the good.

First off as you’d expect for a Neo Geo creation the game’s 2D elements are terrific. The animation is very fluid and there was lots of attention paid to small details (ex: Billy Kane’s no smoking sign on the back of his jacket). Not bad considering most of the character sprites have been used over and over again throughout most of the series. I also like SNK’s signature style of animation. It’s not really goofy like Street Fighter Alpha but not really serious either, just the right mix.

Now for the bad.

The most obvious graphical flaw DM is the very low resolution on the 2D elements. This makes for some ugly pixilation. Now granted it’s not unbearable but its definitely noticeable. What’s most frustrating about it though is the fact that this problem could have easily been avoided if SNK had just taken the time to properly format the game for the DC hardware (damn your laziness SNK). Fortunately this problem was cleaned up considerably in SNK’s three subsequent DC ventures (The King of Fighters: Evolution, The Last Blade 2, and Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves) so at least they learned from this game. The second graphical flaw concerns the game’s 3D elements although luckily this one is fairly minor in comparison. You see prior to this installment SNK always drew the stage backgrounds in 2D. So as one might expect their first stab at 3D wasn’t exactly flawless. If you look closely at the backgrounds you’ll see that many of the objects are quite blocky and don’t flow naturally. This is especially true of moving objects like the train in the US yard stage and the fish in the final stage. But I’ll forgive them since this was their first time using them and besides all in all it was a good effort.

Sound:

Excellent, excellent I’ve always thought the KOF series had some of the best music among fighting games and DM certainly does the series justice. In keeping with the Dream Match theme most of the soundtracks are remixed versions of many of the most popular themes form previous KOF games and other SNK series. As usual each team has it’s own theme including remixes of the ever popular Fatal Fury, Art of Fight, and Esaka themes. The game also includes a few single themes for certain characters such as Still Green (Shingo), London March (Billy Kane) and the RR (Rugal). All in all it’s an excellent mix of tunes, which should please most fans. Personally I liked all the music and didn’t find any of it to be too annoying or repetitive. My picks for the five best tracks in the game would have to be Atarashii no Saxophone #2 (Mature/Vice) C62 (Yamazaki), Art of Fight Tribal Mix (Ryo, Robert, Yuri), Rhythmic Hallucination (Orochi Yashiro), and Slum #5 (Heavy D, Lucky, and Brian).

But I have one major gripe with DM’s music. In the 3 on 3 and Survivor modes the music restarts at the beginning of each round instead of playing continuously throughout the entire match. This is frustrating for me because just when the music is building up to a point in the song that I like it cuts off and restarts all over again from the beginning. Like the pixilation in the visuals this problem can be attributed to laziness (see what happens when you do a rushed port). SNK is a great developer in my eyes but I swear sometimes I don’t think they could do a decent port to save their lives. Maybe it’s all a ploy to get us to buy their pricey Neo Geo games. Well at least Agetec fixed this problem in KOF: EV.

One of the biggest pet peeves I have with fighting games are the announcers who always seem to have either incredibly lame dialogue, horribly redundant sayings, little or no grasp of the English language, and often times all three. Sorry to get a little off topic here but there are so many fighting games with annoying announcers from the robot in Capcom vs. SNK to Batman (from the animated series no less) in Street Fighter: Double Impact. But by far the title of biggest cheese goes to the announcer from Capcom vs. SNK 2. So as you can imagine I wasn’t expecting much from DM’s announcer given SNK’s long-standing reputation for giving us Engrish in their games. But as it turns out I was in for a surprise. I actually like this announcer a lot, what’s more surprising though is the fact that she falls into some of the above-mentioned categories. When I first heard the announcer I immediately was struck with a feeling of déjà vu like I’d heard this person before. As it turns out my suspicions were proved correct after viewing the game’s end credits. It turns out the announcer also does the voice talents for King and Blue Mary. It’s obvious English isn’t the announcer’s first language as evident by the many hilarious mispronunciations of many of the more English/European sounding names. For example Andy is now Ondy, Chris is Currie, Heavy D is Heavy Day, Robert is Robber, and Mary is Maury. But regardless I liked the fact that the characters are introduced by name at the beginning of the round. It’s a nice little touch that few fighters have. So why do I like the announcer so much you might ask? I don’t know maybe it’s just the overly enthusiastic tone of voice or hyperactive cheerleader persona but one things for sure I wouldn’t have the “Ready….GO!” match-opening intro or the ending “Wiiiiiiiiiiner” screen any different. The important thing is it got me in the mood to fight and isn’t that the whole point of having an announcer?

Game Play:

Well regardless of how good the graphics and sound may be ultimately this is the part that will either make or break the game and fortunately DM falls into category A. This game is just so much fun to play and the sheer number of game play options is just incredible so much so that it may overwhelm the casual gamer. Controls are very tight and responsive (probably some of the best controls in a fighting game in fact) and most should have no problem pulling off the more complex moves even with a standard DC controller. DM contains three basic modes of game play. The first is the now world famous 3 on 3 team fighting that the series pioneered. Select a team of three characters and defeat six other teams of three and the final boss to win the game. Then you’ve got the single mode, which is more or less the same idea except you fight only one character from each of the six teams and you must win a best 2 out of 3 to advance.

