Review: The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga (PSP)

To be brutally honest, putting these games in one collection is like giving you Street Fighter II, Turbo Edition, Championship Edition, Super Duper Edition and whatever other editions Capcom released to please the masses. The differences are so small that apart from the different menu systems we had to really look hard to find anything significantly changed.

The whole concept of the series is on 3vs3 fighting. While earlier games already had predetermined sets of three (based on nationality), later games let you mix and match. Though you’d have to already know which characters you were going to pick before you enter the select screen. The time limit is so ludicrous that you aren’t allowed any sort of time to really look at what character you want. We didn’t notice the time ticking down at first and were quite shocked when the game decided to pick three for us.

When the fights begun you start to realise what a lazy collection this is. The music actually cuts out as the fight begins. Then a few moments later is starts up again. There are even glitches in the sound later on with some phrases, which are indistinguishable at times thanks to the poor sound quality, spoken out of place. How did this pass the testing phase? Loading times are also utterly ridiculous. With the later titles it even has to load after you knock each character out. With the tinny sounds and poor graphics it’s safe to say that King of Fighters hasn’t aged well. While this is meant to play and feel like the originals it would’ve been nice if they spruced it up slightly. Earlier iterations look a little worse for wear, with the later editions managing to smooth out the edges, with a years development time between each one though it’s no surprise that the game doesn’t seem to evolve much at all.

The core gameplay isn’t that bad. It’s very Street Fighter like in it’s move set, with half circle forwards and backwards being the order of the day, made almost impossible on the PSP d-pad. This game can be considered proof that the PSP is not exactly ideal for the fighting genre. With no diagonal buttons it makes hitting a special a 50/50 toss of the coin. It also makes the final bosses a lesson in frustration. Constant blocks and a flurry of ridiculously overpowered moves make them difficult even on the lowest difficulty. Adding to the gameplay, sort of, is the power gauge that can either be filled by blocking or performing some strange stance. Something that you have to learn on your own as it isn’t even in the instruction book. Once full it basically overpowers you completely allowing you to do twice the damage. Once your opponent has theirs filled however it actually reduces their blocking ability, that’s something we noticed anyway. A lot of the fights are just you repeating the same move over and over as your opponent just blocks and blocks and blocks. It’s incredibly dull at times, with them having incredibly basic AI.

Adding to the disappointing is the versus mode which seems to have been created as a side experience. It hasn’t been well designed at all. Amazingly you can’t switch characters, you’re stuck with the same one. And if, for whatever unknown reason (note, sarcasm), you want to switch then you have to reset the entire game. Who thought this was a good idea? Seriously? We understand that this was the same as in the original arcade version, but sometimes the term “arcade perfect” isn’t necessarily a good thing.

Featuring a compilation of near identical games, complete with a poor versus mode and terrible glitches KOF is hardly a celebration the series deserves. It’s a decent price (if you import) though we still can’t justify the price tag.

Rating: 4 / 10

Words by Adam Gulliver