King of Fighters '95

Developed By SNK
Licensed By SCEA

Fighter, 1-2 players
memory card, 1 block


Introduction

What do you get when you cross Fatal Fury with the Art of Fighting?  The
King of Fighters of course!  A popular SNK fighting game that spawned a few
sequels.  The storyline goes that each team of fighters has been given an
invitation to this year's King of Fighters tournament by a mysterious
person named "R".  It's your team's duty to win this tournament, discover
who the insidious "R" is, and put a stop to his evil plans.

Despite traditional fighting games which are normally 1 on 1, King of
Fighters main attraction is that you pick a group of 3 fighters, choose
what order they fight in, and then take them up against another group of 3
fighters.  Each fighter has one bar of health, and when that's depleted,
the next teammate in the lineup takes his place.  This continues until one
side's teammates are all expired, resulting in a win.  You also have the
normal one on one, 2 out of 3 matches fights, which are a musthave staple
in fighting games.

Each fighter has his or her own fighting style.  At first glance, some of
them seem strikingly close to being clones where their special moves are
concerned.  It's after some play that you do see the nuances of each
character, their individual strengths and weaknesses.  Each fighter's range
and speed differs.  There are no clones or palette swaps.

Most of the sounds are your standard fair for a fighting game.  Each of the
fighters clearly announce their special moves, and grunt when hit.  The
fight announcer must not have gotten a good grade in his english speaking
class.  At first I thought he was speaking entirely in japanese.  It wasn't
after some play that I realized he was actually speaking english.  It's
sort of quirky, but ironically, it seems to fit the mood of the game.  The
background music is beautifully orchestrated and blended to fit the precise
mood of each of the stages.

Gameplay is atypical for 2d fighting game.  Unlike most fighters, there are
only 4 buttons.  2 punches, and 2 kicks.  The ability to sidestep a
projectile is something new in the 2d fighting genre.  It's quite useful,
but difficult to pull off on a standard psx pad.  Once your fighter's
health gets down to a low level, it will start to flash.  Your fighter is
now able to pull off super moves called desperations.  He or she can also
pull these moves off if they charge their super meter.  This can be done by
either effectively blocking or delivering blows, or by selfcharging(which
leaves you wide open to attack).  The problem is that the motion for a
desperation isn't easy, especially with the standard psx pad.  This may be
a good thing, since desperations take alot of health off of your opponent. 
All in all the gameplay seems balanced.

CD access does tend to be a problem, at first.  It's the longest load time
I've ever encountered in a 2d fighter for the psx.  The longest of these
loads is during the very inital load of a team fight, clocking in at about
15 seconds.  From there on in, new team matches average anywhere from 9 to
12 seconds.  During team mode, the game does have to load the next fighter
once a fighter has been expired.  Fortunately, these loads only take 3-5
seconds on average.  This game doesn't feature the best of load times, but,
you do become accustomed to them.

2d fighting games are still going strong as is evident by the continued
sequels in the arcades.  King of Fighters 95 is a conversion of one of
these earlier sequels that, unfortunately, also happens to be 2 years old. 
Depsite the current competition, it delivers a traditional gameplaying
experience in addition to introducing a few new concepts that have yet to
be seen in 2d fighters on the home console gaming front.  

The graphics are pleasing to the eye, but lack that clean anime flare that
seems to have become all the rage for 2d fighters.  Instead, the graphics
are styled in the original nitty gritty street fighter style.  It's hard to
say if that's a bad thing.  I'd say it's more a matter of personal
preference.  If you're a fan of traditional 2d fighting, then KOF95 is
definitely worth a look-see, especially at the reduced price.

Peter Bott
faethor@ptd.net


Overall  7.3


Graphics 7

 +  26 individual fighters, no palette swaps.
+/- Characters are styled in antique capcom SF2 fashion 
    rather than the new 4 color anime scheme(think SFA series).
 +  Some characters are animated fluidly.
+/- Many are animated adequately.
 -  A few really need more animation.

 +  Backgrounds are vibrant with colors and detail.
 -  With the exception of Team Korea's stage.
 -  Background animation is normally simplistic.
 +  The simplistic background animation sure does look nice.
 -  With the exception of Team Korea's stage.
 -  No line scrolling floors.
 -  Limited parallax.


Sounds 8

 +  Lots of fighter speech.
+/- The japanese fight announcer doesn't speak english very well.
    (I think it's pretty funny, honestly.)

+/- Atypical punch, kick and hit sounds.

 +  Excellent background music that fits the mood of each stage.


Gameplay 7

+/- Atypical Neo Geo controls, 4 buttons.  2 punch, 2 kick.

+/- Old faithful street fighter type gameplay.
+/- Special moves mainly consist of fireball, dragon punch, 
    half-circle, and charge motions.
 -  Super moves are too complicated to pull off consistently.
 -  They also do too much damage.

 +  Ability to dodge projectiles.
 +  Ability to self-charge super meter.
 +  Ability to call in a teammate and save yourself from a hold.
+/- These abilities require a simultaneous 2-3 button press.

 +  Team mode is a welcome change of pace and implimented well.
 +  Single mode is good too.


Replayability 7

 +  Lots of individual fighters, variety, and some new game concepts will
keep you busy.
 +  The team mode really stands out as the game's most attractive feature.
 +  Single mode isn't too shabby either.

 +  It's a 2d fighter with wonderfully styled hand drawn art and animation.
 -  It's a 2d fighter in a land with more graphically impressive 
    and recognized 3d and 2d fighters.

 -  All team members share the same exact ending.  No individual endings.  
    8 endings in all.

 -  Initial load time for a team fight can last up to 15 seconds.  
    Load for next fighter in a team match is 3-5 seconds.
    Initial load time for a singles fight can last up to 10 seconds.
 +  Option to turn off win quotes.  Doesn't speed up the load times, but
    it does make the game seem to flow smoother.
 +  Option to use a dedicated stage for Vs. matches.  Helps cut down
    on load times.