The thing I find a bit annoying about these two modes is that there seems to be a pattern in which teams I fight. Maybe it’s just a case of bad luck on my part but it seems like I face the same damn teams all the time. I always get the Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, Psycho Soldiers, Ikari, Hero, Women, and Sports All-stars and yet I almost never face the Tae Kwan Do, Yagami, or New Faces teams and I’ve never once faced the ’97 Special team (is it even possible?). This ticks me off a bit because if given the choice I’d much rather fight the less commonly seen teams. Why? Because most of the common teams consist of very mainstream characters who have appeared in virtually every KOF game to date. I’ve seen Kyo, Ralf, Joe, Mai, Ryo, Yuri, etc time and time again while characters like Yashiro, Vice, Yamazaki, Shermie, etc have never been given their chance to shine. Terry especially has got to be the most overexposed character in SNK history. Seriously I can think of 18 games he’s appeared in just off the top of my head and that’s not including ports either. If this trend continues soon he’ll be giving even Mario a run for his money. Granted Terry is a pretty cool character but I think SNK has to draw the line somewhere.

Lastly is the Survivor mode where you select one character and try to defeat every other character in the game. The Survivor mode was a good idea but personally I think DM’s rendition of it is a bit weak. For one thing I didn’t like the format of it one bit. Instead of just fighting random characters you fight random teams and you will always fight the team members in the same order (ex: Fatal Fury team will always be Terry, Andy, then Joe in that order). As you can imagine this makes matches very predictable. Also while you can continue if you happen to lose all your health you have to beat all three members of the team you are facing with one life to reach a safe point. Also the game only keeps one overall clear time record for the game. It would have been so much better if it kept one for each individual character instead. But bad as that is it gets worse. Remember some of the really old fighting games like Fatal Fury, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, etc? Remember how there were times when it you could have swore the computer was cheating by pulling of moves and combos that just didn’t seem humanly possible or how the computer seemed to anticipate every move you would make and counter everything you threw at them? Well that’s what the survivor mode in this game is like. The AI starts off incredibly easy for the first 3 or 4 teams you face but then all of a sudden BAM the difficulty increases ten fold if you’re playing well. Having the difficulty level increase a bit overtime is okay but come on this is just plain sadistic. I’ve found myself spending about an hour trying to beat a single team before. What were the designers thinking? IMO the system used in KOF: Evolution’s survivor mode where you chose one character and randomly fought opponents infinitely until you were defeated was much better. It also kept track of the number of opponents you defeated instead of game clear time, which I think is a much better measure of one’s skill anyway.

I was happy to see that DM retained the Extra game play style introduced in KOF ’97. DM has two styles of game play Advanced and Extra. In the standard Advanced mode your power meter builds up each time you attack your opponent. When you have a full power bar you can perform a DM or a SDM if you have 2. In Extra mode your power meter increases by holding down the A and B buttons and then pressing X. Also a SDM can be performed when your life meter becomes low and begins to flash red (for you KOF newbies, it’s the same system used in Capcom vs. SNK’s SNK groove style). I thought this was a plus because it gives you much more game play variety. Too bad it got canned in KOF: EV. Extra mode is definitely the harder of the two styles to learn but I found both were equally enjoyable once I mastered them.

As I mentioned earlier DM’s controls are very responsive and therefore novices should have no problem learning the moves and experts should feel right at home. The only real problem I find is that the DC controller is not the best suited for pulling off some of the more complex moves depending on which way your character is facing. What I mean is if I wanted to perform Mature’s Ebony Tears move for example I wouldn’t have a problem pulling it off if she was facing right. But I would find it much more difficult facing left. Pulling off DM’s requiring two half circle rolls on the control pad (ex: Clark’s Ultra Argentine Back Breaker) are also difficult to perform using the standard DC controller. All in all though the controller is pretty good at getting the job done and I’d certainly take it over most of what’s out there. If you’re a serious fighting fan you might want to pick up a DC Arcade Stick. Unfortunately the arcade stick was not widely produced and finding one is no easy feat (even I can’t find one).

Characters:

Normally I wouldn’t dedicate an entire section to profiling the game’s characters but since this game is a Dream Match and therefore having lots of characters is one of its main appeals I felt that this area was important in determining it’s the overall worth.

Oh man where to start. Firstly let me just say that this game lives up to most of what it boasts. The character roaster in this game is huge, 38 regular characters and 13 alternate versions of several of them. Making for a whopping 51 characters to choose from in total. Surprisingly for having so many characters the game still manages to boast quite a bit of diversity between them (an edge it has over games like Marvel vs. Capcom 2) and each is worth experimenting with. The game includes all of the mainstream KOF characters like Kyo, Iori, Terry, Mai, Ryo, Yuri, King, etc. No surprise there but what really impressed me was that they included a lot of obscure ones too. Like the New faces team (Yashiro, Shermie, and Chris) from KOF ’97 and Mature and Vice from KOF ’96. The reason this is surprising is because *Spoiler*all of them supposedly died in previous KOF games. But by far the biggest surprise was the return of the Sports All-stars team (Heavy D, Lucky Glauber, and Brain Battler) from KOF ’94. As long time fans will remember, SNK dumped this team after only one appearance most likely because they thought they were too generic for a series with a more serious storyline. Many people have also written the terrible trio off as being weak and no fun to play as. While I’ll admit they’ve got nothing on Kyo or Iori they’re still worthy of a lot more credit than most are willing to give them (Heavy D especially has some memorable moments).

