Hardcore Report: KOF '98 Ultimate Match Final Edition(Steam)
Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2014 3:07 am
Long title. Is it worth the amount of effort to pronounce? Well...
This video review:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maqHYdq7YLc
Ultimate Match expands 98’s roster to 43 regular characters, 16 EX characters, and 5 playable boss characters for a total of 64 fighters you assemble into teams of three. You can play each of these teams in three different modes - similar to “grooves” or “isms” in other games - and the third can be customized at the select screen, allowing for a lot of options.
If you haven’t played KOF’98 before, then prepare to put some work in. Even if you have played more recent releases like KOFXIII and even gotten pretty good at it, this game will humble you. Inputs have to be very precise, there’s very little flexibility or leeway compared to recent fighters. Even rekka chains take a bit of practice. Thankfully even advanced combos tend to be very short compared to other fighters. There is a practice mode with some decent options, yet it somehow lacks on-screen interface for showing precise damage or user inputs.
Execution aside, the AI is almost hilariously hard. It’s only hilarious because you have to laugh just to keep from going insane. It doesn’t even feel fair, it just feels like they can read your inputs and react to everything in milliseconds - and the AI knows this, taking opportunities to taunt you often to make sure you know your place. I’ve tried to beat this game legitimately without lowering the difficulty level and without continuing since I got the game, and I still haven’t been able to do it. Luckily all the boss characters are unlocked from the get-go, but if you want to 1CC with ‘legit’ characters you are in for a long haul. I still find it hard to believe that there are three difficulty settings higher than the default setting.
If you’re looking for long-haul single-player content, you’ll need to look elsewhere. For those familiar with KOFXIII, this lacks a lot of the extra in that game: No story mode, no gallery, no color edits, no unlockables of any kind. There is a challenge mode, survival mode and the original Neo Geo game, but that’s about it as far as extra content goes. There’s also achievements, but there’s only a few and none of them are particularly creative or difficult thanks to the boss characters.
As for the multiplayer - the netcode is hit or miss. The public beta is pretty good, I’ve had some solid matches with players around 100-200 miles away that felt lagless. The retail non-beta version however felt terrible, with even good connections feeling unreactable and combos feeling impossible to pull off. However, the public beta does indicate that this is changing in a positive way.
Regardless of how the netcode turns out, the matchmaking is terrible and I don’t see that being addressed. You cannot filter by ping, by region or anything else that would keep laggy matches away from you. Considering this game is very popular internationally - especially in South America and East Asia - you will get matched up with people several thousand miles away from you more often than you could ever care to.
So, in summation, only get this game if you can find people locally who will play it with you. Private online matches with people in close proximity is really the only way to play this game, because whether you are fighting the near omnipotent AI or fighting random players from any corner of the globe, it’s an exercise in frustration.
This video review:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maqHYdq7YLc
Ultimate Match expands 98’s roster to 43 regular characters, 16 EX characters, and 5 playable boss characters for a total of 64 fighters you assemble into teams of three. You can play each of these teams in three different modes - similar to “grooves” or “isms” in other games - and the third can be customized at the select screen, allowing for a lot of options.
If you haven’t played KOF’98 before, then prepare to put some work in. Even if you have played more recent releases like KOFXIII and even gotten pretty good at it, this game will humble you. Inputs have to be very precise, there’s very little flexibility or leeway compared to recent fighters. Even rekka chains take a bit of practice. Thankfully even advanced combos tend to be very short compared to other fighters. There is a practice mode with some decent options, yet it somehow lacks on-screen interface for showing precise damage or user inputs.
Execution aside, the AI is almost hilariously hard. It’s only hilarious because you have to laugh just to keep from going insane. It doesn’t even feel fair, it just feels like they can read your inputs and react to everything in milliseconds - and the AI knows this, taking opportunities to taunt you often to make sure you know your place. I’ve tried to beat this game legitimately without lowering the difficulty level and without continuing since I got the game, and I still haven’t been able to do it. Luckily all the boss characters are unlocked from the get-go, but if you want to 1CC with ‘legit’ characters you are in for a long haul. I still find it hard to believe that there are three difficulty settings higher than the default setting.
If you’re looking for long-haul single-player content, you’ll need to look elsewhere. For those familiar with KOFXIII, this lacks a lot of the extra in that game: No story mode, no gallery, no color edits, no unlockables of any kind. There is a challenge mode, survival mode and the original Neo Geo game, but that’s about it as far as extra content goes. There’s also achievements, but there’s only a few and none of them are particularly creative or difficult thanks to the boss characters.
As for the multiplayer - the netcode is hit or miss. The public beta is pretty good, I’ve had some solid matches with players around 100-200 miles away that felt lagless. The retail non-beta version however felt terrible, with even good connections feeling unreactable and combos feeling impossible to pull off. However, the public beta does indicate that this is changing in a positive way.
Regardless of how the netcode turns out, the matchmaking is terrible and I don’t see that being addressed. You cannot filter by ping, by region or anything else that would keep laggy matches away from you. Considering this game is very popular internationally - especially in South America and East Asia - you will get matched up with people several thousand miles away from you more often than you could ever care to.
So, in summation, only get this game if you can find people locally who will play it with you. Private online matches with people in close proximity is really the only way to play this game, because whether you are fighting the near omnipotent AI or fighting random players from any corner of the globe, it’s an exercise in frustration.