Our Nostalgic Games ~Retro Gamer Round-table~ #191
Editors passionately discussing games playable on modern hardware that are just as good as they’ve ever been!
Arcade Archives Neo Geo (PS4) – The King of Fighters 2000
The 7th installment in the King of Fighters series. It allows for more fierce battles than before, with the introduction of Active Striker characters that can be called into battle at any time.
Original Release Year: 2000
Hardware: Arcade
Date of Digital Release: 06/21/2018
Maker: Hamster
This Week’s Participants
Shinnosuke: When it comes to fighting games, he prefers damaging combos rather than normals. He also jumps when he’s in trouble.
Hayato Itou: An editor that prefers to chip away at his opponents with normals to gain the advantage. He’s the type who fights firmly on the ground.
Giant Kuroda: A writer who advocates that not being able to block throws is the ultimate strategy. He’s also weak against projectiles.
The possibilities of incorporating strikers into your combos will stimulate your imagination!
The Last KOF of the 20th Century
(Shinnosuke) “Your body is…weak!” (Kyo says “Body ga…amai ze!” when he executes Aragami, one of his special moves)
(Kuroda) Somehow…I remember this…
(Shinnosuke) “I’m taking over…your body!” (“Body ga….orusuban da ze!” is yet another Kyo quote)
(Hayato) Shinnosuke, please don’t impersonate Kyo Kusanagi every single time we talk about KOF.
(Shinnosuke) Come on guys! You’re not very excited! Kyo is the main character in KOF, so it’s only natural to start this off as him!
(Kuroda) Actually, as of KOF 99 we’re in the NESTS story-line. So the main character is K’.
(Shinnosuke) Let…Let’s pull ourselves together and move on. Following up on the 3 vs. 3 battle system that the series has had, it introduces a new system called “Active Striker” that allows for more damaging combos than ever before.
(Kuroda) A fourth character can now jump into the match as a striker.
(Hayato) I don’t know too much about KOF 2000, but what’s the timing on calling in your striker? Strikers were also a part of KOF 99 as well.
(Shinnosuke) You can call them in pretty much whenever.
(Hayato) Oh.
(Kuroda) The most notable thing about this game is that the timing to call in strikers is very open. If you call them in as an enemy is hitting you, it will interrupt their attack. And after you finish a combo you can call them in to get in another hit at the end. They have all kinds of uses.
(Shinnosuke) So choosing your striker in this game is very important.
(Hayato) I see. By looking at the character select screen, I get the feeling that there are a lot of different types of strikers.
(Kuroda) Typically there are two types per character, with some having three. Kyo for example has more than other characters: You can pick from Kyo Kusanagi, Syo Kirishima, or Saisyu Kusanagi.
(Hayato) I know Kyo and Saisyu, but who’s Syo Kirishima?
(Shinnosuke) He was the prototype for Kyo during development of the game.
(Hayato) Huh?
(Shinnosuke) Neo & Geo from Quiz Daisousasen also appear. One interesting point about the game is that characters from many different SNK properties appear as strikers.
Heated Arguments About the Best Strikers!
(Kuroda) Which strikers did you use, Shinnosuke?
(Shinnosuke) I used to pick either Seth (since he flies in from the side of the screen to get another hit on the opponent as they’re falling down) or Another Iori. What about you Kuroda?
(Kuroda) Since I use Clark, who is a grappler, quite a bit, I used Joe Higashi a lot since he can cause a character who has just been downed from a throw to get back up again.
(Shinnosuke) Kuroda…I bet your opponents didn’t like you very much.
(Kuroda) So it was the same where you used to play too…
(Hayato) What are you talking about?
(Kuroda) Joe Higashi’s ability to make downed characters get up is too good, and the people I’d play back in my hometown would tell me that all the time (Laughs)
(Shinnosuke) It was the same at the arcade that I used to play at (Laughs). So that’s why there were certain strikers that were banned when playing between friends.
(Kuroda) Even though they were banned, they’d eventually be someone who picked them (Laughs).
(Shinnosuke) There always was (Laughs). I have good memories of getting salty from that, and then having to think carefully about using my own striker to attack or defend, since there are a limited amount of times you an call them in.
(Kuroda) You were able to make some unimaginably flashy combos when compared to the previous games, because of strikers, right?
(Shinnosuke) That’s right. I could talk about this forever, so we should probably leave it here.
(Hayato) …You mean we’re not playing a match!?