I've always preferred King of Fighters
and Fatal Fury over Street Fighter. That isn't to say SF is bad, but that SNK is
so, so good. With that in mind, Dream Match 1999 (actually KOF 98) is probably
my second favorite fighter on the console next to Evolution (the true King of
Fighters 99). Here's my review...
If you're looking for some type of comprehensible story here, then you're out of
luck. Dream Match has no real story to it, besides the small bits revealed
through screens in the ending. But that's no problem for true fans of the series
(and of fighters in general), for obvious reasons.
One of best aspects of Dream Match is the character selection. Never before have
we seen this many characters in a single KOF title. You have a total of 38
including the two bosses (Rugal B. and Shingo). Among the more notable ones are
Kim Kaphwan, Terry Bogard, Ryo, Iori Yagami, Mai, and Leona. My one gripe is
with Athena, Yuri, and Takuma, the three most throwaway worthless characters in
the game. It's obvious the designers ran out of ideas here. That's only three
characters, though. Far better than having an entire lineup full of terribly
designed characters (cough:Tekken:cough).
Anyway, you can use any of the characters in the game's Survival, Team Play,
Single Play and Practice modes. There's also 2 Single and Team Vs multiplayer
modes. The real meat of the game is in the Team Play, where you pick 3 fighters
and run them through the KOF tournament.
I've heard some complaints about the lack of Geese Howard. While I agree that he
should definitely be here, I personally think Rugal B. is a better character
than Geese and makes up for his absence. Of course, that's just me. SNK still
gave us every KoF character we could ask for in here besides Geese.
The sheer playability and depth of this title is possibly the one single reason
I give it a full score. I've put maybe a hundred hours into Dream Match these
last two weeks alone. That should say a lot about the replayability here. Just
honing your skills with certain characters is fun in any of the modes. I'm
currently unbeatable with Terry Bogard and Ryo after countless hours fighting
the tournament with them.
Of course, Dream Match has nothing new to offer gameplay-wise, but that isn't
really a problem. You can't improve upon perfection; attempts at such are what
lead to disappointing sequels.
Controls are basically the same as every previous KOF title (and most 2D
fighters). There's four attack buttons that, by themselves, serve as the
requisite punch and kick attacks. They can be used in combination to throw or
roll, and with certain direction inputs (such as Hard Kick+Direction) for other
attacks. I've never had trouble with controls in any of SNK's 2D fighters, and
Dream Match is no different.
Graphics
Visually, there's no denying Dream Match is a generation behind. Compare this to
Alpha 3 on Dreamcast and you see what I mean. The backgrounds have some 3D
elements to them (such as a car or a cliff) but these are clearly last
generation. The characters could be a little less grainy, but they look far
better than the backgrounds. While arcade-perfect, Dream Match doesn't hold up
visually compared to it's sequel, King of Fighters Evolution.
Though I still have to give credit to SNK for keeping the characters hand
animated. Unlike the Street Fighter series, which has crossed over into pure 3D
with the abysmal "Ex" series, King of Fighters remains in glorious 2D.
The characters couldn't be done this well in 3D.
Also in here is a cool, lengthy intro with Iori and Kyo Kusanagi battling while
all 38 of the characters are introduced. This has to be one of my favorite anime
intros since Wild ARMs. Definitely worth waiting a minute or two at the title
screen for.
Sound
The music has always been a highlight of this series. Most of the tracks are
cool, especially the one in the intro movie. The last battle has an awesome
'techno/dance' track as well. Sadly, there are a lot of tracks on here I could
care less about, such as the Japan Street and Korea tracks.
Much like every KOF title, every character has a certain number of taunts.
Everything from Terry's trademark "Hey, come on come on!" to Rugal
B.'s insane laugh is in here.
Overall - 9.3/10
A slight knock on the score due to the somewhat dated graphics and the lack of
Geese. Not enough to stop me from giving this title my full recommendation
though. It's even better considering that you can find it for under 20 bucks
right now. You have nothing to lose, and a lot to gain. Buy it now!
9.3
