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THE KING OF FIGHTERS:
DREAM MATCH 1999
Dreamcast, 1 CD, 1-2 Players
T-3101 M
Copyright © 1999 SNK Japan
Fighting
Available Now in Japan
¥ 5800
Where to buy
FAQ
—by Kenneth Lee
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"SNK" is a company few gamers need reminding of: They are the company that
rose up and challenged Capcom during the years of the "STREET FIGHTER II
reign." While never as popular as Capcom, SNK's fighting games went on to
grab a rather large, loyal following, delivering popular games such as the
FATAL FURY and SAMURAI SHOWDOWN series of fighters. With the advent and
dominance of 3D fighting games, the 2D cousins have become nearly extinct,
and it is clear that Capcom and SNK are moving into the 3D realm as well.
Yet before the final death knell (what a sad day that will be!), SNK has
unleashed a 'final hurrah' of sorts for the Dreamcast, in the form of THE
KING OF FIGHTERS: DREAM MATCH 1999. It is indeed a curious release in this
day and age where 3D dominates, as KOF:DM'99 is squarely 2D, hand-drawn
sprite characters fighting against one another on '2D' backgrounds. Many
people ignorantly proclaim it as "outdated" and "boring," and while there
may be some truth to those words, what lays beneath that premature claim is
a solid, wonderful, fun 2D fighting game that exudes more character and
attitude than most 3D games today.
For those new to the scene, SNK's
THE KING OF FIGHTERS is a series of
fighting games (one each year) that groups together many of SNK's pantheon
of video game heroes, all into one fighting game! You have the main
characters from FATAL FURY, like Terry Bogard, Andy Bogard and Joe Higashi,
and the hottest video game babe, Mai Shiranui. Then there are characters
from the ART OF FIGHTING, like Takuma Sakazaki, Ryo and Robert, etc. They
put in some really classic characters (all wonderfully redrawn), like Athena
Asamiya, the Psycho Soldier, and even the legendary Ikari Warriors(!), Ralf
and Clark. On top of that, they created all new characters just for the KOF
series, and in this Dreamcast version, a whopping total of 38 fighters are
selectable immediately, all unique and outstanding.
Perhaps the biggest strike against KOF:DM'99 is the dated look of it all.
This game is ported over from SNK's MVS, 24-bit arcade system, and the color
palette looks decidedly 16-bit. But SNK has put in all the frames of
animation, and went one step further, adding 3D into the backgrounds! With
all the polygon-pushing power of the Dreamcast, SNK incorporated 3D
backgrounds (with 2D painted textures) on top to add even more depth and
life to the backgrounds. The backgrounds now become even more lush and
interesting to look at—that is one thing that few companies can rival (who
can forget all the wonderful SAMURAI SHODOWN II backgrounds?)—and SNK
continues this tradition with KOF:DM'99.
In addition they added in an all-new 2D animated intro movie which showcases
all the fighters; it may not be as high quality as Production I.G.'s work
(TALES OF DESTINY intro, GHOST IN THE SHELL), but as a bonus addition, one
can't complain.
The gameplay is arguably the second-best 2D fighting game engine in the
world, topped only by STREET FIGHTER ZERO 3's engine. While not as tight as
SFZ3, it is still very solid and much better than Capcom's VS. series'
engine. There are 4 buttons to use, Light, Heavy Punch, and Light, Heavy
Kick. The engine has been faithfully reproduced onto the Dreamcast, and all
the specials and supers come out effortlessly. One of the main draws of the
KOF series has been its '3-on-3' Team battles, where you pick a team of 3
fighters and face off against another group of fighters. Yes, SNK was the
inspiration for Capcom's VS. teams and even Sega's VF3tb team play.
Yet the best draw of KOF series and especially KOF:DM'99, is the bad-ass
personality that it exudes. There has never been a fighting game that has
exuded as much personality and character as SNK's KOF series. Characters
will come out and taunt each other; Joe comes out and moons the other player
(his taunt); you have a Yakuza gangster (Yamazaki) that'll grab the opponent
and floor him, then stomp him into the ground and look down on the fallen
victim!; you have a madman (Iori) who screams out "Playtime is over!" and
bum rushes the opponent to tear him apart and then, grabbing the opponent by
the neck, pauses for a second before sending his 'chi' forth and blowing him
up!; you have a Chinese Drunken Master (Gensai) who jumps onto the opponent
and shoves his rice wine gourd into the opponent's mouth and forces it
down his throat to make them drunk and fall over; and the list goes on.
As a perfect complement to the attitude is the 'power emphasis' in this
game: The moves, while not as smoothly animated (not enough frames of
animation) as Capcom's 2D efforts, more than make up for it in their power
emphasis. The moves look like they really hurt! For example, Terry Bogard's
Power Dunk special, causes him to jump up into the air yelling, "Power ..." and
then a split-second pause as his fist is pulled back, and then "... Dunk!!"
[BAM!] he slams his fist into the opponent's head and slams him into the
ground causing the screen to shake. That is an example of the over-the-top,
well-executed gameplay that SNK has achieved with KOF:DM'99. Many a time,
people who are watching inadvertently blurt out "Oohs!" and "Ouch! That's
gotta hurt!" when our KOF matches are going on.
All-in-all, if you can look past the less-than-cutting-edge graphics, and
you can appreciate good, old fashioned hand-drawn art in a fighting game,
then you'll have no problem enjoying the well-constructed KING OF FIGHTERS:
DREAM MATCH 1999 for the Dreamcast. It has one of the best fighting game
engines in the world, with a ton of extras to boot just for the Dreamcast
release, like Survival Mode, Training Mode, Neo Geo Pocket compatibility,
and the best thing, selectable languages! Yes, you can play this game
totally in English if you want to! While not as visually impressive as
MARVEL VS. CAPCOM (in terms of 2D
animation glory), the gameplay is far more
enjoyable and with 38 very unique characters, you're getting a great game
with massive replayability. Highly
recommended. 
Rating: 8.7/10 |
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