With the release of Street Fighter 4 it was obvious that there would be a resurgence of the classic fighters from yesteryear. So along comes The King of Fighters Collection, games which are classed by many hardcore fans as the better fighting games, but are they still up to scratch by today’s standards?

 

When KOF first came out it was only available at the arcades or on the mega expensive Neo Geo home console, each game costing well over £100. Now in the days of the credit crunch we have at last been given an affordable collection on the PSP at around £20, already a bargain. What you get here is the first five KOF games, 94 through to 98, with each one being tweaked a little to make the most of the PSP hardware.

 

 

KOF is a gathering of characters from SNK's previous fighter games back history, pitting fighters from all over the world to see who will be king.

 

KOF 94 sets quite a high standard, fighters from around the world have been summoned to an underground tournament to see who is the best. It has 8 teams of 3 fighters, the idea is to fight through each team member, once one is defeated a partner will jump in. Being over 15 years old the game surprised me with how good it looks, with some great animation and top backgrounds. Anyone who has played a fighter before will find the controls familiar, with punches, kicks and special moves all relatively easy to use.

 

KOF 95 has 8 teams of 3, but this time you are no longer restricted to country and can select any three players including a few new characters. Rugai has somehow survived the end of the last tournament and has returned to have his revenge on all who defeated him. Each character has their own fighting style, like drunken style Chin or kickboxer Joe. As with 94 they also have a POW bar at the bottom of the screen that you need to charge up with a button combo. Once full, your attacks will be slightly stronger and you can pull of an impressive Super Special Move.

 

KOF 96 has a larger roster of 9 teams and again you can mix up the countries. 96 also starts to refer more to the whole Orochi storyline. This is the first game that seems to have had a graphical overhaul and the game feels more complete with the controls feeling a lot more comfortable and more in line with the fighters we are used to today.

 

KOF 97 has 29 characters to make your team of three from, now with a new addition of selecting from Advanced or Extra modes. These modes refer to how your POW charges, Extra is the classic way of leaving yourself open to attack whilst charging and Advanced increases with each punch. The POW bar now has three bars to fill, allowing for a MAX move when fully charged.

 

KOF 98 is the pinnacle of this series hosting 36 characters to use. Though the Orochi saga has finished there is still a tournament running, but it is more of a best of the best with fighters coming from all of the older games.

 

This PSP collection boasts a few extras on top of the main games, each one is playable via ad-hoc with two players and you can change between 8 difficulty settings, change and view the controls and special moves and also adjust the screen size. There are four sizes in total to select, smart and full screen makes the game a little grainy, original pixel has borders all around but looks great, leaving the 4:3 ratio, this has borders on the left and right but looks really good, allowing for nice large characters and crisp graphics. For the pick up and players amongst us there is also a challenge mode, this has plenty of mini tasks to complete, each one gradually getting harder.

 

 

The PSP can handle the action really well, with each game bursting full of colour and action. The control layout is very comfortable with the action buttons as they should be on any larger console, you can use either the d-pad or control nub for movement, the nub wins on this front as it is nice and springy, allowing for easy execution of the special moves. Whilst the action is fast, the loading time is not, each game will have you sitting at a blank screen for what feels like am eternity, I know this is down to the disc drive but it does spoil some of the instant play feel.

 

At this price point KOF Orochi is a must buy for fighting fans or those looking for something a bit different from Street Fighter.