Why don't you like KOF 2003?

[heihachi]

The game and tagging mechanic are cool, but Ash's design sucks. Dude has a red leather jump suit like britney spears oops i did it again video, a platinum blonde beehive, and freckles like the mad magazine kid. I don't know the kof lore but is he supposed to be trans, or does he just dress gay like all the other kof characters?

 

[kernow]

You gotta hand it to snk. 2k2 could have been the last neo kof. A return to the 3 on 3 formula, return of favorite characters, it didn't go out of the box, it was a dream match - a celebration of what kof was on the neo up to that point.

2k3 took some risks and changed the formula with the tag battles, threw in a ton of new characters, and launched an entire new storyline. I found it exciting and interesting, and an unusual way to end the series on the neo. It was also neat to see the neo doing 3 on 3 tag battles. There had been fan speculation that the neo couldn't do that sort of thing, which is why kof had always been a take turns team battle mode rather than the well liked tag matches of several of the Capcom fighters of the time.

lol ok Atari fan

 

[LoneSage]

The game and tagging mechanic are cool, but Ash's design sucks. Dude has a red leather jump suit like britney spears oops i did it again video, a platinum blonde beehive, and freckles like the mad magazine kid. I don't know the kof lore but is he supposed to be trans, or does he just dress gay like all the other kof characters?

I will say this, Ash was definitely ahead of his time. Being trans got fashionable in America ten years later. SNK was ahead of the game here.

 

[wyo]

2k3 is aight, don't hate.

 

[Archdesigner03]

2k3 and Kof series in general feels very choppy to play. I think I would've enjoy the series more if it has more animated frames like Mark of the Wolves.

 

[100proof]

2003 has some good ideas and certainly looks a lot nicer than 2k1/2k2 but the game plays like buttcheeks. The implementation of tagging sucks (no healing, full invincibility on the tagged in character), the "Leader" shit is lame (it unnecessarily hamstrings characters' move sets for the purpose of "strategy") and a lot of the hit and block stun feels off for a KoF game. Most of the music sucks too.

There are certainly worse KoF games but XI was a much better iteration of that style of gameplay (even if that game had plenty of its own issues).

 

[Fygee]

2003 has some good ideas and certainly looks a lot nicer than 2k1/2k2 but the game plays like buttcheeks. The implementation of tagging sucks (no healing, full invincibility on the tagged in character), the "Leader" shit is lame (it unnecessarily hamstrings characters' move sets for the purpose of "strategy") and a lot of the hit and block stun feels off for a KoF game. Most of the music sucks too.

There are certainly worse KoF games but XI was a much better iteration of that style of gameplay (even if that game had plenty of its own issues).

Characters not healing is one gripe I agree with.

I liked the Leader mechanic. Having only one that could bust out the SDM was a novel idea that gave you an incentive to protect that character more and stock up on energy bars for their use.

 

[100proof]

Except that good players ultimately used meter for tag combos as they did more damage than an SDM when optimized. Once again, the idea was interesting but the execution was half-baked. Give the leader an extra 20% health or a damage boost or something instead of just "hey, this character actually has all their moves". As implemented, it was pointless.

Like I said, plenty of worse KoF games and I'm sure it was beyond rushed with all of the legal and business-related issues going on during that time so you can excuse a lot of the half-assed ideas. However, I won't ever go back to play 2003 if I have access to XI.