just picked up and played my first KOF game

Im fairly new to the neo scene and got my first Kof game for my system Its KOF 98 because it seams that the majority of people think its the best .Im now hooked and woundered if its worth trying to get my hands on some of the others.Witch should i go for im on a tight budget and have an MVS setup.

You should get either King of Fighters 2001 or 2003, since they are the ones with the most dramatic changes compared with 98.

96, 2000, 2001, or 2003. Either of those should keep you happy.

For combos and setup variety,
KOF 2K and 2K1. 2K1 is really sophisticated.

2K2 is fairly cheap on MVS and it's most similiar to 98 among all 10 incarnations.

Mushiki is right. 2003 offers a dramatic change but I feel that SNKPlaymore rushed this one.

IMO, I love them all.
Maybe not as much love for 97 since 98 kicks ass.

95 is FUN FUN FUN. Eiji is in it!
Try 95 and then 96 for major differences.

Then, try 99 after you're done with 98 to up the frustration that you can't roll backwards.

My Favourites?
95, 98, 2K, 2K2, and 2K3 just because it's the latest. (period)

Try 2k2 and 2k3! you'll have tons of fun!

98 indeed is a good place to start because it has an excellent engine, looks nice and the music is good as well. Don't forget to play it with your friends because 2P is where it's at.

These are, in my opinion, must-have KoFs:

94 - Simply a blast to play. Don't listen to all those whiners, it's still highly playable and offers straight-forward fighting action that focusses on clever strategies involving normal moves or simpler 3-hit combos (jumping normal attack -> standing normal attack -> special).

95 - SNK seemingly tried to iron out some of 94's flaws and drawbacks; team editing is now possible, and it's also the KoF that introduced Iori. Like 94, it has a sidestep system instead of rolling (which got implemented in 96). Very good graphics and music and simply mad fun to play.

97 - Best single-player KoF out there. After the (quite buggy) "link to the future" called KoF96, SNK improved a lot of things and came up with this classic. I've played lots of 97 lately and this only cemented my opinion about it, it's very smooth and has an unique "silky" engine, the new characters (Yamazaki, etc.) are really great. And I love Orochi (the end boss).

98 - .

2k1 - Of all the striker KoFs, this is the best one IMO. Very deep, faster than its prequels, good new engine features (Critical Wires, more supercancel options, etc.), ratio-system, very cool single-player mode and a hilarious sub-/end-boss double pack featuring Original Zero (who brings some of his buddies with him) and Igniz, the guy with the coolest SDM of a KoF boss ever (the three-stage one that ends with Igniz throwing a mighty energy bolt at you). Buy it. Play it. Love it.

buy 01 if you plan on stabbing your eyes and ears out with your stick.
01 is a nice little side kof like 03 I guess, it deviates the most from all the rest
having ratios and cancels.
I think if 95 didn't have such large damage ratios it quite possibly would be the perfect game.
but my picks would be 94-96. I don't think you could go wrong with any of those.
especially for what you would be paying for them.

Being a huge fan of KOF (even after many here got sick of the series, I keep going), I would say you made a great first choice. I would look into KOF96 (for an old school feel), 2k (for the best version of strikers used), 2k2 (pretty much the new 98 to me) and whatever else after that. 2k3 is different. I would ask that you play those first before going to 2k3.

Spike

rarehero said:

buy 01 if you plan on stabbing your eyes and ears out with your stick.
01 is a nice little side kof like 03 I guess, it deviates the most from all the rest
having ratios and cancels.

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True, most graphics (the chara select... urgh...) are horrible, 90% of the music is crap as well. Endings are forgettable, and, well, yes, overall it's not a KoF to buy for graphics and sound... still, I like it for what it is, a kinda crazy but deep and fascinating game with high replay value.

I think the best part and the worst part is the ratios.
for fooling around it's fun. for playing seriously it isn't.
just like the strikers in 99,00, and 01 for me.
I just got 01 again for the second time so maybe I'll give the canceling bit another try.
one of my favorite evolved parts of 01 that came from the counter system in 99 and 00.
and jeidern. he's quite the bastard in that game.

Well...

Don't worry about getting other ones yet, just play the one you have now, and actually get good at it.

Be a gamer , not a collector.

'96 is the must-have KOF. Exciting gameplay at any level, best music, and best backgrounds.

Below is my ever-changing personal list. Feel free to compare this with everyone else's, these are just opinions... '96 being the heart of KOF is a fact, not an opinion.

(best to worst) '96, '95, '03, '01, '94, '99', '02, '00, '97, '98

I'm the only one who will rank '98 that low... it's always seemed like a tired rehash to me without the energy of the other games. I'm also the only one who will rank '99 as high as the middle.. maybe it's just me but I never had a problem with the gameplay, and the backgrounds and music are top-notch. I'm sure that '03 can rise or drop in the future... I'm still playing it so my opinion there is not objective at all. Usually I'd rate '97 much higher, but I'm just not feeling it lately.

KOF 96 and 97 represent! 2001 and 2003 have the most changes, which I think puts them up there on my "favorites" list.

Wow, KOF! Toby- if you just started playing 98 you've got a lot to look forward to! You really can't go wrong with any kof, get as many as you can, the trick is finding time to give each game the attention it deserves.

If you want to go forward in time, I recomend kof 2k3. It's exciting, and people are playing it competitively right now.

Kof 2000, 2k1, 2k2 are excellent too! Tons of depth, you'll be staying up late playing around with them. I like kof 99, it was exciting when it came out, but might seem a little dissapointing now.... I don't know, I always change my mind.

