The King of Fighters '99
(The Newcomers)
SNK
was at an impasse when we last left them. The King of Fighters '98 had
proved wildly successful, and with the Orochi gone, who were driving
the series from behind the scenes, where would the beloved (and still
lucrative) series be going from here? That's right- a drastic reinvention.
From
1999 through 2001, Kyo Kusanagi and Iori were shoved to the background
while a psuedo-terrorist cartel called NESTS attempted to take over
the world with plots so lame they made Cobra Commander look like the
Desert Fox. See, after the Orochi battle, they kidnapped a passed-out
Kyo and extracted some of his blood for genetic experiments. The plot
put forth in KOF '99, is (brace yourself;) to mass-produce Kyo Kusanagis
to take over the world. Their unclear goals also involve artificial
mastery of the Kusanagi flames, and beating the crap out of people to
aquire nebulous 'battle data' that somehow will activate the clones
to start attacking. So, among the (large) roster of fighter this year,
there's also Kyo-1 and Kyo-2, with presumably lots more.
The
new hero is the 'cool and mysterious' K' ("The name's K-DASH; I
do what I like!") See, K' is like Cloud from FFVII in that he is
a 'failed' experiment, so the doctor never gave him a number. Too bad
we never see him begging the boss Krizalid to give him one at the end.
At his side is the trusty Maxima, a hulking Canadian in an exosuit,
who is also not very pleased with NESTS' upper-crust management. K'
and Maxima take over the first two slots on the Japan Team roster, much
to the chagrin of Benimaru and Shingo.
You
might have noticed I alluded to that being a four-man team. Well, it
is now, thanks to the Striker System. Kind of like the Partner system
in MvS, you too can summon a teammate from the sidelines to run in,
do something of questionable usefulness, then leave. On the plus side,
this expands the already impressive cast by at least 25%, on the other,
you'll always have one man functionally 'out' of it.
The
super system still uses multiple stocks, only now there's no option
to change back to a more classic scheme (probably because virtually
nobody actually used Extra mode.) The new gimmick is, when you get three
stocks (the meter helpfully flashes "MAX") you can go into
Armor Mode (you don't suffer 'injured' animations from attacks, but
still take damage) and Counter Mode (infinite supers and cancels and
bears.)
In
addition to the new protaganists, there are a couple other noteworthy
additions. Foremost, Whip, who seems to be K' (or Krizalid)'s long-lost
sister. She's the new Ikari recruit who fights using- oh, use your imagination.
She also is packing a Desert Eagle that evidentally didn't cut it in
the US release, because heaven forbid someone uses a gun in a fight
with a Korean midget with Freddy Krueger gloves. Speaking of Team Korea,
their new member is Jhun Hoon, who is the 'bad cop' to Kim Kaphwan's
'good cop.' Choi and Chang don't particularly like him either. With
Mai on the Fatal Fury team and Yuri on the Kyokugen team, King had to
resort to bringing Blue Mary, Kasumi Todoh and Li Xiangfei with her
to form the hardest Ladies Team to use ever. And from China comes little
Bao, who may be the worst character concept ever since he's a small
target whose repetoire revolves around projectiles. Thanks, SNK!
One
thing this game really lacks in is just the FEEL of the series. Your
teammates are no longer standing on the sidelines, cheering you on-
in fact most levels are curiously abandoned. Team themes are at least
back, preventing that ambient garbage from '97 from coming back. The
most terrible part of it probably comes from Krizalid and the whole
NESTS thing. "GOSH? WHERE DOES THIS ELEVATOR GO?" "I
HAVE A BAD FEELING ABOUT THIS..." is what leads you into a painful
battle with this painfully cheap boss. His first form has him looking
like a half-assed Black Waltz with no hat or wings, and upon beating
him, you sit through another badly written cutscene just to be soundly
beaten by him after he strips down to his bondage gear and starts his
'Cheap Ryu' fighting style. His favorite move seems to be the Tornado
Kick. This involves kicking slightly, which stirs up a massive sideways
Tornado that reflects projectiles and makes approaching him impossible.
Fortunately, this tactic makes him really easy to beat: All you need
to do is select Leona and toss the weak version of the earring bomb
(the version that bounces) over and over.
Defeated
NESTS villains have that whole vilain complex going on, where they are
completely incapable of accepting their plans suck, let alone an obvious
defeat. To wit: "I LOST? POWERFUL ME?"
Krizalid
talks to some light from above, who thanks him for his work and kills
him with a rock (his last words being "YOU SICK PSYCHOPATHS!")
As your team escapes the self-destructing base (get used to this motif,
it comes up again and again) a booming voice declares "We are NESTS
Cartel! The new world order!"
