This isn't a great game. It is 2D in a 3D world, and doesn't work very well. Nice way to start a review, eh? Think of it as "setting the tone" for my review of King of Fighters: Maximum Impact, a game that didn't have much impact on me.
The story goes something like this: apparently, there is a big fighting tournament called the King of Fighters Tournament, where people of all fighting styles and nationalities gather to engage in brutal hand-to-hand competition. Individual character stories are almost non-existent, which is ironic because the main mode is called Story Mode. Here, you will fight random CPU controlled opponents who become harder as you progress through your "story" until you reach Duke, the game's way too overpowered boss. Beat him, and you will unlock your characters profile, where you can finally see some sort of character Bio, and choose to put a bunch of items on your character, though it's not really customization. They all go on and off at the same time.
The cast of 20, a respectable number, is made of a couple of new characters, Soiree, the Capoeria master, Alba, his brother, Lien, the busty british blonde assassin, and a lot of old favorites: Rock, Iori, Kyo, Mai, Ryo, Yuri, Athena and more. Sorry, Geese isn't here. Kim, the Tae Kwon Do king, has been replaced by blue-haired Chae Lim, Tae Kwon Do queen.
Unsurprisingly, the game isn't very balanced. The combo system is just broken. Rock Has some insanely powerful, easy to do combos, that can leave a completely healthy opponent with less than half of their life in only three moves, while other characters can barely squeeze in 4 moves in a combo.
The main problem with the game is it's 2D gameplay in a 3D world. Super high jumping, really fast play, it's all here. Sidetepping is very poorly implemented, as it is far too slow. You can't be behind your opponent, and throw game is shallow.
The 3D graphics aren't all that great. lack of texture in character faces and backgrounds are dissapointing. They aren't horrible, but they certainly aren't very good.
The soundtrack consists of some strange techno-rock that's very boring and flat. Character voices have all been translated to English, and the end result is terrible. Most of the lines and voices are rather annoying.
King of Fighters: Maximum Impact is a dissapointing, though not entirely surprising, attempt to translate a good 2D fighter into a 3D game, and it doesn't impress very much. Die hard fans may enjoy it, but they, too, will probably be left wanting more.
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