If you want to go back in time get Kof 95. This game is amazing, graphics, music, unbalanced but fun game play...

Kof2k1- The graphics arn't terrible. Their just REALLY strange... I think the korean stage and italy stage are among some of the best kof stages. The character portraits are surreal... but certianly not bad, just strange.

RBjakeSpecial said:

Kof2k1- The graphics arn't terrible. Their just REALLY strange... I think the korean stage and italy stage are among some of the best kof stages. The character portraits are surreal... but certianly not bad, just strange.

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Well, IMHO, the character portraits look torn and twisted, not surreal. Yeah, the Korean stage is not too bad (as well as Japan stage), but unlike the earlier KoFs where they also used digitized images for backgrounds and enhanced them afterwards, most backs in 2k1 look like rushed scanned images. I mean... sorry, but Mexico stage? Or the race track rip-off? Ugh...

Ah well, no prob eh, 2k1 is a good game and that's enough for me!

I think you should go for the older KOFs and then work your way up to the newer ones. But, the older KOFs are cheaper than the newer ones, and are still pretty good games.

I think i will perhapse try and find 94 as its the first .How much should i expect to pay?Does any one have one for sale?
Thanks for all your input

How come there is no review of 94 on this site?

That's great and all, but I think you'll find 94 very old. It's a great game for the time, but it's hard, has poor animation, and is slapped together a bit in the sound department. Example: using voices from other games like FFS, and even the voice samples sound like they were used while recording from a TV in an open room. I'm not joking.

Many on here like it, and it's a fine game, but not very good for starting out. I would use it as you go through the rest of the series. So you can look back, like an you can say "oh, this is where it all started.... now let's play 2k".

Spike

I'm going to write a review of KOF 94 then.

Toby said:

How come there is no review of 94 on this site?

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Here's a review of KOF 94:
here: http://www.neogeoforlife.com/reviews/the_king_of_fighters_94.shtml

I will agree that each KoF is worth owning, each has it's own charm. If you're used to the "New Neo" games which feel have more of the smooth movements and tournament feel, both 94 and 95 will be frustrating at first. Especially for me where King's moveset remained the same through the series but the actual input for those moves changed drastically in 96. B-QCD + P for a Double Strike blew my mind after being used to KoF 98's double QCF motion.

96 is a fun romp, nice atmosphere but a lot of people will hate on the 'extra' system. Basically whenever you get hit BAM super meter is at full, and you can do a DM. When the time runs out, next time you get hit... that's right you have a DM at your disposal again. Still, this doesn't hurt the gameplay for me as DMs don't get used nearly as frequently as they're available so I enjoy it.

97 is my absolute favorite. The storyline picks up from 96 very well, great gameplay engine... everything is smooth as silk. I love the 'Satella' stylings, finally giving KoF the tournament feel it seemed to really lack in other games. You'll see what I mean. It seems to be a bit hard to find lately on MVS but it's not getting overpriced due to that. That's a good thing

98 you already know and love, no need to spend time on it


99 is.. well it's pretty good audio-visually. The striker system takes getting used to but overall it's not a bad game. Probably my least favorite but that didn't stop me from putting it in the PSX kiosk at work and playing it when I was at Gamestop

2000 is my favorite of the striker series but then again I've yet to put a lot of time in 2k1. 2000 isn't that balanced but it's one of those 'just damn fun to play' fighters. It doesn't seem to matter that the strikers are overpowered or some characters are god tier. It's just fun to tool around with. I love the graphic style in this one too.

2k1 - Ugly but deep. That's all I can say about it now.


2k2 - Not much time into this one either, but it's another dreammatch like 98. NO King though But I can see where the "most balanced KoF" line comes in with this. Bleh on graphics, BIG on gameplay which is where it counts.


2k3 - The start of something new. I love 2k3 personally even with all it's flaws and glitches. The tag system is the start of something beautiful but I will go along with other posters in saying to play others first before this one. Especially with the storyline going into this one, knowledge of KoF history is a must for this


that's my take on the series!

-AG

For someone just starting out, '94 should really be the first, followed by '95. As an intro, that will help you get into what the series is about.

'96 should not be anyone's first KOF by any stretch of the imagination. Among other things, that game was ridiculously unpolished and unbalanced, probably because it was unfinished. With the exception of the boss team (possibly the only good thing about the game), '96 is a game that's best forgotten. The series started to pick up again with '97 and '98, fortunately.

I'd also suggest that you try KOF 97. 97 IMO is one of the best KOF ever. KOF 94 is a true classic...but compared to newer KOFs like 98 it feels sort of dated. However, every KOF fan should have 94 in their collection. I also really enjoy 99. It has great graphics and I also like the striker system.

EX_Andy said:

'96 should not be anyone's first KOF by any stretch of the imagination. Among other things, that game was ridiculously unpolished and unbalanced, probably because it was unfinished. With the exception of the boss team (possibly the only good thing about the game), '96 is a game that's best forgotten. The series started to pick up again with '97 and '98, fortunately.

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I don't really think it's rushed, it's more like a rough link between the old-style KoFs 94 and 95 and the new style starting with 97. 96 is a strange beast, it has a lot of the elements of later KoFs but feels stiff at times, at least to me, maybe because I "feel" the engine and instinctively try to do the stuff that is possible in later games but stumble across 96's timing differences instead.

The boss team and Goenitz are kinda cool, tho.

.

Oh, and about KoF94 being dated, well, that depends on what you expect from it, IMO it's still well worth it to play and master, and the graphics don't look outdated to me at all. You have to spend more time with it at first because it's not as accessible as the newer KoFs but once you got it down it's mad fun.