Kof Ex

[the mystical fighter]

i dunno about the rest of you, but i feel that this game is underrated

 

i was just playing the second one a few minutes, and i liked it, i found the first one amazingly easy even on very hard. i jsut lost then against ryo.

 

and i think that there is some characters on EX they should put on the actual game, i think Moe and Reiji are cool, just fix up their sound and make their sprites smoother and they will be as good as ever

 

what do you think of this game

[Wizard]

Ah yes, this game is very underrated in my opinion. I would love to see characters such as Moe and Reiji in future KOF's. And those 2 ladies in Iori's team too.

[Agozer]

And those 2 ladies in Iori's team too.

Mature & Vice? Yeah, the GBA KOFs are good games, IMO.

[Wizard]

And those 2 ladies in Iori's team too.

Mature & Vice? Yeah, the GBA KOFs are good games, IMO.

Its not them in KOF EX. its 2 other girls.

[the mystical fighter]

their names are jun and miu

 

a convenience i have the vba shortcut on the desktop

[NeoMaster]

I agree with you on this one, the KOF EX games are some of the best fighters on the GBA. Looking through my archives I found one of my old reviews on this game. Check it out to see my full opinion.

=====================================================

Game Reviewed: King of Fighters EX 2: Howling Blood, The

Platform: Game Boy Advance

Publisher: MMV

Developer: Sun-Tec, Marvelous Entertainment Inc.

Max Players: 2 (single and multi cart compatible)

Reviewer: ssjchau

 

Introduction

 

The King of Fighters is back and better than ever on the GBA! After the dismantlement of SNK, Playmore picks up the licenses to the SNK franchises and brings back one of its most popular fighters. The King of Fighters started out with KOF 94’, created about 10 years ago. Since then, SNK/Playmore has been updating and releasing new versions of it annually. If you are a KOF fan, you would’ve played the first King of Fighters called Neoblood, which was released a year or so earlier on the GBA prior to Howling Blood. Neoblood didn’t feature the gameplay and sound you would expect from a KOF title. The game featured awful graphics and music, and the combo system wasn’t nearly as intact as KOF 99’ which was the game it was based on. Now we have Howling Blood. Not only does it improve upon the old Neoblood game, it solidifies the engine with better gameplay, a larger roster of characters, and better music and sound.

 

Presentation

 

Howling Blood features a stronger cast of characters. You will notice that now there are a total of 21 playable characters at the start of the game. Most of the faces would be recognizable to KOF fans, and some will be unfamiliar. Moe and Reiji are some of the new characters that have been added as new comers to the tournament. As you would’ve guessed, the KOF games comprise of characters from all sorts of different fighting games. Mai, Kim, and Terry are characters that come from Fatal Fury. Ryo and Takuma rise from Art of Fighting. Characters that are originals to the KOF tournaments would be Kyo, Iori, Ralf, Clark and Leona. Although these characters are a healthy assortment, one cannot deny that many characters are missing. This game is based on KOF 2000, if anyone has played this game, there are about 40 plus characters to choose from. With the obvious shortage of space, Howling Blood takes about half of them away. The most disappointing to see missing would be K’, one of the main characters and most powerful in King of Fighters. Aside from character selection, Howling Blood features the essential options of any fighting game. Story, practice, VS single, and VS team are all available and ready at your disposal. Everything but the character selection is average here.

 

Gameplay

 

If you have ever played a King of Fighters before, you will be able to predict what the gameplay is like. KOF usually focuses on team based battles. In team mode, you will choose three characters. The order of these characters will be important, since your last character will be the striker. Strikers are the characters sitting away from the action and await your call for assistance. If you press the L and B button together, they will jump out and perform their move and then scurry away. The special meter is handled in a similar fashion as Street Fighter. You have one bar of “special” and during battle it increases. When one third of it is filled, you have one special stock, if two thirds are filled; you have 2 stocks and so on. However, if you have it completely filled, you will be able to perform MAX specials, which does double damage as normal ones. You can also run by tapping the forward direction twice. To roll past your enemy and avoid attacks, press Left or Right and then R and B together. What’s great about this system is that you can add plenty of pressure to your opponent which makes gameplay very fast. Talented and skilled players will have a MUCH greater advantage to a button masher. Another fun aspect about this system is finding combos that link. Each character has a distinct variety of moves that can be executed one after the other so that opponent cannot block if the combo is used successfully. This is what separates the pros from the newbies, giving you complete rights to brag after pummelling your opponent.

