So Long, and Thanks for All the Fists...
SNK went kaput in late 2001, but not before hocking off the liscenses to its most popular franchises (mainly KOF and Metal Slug) to the Korean company Playmore's Eolith label. As mentioned before, KOF '01 was actually tweaked and released internationally by Playmore (alledgedly including actual Korean-language voice samples for Kim Kaphwan et al for their edition,) but with the announcement of an all new game coming out, we all waited in apprehension-
The King of Fighters 2002
Would it be good? Would it suck? Sadly, most of us statesiders won't play this for a while since it saw EXTREMELY limited American release (the closest machine to my location is in 8 Mile, Michigan, and I really don't want to risk catching whatever Eminem has.) Without resorting to emulation. Ahem. That much said, King of Fighters is suprisingly good, probably better than KOF 2k1.
The team that best represents my id, ego and superego. Have fun guessing who is who.
2002 represents fans' prayers answered: Hated the striker system? It's gone. We're back to good old 3-on-3 matches. The super system is similar to the '97-'98 version, where SDMs can only be performed by spending a stock to go in MAX mode. (Performing a normal DM in MAX, thankfully just 'cancels' out the stock used for MAX mode without chewing up another bar.) They even added Hidden SDMs, ludicrously powerful, flashy attacks that can only be performed with low health in Max mode. HSDMs also are accompanied by anime-like blue and white speedlines (exceptions being Iori's Riot of the Blood background, and K-9999's fade-to-white thing.)
A dream match like '98, '02 caters to longtime KOF fans with cameos galore and a more familiar system. (Armor/counter modes, my ass!) The backgrounds are... odd, in and of themselves, including a sheep farm in the Netherlands and a scaffolding outside the Leaning Tower of Pisa. They are also packed with celebrity guests (checklist at lower right, if you care to go trainspotting.)
Unfortunately, there are some real downsides. As with '98, there are no real 'endings' to speak of, the credits roll over Real Bout Special-esque sprite animations. You know, where they recycle character animations so it looks like they're playing baseball or being sexually deviant. We learn, for example, that Clark really likes to pounce on and abduct women, and that May Lee is actually Choi in drag. The inputs for many new moves are hard to memorize, and tend towards nonsensical, time-sensitive button presses. (Activating Leona's Orochi mode involves pressing up, down, up, down, up, down, then B+C; something I've never actually pulled off myself, to be honest.)
The main downfall by far, ironically, comes from the removal of the strikers. With teams of three again, the roster is effectively slashed by about a fourth. Among the tragically, confusingly cut is King, Ladies' Team mainstay since '94. Shingo is also missed for his comic relief value, and at least one friend of mine is upset over Bao's departure. Most of the nixed fighters appear in cameo in various stages, but it's just not the same. King adjusting her collar and trying to beat the heat in Mexico is no subsitute for King in the ring. (The Dreamcast release is supposed to have Shingo and King as time-released fighters. Because they hate us.) There are also some existing characters who seem a little, well, neutered. Takuma has been robbed of all projectile attacks and must make do with (kid you not) making fireball gestures and hoping someone hits him for a counter. Robert's signature triple kick has been removed as well, and Kim has traded his good moves for an animation upgrade. At the same time, new characters are sped up, given attacks with more priority, and new moves (Vanessa completes her stealing moves form Rick by copying his Hellion cross punch.)
With all that's new, one thing remains the same- Rugal is the last boss, and whattaya know, he breaks tradition by self-destructing the plane BEFORE you fight him. All things considered, this is about as easy as Rugal gets. His new favorite attack method is based around Kyo-esque chaining of his Genocide Cutters, and he generally relies less on ubercheap projectiles than '98's version. I find K-9999 to be the best against him, since the Cutter attacks at a sort of angle, with brief delays between hits, allowing you to attack him head-on with little worry. Yes, that egg-headed little weed is actually good for something after all.
My final verdict on KOF 2002: It's really very good. Quite possibly better than the NESTS-era games for its classic game style, and though the music remains techno noodling, they made an effort to use old, recognizable tunes in this one. (Including the long-lost Yuri Sakazaki theme, "Diet" and the original Ikari tune, "Jungle Bouncer!") But there's something missing, something intangible. Don't let that stop you from playing if the chance arises, but then again, if the chance arises, odds are you'd probably play it in a heartbeat if you've read this far into this feature.
The End (?)
As I remarked to a friend earlier after reviewing the list of forthcoming Eolith releases, it dawned on me that for a dead company, SNK is sure getting a lot of titles ready for release. There's a Playmore subdivision dubbed SNK Neo Geo working on a number of projects. Metal Slug 5 and KOF '03 have been anounced already, and there's a chance that Samurai Shodown may be having a fifth chapter, in addition to a followup to Mark of the Wolves. There's even a Playstation 2-exclusive 3-D King of Fighters title supposedly in development. Hopefully it won't suck quite as bad as Wild Ambition.
Then there's the KOF Online game currently on open beta in Korea (for details, kofonline.com should have instructions on where to go and what to do- and the site was around long before the game was announced.) Think Everquest or whatever, only with a modern setting, and premade characters. I suppose in the long run, the control you have over skill advancement makes your character choice roughly the same as a character class in any other, but as of yet, customization seems limited to name and a few color schemes. Anyway, the game proceeds in 'seasons,' or separate storylines of varying length. The more seasons you play through, the more characters become available in addition to the usual levelling up and such. The sample level is a fairly detailed Southtown, complete with Geese Tower in the middle. With any luck, we'll see this game on our shores someday, but I have my doubts.
