The King of Fighters '95

"A High Fidelity Saturn Masterpiece"

I know this isn't the newest game out there, but I was surprised to see that nobody had yet done a review for it, and being the KoF freak that I am I thought it would be fun to make this my first reviewed game. So the way it's going to work is that this review is written with KoF fans in mind, and is basically a direct comparison between the Saturn and Neo cart version of KoF'95 and deals with the fidelity of this Saturn port as compared to the original. Enjoy!

First off, if you own KoF'95 for Saturn then not only do you own the best piece of 3rd party sweetness SNK has ever produced besides KoF'99 Evolution, but you also own a small piece of history. In early 1996, KoF'95 for Sega Saturn marked SNK's return to in house 3rd party development after an extremely lengthy hiatus. It also was the first CD/cartridge game ever released, and was the first game to utilize the Saturn's cartridge slot for extended RAM purposes. It was also the first and last game to sport a game specific cartridge. After SNK realized how much it ended up costing them to produce this CD/cart tandem they quickly defaulted to a generic back-up RAM cart that suited multiple games instead... which is too bad really considering how good KoF'95 turned out. Anyway, on with the review.

As I stated before, all this information is in direct comparison between this game and the original Neo Geo cart version, and was compiled by myself using both versions which I do in fact own. And BTW, I'm not giving specific scores for every category, only comparisons and comments.

GRAPHICS
The first thing you'll notice when you boot this game up is that the screen is slightly scrunched at the sides, about 5% or so on each side. As a result things look ever so slightly ''tall'' and the edges of the screen are black strip. Nothing major or game ruining though.

Now as far as I can tell, the animation is perfect. From the fog effect on the Rival Team's stage, the dirt & dust that get's kicked up off the ground as you jump and fall, every bead of sweat & blood that goes flying when you're hit, even every scarce little drop of foreground rain on Kim's stage... it's all there, replicated and animated perfectly. Oh, and the flawless animation of the characters themselves goes without saying. Seriously, the in game animation is perfect to every extent of the word. In fact, the only visual flaw I can comment on is the fact that the graphic coloring ever so slightly dull... it's hardly mentionable, but the color is just a bit less vibrant than the Neo cart version.
Another thing that only a very critical eye would notice is that when selecting your fighting order, the highlighted character doesn't animate as it's supposed to, and both teams don't taunt each other when the order has finished being selected. Trivial detail, but that's just how far you have to dig in order to find a flaw in this game.

SOUND/MUSIC
The general sound is exactly the same as the Neo cart, only because it's on Saturn it's in stereo. **A Neo Geo's default sound output is mono, however you can listen to the sound output in stereo by listening through the headphone jack** Now the music used in this Saturn version is the straight up midi from the original, it pauses and restarts from the point it left off at between character loads (excellent touch that DM'99 could've used), and has the great feature of being in stereo, however, the sound mix itself is slightly off. The voices are nice & clear but everything just needs to come up a level or two. The sound is good but slightly muted in comparison to the Neo cart... not crappy, just not as crisp and separated. For instance, the hit connection sound effects are there and done properly, but they should just have a little bit more ''smack'' to them. Not to the degree that the sound effects in KoF'96/Sat needed more smack (starving for it), but it's just not quite there.

The thing I found odd was SNK's choice to use the original midi music. If it were being generated from the cartridge then it would make sense, but it's not, it's being read straight off the CD as you play. In fact you can pop the CD into a CD player and enjoy the midi music if you want to... yeah right. Anyway, they could've easily used the cool arranged soundtrack just as they did with the Neo CD and PS versions.

GAMEPLAY/CONTROL
Now the gameplay is definitely there and replicated virtually perfect but... I dunno, it just seems a little too easy to complete certain combos. Perhaps it's just the ease of using a Saturn joystick (not pad) instead of the Neo Geo one that makes the difference, but it's such a small difference that it's almost not even worth mentioning... so small in fact that I can't even positively identify it myself. Anyway, from the way Kyo's A+B dodge counter --> Kai --> Oboro Guuruma combo will whiff if started too close, to the way you'll occasionally lose account of your positioning while in the heat of dodge & counter attempts with a closely situated opponent, everything that should be in there IS... including the insane damage factor, the amazing throw range of certain characters, and 100% combos of others.

There are small faults here and there but they're so inconsequential that I feel lame even mentioning them... but being the stickler for fidelity that I am, here are the 3 things I found:

1) The engine has a tendency to choke a bit just as the elevator doors open on the Ryuko stage. Nothing major and the effect lasts only a split second... just as the doors open.

2) The background jerks slightly as the view scrolls down during the opening at King's Bar.

3) People have a tendency to occasionally go into a funny looking little fit as they attempt to guard Daimon's DP + A move.

And really, other than these 3 things the gameplay is arcade perfect. Oh, and the control is right on and replicated perfectly as compared to the Neo cart version... there's really nothing more to say on this issue.

The AI is every bit as good as the Neo cart. However, at level 8 the Neo cart guys intimidate you more with heavy combo whereas in the Saturn version they'll always have the perfect counter to whatever you're attempting to do. It's nice to play a decent CPU for a change.

OPTIONS
I'll start off by commenting on the options themselves. The Neo cart's are scarce giving you only difficulty setting and pad set, but this Saturn version gives you difficulty, pad set (9 preset, 7 customizable), BGM & character voice listening (bare bones though, not like the PS version's), and Stereo & Mono sound output... and both feature the same play modes: Single, Team, Single VS, Team VS, Single All.

But where the Saturn version really excels is in it's small strokes of genius like the in game Pad Set Select menu and Quick Team Select. The Pad Set Select allows you to pause the game and cycle through it's 16 possible pad settings, making tournament play much more intuitive, and the Quick Team Select allows you to re-select the same team you just played with one button press rather than having to select characters manually... I mean, all fighting games should have this kind of stuff, and sadly not many do. Oh, and there's also the fact that you can save Saishu & Omega Rugal to memory rather than always having to enter their enable code.

GENERAL PRESENTATION
Since I realize that loading is probably the biggest concern here, I'll cover it first. To be precise I've actually timed it, and there's 5 seconds of loading at the beginning of a fight (between the character select screen and the actual fight intro), and only 2 seconds between characters during the match... not half bad for about 1/4 the cost of the Neo cart. Between characters you literally only have time to glance at both portraits or read ''Now Loading...'' before the next round is starting. It's that quick. Also, the loading screen portraits are those from the Neo Geo CD version (nice little facial sketches) and not the horribly lame character statics from the PS version.

Some small details that might be noted are the fact that unlike the PS version, there's no ugly title screen/menu. Actually, the shell is exactly the same as the Neo cart, only with more options in the OPTIONS menu. Also there's no ''how to play'' demo, and unlike the PS version you can't choose to see it due to the lack of the title screen menu I just mentioned.

So with the minimal loading aside, the general presentation of the game is perfect. The way the screen fades out when you win, the way the cut scenes come in, everything, it's all presented and timed perfectly... it IS arcade perfect.

FINAL THOUGHTS
In closing I'd just like to comment that this particular game is a Saturn masterpiece, and regardless if you're a KoF fan or not, it's something that any Saturn fan should make an effort to have in their library. I usually don't even read reviews that give a game anything more than a 6 or 7 because the people just seem way too thrilled with the game to be taken seriously, but in this particular case I feel compelled to give KoF'95 for Sega Saturn a 9 simply because is's so damn close to being the Neo Geo cart version, only at a fraction of the price. If you have the means I highly recommend you pick up a copy of this game, and if you're a Saturn owning KoF fan that doesn't own this one then SHAME ON YOU =P

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/18/01, Updated 04/18/01