Slashdot Mirror
History Of The King Of Fighters Explored
Thanks to 1UP for its feature charting the history of SNK's cult King Of Fighters series. The piece starts: "From 1994 until now and counting, SNK's King of Fighters... has almost as consistent a track record as EA's Madden football, and Madden didn't have to survive the protracted buyout and collapse of its owners." The yearly versions of these Neo Geo-originated 2D fighters are then analyzed, from KOF '94 ("Two dozen characters in a fighting game doesn't sound like much nowadays, but it was a hell of a cast in 1994") through the controversial KOF '99 ("a pretty daring move on SNK's part, delivering a complete overhaul of the series' tested gameplay"), to the present day, where a separate article delivers new details on the forthcoming KOF '03, revealing new rosters and "a tag battle system" for this latest arcade-bound iteration.
I don't know about being overhyped. It's the #1 alternative to Capcom fighters. If you are tired of playing Ryu and Ken games, then you should definitely check this series out. It's a drastically different style of game, more precise controls (think SF Alpha compared to Capcom vs. Marvel), and in many ways much more polished gameplay. The characters are much more balanced, and it's an all around good game.
It's always going to be known as the "other" fighter series, but it's a good one with a smaller following and less notoriety.
But Capcom treats their games differently. Street Fighter Zero/Alpha is not a sequel to SSF2X/Turbo.
They generally only increment full version numbers with complete engine overhauls, which are also accompanied by storyline changes. So, talking only about 2-D Street Fighter-branded games, we have:
Each series is distinct enough in gameplay to merit differentiation from the others. Even a master of the games in one series MUST learn new skills to perform well in the others, especially in areas concerning defense.
Now, similar things can be said of KoF moving from one edition to the next, but since it's SNK routine to bring out a new KoF game every year according to tradition, it makes sense that they name their annual game series according to the year. Big deal, this is just how SNK works. If Capcom's release schedule were so rote, it would probably make sense for them too.
Me, I like Capcom's infrequent, multi-series release strategy. It provides focus and stability to the competition scene.
< tofuhead >
It is still the dark of night.
I'll take Soulcalibur any day. Of course, maybe that's just because I could never stomach learning endless combo lists.
My only political goal is to see to it that no political party achieves its goals.
...but SNK's *other* 2D fighting franchise; Fatal Fury has always been the better in my opinion.
:-)
The line change cabability of Fatal Fury Special and the earlier games was a unusual feature, but one which, imo, works well.
The later games, Real Bout, RB2 and RB Special took the series and gave it a really slick and cartoony fluid style, more towards the Capcom style of things (thinking Darkstalkers/MVC/X-Men).. something which reached its pinnacle in the guise of Mark of the Wolves; the latest in the Fatal Fury line.
Probably one of the most advanced 2D fighters yet.
However, the ultimate 2D fighting game has got to be the ultra polished Last Blade games. Even now, LB and LB2 have got gameplay and game mechanics to die for.
Rumours are that there is another sequel coming in 2004 and it is NOT KOF or Samurai Shodown (already available on MVS cart). We're guessing either another Mark of the Wolves (fab!) or a third Last Blade game (excellent!). A second SNK v Capcom game would be unlikely, but would definitely kkep the Neo Geo alive for a few more years yet (the thing just refuses to die!).
All of this assumes the use of SNK hardware (home console or MVS/arcade)... the games are *good* on other systems, but just seem to lack something in the translation