The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga (Wii) Review

After a dodgy looking title screen, which does nothing to imply the collection here is a quality product, players are then able to select from the five fighting games available, KoF '94 - KoF'98. After choosing your fighting game, you are then given the option to select from two gameplay modes, the first of which is the traditional Arcade Mode. Here you can play through the game, and a second human player can jump in at any point, by pressing the [+] button. The game reminds you of this by flashing a crude looking prompt over the second players side during single player battles. It looks cheap, and is annoying for purists like myself, particularly as the font used is not in keeping with the font used in the series, not to mention an image of the plus button itself which in turn looks out of place. It could have been done much better, and that sentiment applies to much of the presentation values of this collection by Ignition.

Aside from the Arcade Mode, players can also choose a Challenge Mode, which gives players specific tasks to perform in battle while under certain constraints imposed upon them by the game. For example, having no HUD to deal with, or having to beat a fighter with a certain amount of energy, or within a time limit. After completion of such tasks, which can certainly be fun and engaging, the game will unlock character artwork and music that can be viewed in the games gallery. It's a feature that should be considered standard fare, to be expected from any such collection meant for fans.

In the game's Arcade Mode, which is clearly the meat of this game, players are given a team comprised of three characters to select, and to choose a order that they will fight in - Team Battle. If you lose a player during a bout, your next player will be up to take up the fight in the next round and attempt to save your blushes. The Team Battle format, where both players pick teams of three, actually forces players to learn a few characters from the get go as opposed to just one (which can get boring fast, for both you and your opponents). It's conducive for fun when you begin to master a number of characters, as with any fighting game. Once you have honed you skills well with enough players, you begin taking on friends in battle using three of your best, while tactically choosing your battle order to counteract theirs. The team battle format encourages good competition from the start and is certainly a positive aspect of the game.

The 2D fighting in the collection comes in classic mould here, it's very fun and easy to get into, and much of it will be familiar to many of you, even those that have had little experience of 2D fighting games. You have a customary life energy gauge, as well as a super meter which when filled to a adequate level is used to fire off wild looking special attacks at your foes whenever needed. These moves are initiated just as they are in many other fighting games elsewhere, but there are in fact multiple ways of initiating attack combos that become known to you as you develop your skills in the game. That's where a ton of depth comes in, especially in respect to the last game in the collection, King of Fighters '98.

Having all these games on one disc is great, especially for fans, but the fact of the matter is only one game on this disc is worth playing when you load the game, that game being - you guessed it - King of Fighters '98. The game implies as much on the evidence of its Wii Channel screen, when in the Disc Channel - it's the only individual game that's highlighted within it.

The last game in this collection is truly one of the greatest fighters of all time; it easily ranks alongside some of Capcom's finest. In fact, during the time it was released, it was seen as better than its Capcom's equivalent by many. King of Fighters '98 provides some of the best 2D fighting action to be had anywhere, even today, despite it's age. Having this game in the collection almost makes the other games not worthy of being played anywhere near as frequently. It is by far the best game in the Orochi Saga Collection and is a great incentive to purchase the collection.

But why you may ask? King of Fighters '98 includes 30 fighters to choose from - not cloned fighters with different sprite work and subtle tweaking, but 30 distinct, charming fighters, who all bring their own unique fighting style into the fray. They feature some great 2D sprite animation, many of the 30 fighters available are colourful characters that have animations that are quirky and reflect well their fighting style. Some characters are in truth better blessed than others in the animation department; Mai's bosoms, for example, have more frames of animation than they perhaps deserve, but then I suppose this is in keeping with Japanese character design philosophy.

King of Fighters '98 is also a very fun fighter, it's extremely addictive! I cannot stress that enough. What you get is a fighter blessed with loads of depth and a host of cool characters to master and enjoy. There's a great deal of fun to be had with this one title alone in the collection. If I were reviewing this one game solely it would likely get an overall score of 8, despite this version not being as faithful to the original as versions on other platforms.

The collection on Wii is in truth not perfect. It does suffer from a few issues caused by being emulated from the Neo Geo, though all these issues are minor and only fans will make note of them. I do also expect that versions on Virtual Console will be better emulated, what with SNK actually working on them, unlike here. On the plus side though, load times are good, which is all-important with any fighting game.

The game supports the full spectrum of control configurations the Wii has. All of them except for the Classic Controller option are woefully bad and have the ability to cause severe frustration to the player. Some may have you wondering if they have been included as some sort of unfunny joke, though the fact is Nintendo require licensed developers on Wii to support the Wii's default controller, the Wii Remote, in all games, even though sometimes this means shoddy forms of control are included simply to keep within their agreement as a licensed Wii developer.

In respect to all fighting games of this type on Wii, I think players have to totally disregard the less conventional forms of control. In doing so, your experience of the game will be far better than otherwise. As I suggested earlier, the game plays fine using a Classic Controller, but I would say that if you lack one, you should not be buying this game. A Gamecube controller simply does not cut it here, complex combos require something akin to what the Classic Controller provides. Players should keep that in mind if purchasing the game.