During their financial crisis years, SNK thought it would be a good idea to take what made King of Fighters unique and toss it away to follow 3D trends. It plays like a tired Tekken clone, lacking Tekken's nuance and the 3 vs 3 that had come to define KoF. It also features the designs of the infamous Falcoon, whose art style sways between mediocre and absurdly bad. Granted SNK labeled the game a spin off, but development dollars were still wasted in an era when SNK needed all the help they could get.