The King of Fighters: Dream Match 1999

Hardcore King of Fighters fans unite! If you're looking for the ultimate King of Fighters experience, featuring all the classic characters and moves you know and love, then you have to get King of Fighters: Dream Match 1999 for the Sega Dreamcast.

This new version of the King of Fighters '98 features almost every character ever featured in the series up to this point, plus multiple versions of the characters as some character's move settings changed from game to game. The graphics haven't been improved, but SNK fans never play SNK games for the graphics (or at least, they shouldn't). The Neo*Geo is still 24-bit, for crying out loud!

Sound wise ... well; there really isn't much to say here. The music is great if you like funky-style jazz, but the character voices aren't anything innovative. "Burning Knuckle! Burning Knuckle! Burning Knuckle!" Enough already! Can't SNK get somebody new in the sound room? Somebody that doesn't make you laugh every time he chimes in?

The Dreamcast control is better than a Nintendo 64 controller, but still not good for this type of game (especially when compared to the PlayStation 2's control). If this is the type of game you're interested in playing, then it's worth seeking out a third-party control to better enjoy fighting games. Something with a joystick ... or at least the buttons in the right location.

The Story really lacks something this time around -- it's basically a repeat of the King of Fighters '95. But then, King of Fighters fans don't play the game for the story ... they play it for the fighting, right? And King of Fighters: Dream Match 1999 has plenty of fighting, you will never feel let down by the pure amount of bare knuckle action you find in this game.

This is far from the best fighting game on the Dreamcast, but if you're a fan of 2D fighters and can't get enough of SNK's never ending King of Fighters series, I strongly suggest you give this one a shot. It may be a little hard to find now, but it's well worth tracking down. If you simply have a passing interesting in fighters, then you really ought look elsewhere. This King of Fighters is good, but it's not Dream Match!