King of Fighters R-2

Genre: Fighting

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local)

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in the NEOGEO Pocket Color Selection Vol. 1 bundle, along with Big Tournament Golf, Dark Arms: Beast Buster 1999, Fatal Fury First Contact, Metal Slug 1st Mission, Metal Slug 2nd Mission, Samurai Shodown! 2, SNK Gals’ Fighters, SNK Vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium, and The Last Blade: Beyond the Destiny)

King of Fighters R-2 is a Fighting Game in SNK’s long-running series that first released on the NEOGEO Pocket Color in 1999 and was brought to Nintendo Switch in 2020. This release of the game includes display settings, a selection of borders, zoom controls, a rewind function, and a copy of the original game’s manual, but there are no significant enhancements to the game itself (unless you count the addition of same-screen multiplayer).

I should note before going on that a lot of my thoughts of the NEOGEO Pocket Color Fighting Games are similar, and as such I’m copy-pasting much of what I say about them, and changing things where applicable.

Unfortunately, due to the hardware limitations of the NEOGEO Pocket Color, this game is highly dated in multiple ways. Naturally, the primitive chiptune sound and limited 2D pixel art graphics with chibi-esque versions of the series’ characters are a part of this, but more frustrating is the slow reaction of your character to your button inputs. In addition, by today’s standards, this game’s roster of 15 playable characters (with unlockable alternate versions) seems highly limited.

Given how old King of Fighters R-2 is, and the limitations of its original hardware, one could almost forgive this game’s limitations, but its $8 price tag puts it in line with games in the ACA NEOGEO series, including other King of Fighters games that play better, look better, and feature more playable characters. By comparison, it’s hard to see much reason to get this game unless you’re nostalgic for the original or want to see how SNK reinterpreted this Fighting game series on inferior hardware.

tl;dr – King of Fighters R-2 is a Fighting Game in SNK’s long-running series originally released on the NEOGEO Pocket Color. Unfortunately, the limitations of that hardware really hobbles this game when it’s compared to other games in the genre or even in its own series, including the ACA NEOGEO games you can get on the Nintendo Switch for the same price. Unless you have a nostalgia for the original release, you’re better off sticking with other games in the King of Fighters series.

Grade: C-

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