King of Fighters R-1 : Pocket Fighting Series - Review - Vol 11

Format: NeoGeo Pocket
Publisher: SNK
Developer: SNK
Release year: 1998
Genre: Versus Fighting

Randomised Gaming reviewed the Japanese release of King of Fighters R-1 on a European NeoGeo Pocket Color. We are unable to review the multiplayer for the game due to Randomised Gaming only having one copy of the game and one console.

Capcom are well known for milking their cash cow franchises, but they have nothing on SNK who carried on milking it long after the cow was passed its best. With the NeoGeo arcade hardware looking increasingly dated in 1998 and with both the NeoGeo CD and Hyper NeoGeo 64 arcade board failing to set the world of gaming alight. SNK turned to the handheld console market to try and turn their fortunes around and created the NeoGeo Pocket.

While the NeoGeo Pocket may have failed to turn the tide for SNK who filed for bankruptcy in 2001, it did go down as one of the best arcade style handheld consoles ever made. The unit itself featured a eight way digital arcade stick that was perfect for arcade fighting games. Which as it happens was a very good thing as the NeoGeo Pocket had plenty of arcade versus fighting games released on it, well this is SNK we are talking about here.

Some of the lovely scenes shown in the opening intro

King of Fighters R-1 was one of the earliest fighting games to be released on the system and while it may now be over ten years old it’s still a treat to play. If I was doing a casual review I could just write this off as a cut down version of the NEO GEO release of King of Fighters ‘97. However, if I’d said that, I wouldn’t be doing my job properly. As King of Fighters R-1 is a game built and designed from the ground up to fit the handheld system perfectly. At this moment in time I’m reminded of Rare Software’s, Donkey Kong Land 2 port for the Game Boy, which is put to shame by SNK’s efforts here.

The character sprites have been designed to fit the monochrome screen perfectly as has the characters theme music, which is still very recognisable from the King of Fighters series. The controls are also tight and responsive, what you have here is a master class in how to convert a game to the small screen.

I’m getting a little ahead of myself here, so let me start by staying that King of Fighters R-1 is based on the story of King of Fighters '97. The plot itself was the conclusion of the Orochi story arc which officially started in King of Fighters '95. However, aside from a few vague lines in Kyo ending there wasn’t much of a link to the story in the later games and it was left to King of Fighters '96 to link the story of all three games properly. It did so by introducing us to Goenitz as the final boss, who was the villain responsible for removing the right eye of Rugal the final boss from '95. This all leads to a defeated Goenitz claiming that Orochi would soon be resuscitated, after making this statement Goenitz passes away. King of Fighters '97 deals with the return of Orochi who plays the role of the final boss in both the arcade version and the R-1 spin off on the NeoGeo Pocket.

Does any of the story really matter, I hear you ask? Not really as the plots are laughably thin with the English translation of the story making about as much sense as a website translated by Google.

King of Fighters R-1 gives you the choice between fourteen different characters with a further six as unlockable extras. Just over half the cast of the NeoGeo version have made the jump to the small screen with most of the main story characters and the fan favourites being included. Unfortunately not everyone did make it across with Andy Bogard and Joe Higashi being two of the better known SNK characters not included in this version.

Mai, Kyo and Andy are just three of the returning cast from previous games

While the controls are cut down to a single button for both punch and kick from the NeoGeo’s four buttoned arcade stick. The smooth gameplay of the arcade version and the tight controls remain. The design of the NeoGeo Pocket thumb stick makes pulling off quarter circle and half circle motions just as easy as the arcade release. The NeoGeo Pocket even today still outshines the more recent handheld consoles such as the PlayStation Portable and the Nintendo 3DS in terms of how responsive the digital thumb stick is. Meaning that both veteran players and newcomers alike will have no problems in throwing fireballs and super moves at one another. All character special moves also remain intact with the only lost being to a few of the basic punches and kicks as mentioned.

For the graphics SNK chose to redraw all the characters for the small screen using a cutesy art style with all the characters having overly large heads and extended limbs. While that may sound like they all look like strange alien creatures, the style works perfectly for the NeoGeo Pocket with all the characters retaining their trademark looks. The animation is clear and concise, allowing you to see each and every attack the opponent uses. While the animation isn’t as fluid as the arcade version due to King of Fighters R-1 using considerably less frames of animation, this is a minor nitpick that doesn’t affect the gameplay.

