The King of Fighters 2002

"Wait a second, haven't I done this before?"

A beginning note: Even though I'm reviewing the Dreamcast version instead of the Neo-Geo version, I'm going to be reviewing this game as a game, rather than as a port. Thought I should make that clear beforehand.

Ah, SNK, what an enigma you are. Year after year, you give us another title in your most popular franchise, and I never know what to expect. Everyone says you've been going downhill since 1998, what with the ''Striker System.'' Then you sank six feet below, and Eolith took over, and they tried to appease the fans. What did the fans want? The fans wanted the striker system out, and a reversion to the ''old-school.'' Okay, a fair request. Hell, Eolith even made polls for fans to vote on which characters were to return. And so, the final product was...

The King of Fighters 1998: The Dream Match Never Ends

Oops, typo. I meant to say...

The King of Fighters 2002: Challenge to Ultimate Battle

Okay, so they're not great with sub-titles. I'll let that pass, considering fighting games have always been known for their goofy lines, especially in victory quotes. Anyways, where do I start? I guess I'll have to break it down into the standard categories, won't I?

CHARACTERS - 7

Thirteen teams of three makes for thirty-nine characters. Add four ''alternate'' characters (same person, different moveset) and three hidden characters, and we've got a grand total of forty-six characters, the most ever seen in any KoF. Because a lot of characters have been introduced since 1998, a lot of characters had to be omitted in this game. If you're new to the series, the giant roster can be quite daunting, but if you stick by the game, you'll figure out which characters you do and don't like. For returning fans, there will be characters you love that made the cut, and characters you love that didn't. Overall, I think Eolith did a perfectly fine job choosing who was to appear, except for maybe using Omega Rugal as the boss (AGAIN!), which only further promotes the idea that this is a clone of KoF98.

GRAPHICS - 5

Ah, the classic #1 complain with KoF: the graphics. So often, you'll hear people complain that KoF's graphics were outdated long ago, the hardware simply sucks now, and it just plain needs renovations. I'll admit, I'm a subscriber to this belief, but I don't let it be my largest complaint. I'd like to think of myself as somebody who puts graphics as a secondary thing. Okay, so many of the characters have had the same sprites since 1996. Don't get me wrong, it's not like the sprites are bad, per se. They're certainly not sloppy or painful to look at, but they simply aren't going to match up against the looks of a Guilty Gear game or Street Fighter 3.

In my opinion, the graphics work as they are, and looking at some of the newer sprites, maybe they're better off left as is. I mean, take a good look at Kula's sprite. If that's not an anorexic-looking character, I don't know what is. In fact, when you take the way the new characters look into consideration, we'd probably get some really funky looking characters were they to be redrawn. Ralf and Clark would turn into Hanz and Franz, Goro Daimon would turn into The Incredible Hulk, and Chang would turn into The Bearded Lady.

However, not to completely undercut Eolith's efforts, a few characters were re-drawn for this game. Unfortunately, they come off more as clumsy than anything else. Off the top of my head, I can recall that Benimaru, Kim, Yashiro, Orochi Chris, and Vice have new sprites. I can't really complain about Benimaru, since that guy has always looked a bit oogly. Yashiro's sprite in and of itself is actually pretty good, but the problem with him is recycled animations. Remember his trademark one-handed inverted push-ups? He's still got it as his intro, but when he flips into his fighting stance, you can catch a quick glimpse of his 97/98 sprite before it warps into his 02 sprite. Laziness? Poor thinking? Hoping the fans wouldn't notice? I don't know, but it's certainly not a good thing. The exact same problem applies to Kim. While his new animations look absolutely beautiful, his old ones plastered over his new sprite make the game look sloppy. While the same things apply to Orochi Chris and Vice, those problems are overshadowed by the fact that they look like animated scarecrows. Yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck.

Basically, all I really need to say is that it's old. You KoF fans know what to expect; if you're new to the series, don't get your hopes very high. For this one, KoF gets a passing grade, but just barely.

SOUND & MUSIC - 4

Okay, I've changed my mind about the music. While it is pretty bad, it's not the crapfest I made it out to be at first.

