KOF 98 - the paradox?

[Baseley09]

OK aside from here, in general discussion (prolly inc here)............98 seems the boss.

Whenever KOF is mentioned it seems 98 is the win.

But......why?

In recent times, experienced KOF'ers lean to 2k2, fair enough if they feel that....but fact remains.

Playability is right up there for all alike.........but come on....it's a seriosly mundane KOF............IMO.

So I ask why does this one get singled out always............it's so boring....it has a nice line up, but in general the bg's are so cheese/boring/big....that road stop one lol.

Basically IMO, the best playing KOF (2k2 minding?) doesn't equal anything like the best.

It's NeoGeo for fucks sake, art & music > game. Always.

?

 

[alec]

No Neo Geo is about Game < Music and Art always.

What 98 lacks in music and artwork (which is alot), it makes up for with its gameplay, which gives it the most replay value out of the series IMO.

 

[Takumaji]

It's NeoGeo for fucks sake, art & music > game. Always.

If that would be the case, neo-geo.com would not exist and I wouldn't be here.

 

[KagerouSama]

If that would be the case, neo-geo.com would not exist and I wouldn't be here.

Outta' curiousity, are you still considering an openmook for--well--NeoWave, was it?

 

[Murray]

Personally, out of everything besides 2003, I prefer 97 ... it's just that the whole lack of consistent music thing polarizes people to the extent that when I make recommendations, I just tell them to get 98 since they feel about the same to me anyway.

And as far as 98 being more popular than 2002 goes, I'd say it's probably because 2002 is harder to find and more expensive. 98 is probably more popular due to greater exposure. I know I haven't even played 2002, let alone own it.

 

[Takumaji]

Outta' curiousity, are you still considering an openmook for--well--NeoWave, was it?

We talked about making one for 2k1 or 2k2 but this never left discussion stage since we were quite busy with KoF98 at that time.

KoF NW would be an awesome game to make a openmook about, it's very deep and fun as hell... thing is, it would take more than a handful of people to cope with a project of this size.

And there still are a few technical problems waiting to be solved, for ex. a uniform move description system, a new/better layout, etc.

Anyway, this project (and KoF98) is not dead yet... let's see.

 

[topher]

Personally, out of everything besides 2003, I prefer 97 ... it's just that the whole lack of consistent music thing polarizes people to the extent that when I make recommendations, I just tell them to get 98 since they feel about the same to me anyway.

And as far as 98 being more popular than 2002 goes, I'd say it's probably because 2002 is harder to find and more expensive. 98 is probably more popular due to greater exposure. I know I haven't even played 2002, let alone own it.

97 all the way...best KOF ever!!!

 

[SpaceMarine17]

We talked about making one for 2k1 or 2k2 but this never left discussion stage since we were quite busy with KoF98 at that time.

KoF NW would be an awesome game to make a openmook about, it's very deep and fun as hell... thing is, it would take more than a handful of people to cope with a project of this size.

And there still are a few technical problems waiting to be solved, for ex. a uniform move description system, a new/better layout, etc.

Anyway, this project (and KoF98) is not dead yet... let's see.

Awesome, I'd love to help. I know almost nothing of computers, but i do know how to figure out combo's and also love doing it as well. Color me nerd!

-a.

 

[SouthtownKid]

It's NeoGeo for fucks sake, art & music > game. Always.

No Neo Geo is about Game < Music and Art always.

Holy fuck, you are both wrong. Where do you get these crazy extremist opinions? What set the Neo apart in its day was the combination of both, not all of one and absence of the other.

All the art and music in the world won't help you if a game isn't fun to play.

Only someone born in the mid-'90s or later wouldn't understand how important music and art were to Neo games.

What is wrong with the two of you?

 

[YO-YO-Boy]

STFU

 

[SouthtownKid]

STFU

YO-YO-Boy, you are the 7th worst member on these forums. Only Abster beats you definitively. The other 5 in between you and he are a judgment call.

 

[thatdemoguy]

YO-YO-Boy, you are the 7th worst member on these forums. Only Abster beats you definitively. The other 5 in between you and he are a judgment call.

Damn....I normally dont comment on these. But....PWNED!

NOW to get on topic

I also wondered what was so special about 98 that made everyone say it was the be all of KoF games. But after buying all of them on AES (no punk ass ports for me) and sitting down and PLAYING them I have to say that while 98 has the most INSTANT playability to a broad scope of gamers from the casual to the hardcore (and stands as my personal fav)...I feel as if the most COMPLETE KoF games are 96 and 2000. From overall presentation, to roster, to balance these two games seem to be (NOTE: OPINION) the best.

O.

 

[Hakkai]

KOF 98 is more or less recycled bits/pieces from the KOF leading up to it. You can play as the majority of the characters from the the Orochi saga(Chris, Chizuru, Mature, Vice, Etc) with good gameplay albeit it has it quirks. KOF 2k2 is probably the only one other then Neowave that seems to have this feature(I haven't played it personally but I hear it has a good gameplay) though I believe that a few fans were ticked that they didn't seem to include several charactes like Chizuru, King, and Shingo(though they fixed this later in the console ports).

