King of Fighters 2002 impressions

[ubersaurus]

I finally got to play this at the local arcade, it's been there almost a month, but I've been unable to get up until now.

It's a damn fast game. Like, most KOFs are quickly paced, but 2k2 seems faster. The characters I use have changed a little too..different moves, different normals. Iori, despite reports from people, is still sickly good. Yuri seems to also be a real beast in that game. Athena is different as hell, but still great. Takuma is someone I'm trying to reget the hang of, due to him playing crazy now.

The engine rocks. It's KOF, but on crack. The new CC engine I didn't get to play with much yet, but it seems like it could become a major part of the game.

[Kid Fenris]

I understand that KoF 2002 doesn't have strikers. Did that bother you, or does the game have enough new techniques to make up for it?

I also heard that King isn't in KoF 2002. I am not happy. >

[ubersaurus]

I liked strikers, I know alot of people didn't but I did... but I must say KOF works better just 3 on 3. King's loss means nothing to me, I figure, she's been in every other damn one, let her sit out. I didn't get Kasumi, but what the hell, Yuri is too damn good ;p
If strikers were in the game the Custom combo mode would be broken bad. I mean, it's bad enough that you could do 100% combos in 2k with them...but the fact that you could combo someone, call striker, click in, and then go nuts on em and finish with the super, it's nasty. As it is, I haven't seen people do much with the customs, but I really think that as time goes on, they'll become a major force in the game like they did over time in CvS2 and SFA3 and SFA2.