With 51 characters you’d think this game would have included everyone ever seen in the KOF series. However there were a few notable exclusions that I think should be noted. IMO the biggest let down by far was the exclusion of the Bosses team (Geese Howard, Wolfgang Krauser, and Mr. Big) from KOF ‘96. How could they? Krauser especially is a big favorite among many an SNK fan. Kasumi Todoh from KOF ’96 and Eiji Kisaragi from KOF ’95 were also left in the dust. I’d say the most likely reason for this is because SNK couldn’t think of a practical team to put them on. Personally what I think they should have done was make a brand new team especially for this game consisting of them and possibly Shingo (its not as if consistency to the storyline was a major consideration in the creation of this game anyway). I’ll forgive them for Kasumi since she returns in KOF ’99 but I’m not so forgiving in Eiji’s case. Some people have argued that the main reason Eiji was abandoned after KOF ’95 and did not appear in this game was because his character design is a blatant rip off of Capcom’s Strider Hiryuu, and it is really. But to that I say so what? We all know that ripping off each other’s characters and moves is one of Capcom and SNK’s longest running traditions, with the Shotokan/Kyokugenryu conspiracy being the highlight. However Eiji does make a brief cameo appearance in the intro between Billy and Iori (I guess not all was forgotten). Another thing I don’t get is why Rugal appears as his normal self and his Omega form and yet Goenitz and Orochi were completely forgotten. Man Rugal gets all the attention even though Goenitz and Orochi are much more important to the Orochi storyline in KOF 94-97. There’s no justice I tell you. Lastly SNK included the Orochi versions of the New Faces team (Yashiro, Shermie, and Chris) as playable characters and yet they didn’t include Riot of the Blood Iori and Leona. Luckily it seems SNK did not completely neglect to think of them because like Eiji they do make brief appearances. The two will temporarily transform into their Orochi alter egos when Leona performs her Rybo Spark SDM and when Iroi performs his Maiden Masher SDM.

Replay Ability:

Replay is where some would argue DM suffers a bit. In one respect DM boasts tons of replay in learning and experimenting with each character. But beyond that it doesn’t really offer a feeling of accomplishment since all the characters and options are available to you right from the beginning of the game. What I think the game could have used to give it more replay value would have been to make some of the characters playable only after fulfilling certain conditions. Giving us an art gallery or something along those lines to unlock would have been nice as well.

Miscellaneous stuff I though I’d include:

On a side note I liked SNK’s laid back approach to censorship in DM. It’s nice to see they aren’t nearly as uptight as most companies when if comes to editing material that might be considered too objectionable for the American audience. They did edit a few things such as blood (this is nothing unexpected though) but they left plenty in. DM is chock full of objectionable content including ’98 Joe’s taught where he moons the opponent, Heidern screaming GO TO HELL during his DM moves, Mai and Mary’s ever present bounciness (well actually pretty much anything Mai is objectionable), Shermie’s Shermie Spiral move, Leona’s DM where she shoves a live grenade in the unsuspecting victim’s body, Yamazaki (enough said), Chin constantly getting drunk throughout the fights, and most of Vice’s win poses to name but a few.

An attempt was also made to use the late Neo Geo Pocket Color in conjunction with DM. If you have The King of Fighters R-2 on NGPC than you can link it to the DC and upload points to be used in KOF R-2. A nice idea it’s just too bad the NGPC had such as small fan base here in North America.

My thoughts on The King of Fighters: Dream Match 1999:

+’s
- Huge number of characters
- Nice variety of moves among characters
- Many unexpected characters were included
- Multiple fighting styles
- Lots of attention paid to small graphical details
- Great music
- Very cool anime movie included in the opening
- Can be linked up with the NGPC
- Probably the best game in the KOF series to date

-‘s
- Survivor mode could have been better
- Average port resulted in some graphical and sound quirks
- Some characters were left out
- No real storyline
- Could have used a bit more replay value
- Hard to pull of some of the more complex moves with a standard DC controller
- The computer is cheap at times

While this port does leave a bit to be desired overall it doesn’t hurt the game all that much. Besides let’s face it people most of us don’t have the money to buy the Neo Geo version of this game so for 90% of the gaming population this is the best version of KOF ‘98 you’ll find. With that said I highly recommend this game as it is arguable the best installment in the KOF series to date and one of the best fighting games not only for the DC but any system in general. It’s a shame that KOF failed to catch on here in North America the way it did elsewhere. The series really deserves more respect and appreciation. Plus if this game had gotten more recognition perhaps we might have seen ports of KOF 2000, and 2001.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/15/03, Updated 05/19/03