The
endings here almost seem to go together for once. Whip confronts a dying
Krizalid and reveals that, through some knowledge we weren't aware she
had, that she isn't his sister, and K' isn't Krizalid's clone, but the
other way around (Lovable Krizalid says: "OH, THE TREACHERY! [Even
more lovable Whip calls him things like "puke" and "gruel
breath."])
That's
not to say KOF '99 is a bad game. It's got to be the most widely
available KOF out there, seeing widespread domestic Playstation
release (awful port, though- it has to pause and load for a whole minute--
between characters in a match) and a couple versions on Dreamcast.
(KOF Evolution is '99 with extras. The KOF '99 Dream Match is just KOF
'98 with the year changed to reflect its publication date. Whee.)
The King of Fighters 2000
Project
Zero was the name of the NESTS game this time, which happened to coincide
with the year and the person behind it. This time around, the story
seems to be that everyone is trying to get their hands on K' and Maxima
after they narrowly escaped the Ikari Warriors last year. The tournament
returns to Southtown, or at least the finals did because there's a level
with pyramids and a desert.
The
striker system has been revamped, and I have to say I rather like the
2000 iteration best. The person in the fourth slot can either be the
striker themself, or you can use their 'Another Striker,' the vast majority
of whom are cameo appearances from older SNK games. Even Kim's sons
and Duck King make appearances, as well as a few 'concept' versions
of characters (Like Iori in a trenchcoat and a version of Benimaru that
makes the belly-button shirt look downright manly.)
There's
also been a pllatload of new fighters dumped into our laps. Seth, Vanessa
and Ramon are all evidently from the same agency, which is sort of cooperating/competing
with Heidern's unit over the Project Zero thing. Seth is another annoying
niche character who is kind of like Heavy D! with counters, Vanessa
is a housewife leading a double life as a secret agent who stole all
of Rick Strowd's moves, and Ramon is an annoying little Mexican wrestler.
With the addition of the ninja Lin, the mysterious 'Anti-K' Kula Diamond,
and the strange decision to put King on the Kyokugen Team, the roster
is bigger and better than ever. One complaint though...
WHY
SO MANY MALE MIDRIFFS?!
Seriously.
K's little leather jacket rides up, Benimaru's always been that way,
Ramon's white gut shows up when he stretches for certain moves... Hell,
even Maxima's flack jacket doesn't cover his blue armored midsection.
Just a question. It probably has to do with all the new fighters starting
to pick up kind of a rave fashion look. There's also Hinako, a perky,
16-year old female sumo wrestler. Who is rather petite. It's weird.
The
incredibly stupid plot NESTS cooked up this time involves having a clone
of Zero impersonate Ling, the operations chief for KOF, have him double
cross Heidern to steal the Zero Cannon, and have the 'real' Zero fight
the KOF winners to siphon their chi into a generator to power an orbiting
weapon.
Let
that soak in for a second. They can clone their operatives, kidnap important
officials, genetically engineer supersoldiers and (as revealed later)
can put people, robots, and even a space station into orbit. Why do
they have to steal a chi-powered orbital cannon? More importantly-
WHY a chi-powered ORBITAL CANNON?! But I digress; Zero is uncovered
and beaten, the Zero Cannon goes off by accident, and Southtown is destroyed.
"We lost a city," Heidern muses, "...and we lost our
pride. I wonder what our enemies have in store for us next time?"
Kula
Diamond makes her appearance as a hidden fighter and challenger if the
player scores high enough. She is simply, the anti-K', who wields ice
powers to counter his flames. She's also like a semi-perky Rei Ayanami
that likes lollipops. She destroys the Zero Cannon and breathes in space
in the end, and is saved by her android godmother Candy as they fall
through the atmosphere(!?). Also at Kula's side at nearly all times
are her foster mother Diana (Kula herself is of course, created in a
lab) and Foxy, who I think is Diana's roommate. She waves a rapier around,
so I'm not making any direct assumptions about them.
KOF
2000 may be the best of the NESTS saga. The artwork is excellent, the
system refined, and there's plenty of new things to try each time you
play through. The translation is really pretty good, with more 'genuinely'
funny sayings than the usual SNK-glish. (It's better than '94 by a long
shot, and doesn't make up words as seen in '01.) The way the
story is given actually made me care what the hell might happen to K'
and company next...
So,
what exactly did Zero mean by his cryptic winquote that translates as
"Only Zero can defeat Zero?"
The King of Fighters 2001
SNK
was in trouble. They were beginning to suffer major losses, and the
excellent KOF 2000 ended on a cliffhanger note. 2001 looked to be the
last stand.
