So now, years later, can we all agree KOF98 was the best one?

[Spike Spiegel]

Edit: Spike Spiegel is insanely sexy and I don't care if he's married.

Thread derailed, but I'm not married. Thank you.

Back to the subject. For those that hate the sports team, I have seen some pretty wild shit online with them. Brian, for one, has an insane game if played well. An absolute beast.

I do love all the games, but 98 was just too damn amazing. Only a handful of characters that came out in future releases do I miss. K, Vanessa, and Seth. The rest I could take or leave, honestly.

 

[AJtheMishima]

Seth in 00 is just too good, not talking as a striker either

 

[Mr Bakaboy]

Neowave is mostly considered a demo for KOF on the atomiswave. It runs on the '02 engine, but changes the hitboxes and priorities of moves quite a bit. It also has 3 grooves, to steal from CVS2, to choose from. One even has Just Defend. I always called it the black sheep of the KOF family because of the changes it really didn't feel like a normal KOF game. Weirdly enough it had the best running netcode for a 2d fighting game on the original xbox.

Oh btw the PS3 version of KOF XIII had the worst garbage netcode. 360 and PC run way better. I feel bad for the fans who only had the PS3 because it really soured them the worst of all on that game.

 

[AJtheMishima]

Man, that sounds pretty cool, forgot all about the groove select. But then again i never played it with anyone, i cant stand to play fighting games on 1 player. Feels like a waste of my time learning what to do in a pattern.
Yeah, i was a ps3 person so we got screwed bad, i need to get a good computer.

 

[grimmythereaper]

Kof 99 has a special place in my heart, its the year that i was able to get my brother and good friend to pick up the series. Its got some good music and was pretty fun for them to get into. Introduced New hero team with K' and maxima. Not to mention my main nigga Krizalid is in there. I know hes not the best or coolest boss, but I think hes sick. The back roll blows balls in that game though. And the striker system just wasnt that great, they got it perfect in kof '00. I do remember using RYO as striker though, pretty good striker for iori and clark.
If i had the right ppl here, id have a weekly kof gathering and play a different year each meet.... but im all alone here

lets meet up and fight I got all the kof games besides 94, and know a few people left over from the planet zero days

 

[Spike Spiegel]

Seth in 00 is just too good, not talking as a striker either

He and Vanessa were a favorite of mine on 2k. Meanwhile Ramon was a favorite of mine in 2k2

 

[Hellfromabove]

98 was great when it came out and is still great to this day. 2k2 however really raised the bar in its own way as well. It seems like there's followings for both, and always will be. Also 98UMFE and 2k2UM are both really great updates to those games.

Other games that I have a soft spot for are 97, 99, 2000, and 2001. 2001 just mainly for the face palms and lulz.

Honestly though, some of the hacks that are currently in development from China might set some new standards for the franchise. Such as a hack that is currently working that has all the characters in 2k2. I believe they have made not only a hack for the Steam version, but one for NG as well. That is definitely something I could put on location and just watch people have fun on.

 

[AJtheMishima]

lets meet up and fight I got all the kof games besides 94, and know a few people left over from the planet zero days

Im down to do that in a week or so, sounds fun. If thats the case i need to stop being lazy and wire up a da15 connector to one of my T5 sticks.

Other games that I have a soft spot for are 97, 99, 2000, and 2001. 2001 just mainly for the face palms and lulz.

Honestly though, some of the hacks that are currently in development from China might set some new standards for the franchise. Such as a hack that is currently working that has all the characters in 2k2. I believe they have made not only a hack for the Steam version, but one for NG as well. That is definitely something I could put on location and just watch people have fun on.

What? Im gonna have to look into these hacks you speak of. Maybe get it for the mvs too. Ive been wondering what good hacks there are on the kof series especially 99,00 and 02
Id be down for a 98 hack that has a airblock closer to SFA3 style.

 

[Atro]

The games I mentioned are popular. Just because you don't like them doesn't mean they aren't good. You can also add Samurai Shodown V Special in the mix as well. Personally I'm not a huge fan of KOF '02. I played a ton of it because friends wanted to play it, or online players wanted to, but to this day I still don't see why it's so popular. That being said I acknowledge that it's a good game because the masses like it.

Also Metal Slug 4 and KOF '01 weren't directly made by Playmore. They were outsourced to other companies while Playmore was rebuilding. Meaning those are poor examples of reasons why Playmore sucks. You might not like the direction Playmore took, but Playmore was SNK, or what was left of it. Just like now Lemay owned SNK is SNK. Maybe we'll all regret what they will do in the future, but it doesn't make them any less SNK. Same as I'm not a big fan with the direction Capcom has gone since post SFIV, but I'm not saying they're not Capcom.

A ton of blah that'll stay just a ton of blah. Outsourcing a franchise was their decision. Such as like hiring a hitman for the kill, you're also responsible when he pulls the trigger.

Playmore games aren't that bad. They're just not ****Worthy**** to carry the SNK logo on them for the most part.

Speaking of the the atomiswave, what was the general opinion of KOF NeoWave? I had a pal version for ps2 for awhile, never really played it against human opponents so i never go a feel for it

It has it's good points. Such as the 3 fighting systems. You could pick just defend instead of the more popular KOF rolls.
IMHO, it lacked just some soul due to it's horrendous artwork and poor music. Gameplaywise, the game is very good.

As you said before too, KOF XI is great just for the return of Eiji
He's a badass. He shares the spot for the coolest ninja with the original Joe Musashi aka Shinobi.

 

[Spike Spiegel]

Id be down for a 98 hack that has a airblock closer to SFA3 style.

