It seems to me that while the King of Fighters series was the first series to unveil the \"large character roster=awesome\" theory, the series has been entangled in a sort of downward spiral ever since, or at least hasn\'t been improving. Game after game I\'ve seen relatively the same, and with a somewhat bland plotline and no real claim to fame (no accessory system, color edit, etc.), the next games really need to think outside the box.

Actually, three new KoFs are planned to be released in the span of about 4 or 5 months, if I am correct: KoF 94(a remake, of course), KoF 2002/2003 (for the XBOX) and some sort of 3D game. However, it appears that GameSpot reviewers foresee no major success from any of these upcoming titles.

Anyone know anything that the series could throw in to attract the gamer\'s attention? It seems to me that a more advanced color editer would be a nice start.:D

If the game is fun to play, I couldn\'t care less about all the color edits. Soul Calibur II is still lots of fun, even though it got released for more than a year (IIRC of course). The Street Fighter games are still lots of fun and I don\'t think that they had any kind of story line back then. A fighting game doesn\'t need a story line (IMO at least), it just needs a good combo system and a good VS mode.

See, that\'s just the problem. King of Fighters doesn\'t really have any of these. (of course, that\'s my opinion. I admit the striker system was a little cool.) Besides, discluding the great fighting system, Soul Calibur did have backplots for all its characters, different costumes and weapons, and unlockables. Street Fighter simply has groundbreaking combat systems. So, how does this help justify KoF?

I never thought KoF had much of a combo system or a versus mode myself....

Hey, I\'m not trying to say it\'s a bad series, you see, as I happen to be a fan myself. I\'m just saying that it has been the same thing game after game. 1999 and 2000 were practicly the same thing (both released in one package for the PS2, got it last Christmas:)).

[Edited on 8-10-2004 by AimMan v2.5]