Tired of those old one on one fighting game? Well prepare yourself for some 3 vs. 3 fighting action with KOF ’94, it has characters from your old SNK favorites like Art Of Fighting, Fatal Fury, and some more familiar faces fighting it out in teams of 3 and 8 teams to choose from.
Overview
KOF '94 was the beginning of an amazing series that changed the way we all looked at the fighting genre. It was the first ever fighting game that had team battles, 3 on 3 and 8 teams to choose from. All this was something new and original and made old one on one games like street fighter look like yesterdays laundry. SNK brought together characters from it’s past games onto a single fighting tournament game: Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury, Football Frenzy, Psycho Solider, Ikari Warriors, and also some other great new characters. The story in this game is about all the greatest fighters being invited to KOF ’94 by a mysterious man, once you defeat all the teams you’ll meet and fight this man. This 3 on 3 concept later inspires other great fighting game companies to do something similar, an example is the whole Capcom VS. series.
Graphics 9/10
The graphics are very good considering the year it debuted, and man the backgrounds are just amazing and creative, all the outside environments and bright colors really helped it a lot. There are better backgrounds in this game than some of the future KOF stages. The special moves look great and the characters look good as well, they move very fluidly and have good detail. They also combine well with the background and everything seems to be in place. What you’ll notice the first time you play this game is that your team mates can be seen in the sides rooting you on and get mad when you mess up. This game has it’s share of defects like any other game at that time but still looks great and gets even better in the newer KOF.
Gameplay/Controls 8/10
This year of the KOF series is the only one that you cannot edit your own team, which limits your choice of what characters you know how to use. This game is not just for any average player since some of the super special moves are hard to pull off and also to hit a player with them, the CPU wont make it easy for you neither and don’t get me started with the boss. Even with these difficulties the basic and special moves are quiet simple and fun to use. Another thing you’ll notice is that you can dodge to the side from attacks instead of just plain old blocking. The control is very responsive and is also simple with only 4 attack buttons; weak and hard punch same with kick.
Sound/Music 9/10
The music from this game was very well done and the voices needed a bit of work but not too much to bother you. All the sound effects from punches, kicks, and special moves were also well done, and even better than a lot of other games that were out at the time. All the music matches with each stage very well and gets you into the game even more.
Replay Value 7/10
Once you’ve seen most of the endings you’ll start get a bit bored of this game especially without the ability to edit your own team. You can still have fun with this game if you play in VS. mode and you have a competitive rival that you just love beating.
I’m saying this in the majority of peoples view but personally I just love playing this game over and over and I still play it to this date.
Overall 9/10
This is a classic that I always like going back to and remember the good old days, if you ever get the chance to play this game I would recommend you try it if you haven’t already I bet you’ll be surprised in how good it looks for its time. I know a lot of people will disagree with me but I honestly think this game topped the famous Street Fighter in many ways, Capcom really needed to get some competition and this game surely gave it them.
- by Eric Solorio
