If you’re a King of Fighters fan like me you got this game when it came out. I liked this game because it was a good first effort to put King of Fighters into 3D. SNK certainly did a better job of 3D fighting this time around then they had with putting Fatal Fury and Samurai Shodown in 3D back on the Hyper Neo Geo 64. The first step up is of course the graphics, they’re not the best in the world but they’re nice. It’s cool to see the familiar character’s moves, clothes, and personalities finally brought to 3D. Also, this shouldn’t have been a game that was blown off when compared to 3D fighting games like Tekken. The style of this game is different. It’s a much more fast paced fighting game. It also tried to bring that classic KOF gameplay into 3D. The game runs nice and fast except for occasional slowdowns during the super special moves. As far as the sound, it’s not bad. There were a few tracks that had me listening but not as good as the 2D fighting version’s tracks. The worst thing about it is there is no option to switch from English voice acting to Japanese. So all the fighters have to heard voiced by sub-par acting. But I wasn’t too upset. Other then that it’s enjoyable but not spectacular. As far as the roster is concerned, it’s definitely small compared to the other King of Fighters games. It features 14 classic characters with 6 new ones including the boss who has to be unlocked to play as him. But this is the first KOF in 3D. It’s also nice the characters have alternate outfits. A bunch of those outfits I didn’t care for though. As far as gameplay, it has the feel of the classic 2D fighters. It works. But it’s all one on one battles for arcade instead of the 3 on 3 you are used to if you know KOF. The combos in this game let you have fun and string a lot of hits together. The gameplay also retains rolling and adds sidestepping into the background and foreground. There is also guard crush so the opponent can’t guard all day. A big change in the jump to 3D is being able to attack an opponent on the ground. Also if you corner someone you can lay into them with juggles. Characters can perform a recovery roll to quickly regain their footing after some knockdown moves, but for the most part, getting cornered in Maximum Impact is a recipe for a serious butt kicking. As far as modes go, there’s your story mode, but most of the characters don’t have a real ending which is kind of disappointing. There’s a lot of talk and there is a conniving “weasel” named Hyena who takes you through and talks before the fights start, then after every fight you’ll see him again except after you beat Duke who is the last boss. He may not be the toughest of KOF bosses, but he still has a little “SNK boss syndrome”. You unlock character profiles and some alternate outfits by finishing the story mode which are nice little extras. But as in most fighting games, I don’t fully trust the heights and weights. They seem smaller then what they should be. There's also a mission mode, in which you go through some very tough scenarios that put you at a heavy disadvantage. Experienced players like myself should enjoy these. They should have been presented a little better though. You’ll get rewards like extra stages, my favorite was Neo Geo land, and you’ll also unlock more alternate colors or outfits. And of course there’s also practice mode and versus mode. Well if you can find the version with the extra DVD included and you’re a KOF fan, go ahead and pick this up, even though KOF 2006 is out
Thank God for Blockbuster or I might have wasted $50 on this. The hype made it seem like this was an innovative title but it is all been there done that but better. The graphics are decent not bad not great but that is o... Read Full Review
KOF Maximum impact is revolutionaring waht this game has offer in the past decade it has became the best fighting game, this time the games graphics aloud the player to have a better look to hoe this game has progress. i... Read Full Review
