King of Fighters: Maximum Impact

"Nice try"

For 10 years, the King of Fighters franchise has been duking it out in 2d. Now, SNK Playmore has decided to bring this venerable franchise into the 3rd dimension in commemoration of the its 10th anniversary. For all those who where unfortunate enough to experience SNK Playmore (at that time SNK) previous attempts at the 3rd dimension, you may breathe a sign of relief. King of Fighters: Maximum Impact is a whole lot better than the company's previous attempts, but neither up to par with the likes of Soul Calibur 2 or Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution.

King of Fighters: Maximum Impact (Kof:MI from now on) is about a gang war in SouthTown. Two brothers, Soriee and Alba Meira have entered the King of Fighters tournament to avenge the death of their mentor Fate and to defeat their rival gang Mephistopheles (who are the tournament sponsors). It really is not an engaging story unlike that of past King of Fighters.

Graphically, Kof:MI looks pretty good. SNK's artists did a good job of emulating the 2d character sprites into 3d. The models are large and and detail is good but not comparable to the awesome 3d fighters out there (Soul Calibur 2, VF4). Animation is good although some moves lack that certain viceral thrill. For example, in past KoF's, when Iori does his throw move, he grabs your gut then rips you upward with blood spraying, here there is no blood at all. In fact, there is absolutely no blood in the entire game. A real let down for me and for most fans for sure.

A plus side with the move to 3d is that now, the characters have multiple costumes. Now we can see Iori in a different outfit than his usual goth-style get-up. A negative though with the transition to 3d is that most of the 2d charm was lost. Win poses look awkward and some special moves look bland.

The Kof gameplay has been preserved for this title although it is more centered on "stylish arts", chain moves much like those found in Tekken or Bloody Roar. Actually, with the addition of these stylish arts, the game has become button-masher friendly. It's relatively easy for a newcomer to just pick up the game, start mashing the buttons, and see something cool happen on screen.

A new addition to the gameplay is the ability to attacked opponents when they are prone. After knocking your foe to the ground, you have the option to follow it up with any attack that can hit the ground, thus extending your combos. For example, with Kyo you can combo him into a sweep then attack you opponent with a kick in order to juggle him into the air for more punishment. Recovery rolls are now even more important now then ever before! Walls have been added to the game's backgrounds making for dangerous death (KO) traps. You have to be aware of where you are because it can be easy for an opponent to corner you against a wall and pummel you into submission which will most certainly happen because of a new guard crush mechanic added to the game. Below your life bar is a guard crush meter which ticks down every time you are hit while guarding. When it is depleted you get guard crushed, meaning if you are hit you lose your guard and are open for anything your opponent unleashes after that. What's worse is, unlike in the 2d version, the meter needs to refill (you shouldn't guard anything for the meter to refill) first before you can guard properly again.

Another addition is the ability to sidestep your foes attacks. Pressing the weak punch and weak kick will make your character sidestep into the screen while pressing down plus the weak punch and weak kick will make your character sidestep towards the screen. Holding down the buttons will make your character circle your opponent. It is still easy to get hit by most moves even if you sidestep because most attacks have such a wide radius that they can still reach your character. This implementation needs some getting used to, although, in my opinion, it would have been better if you could sidestep by just tapping up or down on the d-pad.

What is important to note here is that game balance here is not that great. Some character are incredibly cheap (Duke the endboss can finish you off in less than 10 seconds but that usually is the norm with SNK bosses!). Although this is not an arcade title, it really is not THAT big a deal but is still annoying.

Music from the series (after KOF96 that is) have never been that memorable. The same is true here with mostly rock and metal music in the background. Voice acting in this game is so-so! They should have kept the old japanese voices in and just added subtitles, just like what Namco did for Soul Calibur 2. Sound effects are pretty ok for the most part although they should have added better sounding hits to better convey the power of some of the more explosive moves in the game.

Kof:MI features a story mode, along with a versus mode, a challenge mode, and a profile section. Story mode is where players can experience the games story (duh). Versus mode provides 1 on 1 battles against a friend or the cpu and also the staple 3 on 3 battles that KoF is known for. Challenge modes provides the player with a time attack mode, and a mission mode. Mission mode gives players certain conditions for victories, such as beating the cpu with a 30-hit combo or surviving for 30 seconds, etc. It is in this mode that you can unlock the games secrets. Profile mode on the other hand records the different Bio's of the characters in the game. You can also set a "rigging model" for a character. Rigging models are additions to the character model. They can be either humorous or just plain annoying. For example, Terry Bogard's rigging model gives him a wolf's head, paws, and tail!

Kof:MI with all it's imperfections is still a good game. It can provide you with hours of fun and also seeing your favorite King of Fighters character in 3d is a treat (Mai). It is not so disappointingly bad as SNK Playmore's past efforts yet it could have been better.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/18/04