Review: King of Fighters: Extreme
Score:
71%
Version Reviewed: MMC Game C
Buy Link | Download / Information Link
The King of Fighters series is one of the longest running fighting game franchises in video game history. It has been monumentally successful in the East, especially Japan, even though America and Europe never really caught on. It’s a beat-em up, and SNK have kept it going strong in the arcade for a decade, fighting alongside favourites like Street Fighter and Virtua Fighter. On its 10th anniversary we get to experience this legend on our N-Gage, in full force!
King of Fighters absolutely rules in game play. There are 22 characters, and each character has their own unique moves and weapons. This offers a good lot of variety to the game, which I feared could have been a simple ‘kick’ and ‘punch’ affair. Special moves mean that you could pull some massive ‘dragon combo’ move out of nowhere when your ‘max bar’ is full and just completely annihilate your opponent. This does involve a specific pattern of button presses, which are usefully listed in the help section, but it’s still going to take some skill in hitting those buttons in order without getting interrupted by a punch from your opponent.
Pulling off a combo like this is especially fun whenever you are playing against a friend over Bluetooth, who has never played before. Another feature is the double team. This means if you’re in a tricky spot, all you have to do is press the magical button and your ally will jump in, and send your enemy packing. If you have never played this game before, you will do surprisingly well. By this I mean hitting all the buttons together and hoping for the best. This is such a good element for the game, as it means that you could be pro at the game, but still be given a challenging game by your little brother, who just presses the buttons and hopes for the best. Now that might sound a bit worrying for game play, but King of Fighters isn’t a simple random affair, because watching your opponents for slip ups so you can block and counter-punch to get in an extra hit is a pretty good way to play.
Possibly the best thing this game has going for it, is the idea of it being a real pick up and play game. King of Fighters is a game that you literally have to click through only two options and you’re playing. There is no loading of saved games or changing settings. It’s not even as if this comes at a price of you not wanting to play more than three minutes – it’s just as comfortable to play for three hours.
On the face of it, King of Fighters is very attractive. I felt the controls were very daunting. They seemed to be everywhere, with each but one number on the keypad being used up. And although the controls are interchangeable, there is no way to minimise how many there are, which is a pity, as I really don’t feel like there is any need for a button dedicated to ‘master mode’ (which is only obtainable after completing the game).
This leads me to my next point- the difficulty. I played for a good couple of hours when I got this game and already I had completed it on all the difficulties. There really isn’t any structure to this game either, with the story mode not really having a decent story, and the survival and time attack modes not really going anywhere either as there is no way of saying who it was that got the score.
A big problem I have when playing fighting games is that you could complete the game flawlessly, by just picking the big fat bloke and sit tapping ‘a’ wildly, so nothing can approach without being clubbed to death. But one thing I’m glad Hudson put in the game, is a way to counter the opponents attack. So if you are the victim of a barrage of the same attack, you can cheekily throw the cheater over your shoulder, to show your appreciation.
The graphics are pretty retro, with the fights looking like a port from the arcade, although if it had not had this retro label to it, I would have been pretty let down by them. The characters are very detailed, although this comes at a price with a pathetic frame rate of only 16 frames per second. This is a huge letdown, as a small 2-D Fighting Game should be able to generate a minimum of 25 frames per second for smooth viewing. This rate is even worse when you realise the Gameboy Advance version has a frame rate of 60 fps- very frustrating. Surely if Hudson had of spent more time on this game, we could have matched this frame rate? Or at least bettered another aspect of the game such as the graphics or maybe more game features.
In the end, however much we may compare King of Fighters to other up-and-coming N-Gage fighting games (such as One), there is no denying that this game has its good points. It has the addictivness that matches Snakes and the ‘pick up and play’ factor of Tony Hawks, which are two of the best factors on any handheld game. But you just can’t look past the glaring potential that a better frame rate and Arena capability could have given this game. These two are the most obvious features that should have been looked at before a release that feels rushed.
King of Fighters is really suited to the older generation, who played this series in their childhood. To these people, the retro feeling is the best feature of this game, which it looks like Hudson were aiming for. This is a great start for fighting games on the N-Gage. It was definitely a brave move of Hudson to port a genre that had never been tried before on the N-Gage.
I think if you were a fan of King of Fighters when younger, definitely go and buy this. It should be right down your street. But for anyone who is unfamiliar with this series, I would only advise you to buy if you can find at a good price, as there is many other games more worthy than King of Fighters Extreme.
Reviewed by Chris Rydberg at