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SNK’s booth was interesting this year. There were new things in it…lots of them. King of Fighters Maximum Impact was playable, as was Metal Slug Advance. KOF 2k3 and SSV were there on the PS2, SvC on the Xbox. It felt very SNK-ish.
KOF Maximum Impact will be of particular to many. This is SNK’s most recent attempt at a 3D fighter, and it’s be a different team this time round. It’s…a pretty ok game. The thing about it is that there’s not too much to the 3D of it. The main reason for it’s being in 3D is so it won’t be ‘just another 2D fighter’, and if that’s the aim, it did it well.
It plays like a slower, floatier KOF, with longer downtime on the kockdowns. It’s only 70% complete on the show floor, but let’s see what was there/playable.
Characters currently playable: Kyo, Terry, Yuri, Alba, Ralph, Chae (She’s a Kim-alike), K’, Iori, Seth, Ryo, Soiree, Mignon (she has Angel moments!) and Maxima. Each character has an alternate costume – from the obvious ‘classic kyo’ and MOTW Terry to the more obscure Buriki One version of Ryo. Pretty interesting costumes, if frequently garish.
Of the stages available for vs combat, several had alternate locations/times of day within the stage. These could be chosen from the stage select screen.
Stages: Lost World (three versions), Live House, South Town (two versions), Parking Area, Nude Place (three versions), Iron Hell, Airport (two versions), Downtown (two versions.
In the Parking Area stage, there are parked cars – these can actually get in your way. They’re not destructible in this build, but they do rock around when hit. It’s an interesting possibility – I do wonder if there might not be more environmental interaction. I suspect this to be the full extent of it, but it’s fun to dream.
The game itself is not as tight as it might be. Again, it’s a 70% build. Overall, the top of the SNK 3D fighting effort is likely the arcade version of Fatal Fury Wild Ambition. It had an intuitive (but new) combo system, really tight gameplay and control. KOF: MI is a bit more obscure in the building of combos, not feeling quite like the 2D KOFs, which is good I suppose. It helps differentiate it from its brothers.
Something surprising that made it in: after a KO, the victor can beat heavily on the loser’s prone body for a good two seconds. It can be a bit brutal.
The graphics look nice. You’ve seen them, and they’re just as fine in real life. Nothing wrong there. Ultimately though, the only reason this game is 3D is for aesthetics. The side-step (with additional moves) is not really enough to warrant it. The ‘axis shift’ button, in spite of frequent pressing, didn’t do much for neither Vince nor myself. We couldn’t get that bit going.
It’s just another KOF. If you like KOF, you’ll like this game pretty much straight through. It won’t turn you off, make you mad or feel betrayed. But it doesn’t *need* to be in 3D, and I would’ve liked to see SNK come out with a game that really used that third dimension for something interesting.
So then there was Metal Slug Advance. It was really early. 30% complete, they said, and it showed. The framerate was very low, and hostages respawn if you walk off-screen and back again (useful for item hoarding). It felt very generic and uninventive in that state, but it has a long way to go. Two characters, one male, one female, both with a lifebar (like the NGPC version). Lots of green enemies. There were multiple paths, but at this point they didn’t do a whole lot but take you to another level that looked like the last one. Sort of feels like a Metal Slug 4 conversion.
But it’s early. The most important thing was that it was present and accounted for.
We’ll have more on SNK in the coming days, naturally. But there’s a little taste.
brandon sheffield needs to put some maximum impact on the bed.
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