Review #501: The King of Fighters Maximum Impact Regulation "A" (KOF: Maximum Impact Regulation "A")

 You can't keep calling it 'maximum' if you are three iterations in. Unless it's constantly escalating....

Alba Meira sticks out like a sore thumb alongside the other heroes.

 The King of Fighters Maximum Impact 2, AKA The King of Fighters 2006 is one of my favorite fighting games ever made, mixing the best of both 2D and 3D fighters alongside SNK's fantastic repertoire of characters. Turns out there was a sequel made, albeit Japan only, and now I finally got my hands on it, spent some time with it and am ready to pass judgment on it.

 Remember all the modes the previous game had? Gone. Most of them anyways, this disc only has: Time Attack, VS(CPU, Player, Solo and Team), practice and a now useless Online mode. Characters still have two costumes, the main costume and a new(sometimes great, sometimes ridiculous) one designed by Falcoon. Remember how each character had like eight different colors for each costume and the latter colors would be really intricate and homages to other things? Gone. Only four colors per costume, and it's the simple recolors that made it in. LAME. The game adds Ash Crimson, Blue Mary, Mizoguchi(From Fighter's History!) and a new character named Xiao Lon, who happens to be Duo Lon's step sister. The new characters are nice and dandy, however, Armor Ralf is gone. They claimed that he was too unbalanced, so instead of balancing him, SNK just removed him. The rest of the cast has been tweaked, some even have new moves, but since there's a total of 40 I won't be going over every single change. The stage roster has been changed a bit, a lot of stages are gone, some are new, some return and a few have been tweaked.

Ash's new alternate costume is... the least said about it the better.

 The biggest addition to the game is the change to the more traditional 3 on 3 formula of the series, basically, you pick three characters and the fight isn't over until either team is completely defeated. There's no tagging, every round lasts until either character falls and then switches with the next teammate. I really don't care about this new mechanic, but you can do simple single fights in versus if you're so inclined. As for the game itself, you've got four attack buttons(Two punches, two kicks), you can sidestep, block(Hold back on the joystick) and parry attacks too. There're command special and super moves, the latter which consume energy from an energy gauge. The thing I love the most about the game is how you get attack strings, like Tekken, as well as command moves, like Street Fighter, and in my opinion is the best mix of both 2D and 3D fighters. Everything feels nice, the mechanics and the physics all compliment each other to make for a fantastic, solid fighting game.

 As for the new characters, first is Ash Crimson. He is my favorite charge character of any fighting game ever and I love his debut in 3-D. I will keep using him for sure His alternate costume is hideous. Xiao Lon has a simple rekka special move and a few zoning tools, but what makes her interesting is that she can switch between three different stances with completely different normals. She's not my style, but I love the design and all her hidden weapons, definitely a nice addition. Her alternate costume is Japanese fanservicey garbage, but her normal design is really neat. Mizoguchi is a bit of a joke character, with a ridiculous alternate costume and somewhat jokey movesets, seriously, he can even throw his sandals! While calling him a shotoclone, in this game, is selling him short, I still didn't like him too much. Finally, Blue Mary. I absolutely adore Blue Mary, one of my favorite 2D female fighting game characters ever but... I didn't like her too much in this game. She is a bit defensive, and has attacks that turn into grapples but... I just didn't like how she worked in the game. Her alternate costume is an insult to the character.

Mizguchi can throw his sandals as an attack. Or he could use his knees.

 I really liked having four new characters, I mean, I already loved Maximum Impact 2, so new characters meant only good things for me. Sadly, as a package, this game is lacking. We're missing a ton of colors, the best colors and homages to SNK's history in fact, we're missing the amusing challenge mode, we're missing the story modes, we are missing a ton of fluff that made Maximum Impact 2 a phenomenal game. So, if you're going to primarily be playing by yourself, get Maximum Impact, the new characters are fun, I love having Ash and Blue Mary(Even if I didn't like using her) in the roster, but sadly, there's not much to do by yourself.
 8.5 out of 10