KOF
2001 is the first King of Fighters Eolith/Playmore/etc. put out after
SNK folded in that year. It's really a mixed bag; on the one hand, it
has the most useful possible iteration of the Striker system (without
resorting to MvC2 levels of tackiness) and now instead of being self-contained
'striker bombs,' you must spend a stock to call one or more strikers.
It's vaguely evocative of the CvS Ratio system in that you can have
say, four playable characters with one power stock (meaning no SDMs),
three with two stocks and one striker (the best combination), two with
three stocks and two strikers, and even one fighter with four stocks
and three strikers. Your offense and defense is also tweaked accordingly.
The
system is 'loosened' a little in this one, basically meaning a move
can conceivably connect with the other sprite even if on the ground
or whatever. I've managed to divebomb people with Ralf while they were
down. There's also the new 'wire' moves that send your opponent ricocheting
off the wall for an easy juggle. Naturally,
the CPU is more than willing to use this against you, most notably the
INCREDIBLY CHEAP Igniz, who is infamous for a simple infinity combo
involving his blade chain.
This
time, it's NESTS' last stand as they enter an official team in the tournament.
The freak parade consists of Kula Diamond, Foxy, a scantily-clad wrestler/assassin
named Angel, and the blatant Akira ripoff K-9999. K' is reunited with
his sister Whip (whose real name turns out to be Seirah, for the record)
with Maxima and Lin in tow as the anti-NESTS team. Kyo Kusanagi comes
back to the Japan Team, much to the joy of Shingo, and apparently this
was enough to get the hulking slow thing they call Daimon out of retirement.
Remember
the cryptic thing I mentioned that nobody could conceivably get without
spekaing Japanese or consulting Gamefaqs? Turns out the 'real' Zero
was another clone, which allows him to come back with a new head as
Original Zero. O-Z is exactly the same guy, only a little slower and
dumber to reflect his mid-boss status, and with three strikers backing
him up- a black lion, Ron, Lin's nemesis, and freaking Krizalid.
You
fight Zero aboard a blimp that turns into a spaceship, a device that
any James Bond villain would be prou- Actually, you know what? It still
sounds, looks, smells and tastes stupid. But it does lead you to the
NESTS space station for the final battle with Igniz.
After
a needlessly long cinema, you fight the blonde becaped prettyboy. Like
anyone who uses the title 'CEO', he is evil to the core, responsible
for all of the inhumane experiments performed on Kyo et al, and is striving
for godhood. Defeat him and he proceeds to cry and be generally a poor
loser by dropping the station to earth.
K'
and the rest are saved from the blast by... someone. As he swims to
the surface, he meets Kula sinking headfirst in kind of a 'can love
grow, even underwater' moment, So, Maxima heads off to visit a friend's
grave that he never brought up before, Lin just kind of goes off somewhere,
and K' and Whip set off on a journey with Diana and Kula (since K-9999
killed Foxy with his freaky drill arm.)
2001
would have been excellent had they not resorted to a truly hideous techno
soundtrack (if you look at the OST CD track list, the title theme "Flesh
Reconstruction Project" appears in seven versions, and the new
Japan theme "Matchless Flame" is... awful) and strange artwork.
I guess it could be considered an abstraction or stylization since it
omits detail in favor of the 'essence' of the guy, and some actually
look nice, if not for the fact that it's all presented on searing, neon
backgrounds, with 'futuristic' fonts in all of the voluminous dialogue.
The only really new characters this time out are May Lee, one of Kim's
pupils who loves sentai (think Power Rangers or more specifically Masked
Rider) and appears to be wearing a Toastyfrog T-shirt; Angel, the NESTS
assassin whose idea of fashion apparently involves a leather jacket,
cowboy boots, and a thong; and the aformentioned K-9999, a drooling
skinny maniac who vaguely resembles Ray Dennis Steckler. The rest are
old returning fighters like Heidern and Goro.
The
english isn't so bad, if not for a few instances of made-up words. "I
HOPE THIS GLADDIDITY NEVER ENDS!" quoth Choi.
In
spite of a rather nasty presentation, KOF 2001 is still a solid fighter,
and at least a fight in space was a suitably interesting end to the
series. At its end, KOF had evolved beyond the rather generic style
of '94, with each character having their own unique little quirks and
play style that made learning the game even more rewarding. Key example:
Ralf and Clark from Ikari Team. They started out as virtually identical
fighters, but over time, Ralf was just a straight on 'power' fighter,
and Clark became a grappler.
SNK
was gone, and KOF was over. But it seems that this story has a happy
ending...