When Capcom released Saturn’s highest power, "X-Men Vs. Street Fighter" w/ 4-Meg RAM cart a few months back, fighting fans soon realized (after recovering from the initial shock of this impressive display of skill,) that -all- future 2D fighters (or any game) could utilize this power (4-Meg RAM cart)! Imagine that, from now on us lucky Saturn owners can have Arcade Perfection (and better) for the price of an import game! Pixel-perfect, almost no loading, no slowdown, full-frames and backgrounds. When SNK announced the impending release of the Saturn version of "The King of Fighters ‘97" all of us assumed that they’d utilize the new 4-Meg RAM technology - imagine huge sprites, full frames, no slowdown, and have all -6- characters in RAM with No loading! Well, that was not meant to be - SNK has chosen to stick with their trademark 1-Meg RAM cart and what they have delivered is the best 1-Meg RAM game in existence, but unfortunately, their achievement is somewhat overshadowed by the disappointment of what -could- have been.

Let me start off by saying that "The King of Fighters ‘97" is arguably -the- best (or second best) 2D fighter for any system, hands down. Not technically, not visually, but just in terms of pure Gameplay and Feel. This is a serious fighter - tournament-style - and it exudes it from the start. Any negative comments will stem mainly from the lost potential of what could have been, mainly, SNK’s failure to utilize the 4-Meg RAM cart technology.

What struck me immediately when I booted up the game was the somewhat ‘dated’ feel of the graphics. It’s been a few months since I played KOF’97 in the arcades, and since then we’ve seen X-Men Vs. Street Fighter for the Saturn, in all it’s 100% graphical glory. It’s kinda hard to go back. What you do get with KOF’97 are near-perfect backgrounds, and smaller but solid character sprites. All the moves and characters are here, as well as ~80-90% of the frames. After getting over the initial shock of loss (for those of you who’ve seen XMVsSF Saturn), I settled in and got used to the graphical look. After that it’s all classic SNK KOF from there! Excellent attitude and a trademark ‘Flair’ is ever-present in all the characters in this series, from the interesting and sometimes cool taunts to the various animations when the characters do special moves and supers. Another area that "The King of Fighters" series has always excelled in is ‘Power Emphasis.’ This is something that Street Fighter seems to be lacking in recently. By Power Emphasis I mean the ‘pause’ or delay you get when a character does a big, damaging move. For example, seeing Yashiro connect with that big uppercut, BAM! he pauses for a second after the move connects and the sound effects and graphics all complement each other as you see the victim fly across the screen. It’s this type of ‘Emphasis’ that always impresses when you play the game. Onlookers have been known to wince and occasionally blurt, "Ooh! That’s gotta hurt!" whenever we have a KOF’97 match going on. So many moves and attacks in KOF’97 exude this flair and emphasis and this is one of the subtle things that make this SNK’s crowning achievement.

Character-wise, they’ve added in a ‘New Face Team,’ composed of newcomers Yashiro, Shermie and Chris. Interesting characters with their own twists, and are pretty fun. Also new is the "KOF’97 Special Team," Billy Kane (Fatal Fury series), Yamazaki (Fatal Fury 3 sub boss), and the coolest addition, Blue Mary (Fatal Fury series). Also, Kyo has a new ‘fan’ named Shingo, who’s somewhat of a Dan Hibiki type character (powered down clone). The biggest losses are the Boss Team from ’96 (Mr. Big, Geese Howard, and Wolfgang Krauser) and Iori’s teammates (he’s alone this year), Mature and Vice. There are also the secret characters, the Orochi-ed (powered up/mad) versions of a few characters, but that’s another story.

Sound-wise, again, after hearing and playing XMVsSF Saturn, with its crystal-clear voices and all the tunes, KOF’97 is a let-down. The voices -have- gotten clearer from ’96, but musically, uhm, there is none! Well, let me clarify, there is some ‘music’ in the game, but most of it is almost non-existent ambient sound effects, like in China’s stage, all you hear are the tiny drum-beats in the background, barely audible. When there is music, it is downright bad! Out-of-place, light, Muzak and of the elevator variety. All except maybe Billy Kane’s BGM. What happened?! KOF’96 had some of the most excellent tunes for a fighter, and it was all remixed. In ’96, King/Mai’s stage (jazz club) had -real saxophones- and other instruments playing! Everyone else’s stage was solid as well. Mr. Big’s music! (too cool). What happened here? I guess after a while of playing KOF’97, the special moves and normal hits, etc. all take center stage, but it still is kinda sad having almost no real music - ugh.

