PixlBit

Button mashers beware! This fighter takes some serious skill

The King of Fighters '95 is the second game in the KOF series. It was released in 1995 (shocker!) for the Neo Geo and the fairly new Neo Geo CD (it was also released for the Playstation and Sega Saturn). It was developed and published by SNK. The KOF series is a worthy opponent to the Street Fighter series, although the latter is still hailed as the superior fighting series. SNK certainly put a lot of effort into this series, expanding on and perfecting the formula a little more for each release.

Right away I noticed that this game was an arcade port, obvious from the fact that SNK did not change anything for the home conversion. They even explain how to play using the arcade controls. This makes a little more sense when using the Neo Geo controller Pro, which has a big joystick on the left and four arcade-type buttons in a row on the right. The controls are simple: all four buttons are used. The four basic attacks are weak punch, strong punch, weak kick, strong kick. Of course, combos can be performed when certain button configurations are done properly.

The game has the following modes: Single Play (which is the story), Team Play (choose three characters and fight another team one character after the other), Single Vs (2 player), Team Vs (2 player), and Single All. There's a total of 24 characters, which is a large number for a game of this time. Some of the characters are from SNK's other fighters, such as Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury. For the story mode, you can play as any character; if you lose, you can freely choose to try again as another character.

The characters are distinct from one another, but not nearly as distinct as the Street Fighter characters. Some characters wear the same outfit or fight nearly the same. There's plenty of different styles to find with such a huge roster of fighters; you can choose someone fast, such as the kickboxing Joe Higashi or the ninja Eiji Kisaragi; you can choose someone slow but powerful such as the massive ball and chain-wielding Chang Koehan or the tall militaristic Heidern; if speed or power is not your thing, you can choose one of the well-rounded fighters, such as Mai or Terry Bogard (I prefered using these two). With so many fighters, you're bound to find one or two which you really like.

The actual game itself is pretty tough! It's intense, fun, and addicting, which is exactly what any fighting fan would want. I found out the hard way that you can't jump around and mash buttons in order to win; the AI is programmed in such a way to figure out what you're doing and counter appropriately. This game takes strategy and skill! Often a specific strategy from a specific fighter would be what I needed to defeat a specific opponent; you can't always rely on one or two characters to get you all the way through. That being said, no matter how tough the opponent is, enough practice and determination can result in you beating him, which is extremely satisfying.

The cool thing about fighting games is the fact that it's never over until it's over. In other words, even if your life is down to hardly nothing, you can still make a comeback and win if you are careful and smart. Many times I thought I was going to win, but then the AI performed some crazy combo and did me in within seconds. A thing I didn't like is the fact that the AI's attacks tend to hurt more than your attacks, so your life can be whittled down very quickly. The AI can also pick up on your strategy; I prefered to jump kick my opponent, but after awhile they would do an uppercut to counter that jump kick. One neat thing I noticed is that certain characters can jump off the wall, which warrants them taking the opponent by surprise after landing.

Of course, in typical fighting game fashion, you have to defeat the opponent twice to win. When a character is beaten twice, he falls dramatcially on the right side of the screen, and the winner poses on the left side and spouts off a pithy statement, such as "Is that all? I was hoping for a challenge" or "No one can get in the way of my amazing fighting powers" or something ridiculous like that. Once defeated, you get three chances to continue, then it's Game Over. What's stupid is the fact that once your continues are all used up, the numbers still count down to zero, but you can't continue; why not just say "Game Over" instead of counting down? Anyways, after that, you can choose to save and try again.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention two player. You can fight a friend! Not literally, but in the game (well, you can fight a friend literally if you want). The frantic nature of the game means that the two of you will have a lot of fun duking it out. The music and graphics are also superb. The Neo Geo is known for its graphical prowess, and this game certainly delivers in that aspect. Also, the story mode, while not that interesting, does have some cool cutscenes.

Final Verdict--4 Stars: Recommended

KOF '95 is a great fighting game. It's intense, challenging, fun, and addicting ("I was so close! Just one more try!"). The variety of characters and moves is pretty remarkable, and the game holds up perfectly after all these years. Strategy and skill are more of a factor than simple button mashing, and that is quite impressive. If you've never played a KOF game, try out this one; it's available on PSN and Wii Virtual Console.

Join me every Saturday as we take a look back at all kinds of retro games, good and bad.