King of Fighters: Maximum Impact Hands-On Impressions - E3 2004

SNK's King of Fighters series is entering its 10th year, and it will also be heading--in 3D form--onto the PlayStation 2. We got a chance to sit down with a 70-percent-complete version of the upcoming PS2-exclusive, fully 3D KOF game, Maximum Impact, at E3 2004.

At a glance, Maximum Impact's pacing may seem very reminiscent of the earlier Street Fighter EX or Fatal Fury Wild Ambition games, which were both early attempts to bring a 2D fighting game into 3D at the cost of a slower pace and less-detailed characters. However, Maximum Impact will apparently attempt to keep as many classic King of Fighters conventions around as possible. The game retains the distinctive four-button-control setup of its forebears. As a result, pressing light punch and light kick together has the same function as pressing buttons A and B on the NeoGeo controller--so you can roll forward or backward, or you can recover after you've been knocked down. Also, pressing your control pad up or down while pressing light punch and light kick will let you sidestep along a 3D axis (much like 3D rolling in Wild Ambition). Interestingly, Maximum Impact uses a new knockdown system that is somewhat reminiscent of the Tekken series. When you are knocked over, unless you perform a recovery roll immediately, you'll remain on the ground until you press light punch and light kick together to recover. If you don't get up, you'll remain vulnerable to ground-based attacks, like low kicks and certain special strikes.

The version of Maximum Impact we played had a good number of playable characters available, including mainstays like Terry Bogard, Ryo Sakazaki (and his sister Yuri), Kyo Kusanagi, Iori Yagami, Ralf Jones, and K' (pronounced "K Dash"). Interestingly, each character, when selected, has an alternate costume that presents either an all-new look for the character or is a reference to an older game. For example, Terry's alternate outfit puts him in his full gear from Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves, complete with shorter hair and "Running Wild" jacket. Ryo's alternate costume outfits him with the black gi, spiky platinum hair, and goatee beard he bore in the obscure Hyper NeoGeo 64 brawler Buriki One. For some puzzling reason, series mainstay Kim Kaphwan, the master of Tae Kwon Do, has been replaced by Chae Lim, a female character with short blue hair and a completely identical arsenal of kicks and special attacks.

From what we saw of the game, each returning character seems to have a good number of his or her classic fighting maneuvers and combination attacks. In addition, the game seems to have the same mobility and fighting options as The King of Fighters '98. These include mobility options like regular rolls (as mentioned), hop jumps, superjumps (by quickly pressing down and then up to jump), guard rolls (pressing light punch and light kick together to cancel out of blocking animations), and throw escapes. The game also has "thrust attacks" (pressing the heavy punch and heavy kick buttons together, like pressing buttons C and D together on the NeoGeo controller), guard crushes to use against those opponents who play too defensively, and "command attacks," which are additional standard attacks that can be used by pressing your controller in a single direction and then pressing the correct attack button. (Think Terry's uppercut punch and Ryo's overhead chop, for instance.) Basic combination attacks still seem to work just fine, and most characters also seem to have a short-chain combination of attacks that can be accessed by pressing an attack button repeatedly. In addition, all the levels we played in (which included a parking garage and an underground rave, among others) were bounded by walls that set up juggle opportunities, much like the wall juggles of Tekken 4.

What we've played of King of Fighters: Maximum Impact suggests that SNK is attempting to preserve as much of the original King of Fighters feel as possible while transitioning into 3D. As mentioned, the pacing did seem slightly but noticeably slower than that of the most recent KOF games for the original NeoGeo hardware, though perhaps the final version will allow for the tweaking of the game's playing speed. King of Fighters: Maximum Impact is scheduled for release later this year.