Title - "The King of Fighters 1995"
Alternative title(s) - N/A
Genre(s) - Fighting - 2D
Platform(s) - Arcade, Neo-Geo home systems, Saturn and Play Station

"The King of Fighters 1995" introduced a few new items. You have team edit, in which you can pick your three members. You can now follow up a dodge with an attack by hitting an attack button after you dodge. Oh and this is the first game that introduces Yagami (Hassaku/Yasakani - don't ask about this debate) Iori, who would eventually become Ky's rival. (The name change will be explained more as the saga goes along.) He is in a team with Billy Kane of the "Garou Densetsu" series (who wants to get rid of the Bogards, Joe, Mai and Kim) and Kisaragi Eiji from "Ryko no Ken II" (who wants to get rid of the Sakazaki family, Robert and King).

If you thought Rugal is gone for good, he's now as mad as ever. He is now controlling Saish, Ky's dad and with that statement in mind, you have to face him as a semi-boss. (If you saw Japan's ending last year, you'd know why.) Adding on, Rugal has some new power and at this point, it's all a mystery.

So, what's in and out? There's the Revenge team as I already mentioned, Saishu and some new elements that are in. Gone are the Sports team (a team I didn't play with much back then and a team that had some member winning a championship, in which I can't recall who it was), the country system and restrictions on teams. (Wai!)

Fun - 9

3 on 3 fighting has gotten better. Yes! I am finally able to pick the Japanese heroine team! (That's Mai, Yuri and Athena if you don't know by now.) Yeah people, you are finally able to create your own team.

The problem is that certain moves do a lot of damage and the same can be said for certain combos. That's not good. Ky's Orochi Nagi has much wider range and though each character has gained a move or two, other than certain characters losing some moves, not much else has changed. Rugal is still Rugal for the most part.

Life - 9

Did I mention the joys of team edit already? It could have used more characters, but oh well. I'm still fine with the roster.

Control - 9

The ridiculous DM motions are still there, but the anti-air move motions have been fixed. We should thank the ability to edit teams as well.

Story - 9

Well, there is some development. So, that's a start.

Audio - 9

"Arashi no Saxophone"/"Stormy Saxophone", the Revenge team's theme is definitely one of the best music pieces I have heard in the fighting game world. Other than that, I think that it's more of the same. I'm not saying that the soundtrack is bad, but I prefer last year's songs more. "Esaka" now has a funkier beat (as it's called "Funky Esaka", which is not surprising) and this is one of my least favorite versions overall, though it's okay. The Ikari theme song has a familiar beat, though I can't remember it right now. Oh well. The reason why audio improves here is that some voices as well as the effects have changed for the better, namely the "Gar Densetsu" team, and Iori definitely has a good voice actor.

Art - 9

The nice part about the art is Neo-Geo Land, which is a real place in Japan. The portraits look better. So do the backgrounds, even though the ones earlier were good enough already. You do notice some changes in some of the characters if you look carefully. Oh and each character has 2 win poses instead of one. It still has not made that push I want though.

Overall - 9

The series has just gotten better. Of course, with some fixing here and there, the game would have received a perfect score. Still, if you can find this little gem, take the opportunity to play it.

+

I like the new changes overall, especially the ability to edit teams.

-

Certain moves and combos do way too much damage.

Date of creation - 12/16/03

Last update - 11/22/04

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