Ahhh… KOF 99. The first KOF I ever owned. The KOF that introduced me to K’. I liked '99 for that and that alone.
KOF 2001: The boy Robert. Hands-down one of my favorite characters in KOF period. I hated the fact that SNK made him a charge character, gave him a gay costume, and ruined his ‘01 stance.:arazz: I liked the story and the bosses too. I like beign able to select how many strikers you had on your team cuz my team always had 4 people:K’/Kyo/Robert/Terry. :lovin:
KOF MIRA: Solid all around. Fix the crap from 2006/MI2. Cast is solid, story is pure BS though. And more 3D KOF on the way. Looking good so far after MI1/2.
I feel stupid for never having played ‘98. But UM is coming so I’ll opt for that I guess. I hope it’s as good as people say it is. However I’m more concerned with what team to make… K’ is out but Robert is in. And I don’t even know if Kyo has his Aragami or Dokugami chains.
KoF’98 is clearly my favourite King of Fighters, and I’d say that my overall favourite fighting game. It’s the only game in the saga I play seriously.
It’s just so… solid, balanced, varied, deep… It shows that it was all the good ideas and experience of the best old SNK condensed in a huge, awesome game.
KOF2k2 would be a close second, and I still have a soft spot for it even when I don’t play it as much as I used to anymore. It’s indeed a great game, and it was my main game for a good time (I got into KOF seriously quite late) but 98’s characters, system and overall feel eventually relegated it from my favourite list.
One of the things I like the most about '98 is that every character, even the low tiers like Lucky, or dudes like Rugal and Brian have good stuff one can use to give headaches to better characters. It’s also a game that manages to be very balanced without feeling homogeneous or forced. One of the main complaints I have against 2k2 is that, for the sake of balance, SNKP butchered some characters for no good reason.
As for the other KOFs, I didn’t like the striker games (I feel that the new gameplay diluted the uniqueness KOF had achieved -SNK always innovating when they don’t have to-) and I have yet to play XI, but I didn’t like '03 for the same reason that made me dislike the striker games. So I choose '98 as the clear best and 2k2 as the second best KOF.
I have to go with XI as well. 98 had the best roster, imo, until XI came out. I’m a bit biased, though, since I think the dream cancel is one of the most exciting things to have appeared in a 2D fighter in a long, long time. To add to that, there’s no shortage of awesome characters. Eiji’s even in there. I really liked 2003, also.
I never really got into MI in the first place. For me, I’ll stick with a good balanced 2D KOF like 98 (and thank goodness that the 98 UM is coming up).