 

Graphics

 

I was quite impressed with the graphics quality of Howling Blood. This game actually mimics the arcade version of KOF 2000. Most of the stages have been ported from 2000 to Howling Blood, and some that have never been seen have been created specially for the GBA version. Each character has their personal style and distinction, all equipped with a variety of taunts and poses. There are a few problems however with the backgrounds and characters. The sprites themselves have fewer frames per second then the arcade version, which in some cases the characters don’t move as fluidly. Second, the backgrounds are less animated. Take for example the harbour stage, the water stays still and doesn’t splash around. The aquarium stage has a wavy picture to animate water movement which looks odd. It’s not a big deal but it adds a bit more realism if these animations where intact.

 

Sound

 

Now here is a good and bad situation. The good would be that the tunes and tracks are better to listen to than Neoblood. The bad would be the extreme compression used to fit everything in this cartridge. It’s nice to see that the developers had kept the sound bytes and tunes intact from KOF 2000, but heavy compression definitely ruins the great experience. I’ve always loved KOF games for their sound (well any KOF past 97’). What the characters say for moves and taunts give them their unique personalities. I’ve always hated the way Street Fighter games have these cheesy one word samples, but KOF isn’t like that. The character voice actors are great; you can actually feel the intensity when they perform MAX specials. But with all this compression going on, the voices are hardly audible, and lots of sounds and winning taunts have been removed! It would be so like paradise if they could fit all the music tracks and sound effects in their perfect form…but oh well.

 

 

Value

 

I’m not going to lie to you ladies and gentlemen. The King of Fighters Howling Blood is for fighting fans. If your not really interested in these sorts of games, then you might find that KOF has very little to offer. However, if you love fighting games, the huge library of moves and combos for each character will just make your jaw drop. On the plus side, if you are quite good with this game, you can easily transfer your skills to the arcade versions and future titles of KOF, and vice versa. 21 characters is a good line-up, the multi-player modes will definitely give you the value for your buck, especially if you have hardcore friends which love to get challenged and beaten. So if you like games like Street Fighter and Guilty Gear, this game will definitely entertain you. I strongly recommend a purchase.

 

Scoring System

Presentation: 6/10

Gameplay: 9/10

Graphics: 8/10

Sound: 6/10

Value: 8/10

 

Overall: 7.4 out of 10

 

Time completed: Who cares? It’s a fighting game.

 

Reviewed By ssjchau

Email: ssjchau@hotmail.com

=====================================================

[the mystical fighter]

nice, i admit i do not like the sounds of the gba, i feel stupid when i hear the music but the gameplay keeps me there, maybe cause its a KoF game

 

and another thing, K` is NEVER there!

 

you look at crossover games, no K`, KoF, no K` (appearance of K` as striker but not playable) and this new KOF 3d game... no K`

 

he is probably one of the best characters SNK had made up in Kof and he is hardly there for the good things

[Gryph]

and this new KOF 3d game... no K`

 

he is probably one of the best characters SNK had made up in Kof and he is hardly there for the good things 

All the characters haven't been announced yet so don't be so sure. I remember a few weeks back, K'Dash made a thread with all these links that linked to the KOF:MI site and it had unfinished place-holder pages for characters not announced yet, and one of them is K'.

[Madi]

i could never find the roms for that lol my gba got stolen and all i have is the game...i think i know who it is its my cousin! lol still trying to find out

anyways... i loved it kof on the go!

i wanted k'...........but iori will do hehe

[Sybarite Paladin AxL]

I may offend some1 here, but 2 me K' seems not so hot.... I mean, when he appeard in kof 99 there was an outbreak, and every1 said, "look at how cool K' is!" 2 me he's just a guys with a firey glove and an attitude problem..... sure he has good moves and stuff but still he's not so cool...... he wouldve been cooler looking like another k'

from kof2k.....

[Wizard]

I may offend some1 here, but 2 me K' seems not so hot.... I mean, when he appeard in kof 99 there was an outbreak, and every1 said, "look at how cool K' is!" 2 me he's just a guys with a firey glove and an attitude problem..... sure he has good moves and stuff but still he's not so cool...... he wouldve been cooler looking like another k'

from kof2k.....

Another K` striker is him BEFORE he was owned by N.E.S.T.S.