Teams vs. Singles

I really like the King of Fighters series, and anyone who knows anything at all about this genre knows, of course, that it's one of the main, most important series we've got. It started as an excuse to pair characters from the Fatal Fury series, the Art of Fighting series, a bunch of other non-fighting video games, plus a handful of original characters that are unique to the series.

Of course, it very quickly eclipsed all those other titles in popularity; today, King of Fighters is, along with Metal Slug, just about the only thing SNK Playmore still puts out.

The other main conceit of King of Fighters, relative to other games in the genre, was the team approach. Frankly, though, I could do without the teams. On all my console ports, I almost exclusively prefer to play Single mode, which is more "Street Fighter" like; best two out of three rounds, and all that. In fact, my copies of King of Fighters '98: Ultimate Match and King of Fighters XI have only been played that way (by me) so far. Granted, I haven't had them all that long yet, but also, that's just how I like to play. The team approach turns me off somewhat; I don't like having to change gears mentally and adapt to another character mid-stream. The tag-team approach of King of Fighters 2003 and King of Fighters XI (not to mention Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and the rest of the Marvel vs. series) doesn't appeal to me nearly as much.

With the King of Fighters titles, that means that I'm missing out on some of the strategic implications, but that's OK. Frankly, I was almost exclusively a Capcom guy for years, and so I like that play style because it feels more like Street Fighter. Although I've since come to appreciate SNK a lot more, at the same time I'm kinda a creature of habit.

Of course, that means that I'm a bit screwed in some respects, too. My King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga has the arcade ROMs, but not the MVS ROMs, which means that there isn't any option for single play. Boo! Bad choice, SNK! Also, King of Fighters 2003 has a poor Single play mode; you only do one round and you have three health bars. It feels like the tag team, except that there's no one to tag.

Anyway, I think that's clearly a personal affectation. The team play has been a hugely popular feature with most fans, and the fact that I'd rather just have a Street Fighter-ish single player experience is probably an unusual quirk of my own.