No. No God no. God no. Noooooo.

 

[AJtheMishima]

Lol it probably wouldn't work out well, and matches would probably time out

 

[Hellfromabove]

What? Im gonna have to look into these hacks you speak of. Maybe get it for the mvs too. Ive been wondering what good hacks there are on the kof series especially 99,00 and 02
Id be down for a 98 hack that has a airblock closer to SFA3 style.

There is nothing like that out there. The true hackers/ modders that are huge fans of the franchise try to keep the battle system as close to the original as possible. The do things like make it so that a player can now cancel from one special move to another without being in gold mode or using stock one time during a combo or making it so moves have longer or slower recovery (balancing changes).

Some of the really cool stuff that you've probably seen as well is how they take characters from other games and implement them in to the other game roms. First one I saw about 6 years ago was when there was a first attempt at taking Goenitz and putting him in to the NG version of 2k2 and he played perfectly (no audio though). Now they've gone fuckin' full out, they've been able to do almost anything imaginable. They've got Nameless working on NG 2k2 and videos show him being fully playable. Also, they ripped King from the PS2 disc version and implemented her in the game. The greatest thing out of all of it though is it's not just a cluster fuck like Mugen, it holds true to how these games would be in the series.

Here's a few videos of a hack that has been in the works for a few years now called KOF2k2 Remix Ultra 4.0. It seems like it's finally going to be released next month. This vid is one they released a long time back showing it off:



Here's an updated video from a couple months back:

 

[AJtheMishima]

Hellfromabove- dude, this looks frkn amazing! Ex Kyo looks so good. It looks legit and playable. Athena has some shenanigans. So they replaced k9999 in this hack, that's disappointing. Was also disappointed they didn't show atleast one Billy combo. This looks more hype than kof 02 um

Thanks for the share

 

[grimmythereaper]

Im down to do that in a week or so, sounds fun. If thats the case i need to stop being lazy and wire up a da15 connector to one of my T5 stick.

sounds good to me, just hit me when ur free

 

[Hellfromabove]

Hellfromabove- dude, this looks frkn amazing! Ex Kyo looks so good. It looks legit and playable. Athena has some shenanigans. So they replaced k9999 in this hack, that's disappointing. Was also disappointed they didn't show atleast one Billy combo. This looks more hype than kof 02 um

Thanks for the share

The first video was just the early workings from years ago. They might have made it so they're just added in the game now without removing characters. If you look at the character select screen, you'll notice that Chang would have been completely removed to make place for King .

There is another mod they're doing called All Mix which incorporates all the characters in to one game. I believe they're doing it for the Steam version of 2k2UM and 2k2 NG. There's a video floating around that just came out of some new chars being added to it like K'9999, Orochi Iori, Lucky, and more. All fully playable. Along with that, they've added in Mai from XIII. Here's that video:

 

[NGCDFreak]

As much as I love KOF 98 I like 02 more sorry.

 

[Heinz]

KOF98 is a great title but I like '96 far more.

 

[Alpha Skyhawk]

Speaking of the the atomiswave, what was the general opinion of KOF NeoWave? I had a pal version for ps2 for awhile, never really played it against human opponents so i never go a feel for it

I have the USA original Xbox version of it. It was okay. I definitely liked it more than the JP 2K2 on Dreamcast. I never really understood the fifth button, though.

 

[bulbousbeard]

It's weird how the energy bar graphics in Eolith titles look like they belong in a Genesis port of Mortal Kombat or something. I can't stomach the SNK --> Playmore downgrade.

 

[Tyranix95]

Yea, me too.

I really like the flavor of '97.

Even the bugs are great!

... but kof 97 is my favourite. i like the controls and visuals of 97 the most.

 

[NEO G-TRON]

Absolutely love 98, but 94 is my favorite as it was my first AES game when I got my system. 98 has got it all but 94 started it all!

 

[AJtheMishima]

I have the USA original Xbox version of it. It was okay. I definitely liked it more than the JP 2K2 on Dreamcast. I never really understood the fifth button, though.

the fifth button was just the C+D attack right? Just wanted to incorporate the extra button that was available.

Yea, me too.

I really like the flavor of '97.

Even the bugs are great!

Wow!!! So broken lol

 

[Alpha Skyhawk]

the fifth button was just the C+D attack right? Just wanted to incorporate the extra button that was available.

I don't think I ever looked this up before, but here is is copied from Wikipedia.

"With the change of hardware from Neo Geo to Atomiswave, the number of buttons is now increased to five. In addition to the standard four attack buttons used in the previous games, a fifth button is now added which is used to activate the Heat Mode. Heat Mode will cause the character to blink red and increase their offensive strength, with the side effect being that the character's health will begin to drain. The player will return to normal after getting hit by the opponent or by pressing Heat Mode button again to deactivate it, and the player must wait until you lose a round to activate it again. The player cannot use Heat Mode when the life gauge is low."

Did I get a manual with the game? I don't even remember. I should check.

Anyway, with 2K2UM around, vanilla 2K2 and Neowave are largely irrelevant these days.

 

[LlorensBlood]

Maybe KOF 98 is the best of the series but I think KOF 94 has the original features we want to find in a Neo Geo title... I love its "old school" playability, more than KOF 98.

 

[klee123]

Still my personal favorite in terms of roster, soundtrack, art and just the overall vibe.

I really wasn't a big fan of the direction the game took from 99 onwards as it got too sci fi techy for me.

2002 may have more characters, but the art, music and presentation just sucks in comparison to any KOF pre 2001.