I just want to know.
I think it has to do with their large casts and they are for the most part “balanced”.
Fanboys.
/thread
94: Very early, restrictive. Compared to what comes later, it’s probably TOO simple.
95: They started to get it! Totally eclipses 94 in terms of gameplay and polish.
96: great graphical updates, but pretty broken in some ways. Comparably sloppy in some ways.
97: And ambitious game that tried a lot of new things, but went too far in some ways…
98: Took what 98 Lost, and added it back. It’s like they where most focused here, in putting all they learned before into the most solid effort.
99: The beginning of Strikers. A nice intro to the new variations in the cast, but like all KoFs after dream matches, this started ideas that needed to be refined.
2000: SNK was fractured and busted around this time. They didn’t have all the old team members I believe, and where lacking money. Didn’t this game have a “Thank you all with Love!” Ending, just like MOTW? Going back to this one… I rather like Lin, but… err… anywho…
2001: We’re in the Eolith years HERE, then! Feels even worse than what happened in 2000. It’s as if they just squeezed this one out, and some of the artist seemed to be over ambition, compared to their own levels of skill. But it seemed to be a great learning experience, because then we got…
2002: This is Eolith’s 98! They got to take everything they learned with the others they made, and put it to work here. Solidifying their own styles, the characters they built, and bringing back old fan-favorite characters.
2003: Falcoon’s biggest year in contemporary KoF. Personally, I hate the feel of this one the most. Shen, and Duo felt kinda… messy, Malin felt horrid, and it felt the most “doujin game” of all the contemporary KoFs. The game seemed to lose the KoF pacing, and instead starts to feel more like a Marvel VS game wanna-be.
Neowave: Felt like 2002 with cool gameplay systems. I don’t personally understand why it’s so ignored… anyone wanna fill me in on this one?
XI: I kinda ignore the quick shift system here… lol. It’s a vital part of the game, though, and I think this one goes towards making 2003’s systems feel more SNK-like. I still wish hits would stop feeling like wishy-washy swift blows, and that the game would get back more of the dramatic impacts that defined early SNK and KoF games in general. “Number of hits” rule this game, rather than “power of hits”, I’d say.
So yeah, I’d say 98 and 2002 are the best KoF’s because they’re made at the top of the game for each development group of their time. They focus more on SNK’s best qualities, and also come at a time when players are used to what these dev teams are giving them. They also deviate the least from established KoF gameplay, and remember, the average people are FREAKIN’ SCARED of change!
Neowave is pretty much a version of 2002 but with some new things tossed in and others tossed out. Didn’t really make for a more unique gaming experience from what I know and I think some characters really stood out as top tiers?
The fact that the controls felt a lot stiffer than original KOF 2002 (at least for me) didn’t help.
2000 =/= Eolith. This one was the last made by the original SNK before they went under. Though the Strikers screwed with the gameplay balance, the art direction and overall presentation remain the best in the series so far.
And Nona was responsible for the artistic trainwreck that was 2001 (he was the lead artist that year).
iirc styleos is the in-game art for both 2000 and 2001 and i know that bacuae woof told me
Don’t remind me of 2001-the horror of the character select screen is ingraved in to my head…for life
The in-game art for 2001 (select screen, promo art, cutscenes) looks absolutely nothing like what Styleos did for 2000 (select screen, cutscenes), nevermind the fact that it’s quite established that Nona handled the art for 2001, along with 2002. I’m not saying I wouldn’t be willing to believe it, but I’ve seen nothing claiming anything else.
Nona went into the company in 2k1, worked on 2k1, 2k2, SvC Chaos, the endings in XI, and finally XII. Gotta say at least he’s gotten better (or we would’ve all been fucked)
Ahhh, ok, I was trying to remember if I saw Eolith in the opening there are not. And I also rather like the art direction in that game; I liked the BGs much more for effects, rather than colors and style, but I do think they pulled off some cool stuff there!
On Xbox, the controlls didn’t feel stiff to me at all… Of course, it IS a port. The PS2 Ports of 2000 and 2001 felt so bad to me when I played a friends, that I NEVER got the collection for those 2! The only KoF collections I don’t own on PS2, that have been released in America anyway. I really liked the Range Murata looking artwork that they had in that game… (Was it him? I’m not sure anymore…) Vanessa looked gorgeous there, among others.
Wow thanks for whoever +repped me lol.
Thank you all for explaining this to me 
As for Neowave, I believe it was a good game system, but the roster is rather small. I think it needed more characters or different characters because of the systems. Having Geese for the boss sucked. I think they tried to show what their characters would have been like if CapCom had not screwed them in CvS2. The modes almost correspond accordingly. Also, it was released with the anticipation of KoF XI being released and with 2002 and 2003 still being played in the arcades and at home. Bad Move.
I thought the point of Neowave wasn’t so much to make a new game so much as test the waters of the Atomiswave hardware (transitioning from NeoGeo to Atomiswave, hence “NeoWave”)
That was the point of NeoWave, it was just a test for the Atomiswave hardware.
I believe what doomed NeoWave was a lot of the resistance to change in the 2002 community, with things such as the BC mode being revamped completely it completely changed the strategy of the game at a high level. I love NeoWave, but I do understand others don’t because of the fact that they want extra mixups with their BC mode combos.
In addition to this 2k2UM has superior music, is better balanced overall, has more characters, and thus more like it over NeoWave. The American NeoWave S Tier List:
- Choi
- Young Geese
- Saisyu
- Jhun
- Kim
- Angel
- May Lee
I still play NeoWave and so do the bogardbrothers in Brazil. It’s enough of a different experience to warrant playing that and 2k2UM.
People complain about Young Geese but these are the same people that didnt take enough time to learn the game properly and just aren’t good enough (yes I’m being harsh here but that’s the truth.) These are the same ones complaining about KGO in KOFXI when if you check the Ciudad Juarez, Mexico Super Bowl only top tiers you saw were Kula and Oswald!!!
So its the same thing here!
-DG