2009 has been a 2D fighting fan's best year since the days of the Dreamcast - We finally got Street Fighter IV, Mark of the Wolves and KoF '98 Ultimate Match hit XBLA, and this month we see the retail release of two more 2D fighters, BlazBlu and KoF XII.  As Ken Masters might say, "Yay!"

Last week, I was saddened by the lag-infested online play of Mark of the Wolves, and since this week's KoF '98 UM is another SNK Playmore game, I was expecting the worst.  But thankfully, this one is seemingly programmed much better.  I did experience some game-killing lag, but it was far less frequent than with MoW.  Only when other players' pings were in the 200+ millisecond range did the game really start to chug.  My only complain, which is no fault of SNK, is that very few people are playing online.

Other than that, though, what can I say?  It's King of Fighters '98 with some extra characters, a few new stages, and a gameplay tweak or two.  If you've already played '98, you'll be right at home as not much has changed. If you haven't though, get ready for a steep learning curve.  This game is definitely not a simple one.  There are three different fighting styles, different roll commands, and different ways to pull off special moves.  KoF noobs should check out the more simple XI before they try anything in the late '90s era.

So if you're a fan of KoF already, this is a definite purchase, since it's the definitive version of '98.  It's the fastest-loading (other than Neo-Geo) and the most feature-packed version of the game.  You can choose between new menus and old, arranged or original music, and 3D [Dreamcast] or original backgrounds.  It would have been nice to see redrawn sprites and backgrounds but what can you expect for 800 MS points?  In any case, this will tide you over until KoF XII finally hits stores later this month.

Yay! It's KoF '98, tons of options, newly included characters, decent online play, cheaper than  the PS2 version.

Nay! Sometimes laggy, steep learning curve, pretty ugly for a game that kinda-sorta came out in 2008 [JPN PS2, arcade].

For those of you who REALLY hate reading, or only learned to read numbers: 9/10

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