The selection largely hearkens back to the early days, bringing back Andy and Joe, but removes other long time stalwarts. Mai, King, Blue Mary, Yuri, and Takuma? All gone. All of the NESTS saga folks are AWOL too, so that means no Kula, K’, Vanessa, Maxima or Whip. The stars of the Sacred Treasure arc – Ash, Shen Woo, and Duo Lon – are all here, and Elisabeth shows up in the console release, but otherwise it’s all older characters. The console version also adds Mature, who now has an eyepatch. The only really “new” character, at least for King of Fighters, is Raiden/Big Bear, who initially appeared back in the original Fatal Fury. The fighting itself also plays out like older games on the series. The tag-team switching is gone completely, and the action is a bit slower than it used to be in KoF 2003 or XI. The characters also have significantly dwarfed movesets. Most only have two or three specials, and only one super. Many characters play very differently as a result, sometimes for the better (like the drastically redesigned Kensou, who now wears his Chinese uniform from Psycho Soldier), others for the worse (such as Iori and the lack of his purple flame attacks.) Much of the timing and range for the existing moves has changed, too. The rest of the game feels remarkably barren.
There are only five backgrounds that, while nice looking, feel sparse and empty. What little music there is is barely memorable. Since this is technically a Dream Match game, there’s no story, no predetermined teams, and no ending. The single player mode is just a standard time attack.
THE KING OF FIGHTERS 99 PS3 PS3
The console versions feature online play, but both the 360 and PS3 versions suffer from inefficient network code.