![]() The "Command Mode" system was also removed (with the game being based on Advanced Mode), and the "MAX Mode" system was revamped into two separate power-up states: the offensive "Counter Mode" and the defensive "Armor Mode". The sixth installment of the King of Fighters series (and the sequel to The King of Fighters '98: The Slugfest), King of Fighters '99 brings a darker sci-fi aesthetic to the series while introducing the "Striker" system: a gameplay mechanic where players choose an additional teammate for use in dedicated assist attacks. It was subsequently released for the Neo Geo AES and Neo Geo CD later that year, and is the last game released for the Neo Geo CD. Agetec isn't liable to make much money from this localization project, but I appreciate the favor nonetheless.The King of Fighters '99: Millennium Battle is a 2D tag-team fighting game developed and released by SNK for arcades (running Neo Geo MVS hardware) on July 22, 1999. The graphics are serviceable, the load times are survivable (better than '95 was), and the game is King of Fighters, always my favorite 2D fighter series. My attitude as far as that sort of thing is concerned is that yes, it's graphically weaker than the arcade version, but that weighs against the fact that, well, I can't get anywhere near the arcade version (San Francisco proper has sod-all for arcades, one of the many things wrong with this hellhole city). KOF '99 was a nice step forward in gameplay after the retrogression in '98, and the port is good enough to suit me. These suck up three power stocks at a go, but they enable you to briefly do more damage with regular attacks and either perform special combinations and unlimited DMs (in the case of Counter mode) or gain a vastly improved defense (Armor mode). The special move system sticks pretty closely to the Advanced mode developed for '97 (build up little power stocks to perform DMs and SDMs), but you can still pick variant special modes: Counter and Armor. '99, in case you missed it, adds the Striker system, wherein you call in a fourth character for special attacks a la Marvel Vs. The ubiquitous omake section includes a movie viewer for endings you've encountered and a massive art gallery, like the one in the Saturn version of Metal Slug. During the brief time I played it, I preferred it over the watered-down '98 (original characters? Who woulda thunk of it?), and the PlayStation version fixes some of the problems with the character selection - Iori and Kyo are selectable from the start, for example. The majority of us will have to settle for '99, but that's not actually so bad. KOF '99 Millennium Battle is the penultimate installment in SNK's team fighting franchise - it will soon be eclipsed by KOF 2000, the last game in the series, but that one promises to be rarer than hen's teeth even when its tiny window of release is open. The weather animation isn't quite so smooth as it might have been, but the intended effect still comes through. The first fight it will be overcast, the next it will drizzle a bit, then it's pouring down rain, then the sun comes out. The backgrounds, even if they aren't arcade-perfect, are a lot of fun at times, cycling through different weather and lighting states for each fight a la '98. The animation isn't half as jerky as it was in KOF '95, and there are more and better characters to select from. On top of that, as per usual, the characters are out of proportion thanks to the bollixed transition from arcade monitor to NTSC display.īut does the game still look good? Sure. ![]() I don't have the animation-frame eagle eyes for anything except perhaps KOF '97, which I played consistently for about two years running, but even I can tell that this is missing frames from both the characters and background. ![]() In the case of KOF '99, though, tack on another "it ain't bad" - it ain't bad, but it ain't perfect, but it ain't bad. King of Fighters '97 on the Saturn, King of Fighters '95 on the PlayStation, etc.). I suppose it makes sense, to protect that small, devoted, utterly barking mad enthusiast market, but there were occasions when I really wondered whether SNK was even trying at all (cf. You could say that to varying degrees about every version of an SNK game that's ever appeared on any home console, save the Neo Geo cart system. It ain't bad, but it ain't perfect, either.
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