There are mythical games. Titles that clearly transcend the passage of time and do not lose their validity. All they need is an adaptation to the new possibilities to regenerate. In fighting games there is something that adds to this detail: the classic titles continue to be played as they are the basis for understanding the most recent releases. Not for nothing Street fighter ii, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, The King of Fighters ’98 and 2002 (in its original and UM) are still widely enjoyed.
The community dedicated to fighting games is assiduous to go head-to-head. But the pandemic and the consequent social distance showed a problem in the genre titles: the netcode was not intended to be functional outside of Japan. While other communities emerged with online gaming, that of fighting games struggled and there were even serious stoppages of events for different games. The demand for a rollback netcode was almost unanimous.
The King of Fighters ’98 Ultimate Match returns with new details for the Final Edition. Yes, we are facing a game that we already saw in an original edition, a “definitive” duel and a version that promises to be the absolute end. The main promise he made Code Mystics about it was to fix the online mode. There were betas in which progress was shown, as well as some glitches to repair. Did you achieve your goal in this development?
Saxophone in the storm
The main foundation of The King of Fighters ’98 Ultimate Match it is, from the outset, to offer a corrected and augmented version for one of the two dream battles that the series has given. To an already wide roster of characters (with the villains, the teachers and even the American Sports Team), fighters discarded in the original were added. Eiji and Kasumi teamed up, as well as Goenitz and the Orochi.
This version leaves open, for local play, the final bosses of The King of Fighters ’96 and ’97. They were already present and to face them you had to meet certain conditions. You cannot use them in online duels, but you can use them in side-by-side challenges. If you could already doubt your morals playing with RugalWe do not believe that this public perception will improve if you complement your third with Orochi and Goenitz. Although we have to say that they feel less broken than when you played with them in the hacked versions for their original installments.
You will not only find a renewed roster of characters, but with the scenarios that the original edition of this definitive duel offered. To the initials that The King of Fighters ’98 those corresponding to the final bosses of the ’96 and 97 editions are added. Obviously, those created for this version remain, although without the 3D details of their delivery in Playstation 2.
You will also not be able to find the color edition on PS2, while the gameplay was not touched for this final edition. Code Mystics clarified it several times at the time: the idea is to offer a more suitable experience in the online and not so much to fix issues such as the balance or the abilities of the characters beyond what was done at the time. Among this, of course, is the Ultimate Mode. In it you can combine details to your liking of the gameplay offered by the Advanced and Extra styles, such as the way to load bars or evasions.
On fire?
The main offer of this renewal is, precisely, the online mode. Now it has a rollback netcode, which is intended to work over long distances and with problematic connections. How? To cut a long story short, it “predicts” your movements. It is just the main aspect that fans have asked for the new games and that we will see in the XV installment of the series.
As soon as you enter the online lobbies you notice various details. The first is that there is no shortage of players and that challenging is simple, although the interface is not exactly the most visually attractive. The second is that even from the spectator mode, inside the room, a player can challenge you while you watch two others fight. The process is simple and very comfortable.
We played this title on a mid-range HP laptop, which is regularly used more for office tasks than gaming. It is also worth noting that it was played with a WiFi connection that has the modem in the same room. In a netcode, say, delay based these factors could have slowed down the gaming experience a lot. With this technical detail, it passed practically without problems.
Outside of two very light lags, especially when under long combos, we had no problem playing it. It was a very smooth and functional experience. Which is something to point out, considering the situations we were connecting with in the game.
Latency, around 150 m / s on average, was not an impediment to a relatively optimal gaming experience. It is not perfect, of course, but it has been more fluid and constant compared to what we have experienced in other games on more advanced platforms, more recent games, but with a less polished netcode.
Spectator mode is a beauty. You can delay the actions in case you need to repeat some action in case you do streaming. As we have mentioned, you can directly challenge other players in the room in it. All this without losing detail of what is happening or in the HUD. A look that clearly the most competitive players, as well as tournament organizers and casters, will end up loving.
Geyser of Power
The game maintains, graphically, the values that have been fundamental from the beginning. Old-school sprites, as well as a high-quality soundtrack with classic themes. This makes the gaming experience a delight, although surely there will be someone who hopes to have something closer to the original version.
If the latter is your case, this version maintains the NeoGeo Mode. It is as if I have, as a bonus, the original edition intact. With its swinging, its characters, its settings and its possibilities. Unfortunately, this mode does not have an online connection, but it is great when reliving arcade experiences more than twenty years ago.
We are facing the definitive version of an absolute classic in fighting games. Of course, also of a key edition for a series of video games much loved in Mexico and Latin America, if not one of the most. Not only does he have an important poster, full of well-known and charismatic faces. But the gameplay is fluid, it has the rebalancing that was made more than a decade ago and, incidentally, it has a netcode that makes online gaming very enjoyable.
In a couple of months we will be seeing The King of Fighters XV. One of the main promises that this version has is a rollback netcode, functional for a group of players that goes from Tijuana to Patagonia. The network code for this version of KOF has been considered a preamble, and if it works just as well, the result in the next title is very likely to be very beneficial.
