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Intro As the Game Boy Advance grows older and developers gain more confidence in Nintendo's surprisingly powerful handheld, genres that generally have been ignored or badly represented in the realm of the handheld are starting to see a bit of a boom. From the recently released Street Fighter Alpha 3 to Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, many of the big-name beat-'em-up franchises are not only making a move to the system, but are also keeping pace with their latest offerings. Although not as widely renown as Capcom, SNK has proven itself to be as equally capable of producing quality action titles, and as its last King of Fighters title graced the Dreamcast, fans will be glad to see the series moving to the GBA in the form of King of Fighters EX: Neo Blood. Gameplay: 8/10 With characters pulled from the popular Fatal Fury, Ikari Warriors and Art of Fighting games, King of Fighters falls back upon various popular characters to relay the action, and as a crossover it works extremely well. However, if you're looking for a meaningful story in which they all interact, you'd best look elsewhere; this is a fighting title through and through, and even though there is a so-called "story" mode, it boils down to little more than the occasional sentence muttered at the end of a match. Still, when you consider the strength of the action within the game itself, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. There are more than enough modes to keep you busy, ranging from team battles where the first team to beat the three fighters from the other side wins, single-character fights, a survival "last as long as you can" battle which also has a timed variant, as well as an incredibly useful practice mode that allows you to try out your various moves in a controlled environment where you set your opponent's style and actions. And so while you might initially find yourself disappointed by the lack of a decent story mode, it soon fades as you come to explore the depth that the game has to offer. There's no question that King of Fighters EX does in fact have a great deal of depth; not only are there a fairly hefty amount of special and unique moves available to each character beyond the standard kicks and punches, but there's a variety of additional items that help to spice up the action. For starters, both team and single battles feature the use of Strikers - a similar system is used in other fighting titles, such as Marvel Vs. Capcom -- who are specially designated characters that, at your command, will quickly hop into the fray and dish an attack. While this attack can be blocked, it can still prove to be an effective move if used properly. There's also a Counter Mode, which temporarily boosts your attack power and allows you unlimited use of particularly powerful moves, as well as an Armor Mode, which temporarily boosts your defenses while preventing you from being knocked off-guard or from losing life while protecting yourself from special moves. These two modes make use of Power Gauges which accumulate as you both inflict and receive damage; in other words, it's something that both sides have access to, which makes it that much more important to time your choice of attacks and moves. As a result, King of Fighters comes off as a more complex title than most, which should be appreciated tremendously by genre veterans and fans of the series alike. Thankfully,
the AI does a respectable job of keeping pace with you. While your opponents are
almost embarrassingly easy to beat at lower difficulty levels, upping the challenge
will see to it that repeating the same two moves over and over will do nothing
but make you both silly and dead. You'll even find the AI dodging your special
moves, blocking your Strikers, and even going so far as to use unique moves of
their own. If you try and stick to one corner of the screen, your opponent - depending
on the character - will sometimes try to bombard you with attacks while attempting
to get closer to you in the hopes of pulling off a throw to dislodge your defense.
With such potentially good GBA fighters such as the recent Guilty
Gear X failing to meet expectations, it's nice to see King of Fighters
EX come together as well as it does.
Graphics: 8.5/10 Sound:
6.5/10 Control:
7.5/10 Overall:
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