King of Fighters ’98 Ultimate Match (XBLA)

King of Fighters has never been as popular in the US as Street Fighter has, and I think that’s a shame. The series is pretty fast-paced and has a nice variety of characters, rightly making it a classic in the 2D fighter genre. And with King of Fighters ’98 Ultimate Match, we get the definitive edition of a great game. It plays like most other games in this genre, scrolling from side to side on a 2D stage, but there are a few major twists. First, you don’t normally fight in the best two out of three format, but rather you field a team of three fighters and the winner is whoever still has someone left at the end. Second, KoF ’98 has lots of tools to help you move around the stage quickly. |
| Our Rating for King of Fighters ’98 Ultimate Match (XBLA) | |
| 8.0 | Replay A huge cast of characters, most of which are at least moderately worth playing, should keep you coming back. |
| 4.5 | Graphics These sprites are more than a decade old, and while they were good for their time their age is showing now; why couldn’t we get improved graphics like HD Remix? |
| 8.0 | Sound The music is technologically dated, but it still sounds great. |
| 8.0 | Gameplay Between a variety of characters and a lot of universal engine options to defend yourself, KoF ’98 plays fast and feels great. |
| 7.0 | Multiplayer/Online Content It works great when you can find someone in your region to play with. This often isn’t the case however, with people from Japan, Hong Kong, and Brazil trying to play you with 300ms+ ping times... as everyone else seems to be busy playing BlazBlue. |
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8.0
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Overall One of the best versions of the classic 3 on 3 fighter, and a bargain at its $10/800 Point price tag. |