R-1 featuring two fighting systems Extra & Advanced. While Extra is the manual charge bar system used in the previous titles in the series. Advanced is the newer system which causes the super bar to charge as you rain down attacks on your opponent

Unlike previous handheld fighting game efforts that were released on the Game Boy, SNK got the hit detection and collision spot on for all the character moves. While this may sound like the core games design element for any fighting games, readers may be surprised by how many versus fighting game didn’t do this during the 16-Bit and 32-Bit gaming era. A quick play of Super Nintendo games such as Clayfighter, WeaponLord and Shaq Fu will have you crying for all the wrong reasons due to the terrible hit detection. Even the Game Boy ports of Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat were far from an enjoyable experience on the system. Japanese company Takara even ported King of Fighters '95 and '96 to the Game Boy and while they were impressive efforts the collision and gameplay speed still left a lot to be desired.

In game cutscenes and character art picture faces has also been lovingly redrawn in the new style. The only element that doesn’t appear to have been redrawn that well are the stage backgrounds. Which appear to be resized versions of the arcade artwork with all the detail and animation removed. If the backgrounds had just been a white screen you wouldn’t notice much difference from what’s actually in game as the backgrounds are dull and lifeless in R-1, an issue SNK addressed in later NeoGeo Pocket games. As with the characters a few of the arcade backgrounds have also gone missing, but most players are unlikely to notice this unless they have previously played the arcade release.

Orochi and Orochi Iori are just two of the boss characters players must face in order to win the tournament

Overall audio is somewhat of a mixed bag in terms of quality. For the music SNK have taken all the character music tracks from King of Fighters 96 and converted them to the Pocket. This can’t have been an easy task seeing as King of Fighters '96 was the only game in the series to lead on CD audio. Despite the change in hardware all the tunes are very recognisable with Kyo “Esaka” and Chizuru “Fairy” still sounding good enough to rock your head to. King of Fighters '97 itself featured very little music as SNK chose to use an atmospheric soundtrack for each stage instead of the usual character music.

Sound effects on the other hand are all but the bare minimum, all vocal calls and shouts have been removed from King of Fighters R-1. Instead, fight introductions and win quotes just use subtitles at the bottom of the screen. With a small selection of rather tinny sounding effects for when you land a punch and/or kicks on your opponent, along with a muffed fire noise for some of the special attacks. The only positive thing I can say about them is that they don’t drown out the excellent music.

Overpowered bosses and story cutscenes are two stable of the King of Fighters series and R-1 includes both

In terms of single player content you can select two different arcade modes in the form of team and single. Team mode is the traditional three on three affair where as single mode allows you to pick one character and opt for the best of three rounds. Both modes are also available in multiplayer, but that’s it for game modes apart from a small selection of options. There isn’t anything in the way of time attack or survival mode to keep you entertained. King of Fighters R-1 does however, offer a fair amount of unlockable characters to find, which will keep you playing solidly for the first few days, after that it’s great for a quick fighting blast now and again.

As one of only a handful of original NeoGeo Pocket games it doesn’t feature any colour enhancement for the later colour model of the system. Still the game looks great on either system and SNK clearly love the character design too as they reused the sprite artwork for all their later games on the system.

Can the king still be found in your pocket?

King of Fighters R-1 is and remains a perfectly balanced fighting game on the go. SNK proved with the NeoGeo Pocket that you could create a fighting game for the handheld system that plays just like its arcade counterpart. If you own a NeoGeo Pocket it’s well worth tracking down a copy, especially if you plan on taking any long journeys in the near future. That’s all that needs to be said really, buy it, buy it now.

King of Fighters other handheld options to chose from

While NeoGeo Pocket games where exclusively designed for the system. If you’re after some King of Fighters gaming on a more recent portable console. You will be glad to hear that some of the original NeoGeo arcade games have been re-released in recent years.

One option is to spend your money on a NeoGeo X for a selection of NeoGeo arcade games on a pocket sized system. You would be wasting your money on this monster however as it’s nothing more than a Chinese bootleg emulation console with a nice plastic case, the emulation of the included games is also rather poor. Added to that the overpriced cost of the NeoGeo X and it’s cheaper to track down a NeoGeo Pocket with games instead.

A better option however, is to pick up either a PlayStation Portable or a PlayStation Vita as King of Fighter '94, '95 & '96 can be downloaded via the NeoGeo Station on PlayStation Network. The main negative being that neither portable PlayStation consoles d-pad is that good for fighting games as the broken triangle design doesn’t register diagonal inputs smoothly. There’s also a couple of NeoGeo collections released at retail on PSP.

As nice as the main King of Fighters games are on PSP, I can’t help, but feel that they are intended for the big screen and not the small screen. Making King of Fighters R-1 a better travel companion than say King of Fighter '97, which is best enjoyed with a friend and some arcade sticks on a home console.

Review by Random Gamer Riven.

Twitter: RDGamerRiven

E.mail: randomgamerriven@gmail.com

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