King of Fighters: Maximum Impact

"A decent fighting game. Though could have been much better."

King of Fighters : Maximum Impact is a decent fighter, but it has many flaws.

First off, it's missing characters that are basically essential to KOF, such as Benimaru Nikaido, Goro Daimon, Robert Garcia and Joe Higashi. They had been in all previous KOF games and should have been in this one, for the transition from 2D to 3D.

Secondly, the story is pretty much nonexistent. The focus is put too much on two new characters, Alba and Soiree Meira and the other characters who are flagship characters of KOF are nearly ignored(Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami to name a few, I'm surprised they even got into the game). There's also this creepy announcer who looks totally out of place and doesn't lend anything to this game.

Thirdly, the subtitles are way off what is actually being said. And what is being sad, man are those dubs bad. They should have just used subtitles (correct ones) and kept the Japanese language instead.

Graphics : 9/10
One of the better games known for 2D that have made the transition to 3D. The graphics depict the characters pretty well and are probably the strong point of the entire game. However they could be better, hopefully when Maximum Impact 2 is released the graphics will be on par with Tekken 5.

Game-play : 7/10
Overall it's okay. The characters have moves list that are lacking (as far as my standards go, anyway) which loses it points. The graphics definitely lend to the game-play, the moves when executed look good. If you're a serious gamer, this won't last you too long.

Sound : 5/10
Not really noticeable. So it gets the average rating. Not good and not bad.

Characters : 7/10
There's a good amount of characters compared to some other fighters, but the KOF series usually has more. Like said previously, there are characters that are essential to KOF that aren't in this game, which is sad. The new characters are good but the focus on them is too high (The whole cover is even devoted to 3 of the 5 new characters).

Overall : 7/10
Overall this game is pretty fun. Rent first because of its restrictiveness, and if you like it enough, buy it. It comes with a Bonus DVD Disk and a Thick Bonus Manual (at least mine did) which are pretty cool. Though I think KOF fans like myself will be relatively disappointed with this episode.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/11/05