The King of Fighters 2001 and 2000
SNK lives with this compilation of two The King of Fighters titles?2000 and 2001.
Back when fighting games ruled the arcades?back when there were arcades?the battle for quarters was never fiercer than the one between SNK and Capcom. Capcom may have refined tag-team fighting with Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and other titles, but SNK started the trend in 1994 with the first King of Fighters title. King brought together fighters from some of SNK?s most popular franchises?most notably Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting?for team-based combat. Issued as a two-disc set, this KOF features pixel-perfect arcade ports of the 2000 and 2001 offerings, and both are a nostalgic throwback to the days of old-school 2D sprite-fighters, where two-in-ones and cross-ups rule, and it isn?t uncommon to rack up 13 hits in a single move. Some console-exclusive features have also been included, such as unlockable extra fighters and other goodies exclusive to this home release.
KOF 2000?s 35-fighter lineup is slightly outnumbered by 2001?s 40-fighter roster, but several characters share all-too-familiar move sets. By today?s standards, these games probably won?t mean much to gamers who grew up on the combo flow-charts of Tekken and Soul Calibur, but these King games are nevertheless very playable thanks to responsive controls and intuitive easy-to-execute moves. If you?re a diehard fanatic of 2D fighting games, take the Fun Factor up a notch.
