King of Fighters 02/03 is out in the US!

Finally got to play King of Fighters 02 and 03 today..whoo boy.

02's not much of a dream match, seriously, there may be 44 characters, but there's not that many old characters added...seriously, where the hell is Eiji? SNK was teasing me when they had him pose with Billy Kane. In fact the only dream match characters I can think of right now are Billy, Mature, Vice..and that's about it. The game itself is tight though, I just need to spend more time with it.

03 is a GREAT KOF, not as great as 96 (nothing is), but very well done nonetheless. Ash Crimson truly is the most adrogynous character ever; I'm serious when I say I thought he was a girl until I heard him speak. Shit, he was kinda hot too Seriously though, this game is great..a bigger evolution than the addition of Strikers is introduced here as well: Tag-team based gameplay. In Arcade mode, this is the most fluid KOF game I've ever played -- you go from one match to the other as soon as one man goes down.

I played the two with the Arranged backgrounds on: For the most part, I can say that the Arranged backgrounds (which are mainly 3D) in 02 sucked..as has been brought up many a time before, 2D mixed with 3D just doesn't work well in fighting games. The Arranged backgrounds in 03 were a lot better though...in one stage, you're on some kind of monorail or something, going throughout the city at a fast speed, it looks wicked. Fighting the Kusanagi clone, you go through a pretty looking background of Egypt. needless to say 03 has the best Arranged backgrounds I've seen in a KOF yet.

Right now I'm not too happy with 02, but 03 is rockin my socks off..sooner or later I'll come around to 02, but after playing KOF with a saturn controller and then playing with a Dual Shock 2, I only wish I could buy that Neo Geo PS2 controller for $20 Hey, I could always pick up that SFAC controller..

Anyways, yeah, buy this collection. Do it. DEW IT.



And oh yeah, guess what -- NO CENSORSHIP! Whip's gun and Mai's jigglies are back, baby.

wtf?

I thought the US release was massively delayed?

Explanantion

He's talking about the PS2 release, which came out today.

LoneSage said:

02's not much of a dream match, seriously, there may be 44 characters, but there's not that many old characters added...seriously, where the hell is Eiji? SNK was teasing me when they had him pose with Billy Kane. In fact the only dream match characters I can think of right now are Billy, Mature, Vice..and that's about it.

Click to expand...

Can you name another KOF where you can play as the 10 or so Nests era ('99-'01) characters, along with Mature, Vice, Billy, Yashiro, Shermie, Chris (and Orochi versions of Y, S, and C), and Yamazaki? No, you can't. '02 is the only one.

According to here its in stock........

Bought it yesterday- unlocked everything in 02 today.

Quick mini-review.

Graphics- you can choose arcade or updated. updated 02 looks OK. Updated 03 looks nice, almost on par with 3rd strike- at least to me it does. 03 did get the better improvement.

03's gameplay has two modes- arcade and original (default). Default almost plays like a normal KOF game. Duolon shit is still in there, but a lot of the bugs are gone. Supposedly the FB bug is back, but I didn't have time to test.

03 also has classic gameplay as a mode back. It also allows you pick pick Chizuru and Kusanagi without a code, and Maki. Maki and Duo Lon should be banned from tournies.

SNK did some bugfixing on 02- so the reason for the delay was legitimate. Geese and Goenitz's CD actually do damage in the US version. unlocking the characters is a pain, but you're allowed to use Rugal for it, so it's not too bad. It's a boring mode, I'd rather just be given the secret characters- I hate having to work for unlockables in fighters. It's the only thing that annoys me about VF4 Evo, it's impossible to get everything.

Overall
Gameplay 9/10(2k2), 8/10(2k3). Both 02 and 03 do have gameplay flaws that are inherent with the arcade. 03 especially with Duo Lon. still, they are two of the better KOF games.

Graphics/Sounds 7/10(2k2), 9/10 (2k3). 2k2 is kinda rehashed, again inherent in the arcade. 2k3 actually has some soul, and the home version improves on it.

Presentation 8/10 (2k2), 10/10 (2k3). 2k2's unlockables are too tedious. It's also rather bland, being a dreammatch. However, it does the job and isn't too bad. 2k3's presentation is nice- they did everything they should have.

KOF Pack Rocks!!!

Bought it yesterday, but didn't have time to play it (damn college work) till today. Having owned the '02 PS2 version, I jumped directly to '03. All I can say is that I would pause the game to pick my sex back up, but it would only fall out again once I started playing . I know many of you have been playing '03 for a while now, but it's just so damn awesome I can't see how anyone could not like it, flaws aside. The extra delay was worth it, too. Not only are the backgrounds superb, but even little touches like the on-screen move lists having actual english names given to moves, as well as a little more explanation given on certain moves where needed really help to smooth out the overall package. SNKP finally got everything right in my book. I couldn't be happier with it.

Bought and played through them both last night.

KOF '02 was "ok"

KOF '03 is Superb! (although probably the easiest KOF I've played; (Still Rocked!)

My Top 5 KOF"S:

'99
'98
'03
'96
'95

arstal said:

03's gameplay has two modes- arcade and original (default). Default almost plays like a normal KOF game. Duolon shit is still in there, but a lot of the bugs are gone. Supposedly the FB bug is back, but I didn't have time to test.

Click to expand...

What fireball bug are you talking about? K's unblockable?

Yeah, KOF is as awesome as ever. Very good stuff, both games, though Rugal is as obscenely cheap in '02 as ever.

On a side note, the Xbox version is due in June last I read. I'd presume it's to implement XBL compatibility.

How in the hell do I get to fight Mukai in 03? When Adelheid says something like "To fight over until victory is meaningless..." I thought maybe he was hinting that the only way to get past him is to not continue. Is this true?