Gameplay is KOF’97’s shining point. It has always been solid, and for "The King of Fighters ’97," this is where the biggest improvement comes in. First off, you can choose between two styles of play - "Extra" mode and "Advanced" mode. In a nutshell, "Extra" mode allows you to play in a style similar to KOF’94-95, with the old Sidestep dodge and one super bar that you can charge up manually. You also can do infinite Desperation moves when your Life bar is red (you’re almost dead). "Advanced" mode is similar to KOF’96 style, but you can store up Supers, like the Street Fighter Alpha series. Also, you have the Roll dodge, where you can roll towards or away from your opponent. There are other differences as well, but those are better explained in some of the great KOF faqs on the net.

Besides that, the Combo engine has been tightened up and it feels even more solid than ever! There are solid 2-in-1’s, Chains, and Links. They added Super Cancels for certain characters, meaning you can cancel the last frames of a special/super move and do another move immediately afterwards - e.g., Terry Bogard’s "Power Charge" move into his "Rising Tackle." This is very cool and adds even more gameplay to the already solid engine.

In the end, SNK’s "The King of Fighters ‘97" delivers one of the greatest fighting experiences in a while. After the no-skills-based fluff in XMVsSF, it’s nice to get back to hard-core fighting again. Unfortunately, KOF’97 also is lying in a huge shadow that is the disappointment of SNK not using the 4-Meg RAM cart technology. Graphics do not make a game, but it definitely enhances it. While XMVsSF may have been light on Gameplay, it did deliver one of the most technically impressive displays of 2D power ever! No slowdown, almost zero loading, 100% Arcade perfect sprites, all the backgrounds, clear voices, etc. it was Impressive. In light of that, KOF’97 definitely feels less than impressive at first glance. There is loading in the game, and when in Team mode (3 on 3), there is a ~5 second load time between matches. It can get slightly annoying and it breaks up the gameplay flow a little. One last thing: SNK also took out their trademark "Language" select. In the past, nearly every SNK game released on the Saturn had a "Language" option that allowed you to pick between English, Japanese, Spanish or Portugese! Not so anymore. It seems SNK realizes that none of their games are coming over to the dead US Saturn market anymore. One can only hope that their future releases, "Fatal Fury Real Bout 2" and "Last Blade" make use of the 4-Meg RAM cart. Or perhaps by then we’ll see them and "The King of Fighters ‘98" in total Perfection on the new Sega Katana, after seeing Sega Japan reps over at the SNK booth at the Tokyo Game Show ’98 last week. For now, "The King of Fighters ‘97" is solid and fun. Truly one of the best 2D fighters, in terms of gameplay at least.

Final Scores (out of a perfect 10):

Graphics: 8.3

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+ Impressive amount of moves and specials and supers per character.

+ Massive amount of characters in the game, each with their own distinctive style.

+ Beautiful 2D backgrounds, full of life, and animations.

+ Great Attitude and Personality in the fighters - something missing in many fighters

today.

- Unimpressive graphics. After seeing XMvsSF (Saturn) w/ 4-Meg RAM cart, this game

just isn’t as impressive graphically.

- Missing frames (minor) from the arcade version.

- Smaller character sprites from the arcade version.

Sound/Music: 6.0

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+ Crisper, cleaner voice samples for the fighters compared to KOF ’96.

- Non-existence of music.

- Non-existence of ‘real’ fighting music. I had to re-emphasize it.

Gameplay: 9.0

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+ Arcade Perfect gameplay. All the combos, supers, chains are in.

+ Great characters and moves. Fun to play.

+ Blue Mary and Mai Shiranui! ^_^

+ New additions to KOF’97, quick recoveries, counters, etc.

"The finest 2D fighter for any system has come out. All the true Skills-based gameplay, power moves, and combos are here. Unfortunately, the game is marred by the slightly dated feeling that stems from seeing better technology such as Capcom’s XMvsSF with 4 Meg RAM cart. SNK can do better than this (port-wise)."