The King of Fighters '95

Review

by Kyle Knight

King of Fighters '95 is essentially King of Fighters '94 with some tweaks and improvements, and the option of a custom team. That's not a bad thing by any means, as KOF94 was a good game. But there's not much to speak of in the way of innovation in this game.

The character selection in this game is much better than in its predecessor. The old Team USA, composed of moronic looking rejects dressed up like moronic sports stars, is nowhere to be found in this game. Instead you get the very cool Iori Yagami and two characters from previous SNK fighting games. The change does affect character balance somewhat, as Iori is particularly powerful. But it's important for the series because it sets up the Kyo vs Iori storyline that would go on to dominate the KOF series.

The graphics have been spruced up a bit from the 94 version. The characters are animated well, and are slightly bigger than their KOF94 counterparts. The increase in size comes without any loss of animation or art quality, so the various characters still look good and move fluidly. SNK has also improved a lot on the stage backgrounds compared to the bland 94 backgrounds. Some of the backgrounds have very interesting designs. One stage is actually a platform that's rising up a shaft as the fight begins. The fighters are limited to moving around the small platform itself until it finishes its ascent to become part of the flooring of a larger room. Other stages show not only background animation, but also foreground effects like tall grass and smoke. Stage coloring is also much more vibrant than in last year's version. Overall of all the various aspects of the game the stage design and artistry shows the most improvement.

The game's sounds and voices have also been tweaked a bit, mostly to the effect of making the characters' voice clips clearer and the sound effects more crisp. One of the stages is a metal walkway, and when characters jump and land on this stage they make a metallic clanging sound instead of the standard thud. No one would have cared if landing on the metal walkway sounds just like every other stage, but having the unique sound is a nice touch. The music tracks haven't been improved on though, and they're as average as the music from KOF94.

The gameplay is pretty much exactly the same as before, and players comfortable with the KOF94 system can jump right into King of Fighters '95. The controls are as tight and responsive as ever. King of Fighters '95 took the excellent and fairly deep fighting system from KOF94 and basically used it without any changes. While it's not innovative, it does make for a good fighting game experience. The ability to play custom edit teams is a welcome addition, as now players can pick and choose characters to fit their own playing styles.

King of Fighters '95 is everything that fans of the KOF series could have wanted in a straight sequel. It combines the already well-polished gameplay from KOF94 with some graphical improvements and the ability to make custom teams to create a very enjoyable gaming experience.