This preview was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Eric Dayday.
Last year, SNK Playmore delivered the first-ever 3D
King of Fighters onto the PlayStation 2 in the form of
King of Fighters: Maximum Impact. Unfortunately, the fans’ reception to that attempt at modernizing the franchise by bringing it into the third dimension like
Soul Calibur and
Tekken was lukewarm at best. Fast forward eight months later and we see SNK gearing up to release
King of Fighters: Maximum Impact – Maniax, a remixed and retooled version for the Xbox that includes Live support.
Not much has changed from the PS2 version, but for those who didn’t pick that up, we’ll fill you in here. The roster is exactly the same as in the previous Maximum Impact, a list of 19 featuring classic fan favorites and a handful of fighters new to the KOF family like Maxima. With this being the first (or second, depending on how you look at it) iteration of the KOF series in 3D, all the characters fans have grown to love, like Terry and Mai, have a new refreshing look thanks to the leap from simple 2D sprites to beautifully rendered 3D models. While the characters look more “real” in a relative sense in comparison to their old animated sprites, they manage to maintain their looks and personalities that many have become familiar with. And is it just me, or did the graphics department manage to make Mai even more “well-endowed”?
The gameplay, however, feels very familiar. You still have two punch buttons, two kicks, and a series of combos that are activated with a particular series of button presses. There’s also the super meter that can build up to three levels, allowing you to unleash the usual multi-hit super moves. SNK even managed to leave a quick lateral dodge that the 2D versions had. However, the biggest change in the control is the addition of the sidestep, which is a logical step and would seem very restricting if this wasn’t included in its 3D transition. An all-new “knock back attack” feature has also been added. This new move knocks opponents up in the air, opening them up for some serious air combos.
Another familiar gameplay element is the team-based fighting. Though not available in its primary mode, thus making it a rather boring standard one-on-one brawler, the team fights are really what make this game appeal. Players choose a team of three and fight on until one entire team is defeated. There isn’t any mid-fight switch-outs like the Vs. series. Instead, fighters will switch in sequential order when one is defeated, adding a bit of strategy when selecting your team - should you go with your strongest fighter first, or backload your team?
Maniax offers the same game modes that the PS2 version had. In story mode you’ll take a character and lead him though a story that was definitely written with a lot of thought and effort, but that’s not saying a lot considering that well-written stories in fighting games just don’t seem to go together. In versus mode you can take on a friend or the CPU in both one-on-one and team battles. Challenge mode sends a series of battles, each with its own unique set of goals that must be met to pass the challenge. Practice mode serves its purpose. Lastly, there is a character profile mode that allows you to check out individual profiles and to – ahem – drool over some of the character models.
The most appealing part of this package, however, is the Xbox Live support. On Live, gamers can fight one-on-one, but I think most will partake in the three-on-three team battles. SNK has also included a rematch option allowing players to continually face the same person over and over again without having to reload and setup the entire match. Tournament brackets should be set up soon after the game releases.
Two other Xbox Live features in Maniax are a stop action camera, with which you can pause a fight and take pictures in full 360 views, and the ability to save a fight replay on the hard drive for viewing at a later time.
Without Xbox Live, King of Fighters: Maximum Impact – Maniax would be nothing more than a solid fighter that would have found a niche market with the die-hard KOF fans. However, it does have Xbox Live, and so
should appeal to a much wider market, i.e. all the fighting game fans with the itch for online brawling. I guess you could add also all those pubescent boys with a thing for scantily-clad women in 3D and exceptional “physics”.
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