The King of Fighters 2006

"3-D Visuals Capturing the 2-D Spirit"

I've played a lot of fighters over the years. Some good. Some bad. Some excellent. Some abysmal. KOF 2006 treads the line between good and excellent. For a 3-D fighter it manages to really stay true to it's 2-D roots. SNK must have made notes of all the mistakes Capcom made with the Street Fighter EX series and figured out how NOT to repeat them. What you have with KOF 2006 is, in my opinion, a nice blend of an above average 3-D fighters combined with a top tier 2-D fighter. In my humble opinion, SNK took a lot of notes from the competition and learned what to do and what not to do in making a strong 3-D fighter.

Graphics: 9 of 10

The arenas have great detail, and the characters have had great detail put into them when they were rendered into 3-D. Mai is still as jiggly as ever (and boy does she jiggle in this one). You can look at the character's clothing now and even the material of their clothing looks distinguishable now. You can look at Terry and see a red leather vest, white cotton t-shirt, and denim jeans, and it actually looks like that's what he's wearing. So, the visuals are pretty top notch for a fighter.

Sound: 7 of 10

If I'm scoring on music alone, this gets a 9 of 10. If I'm counting the voice acting only, KOF 2006 gets a 2 of 10. The voice acting is that bad. It's beyond bad. It's God awful. But I got to give the sound an overall 7 because the music does a really great job of setting the pace and setting the tempo of the fight. Fighting games really do need that rock/techno blend to set the ambiance of the fight. Many of the top tier 3-D fighters like Tekken 5 and Virtua Fighter 4 do it and do it well. KOF 2006 is no exception.

Controls: 9 of 10

KOF 2006 has some of the most fluidity of any fighter I've played in a long time. The controls are responsive and many of the special moves feel easier to pull off than they have in previous versions of KOF. I know one of the biggest gripes of SNK fighters is the difficulty of pulling off special and super moves, and the controls can be looked at one of two ways. This could be seen as dumbing down the controls so that the average gamer can feel a sense of accomplishment, or this could be seen as SNK fine tuning the controls so that it's not so difficult to pick up and play. I think it's the latter of the two, seeing as it can take some gamers a while to become proficient in 3-D fighters. Personally, I have a preference for Capcom fighters, and KOF 2006 ranks right up there with Street Fighter Alpha 3 in terms of the precision of the game's controls. The reason, however, the controls do not get a 10 is because the side stepping controls do not always work well and you really have to button mash to get back up after being knocked down. Other than those two gripes, the controls are remarkable.

Story: 3 of 10

It's the King of Fighters tournament once again. Everyone has their reasons for entering. Some old grudges need to be settled. Yadda yadda yadda. I'm not gonna really factor this score into the overall score because fighters typically don't have much of an in game story.

Replayability: 9 of 10

There's a ton of stuff to unlock. 8 arenas, 14 characters, and 8 additional colors (4 for each characters 2 costumes) per character. There's mission battles, a time attack mode, the traditional story mode, etc... There's a lot of single player play for your money. Most fighters nowadays lack the single player staying power they once had. If you're someone like me who's hell bent on unlocking every possible item in the game, you're gonna have your hands full for awhile. While it may not be as meticulous as Tekken 5 or Virtua Fighter 4 because KOF 2006 does not have a customize mode where you can put stupid looking sunglasses and whatnot on your characters, there's still a lot to do and for a fighter fan, this is a breath of fresh air because most games can be 100% unlocked in a couple hours.

Overall: 8 of 10

In summary, this is a great fighter to have in your collection. If you've been playing King of Fighters since 1994, King of Fighters 2006 does a fantastic job of modernizing the series while maintaining the feel of the origins of the KOF series. Great visuals, superb controls, and a good soundtrack give the game a lot of energy. I highly recommend disabling the voices unless you actually enjoy bad voice acting. It's subtitled too if you really need to or want to follow the story, but the story really isn't necessary to follow.

Rent or Buy: Buy

At most retailers, this game can already be found in the bargain bin, so it can be had for $20 or less. There's enough to keep you playing for a long while. If you have siblings or friends that enjoy fighters too, this should keep you entertained and coming back for more. Compared to some of the stripped down, recycled fare Capcom has been feeding fighter fans in recent years, SNK also took note of that produced one of the finest King of Fighter games since King of Fighters '97. You won't be disappointed with King of Fighters 2006.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/11/07