By Kevin "Berserker" Hall

Player(s): 1-2

If you went to the arcades in the mid '90s then you most likely remember SNK's King of Fighters (KoF) series. For each year another King of Fighters game is now made which started back with King of Fighters '94. The KoF series has always distinguished itself with its three-on-three matches and multitude of characters to choose from. Each game in the series has brought in quite a few characters from other SNK games and has managed to bring in several new faces as well that are exclusive to the KoF series.

The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga actually contains more KoF games than just those dealing with the Orochi Saga ('95, '96, '97). This compilation actually contains KoF '94, '95, '96, '97, and '98 for a total of five complete fighting games in the KoF series. Previously only KoF '94 has been released in North America in the SNK Arcade Classics Volume 1 compilation, so KoF Collection is a much-needed bundle of fighting games for the KoF fans out there and one that does not disappoint I might add!

From a content point of view, the Wii version remains the same as the PS2 version of this collection. If you want to see all the content in full description then be sure to check out my PS2 review. Long story short, the game still contains a challenge mode from which you can unlock various pieces of music and artwork and all the King of Fighters games from the PS2 version are still in tact.

The Wii version offers one major enhancement, which was a bit of an issue on the PS2 version. The load times in between fights are nonexistent on the Wii version. On the PS2 version, a loading screen would appear for a few seconds in between each match but on the Wii version everything flows seamlessly between matches without any hint of loading. There is still some loading as each game begins and ends, but overall, you can easily get to and from the main menu quite a bit faster than on the PS2 version.

The Wii version seems to move smoother in some areas also. The main menu scroll wheel moves a bit smoother than the PS2 version as it cycles through each game in the KoF series. Much like in the PS2 version, the sound bug for KoF '98 where the announcer's "Go" line sound effect sometimes ends abruptly before some matches begin once again, but I never did notice any sound bugs dealing with move sound effects in the Wii version like I did in the PS2 version. The sound bugs never were much of a problem in the PS2 version and the remaining sound bug isn't really even noticed in the Wii version.

As for controls, as expected, you have quite a variety to choose from with the Wii version. Overall, you can play the game with five control setups: Wii remote (left hand), Wii remote (right hand), Wii remote and nunchuk, Gamecube controller, and classic controller.

There are two controls setups (one left hand and one right hand) where the Wii remote can be held horizontally and the D-pad and buttons at the right end and left end can be used to control your fighter. The Wii remote method isn't really that bad, but some of the buttons are hard to reach; the small D-pad works much better than I thought it would however. The Wii remote and nunchuk can be used together to control a fighter. The buttons on the nunchuk are used during this control method along with the Wii remote buttons. The analog on the nunchuk is used to control the fighter's movement.

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