Racketboy

We have been seeing a gradual trend of SNK porting the majority of their hits to the PS2 for quite some time. This movement will be seeing a pinnacle this month as we will be seeing most of the remaining King of Fighters games and most of the Fatal Fury titles coming to Sony’s console. Let’s take a look at what is on its way…

The King of Fighters Orochi Collection

• King of Fighters ‘95
• King of Fighters ‘96
• King of Fighters ‘97

These games are viewed as a compliment to The King of Fighters ‘94 Re-Bout, which was a remake of the original King of Fighters game to celebrate the series anniversary.

It should be noted that these three games will most likely be emulated packaged in a nice compilation (like a Sonic Mega Collection). SNK’s success with emulated compilations has been hit or miss. The Last Blade collection (which I believe was
their first emulated effort) was a little buggy, but their latest Art of Fighting Collection received higher marks. Since the ROMs for the older King of Fighters games are smaller and simpler, the emulation should be smoother and should not have
many noticable differences from the Neo-Geo originals.

The King of Fighters NESTS Collection - June 29th

• King of Fighters ‘99 Evolution (a port of the Dreamcast version)
• King of Fighters 2000
• King of Fighters 2001

KOF 2000 and 2001 were already released on the PS2 (in the US even), but its nice to see an expanded collection with ‘99 Evolution included. Many KOF fans will be happy with this move as Evolution was one of the best ports of a Neo-Geo game and it will not be emulated like many of the latest SNK-to-PS2 games. Hopefully it also means that the KOF 2000 and KOF 2001 included on the disc will be the already released PS2 versions as well, and not emulated, but I’m sure that will be the case as it wouldn’t make sense to have them emulated.

Technically, KOF 2002 should be included on the NESTS Collection as well, but since it was already released with KOF 2003 on the PS2, they didn’t feel the need to try to squeeze an extra game onto the disc.

King of Fighters ‘98 Re-Bout
It’s interesting to note that King of Fighters ‘98 is missing from the above collections. Traditionally, ‘98 would be grouped with the Orochi Collection, however it may not be included because it is separate from the KOF story line. King of Fighters ‘98 was bascially a “Dream Match” title that contains most of the fighters from all previous King of Fighters games. Instead of being included in the compilations, it is rumored that KOF ‘98 will be recieving a similar treatment to the ‘94 remake. King of Fighters ‘98 is one of my personal favorites, so I’m eager to see if it will be getting special treatment.

King of Fighters XI - June 22
The King of Fighters XI is the latest installment of the King of Fighters series and the second of the KOF series to not be released on the Neo-Geo (afer KOF Neo-Wave). King of Fighters XI offers a handful of innovations and new features such as the
Judgement System, Skill Stocks, and Dream Cancel. (See Wikipedia’s entry for more details)

The character roster received a major overhaul in KOF XI and nine new characters will be added to the PS2 version, for a total of 47. An arranged collection of background music will be included, as well as new stages and 14 brand new endings which they promise will be drawn by the best four SNKP illustrators.

Garou Densetsu Battle Archives 1 (Fatal Fury Collection 1)

• Fatal Fury
• Fatal Fury 2
• Fatal Fury Special
• Fatal Fury 3

For the first two Fatal Fury titles, it will be the first non-Neo-Geo port since the 16-bit era. So to those that want an official console port of the fighters, but can’t afford a Neo-Geo, these PS2 versions will be a welcome addition.

Much like the King of Fighters Orochi Collection, these titles will most likely be emulated, but because these are smaller games (with the possible exception of FF3), the PS2 should emulated them with very limited issues.

Because of the “1″ in the title and the fact that some of the later Fatal Fury titles are missing from this compilation, there Will be a Part 2 to this collection. However, there aren’t that many more Fatal Fury titles out there. Mark of the Wolves (which already saw a Japanese PS2 release), Real Bout Fatal Fury Special, and Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers were the only other ones that would be probable on the PS2. I would doubt SNK would re-release Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition (from Hyper Neo-Geo 64) or Fatal Fury Special: Dominated Mind (from the PSOne) as the early 3D KOFs were not successful the first time around.

Summary:
With all of these additions, PS2 owners will now have more King of Fighters games availible than the Neo-Geo, and if the KOF ‘98 Re-Bout shows up, they will be able to choose from any KOF installment that SNK has produced.

With King of Fighters, Fatal Fury, Last Blade, and Art of Fighting, the Samurai Shodown series looks to be the next logical choice for SNK Playmore to bring over.

Unfortunately, I am not confident that these compilations will make it outside of Japan. It has been almost a year since the port of Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves was released for the PS2 in Japan, and there hasn’t even been a hint of information regarding a USA or PAL release. In the past, Sony has given SNK a hard time about porting their old games to the PS2 because they were afraid the “inferior graphics” would tarnish the PS2’s image. After a lot of grief, Sony allowed SNK to bring the later Metal Slugs and King of Fighters games to the PS2, but I’m thinking they are more hesitant about the older installations. It’s quite a shame and I wish SNK would just tell Sony to forget about it and move on to another platform.

Related Posts:
Import Review: Neo Geo Battle Coliseum for PS2
Street Fighter Alpha Anthology for PS2 Announced
Last Blade 1 & 2 Released for the PS2 in Japan
Preview: Neo-Geo Battle Coliseum on PS2
PS2 Gaining Tremendous 2D Support from SNK
SNK to Remake KOF 94 for Anniversary - 2D Revolution Continues?
Is the PS2 becoming THE console for 2D Fighters?

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