 

[ki_atsushi]

Holy fuck, you are both wrong. Where do you get these crazy extremist opinions? What set the Neo apart in its day was the combination of both, not all of one and absence of the other.

All the art and music in the world won't help you if a game isn't fun to play.

Only someone born in the mid-'90s or later wouldn't understand how important music and art were to Neo games.

What is wrong with the two of you?

If you look at the direction of the greater than/less than signs they are using with what they are comparing, they are actually saying the exact same thing.

 

[YO-YO-Boy]

pwnd!

 

[E=MC2]

kof 96 is broken as fuck, it looks beautifull though. 97 and 98 best for me, followed by 2k1 and 2k2. of the older kofs 95 is the most fun, ofcourse pre 97 that is. 95 also has got great music like 96, but i find 95 a lot better to play than 96, 96 felt like it went downhill instead of uphill. sure it did look better but the game didnt really improve, actually gameplay got worse. 98 and 2k2 probably have the best balancing in any kof game to date, and there fun as hell to play. only gripe i got about 2k2 is max mode, supercancelling is a good option IMO like ex moves as in the way of sf3. but kof XI seems to suffer from ridiculous supercancellings (combo,sc, super, sc, maxsuper=gay) too, not really my style and tag combos are gay.

 

[tsukaesugi]

I never could understand the attraction to '98 myself either.

I had the DC port, and the ROM and played those, but just couldn't get into it. My friend told me that I'd never be able to appreciate it until I got the actual homecart, so I finally picked up a copy awhile ago, and yet I still couldn't get into it.

Maybe it's because I never played it in the arcades when it came out. There's no real story to it, so it's not as fun in one player as '97 or '99. But even when I play it against a friend now, I still can't really get into it.

For me, the BG's are OK, the roster is OK, the music is OK, the presentation is OK. Everything is OK, but not (again, IMO) great. The only thing I think '98 has going for it is the ability to switch between "Extra" and "Advanced". That's about it.

 

[alec]

Holy fuck, you are both wrong. Where do you get these crazy extremist opinions? What set the Neo apart in its day was the combination of both, not all of one and absence of the other.

All the art and music in the world won't help you if a game isn't fun to play.

Hold up, all that I was saying is that if a game has bad art and music, but gameplay that I like I will still play it. An obvious example of this would be KOF02. However if a game has really great art and music, but I don't like the gameplay I won't play it that much. An example of this is AOF2, which I suck at.

Only someone born in the mid-'90s or later wouldn't understand how important music and art were to Neo games.

What is wrong with the two of you?

Well, I agree with you on this one. Please understand, I wasn't saying music and art are unimportant, but never should they be considered more important than the gameplay. Thats why its called a video game and not video art. Also, do people that were born in the 1990's even play Neo Geo, or even arcade games? It may seem like a dumb question, but I've never seen one before in my 22 years on this planet.

KOF98 is all about gameplay not art, people should realize this when they see there are no character portaits on the character select screen. Look, here is a list of KOF games that I think have better art than 98:
94
95
96
97
99
2000

Now look at the list of KOF's that I think play better than 98:







See what I mean, as much as I love SNK art, as much as I love the story line in KOF, 98 is still my favorite because of the refined engine and the roster of most of my favorite characters. Yeah, its fun to see all the endings in 1p mode of the other games, but fighting games are made to be 2p games, and this is where 98 excells.

 

[Pep]

98 is a great KOF, but for me the best ones are 96 and 99.

 

[NeoDragoN]

I blame Fran.

99 Rulez.

 

[Neo a_bomb]

98 was a great game. Great character selection good control and gameplay. But since it was a dream match it lacked plot. IMO i think is a lot of fun on 2 player but Id rather play this one in moderation than on the regular.

a_bomb

 

[CarlosZ]

One of the 3 games i own on my mvs is Kof 98, I have the ps2 ports for 2000-2003 and out of those, i like 2k2 the best. I didn't want to play any of the other kof's because i liked the feel of 2k2, then a friend recommended 98, i played it and i was hooked! Its just wow, the only thing i could think of playing over 98 would be XI?
I think the reason im attracted to Neo-Geo is yea, a conbination of the art AND the music, everything else in the market is trying to upgrade at every chance they get (unfortunately sometime for the worse) while NG keeps going at it with a formula was consistent. Well at least i think so :chimp:

 

[alec]

If you look at the direction of the greater than/less than signs they are using with what they are comparing, they are actually saying the exact same thing.

HAHAHAHA
thats hella funny. I didn't even realize that and I was the one posting it.

Happy 420 everyone

 

[Atro]

98 has the greatest roster of all KOFs.

Musics are kick ass and gameplay is all in there.

You can only blame one thing on that game : God tiers.

 

[cam347]

2k2 sux and I see nothing balanced about it. I've seen the vids with the ludicris bugs and infinites and the control is just pure gabbage. 95, 96, 98, 03 are my fav.s Neo-Wave is ok but just nothin more but a 2k2 clone with slightly better control.