LoneSage said:

How in the hell do I get to fight Mukai in 03? When Adelheid says something like "To fight over until victory is meaningless..." I thought maybe he was hinting that the only way to get past him is to not continue. Is this true?

Click to expand...

No. You can continue. But to fight Mukai you must beat Kusanagi with a DM.

Edit: To clarify. If you beat Kusanagi with a DM, you shouldn't go against Adelheid at all.
When you see Chizuru saying she'll test to see if you're worthy, your next battle should be Chizuru/Maki, then Mukai. You won't se Adelheid at all that way.

Thanks Kagerou...I don't know what a DM is, though.

Yes, I'm a relatively new KOF fan.

DM = Desperation Move

arstal,

What is updated gfx compared to the orginal. Are the character sprites high rez or something, or it just affects the BG's from 2D to 3D.

Updated graphics are swaying backgrounds and filters on color pallettes.

I'd like to take the rest of this post and say that Goenitz in 2k2 is useless. One of his three DMs works, and the majority of his normals are iffy at best. This game just lost a lot of fun-factor for me.

KOF 2002-I didn't get enough time to play this all the way yet.

KOF 2003-This was short,quick,and incredible.Maki is insane to play with.So is Shen Woo.I felt strange for the first time playing for a while,especially with the new designs.I'll adapt back to playing again soon hopefully!

I have a question to intermediate to expert 2K3 players. What are the nuances to the game?

I mean I kind of got the idea of that qcf plus CD is pretty useful, as it starts a combo with another teammate, which could lead to decent to good damage.

The tagging system isn't as quick as the versus games. What are the ideal times to tag in?

And how would you describe the game at a high level play?

Whoever answers, thanks.

aside from duolon, grapplers do very well in this game. using goro as an example, knock someone down. you have a distinct advantage over what happens on wakeup. command grab as soon as they stand if you think they'll attack or block, sweep if you think they'll jump. nasty 50/50 right there and they're right back on the ground again.

when i'm not random-selecting, i pick tizoc/goro/clark and abuse that all day long. it's not 100%, but it works nicely most of the time.

I already own the Japanese import version of KOF '02 for DC so it's not such a big deal for me to get this game, but I would definitelybuy it for KOF '03 which I don't have at all. Since I'd also get another version of '02, I hope it comes with significant improvements over the DC version.

Kevin Paul said:

I have a question to intermediate to expert 2K3 players. What are the nuances to the game?

I mean I kind of got the idea of that qcf plus CD is pretty useful, as it starts a combo with another teammate, which could lead to decent to good damage.

The tagging system isn't as quick as the versus games. What are the ideal times to tag in?

And how would you describe the game at a high level play?

Whoever answers, thanks.

Click to expand...

This game definitely seems more defensive than other KOF's.
Wakeup games are very important-overheads, command throws, low attacks into combos
Also poke games are important because the majority of whiffed moves aren't usually punishable.
Throw characters do hold a distinct advantage!!!!!
Tagging doesn't gain any health back so really switching is for meter management

MY only gripe is the way almost everything trades hits in this game

Granted I've only been playing this a month or so......

Kevin Paul said:

I mean I kind of got the idea of that qcf plus CD is pretty useful, as it starts a combo with another teammate, which could lead to decent to good damage.

Click to expand...

Looking at the DVD that came with the '03 mook, there are a bunch of combos that use the offensive tagging that lead to 100% damage. Some that even use 2 offensive tags in the same combo. But some of them require that one of your team be dead, so you can have the extra super bar.

Kevin Paul said:

I have a question to intermediate to expert 2K3 players. What are the nuances to the game?

I mean I kind of got the idea of that qcf plus CD is pretty useful, as it starts a combo with another teammate, which could lead to decent to good damage.

The tagging system isn't as quick as the versus games. What are the ideal times to tag in?

And how would you describe the game at a high level play?

Whoever answers, thanks.

Click to expand...

qcf+BC/CD's are incredibly useful. Master the timing and hit boxes for each character you use. Practice combos from a ground and a launching tag attack, you will need both.

Tagging without using the qcf+BC/CD is rare. If you need to do it try it after a knockdown.

High level play is mostly rush down and mix ups, trying to land a tag --> LDM or just an LDM.

cam347 said:

This game definitely seems more defensive than other KOF's.
Wakeup games are very important-overheads, command throws, low attacks into combos
Also poke games are important because the majority of whiffed moves aren't usually punishable.
Throw characters do hold a distinct advantage!!!!!
Tagging doesn't gain any health back so really switching is for meter management

MY only gripe is the way almost everything trades hits in this game

Granted I've only been playing this a month or so......

Click to expand...

2k3 is anything but a defensive game. There are 3 characters that can play defensive if they want to: Ash, Malin, Daimon. And you will rarely see Ash and Daimon playing turtle. 2k3 is probably the most offensive game of the series.

Grapplers are the easiest to exploit and be effective with but their tricks are hardly guaranteed and can cost you greatly against a player who can read your offensive wakeup game.

What moves specifically are you talking about that trade hits?

firebomber said:

2k3 is anything but a defensive game. There are 3 characters that can play defensive if they want to: Ash, Malin, Daimon. And you will rarely see Ash and Daimon playing turtle. 2k3 is probably the most offensive game of the series.

Click to expand...

The DVD that came with the Arcadia mook has a bunch of matches on it featuring 4 top ranked (Japanese) KOF players. Obviously, this was back when the game was nearly brand new, so general play style has probably evolved a lot since they recorded the matches (so take this with a grain of salt). But there's one match that featured a pretty effective jumping Chang keep away game.