Review: King of Fighters: Neowave (PS2)

The King of Fighters series has rightfully earned itself quite a cult following. Bar the 3D iterations, it has remained far more tactical than the likes of Street Fighter and this will obviously cater to the more 'hardcore' fans. Alas, this doesn't necessarily mean the latest game is worthy of your time or money.

Based around King of Fighters 2002, Neowave isn't exactly the prettiest 2D fighter you'll ever see. The character sprites look indistinguishable from past games in the series and backdrops don't utilise the power of the PS2 at all. Compared to the likes of Street Fighter 3: Third Strike, especially, the fighting 'arena' looks awfully bare, making it seem as though it's straight out of the 16-bit era. Obviously this is the result of being initially designed for the aging Neo-Geo hardware, but we were expecting more than just minor improvements. Some kudos has to be given to SNK though; in the days of high definition, most people's TVs can be quite large making everything look rather ghastly, so they have introduced a way to tweak the graphics, adding a nice blur effect so each individual pixel blends together seamlessly.

Once you have Neowave looking the best it can on your respective televisions, it's off to the game's main mode of play - the three-on-three battles. Although a tagging system as seen in other 2D fighters is absent here, the match format is pretty much the same: choose three characters out of a total of 47 and beat each team of three in each proceeding stage. Simple concept, not so simple challenge. The slow-paced nature of the KOF series may feel alien to someone trained in Capcom's way of fighting, but it's great for someone wanting more of a tactical challenge. The controls work well on the PS2 controller and, thanks to the change of hardware, a new move has been included - the Heat Gauge makes your character glow, increasing the damage you do to your opponent. Other than this, it's all your standard King of Fighters fare. Go jumping into the mix needlessly and, even on the lowest difficulty, your character will get smacked straight in the face. It's like the Virtua Fighter of the 2D world.

In addition, there are three different modes of fighting style upon starting the game. You have Super Cancel, providing you with three super bars; Guard Break, allowing you to perform an unblockable move at the expense of one super bar; and finally Max 2, which makes your super bar fill up faster, giving you the ability to perform far more special attacks. No matter what style of fighting you prefer, there is a mode which best suits you. Variety is the spice of life and all that.

The most unique difference between this and any other fighter on the market is the way it makes itself easier for the player if you find yourself having a hard time. Lose a match and it gives you three options: lower the difficulty of the game, reduce your opponents' health and increase your super bar, or, if you want, you can just try again with the same level of challenge. It an excellent idea and one that helped Gamestyle to beat the incredibly cheap final boss; hopefully other fighters will borrow this same method of lenient learning curves. Other game modes available are the simple one-versus-one arcade game, and the nicely challenging "Endless" mode, where you can unlock extra artwork to view and yet more hidden characters to play as. In order to unlock everything, all 47 characters will have to be defeated (a tall order, seeing as your health will only be raised slightly after each battle).

It's sad to say that, while King of Fighters: Neowave has plenty of good ideas, it can't stop the game from feeling extremely dated. Die hard fans will have the most fun here, but even they may want to wait for a price drop before taking the plunge. With the next inevitable game in the series, SNK need to move the formula forwards because, at the moment, the series is fast becoming stale.

Rating: 5 / 10

Words by Adam Gulliver