It's no secret KoF2001 had some of the worst music in any video game, ever. Apparently, after SNK sank into the ground, a new music team had to pick up the pieces, and they didn't do a very good job. This mostly holds true for KoF2002. The first and foremost problem is crappy synth. It's like the music team sat around a table for a week straight, consuming nothing but Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Moxie, trying to decide on how to make the good music sound its worst. The poor quality of sound tends to weaken or even ruin some of the better character themes (KoF fans, compare 02's KD-0079 99's version and tell me what you think).

However, I can almost overlook bad synth if it's compensated by good composition. Oops, KoF2002 doesn't deliver that either. Eolith really picked some bad themes for a few of the teams (check out the Ikari and AoF teams' music), and the new music ('97 Special Team's theme and the stage BGMs) are nothing short of terrible. Not only that, but the character themes are only available in VS mode. That means, if you're ever playing against the computer, you're stuck with the stage-set BGMs. Trust me on this one, the stage BGMs are bland and monotonous. When combined with the crappy sounds that plague the game, and you've got a real winning combination. I'd turn off the sound for this game all together, but there's something just wrong about playing in silence or playing your own music over a video game. Yes, even wrong-er than the music in this game.

However, after listening to a few of the character themes for a while, they do begin to grow on you. Admittedly, the Psycho Soldier Remix '02 (found when fighting Athena) has actually become my favorite out of all of them. Bloody and Tears may not live up to their predecessors, but are still solid. Regardless, the good music is still outnumbered by the bad.

Since I'm talking about the music, I might as well comment on the voicing and sound effects. Not much to complain about, but there's still some. First of all, the sound effects are quite out of proportion with the music. At times, the sound effects of someone getting hit can actually drown out the music. Don't believe me? Use Whip's HCB + C (strong punch, for those of you who aren't Neo-Geo-savvy) sometime. Also, some of the voices have been redone, mostly for the worse. Well, actually. . . Okay, I lied. Ralf and Angel's voices have been redone for the worse. No longer does Ralf yell ''Galactica Phantom!'', but instead just lets out this long, awkward yell. And Angel...her voice in KoF2001 was cute, but now it just grinds your ears like a rusty cheese grater on a block of cheddar left sitting on the kitchen counter. Bleh. Enough of that though, it's a real minor complaint. One that bugs the crap out of me, but still really minor.

GAMEPLAY - 2

Before I start ranting, I'll say that I am being very, very harsh with my number here.

I should probably start out with a basic explanation of how the game works. In case it isn't obvious enough, KoF is a 2D fighting game series, much along the same strain as its more well-known cousin, Street Fighter. The characters are arranged into teams of three, but you can either choose any three characters you want in Team Mode, or simply go one-on-one in Single Mode. The game uses four buttons: a weak and strong punch, and a weak and strong kick. Many fighting game basics are here: jumping, running, super-jump (jump while running to get extra time in the air), special moves, and super moves. For the most part, special moves are done with the standard ''down, down-forward, forward + punch'' type motions.

Of course, there are more complex aspects to the game. The AB roll (a maneuver that renders you invincible as you roll forwards or back; activated by pressing weak punch + weak kick) has stay put, as it has for many years in the past. The CD knockback attack (an automatic knockdown attack if it connects; activated by pressing strong punch + strong kick) also returns. Also like many other fighting games, KoF2002 contains a super-bar system. As you do special moves, hit, or get hit, your bar fills up. Once it's full, you gain a stock, and can store up to five stocks. You can use a stock by doing a super move, or breaking it by pressing strong punch + weak kick. The result is for a period of time, you have weakened overall attack, but the ability to combo like a madman. During a stock break, you can rip out a super move (called ''DM'' in SNK terms) at any time at the cost of ending the break, pull out a SUPER super move (called ''SDM'') for the cost of another stock, or even use a ULTRA OMEGA SUPER MOVE (called ''HSDM''), if you're at low health and have another stock to spend.

That's a quick look at the basics, most of which are perfectly fine. The controls in and of themselves are quite smooth, and you really should have no complaints about the feel of the game as a whole. So what's my major beef?

The first and foremost problem is that the gameplay is exactly the same as it was four years ago. Oh, what the hell. That's just about the ONLY problem, and I'm still giving the gameplay a 2. Before I go on, I should probably do a little bit of gaming history so I don't confuse those of you new to KoF.

