It’s common these days to immediately clown on the usage of terms like “soul” and “passion” when describing the creation and production of media. However, one game I could never not describe as such is KOF 2000. Mainly because of the many issues going down at SNK during development, it’s a game that, artistically, screams out to me so much.
I mean, this game was made in the middle of SNK filing for bankruptcy, for Christ’s sake. The devs knew they were going down under. This game was not going to be the miracle that would save them from this terrible situation. And yet, the team still dedicated every single ounce of their energy that they would for really any other game they made. It has the arranged soundtrack, a console port, jaw droppingly good stages and character animations, it’s all here and accounted for. But what makes things even better is you can really see this game as a somewhat somber farewell to the original SNK. The extra strikers are tons of homages to KOF, Fatal Fury, Metal Slug, Samurai Shodown, etc. The soundtrack of this game is also so tonally perfect, both compositionally and name wise. So many tracks have such a sense of finality to them, like KD-0084, Inner Shade, Ice Place, Zero, and of course Goodbye Esaka, a track literally naming itself as SNK’s final goodbyes to it’s home station in Osaka, Japan.
With this context, the destruction of Southtown in the ending is very clearly representative of the state of the company. The place where it all began back with SNK’s first fighting game Fatal Fury, completely in shambles. And yet there’s still a feeling of hope to all this destruction. A lead to a new beginning, perhaps…?
Gameplay wise it’s a huge step up from ‘99, pushing the striker system to its limits while also having a more solid roster and game feel. I really like the new characters, especially Kula my beloved <3. Some strikers are absolutely NASTY in this game, and it’s horribly imbalanced, but it’s stupid fun. The presentation with the gorgeous stages and UI design is of the finest quality, which is saying a lot knowing the production values of the previous entries. Even with plenty of the reused character sprites, there’s also lots of new ones that are of the same quality, which really goes to show how well the old ones hold up.
Sometimes this is my favorite KOF game, sometimes it’s 02UM, but at the end of this day it’s definitely up there for me and a game I have the utmost respect for. The developers cared TOO MUCH making this game, and I applaud them for their effort despite the situation surrounding SNK. I’ll always love KOF 02, 02UM, and XI, but 2000 is the last true KOF game from an artistic standpoint. And what a way to go out. Holy fuck.