The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga – Review

The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga – Review

28 October, 2008 March 28, 2009

The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga is a strange game. Not strange in terms of content, just strange in that it exists. The collection is available for the PS2, PSP and the Wii and features the King of Fighters ’94 thru ’98. But unless you are seriously into any of the previous games, it is unlikely that the game will be used for anything other than ’98: Dream Match Never Ends which is almost universally regarded as the series’ Magnum Opus.

The game starts by having you select from a menu which of the five games you want to play. On this menu there are also various challenges, such as winning a match with no visible HUD, which upon completion will unlock artwork and music from the games. Like most artwork / music unlocks this option seem more like a space filler than anything else although the challenges are fun enough in their own right.

The games themselves are almost identical to their original forms. In terms of a fighting experience they are some of the best 2D fighting games in history. The fights take places with two teams of three against each other. When one fighter is knocked out, the remaining fighter will regain hit points relevant to the amount of time left on the clock, while the team whose fighter has just been beaten tags in their next fighter. In terms of looks, the games look pretty much identical to their mid nineties originals with the only major difference being that they look a bit sharper on the PSP screen.

In terms of emulation, the games are pretty much fine, but there are some pretty brutal loading times that are sadly all too frequent. Even during matches when one fighter is swapped out for another the game switches to a loading screen for a good 5-10 seconds which really detracts from the fast paced nature of the fighting. The controls are all the same as the Neo Geo versions that they are ported from, but for whatever reason they are set backwards by default. These long loading times also seem to contribute to the occasional sound lag which can be almost embarrassing when you hit someone with an attack, see the effect then after the hit player has reacted you will hear the sound of the attack landing. This does not happen too frequently but is just often enough to be a noticeable annoyance.

It can be hard to justify the £24.99 price point of the game when it is almost exclusively designed for hardcore KOF aficionados who probably still own the original copies. Orochi Saga is essentially a collection of 2D fighters that don’t change radically over the course of the series and while it seems unlikely that players will try anything pre – 98 other than for nostalgic reasons.

Whilst attempting to start up a multiplayer game I was unable to find any players so the game seems to only be for a single player experience. There is multiplayer support for all five games though if you can actually find somebody to play it with.

The Final Word
The King of Fighters: The Orochi Saga will probably only appeal to hardcore KOF or SNK fans. Although even that audience will probably go straight to playing the ’98 version. The other four games just seem so inadequate and seeing as nothing really changes throughout the years so there is hardly anything to go back for. Horrible loading times are another major problem, but fans of the fighting genre may be interested in one of the most over-looked fighting franchises in history. Other than that it seems like a strange buy and is probably best avoided.
- MonsterVine Rating: Mediocre

By Andy Jackson

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