Meet K'. He defines badassery.
As I previously claimed, King of Fighters '99 was the game that made a fan of the series, and getting to revisit that game again... well, now I remember why.
Before starting out you should know that KoF '99 on the PS1 is a very skimpy offering. Team VS Player, Team Arcade, Single Arcade, Single VS, Practice and Survival are all you get, alongside an art gallery. That's it. I was also disappointed to find that there was no move-list while ingame, which hurts a lot. On the plus side '99 introduced class into the series, the new characters K', Maxima, Whip, Jhun... they are all great new additions that look incredible. Well, Bao is a stinker, but 1 out of 8ish is nothing. A few returning characters, like Kyo, Ralf and Clark got new duds and they look great too, '99 did a great job at making characters look fantastic. I'd argue that this game was the one that set the standard for what to expect out of new characters coming forward.
Kryzalid is not as bad as previous SNK bosses.
Extra and Advance modes where done with, now it plays exclusively like 'Advance' but with a few tweaks. Teams are made up of four members now, the fourth member taking the 'Striker' function, a character you can summon to perform an attack and leave. You start with 3 stocks and get a new one every time you lose. Dodges, knock-back attack and all that hoopla remains the same, but why fix what ain't broken? This is the best King of Fighters has been yet, and we haven't even gotten into Tagging yet!
As great as this game is, the PS1 version came with a huge drawback: Loading times. There're somewhat lengthy, albeit not too intrusive, loading screens before each round, understandably since characters change, and it's something you'll have to deal with if you want to enjoy The King of Fighters on PS1. In my opinion, it's not too bad, although the seamless play of the Arcade version makes it the superior choice.
Ralf and Clark finally get different clothes!
The King of Fighters '99 is a top-notch fighting game, and it's a great addition to anyone's PS1 library. That said, this is not the game at its best, the loading times do put a bit of a dampener on gameplay, but I think it's something you can learn to live with.
8.5 out of 10
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