Hmmm, All I have seen the last of Samurai Shodown is Samurai Shodown 4, which still play like crazy in here. Unmistakenably, it has most of the craze Samurai Shodown 2 had when it was popular. Now comes KOF. It comes in the new Neo Geo unit. In CAPCOM terms, this is the CPS3 of SNK, the Hyper Neo-Geo 64. (Maybe the one that says "Giga Power" and not "Max 330 Mega") And boy, even without the storyline that made KOF the bomb, it managed to SHINE! (no, not SHI NE!!)

Ok. Now comes the weird part. How come SNK still has the 4-button layout? How come you can only play in the player 1 side? WHat if the player 1 side is busted, and the technician isn't around? Have the guys at SNK consider that?? Obviously, they didn't. But leave it like that. That's the thing that sets them apart.

As for me, who never saw Samurai Shodown 64 (it must be too much for us, apparently) I can't tell the hardware surge it gave. But KOF had nifty innovations again brought to us.

Reinventing the Random Select is a good thing. The fighter chosen at random will change each match. This is sort of good to freshen up our skills, ne? The character relationship is a good thing, and it is quite realistic. But nevertheless, KOF still has some originality in a way or two.

But SNK has to go back to the drawing board to make their games rock. I mean, this goes for the graphics, but the gameplay is where they outlast other games. Gameplay is what saved SNK from oblivion, say, gameplay from Samurai Shodown, Last Blade or KOF.

SNK introduced many innovations in Team-up fighting. They were the one who made KOF long before Capcom's crossover game saga. Well, all credits for team fighting goes to SNK. Now since KOF vs SF has a nill chance to materialize, how about KOF vs. SS??