KoF started in 1994 with teams of three, much like we see in 2002. Back in 1999, SNK introduced The Striker System, in an attempt to make progress in terms of gameplay. It involved having teams of four instead; three would participate in combat and the fourth member could be called in a certain number of times during fighting to do a move, presumably to heighten combos. However, many fans of the series hated it. So, Eolith ditched it. A smart move in the businessman's mind. Now what did Eolith do? They took the single most favored KoF, 1998, and just re-released it with different characters.

No, wait. That's another lie on my part. In terms of the super-bar system, we don't have the choice between Advanced (a system more or less like the one seen in KoF02) and Extra (in which the super-bar had to be charged manually, and when you were at low health, you could break out an unlimited number of supers) anymore, something that gave KoF98 an extra angle. But, wait! Eolith managed to integrate Extra elements by giving us the HSDM. Well, paint me pink and call me grandma. A commendable effort, but flawed in practice. Not only are the requirements for the HSDMs are ridiculous, but the motions are so useless (the majority of them follow a ''Shun Goku Satsu'' pattern, where you tap buttons and directions rather than a double motion), it's a wonder if you could possibly use them against an opponent who isn't blind or brain-dead. A shame, since a number of the HSDMs look really, really cool (Orochi Shermie's comes to mind).

BELLS, WHISTLES,& EXTRAS - 4.5

Also, this game contains a few extras. You get a Team Attack Mode, a Single Attack Mode, and a Time Attack mode. In Team Attack, you pick your own team of three, and rip through a gauntlet of all thirteen teams in the game, and finally square off against Omega Rugal at the end. If one of your characters is defeated, s/he will return in the match against the next team, waiting at the bottom of your team's list, but with only half of his/her health returned. If your characters are cycled through and your first character, who had half health to begin with, is defeated AGAIN, s/he'll return in the next match, but now with a quarter health. Obviously, by the time you're at Omega Rugal, all your team members are start with a little sliver of health the size of dust mite. Then again, SNK has always been about impossible tasks, right? Hey, the reward of beating it is being able to play as Omega Rugal yourself, so it balances out in the end.

Single Attack is much simpler, where you take a single character and run him/her against all the non-hidden characters. After each round, a good sized chunk of your life is restored. Making everything insanely easy, until the end where you tackle Omega Rugal once more. Ho-hum, what can you do?

Time Attack is slightly different. You have a menu with forty different missions. Each mission is basically ''Defeat X amount of characters in X amount of time.'' Really, really boring, if you ask me.

Although the Challenge modes aren't all that exciting, that's not the real problem. The problem with them is that the AI in them absolutely sucks. I'm guessing that was done on purpose to balance off the fact that you're going through gauntlets of 40 characters in a row with little compensation, but I should NOT be able to get seven perfects in a row using only one move repeatedly.

There's also an art gallery which unlocks as you beat characters in Single Attack. Unfortunately, as I mentioned before, since Single Attack is so easy, you only need to go through it once to unlock everyone's picture except Omegal Rugal. Most people won't like the artwork itself, as it's quite different from standard anime-style stuff, but at least it's unique. And you gotta love Kensou's giant meat bun.

Pros

+A clone of KoF98, a godly game
+Has many characters, so you'll probably find one you like
+Blue Mary looks good with pink hair

Cons

-A clone of a game made four years ago
-Absolutely awful music
-Leona and Whip don't have any especially cool palette swaps

OVERALL (NOT AN AVERAGE) - 5

So, after I've more or less driven this game into the ground, why do I give it a score of 5, meaning ''average?'' Well, despite being a repeat, it's at least a repeat of a good game. Yes, the sound has gone downhill and a few of the better elements of gameplay have been lost, but I can't blame a game company for wanting to stick to a formula that has worked for so long in the past. The entire atmosphere of this review has probably been misleading, though. The game is still a load of fun, though I'll still preach that KoF99 is better. If you're a returning fan, I'm guessing you're going to get this game regardless of what I say. If you have little to no experience with KoF, though, this isn't a bad place to start. The high number of characters can be intimidating, but KoF2002 isn't such a bad representative of KoF as a whole, especially if you have no prior games against which to compare this and gripe endlessly about how the series is stagnant.

I'll let this one slide for now, but KoF2003 had better introduce something god damn good, otherwise KoF will only continue a slow, steady roll down hill.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 07/01/03, Updated 07/08/03