[PS2] MINIREVIEW King of Fighters XI

[Paratech]

WARNING This is a minireview! I played it on my Playstation 2 for about an hour, although I played through all the way to the final boss and have played every King of Fighters game except the 1st 3D King of Fighters, so I feel it's a fair mini review.

BTW, I own every KOF for the Playstation 2 *KOF 2000-2003 & 2006* and KOF98-99 for the Dreamcast and KOF99 for the Playstation, plus I own the Neo Geo MVS Carts to KOF94-95, and I did own KOF95 on the Playstation.

Here's the review

It's finally at Electronics Boutique after being delayed months, It was in Japan last year and was in the arcades as of 2005, why all the delay to get it in the US is beyond me. Electronics Boutique were jerks and didn't let me put $5 down on a copy, no I had to pre order it and pay the moment it came out! If I weren't a KOF fanboy, I'd have told them where they could go, as only Electronics Boutique seems to be selling the Neo Geo games at the moment.

I just got the game in the mail today because I was a cheapskate and paid for media mail shipping!

Anyways, it's another King of Fighters from the arcade, based on the Naomi/Atomiswave hardware so we aren't going to see this in MAME any time soon!

System 16 Specs

HARDWARE DESCRIPTION
CPU : Hitachi SH-4 32-bit RISC CPU (200 MHz 360 MIPS / 1.4 GFLOPS)
Graphic Engine : PowerVR 2 (PVR2DC)
Sound Engine : ARM7 Yamaha AICA 45 MHZ (with internal 32-bit RISC CPU, 64 channel ADPCM)
Main Ram : 32 megs
Main Memory : 16 MByte
Graphic Memory : 16 MByte
Sound Memory : 8 MByte
Media : ROM Board
Simultaneous Number of Colors : Approx. 16,770,000 (24bits)
Polygons : 2.5 Million polys/sec
Rendering Speed : 500 M pixel/sec
Additional Features : Bump Mapping, Fog, Alpha-Bending (transparency), Mip Mapping (polygon-texture auto switch), Tri-Linear Filtering, Anti-Aliasing, Environment Mapping, and Specular Effect.
Network : It is possible to connect the systems on the network using both 56K modem or broadband connection using the AW-Net.
Notes : This is a standard dreamcast type spec, so has less power than the Sega Naomi.
Inputs : Supports various types of input such as joystick, light guns, and track balls via a common interface.

Review
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It doesn't wow me, it's graphics and sound aren't crappy, but they aren't great either. They took out the tag mode that was in King of Fighters 2003, although that's for the best, why choose team members if you can swap them on the fly?

It's a bit more complicated than earlier King of Fighter games, there are more options when you're fighting than the old 4 button combination, you can dodge a bit, you have a team leader which can be changed from the 3 characters you pick at the beginning and the leader gets to pull some super moves that the other two characters can't use.

There's more to the defense as well, which is good as the last opponent seems to be the cheesiest and cheapest bastich I ever fought in a King of Fighters game, which is good as I didn't want to beat the game in 1 day! Heck even the sub bosses *yes there are 2 sub bosses* are tough! You face the first one around the 3rd or 4th stage, the 2nd one is right before the final boss.

There are around 47 characters to choose from, but you start with 33, and unlock the others by playing through the game, believe it or not, my favorite character Mai isn't even in the arcade version, although she can be unlocked in the PS2 version as an extra, her boyfriend Any isn't there either, and a few others look to be missing, but you don't play through more than 6 or 7 teams before the final boss so I may not have seen every team.

There are supposedly over 14 added endings, so you may have some replay with the game. Most of the early battles can be easily won on normal settings, it's just the boss and sub bosses that are tough.

I still prefer King of Fighters 2003 then 98/99, but at $19.99 it wasn't a bad purchase!

King of Fighters XI: B-
Graphics: C+ *This was on the "budget" Naomi hardware?
Sounds/music: B- *I've heard better!*
Controls: B+ *Nice upgrades*
Story: Who cares! Did we ever care?

Buy It vs Rental: If you like Neo Geo games *or decent 2D fighting games* and want to see more sold on the Playstation 2, buy it. If you're not a big KOF fan, you might want to rent it if you can find a store crazy enough to buy the game for rental.

It's not the best or worst King of Fighters and is worth $19.99.

[Samor]

Nice mini-review. I've played the game a few times (I do not have it (yet)).

I do not like the added PS2 3D backgrounds much. The game's visual style is much better when just using the arcade backgrounds (they're 2D high res, but there was obviously a lot more work in those). Either way, I think the graphics are quite stylish in this one... don't remember much of the music but the sfx seemed to be a lot better than usual too (well, it should, it's not on MVS anymore afterall).
Of course, as far as raw power is concerned, it doesn't even touch the capabilities of the naomi hardware, but it doesn't really have to... well, I still would've liked high res 2D sprites better, of course.

I read that in Japan, Arcana Heart (2D high res fighter with only girls) did much better than the latest SNK games, as it seems to have a much higher production value than what SNK has been making recently.....

[firyace]

No Mai and Andy? How about Iori, geese and rock?

I actually like the 2003 tag mode to be honest and its a shame that they strip it all away in this game, they should at least put it in a special mode or something.

[Samor]

Originally Posted by firyace

No Mai and Andy? How about Iori, geese and rock?

I actually like the 2003 tag mode to be honest and its a shame that they strip it all away in this game, they should at least put it in a special mode or something.

Iori's there.

[Paratech]

Originally Posted by firyace

No Mai and Andy? How about Iori, geese and rock?

I actually like the 2003 tag mode to be honest and its a shame that they strip it all away in this game, they should at least put it in a special mode or something.

There are 14 hidden characters you can unlock, Andy and Mai are two as well as Geese...

I dunno about the others or how to unlock them!



Here's some more into about special options in the game.

Here are a few "additions" to KOF. as taken from the manual.

Judgment indicator, the color and position shows which side has the advantage in battle and is used to determine the winner when the timer runs out. I haven't had the chance to try 2 player out yet, so I haven't seen how well it works.

Dream cancel, This is a combo that can only be used by the team leader, it cancels the actions for certain special moves, and immediately performs a Super special leader move (uses 1 skill point and 2 power stocks)

Normal Move Cancel Emergency Evasion *try saying that three times fast!* Cancels the last part of a normal move and performs an Emergency Evasion (uses 1 skill point)

Super Special Leader Move, This is a super special move *duh* that the player's designated leader can use.

Super Special Move, this is a special attack that is more powerful than a special move *it requires 1 power stock*

Guard Cancel Thrust Attack, Cancels your guard and performs a thrust attack *uses 1 power stock*

Super cancel, Cancels the actions for certain special moves and immediately performs a certain Super special move *uses 1 Skill point and 1 power stock*

So there's more than button mashing in this game, plus there's the cheapest boss in SNK history!