This is an excellent port of a truly nostalgic masterpiece.
The game is mostly similar to KOF 98 - the masterpiece of SNK. It has dropped the striker system and returned to basic 3 on 3 combat. It does not have a storyline but lets players duke it out with almost all of the characters present in previous games. Now players can pick up all those characters like Chris, Shermie etc... which were only seen last time on KOF 98 and have a blast. One of the main good points about this game are the sheer number of characters. It has 40 + characters and even more in the console versions.
The game play as mentioned above is similar to KOF 98. You pick a team of 3 characters and you fight another team in a series of one on one matches. If your character loses he or she is replaced by the others you chose. The match is finished when one team loses all 3 characters. The bar system is also similar to the advanced bar in KOF 98 in which you attack until you fill them all up. You can then use the to perform some awesome supers or use the bar to activate a special mode for a short amount of time which lets you cancel attacks or perform more deadly supers.
The thing that makes this game a solid winner is the fact of how much fun it is to play. It is hard to get into but once you do you will not get out. It is even more fun when playing with a friend. The reason for this is its' intricate game play which will keep giving you more. There is a very neat combo system in KOF 2002 which lets you string together very neat looking combos if you have the patience to learn all of your characters moves.
The characters in KOF 2002 are very diverse. There are absolutely no clones (not counting the different versions of the same characters) . Every character has a distinct personality like the lunatic Yamazaki or the innocent Kula and at least one will appeal to you. They also have different move sets which will appeal to different people. There are grapplers, technical players, combo players and hard hitters.
The music in this game is much better than those in previous KOF installments. Every team has its' own BGM and most of them are catchy and pump you full of adrenalin. There are some which are boring but they are far and few in between. The voices for the characters are really good and truly make them come to life. You will always dread the laugh of the lunatic Yamazaki.
The PS 2 version has a very good practice mode along with a list of all the special moves of every characters which you can use to polish your skill. It will be necessary for newcomers though as the game is hard. The PS 2 version also has challenges you can complete to unlock characters. This add to the longevity of single player gameplay.
Now the one major flaw on this basket of goodies. The pixel graphics are extremely dated. The backgrounds are bland and unexciting except for the boss battles. the characters themselves do not have the look of a new game on them i.e they all look old. I might also add that the game is hard to learn and the bosses are too cheap.
In conclusion, if you consider yourself to be a fan of 2d games pick this one up. I recommend to pick up the console versions as they have more characters. This game is a truly fun and entertaining game which no one seems to look at just because of its graphics. The fighting system on this game is as intricate as the fighting system on any of the best fighters like tekken or street fighter.