The SNK vs Capcom Chaos project is gathering some attention: whereas the CvS games were produced by Capcom and have that company's particular style to them, SvC:C will be produced by the SNK Neo Geo crew. Early impressions of the game show a very smoothly animated intro with... curiously 'retro' sprites. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's all "KOF '96-level", but it isn't quite par graphically with say, Art of Fighting or the fabled MotW. Already though, I can see some SNK-style humor in the portion of the cast reveled thus far since Mr. Karate is considered on par with Akuma. Who knows how many characters it'll have at final release?
Well, hope you've enjoyed this look back and forward at the legacy of this uh, temporarily lost campany.
So, Who Do You Want in YOUR King of Fighters?
The thing about producing multiple installments of about a half-dozen fighting games, then introducing a sort of 'all-stars' edition like KOF, is that a lot of potentially interesting characters and possible team combinations slip through the cracks. So, here's a few suggestions I mostly came up with tossing names back and forth between me and my friend Jake:
The Rhythm Team: Athena Asamiya leaves Kensou and the old guy to hire Copeira dancer Bob Wilson and the ever fun-kay Duck King as her backup dancers.
The Fatal Fury Outtakes Team: Blue Mary, Ryuji Yamazaki and Billy Kane formed one of the best-loved special teams when they made their KOF debut in 1997. I propose we give some of the other annoying niche characters in on the game, by teaming up the ill-fated Rick Strowd (to get payback against Vanessa for stealing his movelist), Hon-Fu (because 1, he's Yamazaki's nemesis, and 2, a blast to play with in Real Bout) and Alfred the Aviator (who hasn't officially been in anything since RB2.) At best, we get another '97 Team; at worst, another USA Sports Team.
The Samurai Shodown Team: If they can time-warp the Art of Fighting characters twenty years forward to be in KOF, what's stopping them from snagging Haohmaru, Nakoruru and Ukyo and dropping them in 2003? For that matter, why not have grown up Rock Howard show up with J. Benet and Hokutomaru?
The Throwaway Team: Pluck Lenny and Rody from Art of Fighting 3, and team them up with Jack from Art of Fighting 2. You'll never win a match.
The Metal Slug Team: C'mon. There's an Ikari Warriors team, and none of their games were even any good.
The All-Kyo Team: Classic Kyo, the evil Kusanagi from '02, and Biker Angst Kyo. Wait, you could actually do that one in '99.
The Axis of Evil Team: Orochi Kim Jong Il, Cyber Saddam Hussein, and Omega Rugal. Why not?
KOF 2002 Cameo Checklist
- Cambodia: Kim Su Il, Baedal (Kizuna Encounter)
- Holland: Wang Koh-San, Sokaku Mochizuki
- Japan: Kasumi and Ryhaku Todoh (reunited at last!), Eiji Kisaragi, Geese Howard (?),
- Korea: Jae Hoon(?), Jhun
- China: Bao, Cheng Sinzan (with wife), Li Xiangfei, Hon-Fu, Tung Fu Rue, Chonshu& Chonrei (also: the cop harassing Tung looks familiar, but I can't quite place him)
- Mexico: King, Shingo(? There's a flustered looking guy standing next to King who kind of looks like him, but probably ain't), Duck King, Bob Wilson, Lucky Glauber, Brian Battler, the Aztec guy from MotW, Heidern (on TV, yelling) Also: Yamazaki on a wanted poster. (This is a very busy stage.)
- Italy: Krauser, Mr. Big& his girls, Heidern (on TV again- what, did he buy public access time to yell at the camera?)
Capcom vs SNK: Round 2
After the success of the spastic, synapse-burning Marvel vs Capcom, an idea brewed deep inside the minds of one side or the other.
SNK Exec: "Hey! We both make popular fighting games, so why not have our guys fight each other instead of tangentially-related liscensed characters?"
CC Exec: "Sounds fun, but only on the condition we get to reduce the movelists of your characters down to the level of our guys."
SNK Exec: "But... our hard-won integrity- oh hell, we need the money."
So, Capcom vs SNK was born. And if it proved anything, it's that for all the similarity of the games' concepts, the two fighting engines were rather incompatible. The control scheme was set to SNK's four-button method, costing the World Warriors two buttons, but on the other hand, the KOF cast lost meaty portions of their repetoires to make things easier on characters like Cammy who only have three moves to start with. There were also the Grooves, which mainly influence the way your meter builds. SNK Groove is the old school method of holding down buttons until your meter is full, with unlimited supers when your life flashes red. Capcom Groove is the SFA3-esque multi-stock system (and my favorite, though I mainly use SNK fighters. GO FIGURE!)
The ratio system was devised as a way to set up teams of fighters with supposedly equal ability. The going rate for your Kyo, or Ryu (ya know, heroes) was 2-point- your typical boss was a 3-pointer, secondary fighters are 1-point, and hidden cheapo bosses are a 4. Some genious decided however, that Yuri and King were only worth 1 point, something I take glee in since it lets me have two of my best characters with 2 points left over for whoever. And most of the time, I can take out a 3-point fighter like Yamazaki without losing Yuri. So nyeeeh, ratio system.
CvS 2 boasts a bigger roster, more grooves, and six button control map. Other than the expected graphical upgrades, it's pretty much the same deal as before, give or take a lame-ass ratio system.
Rock Howard's in it. That's cool.
