The King of Fighters 2001

The King of Fighters 2001 is a fighting game developed by both Eolith and BrezzaSoft and mostly published by SNK in November 15th, 2001, initially for the Neo-Geo MVS arcade machines. The game was later ported to Neo-Geo AES, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

It is the eighth game in the mainline The King of Fighters series and the third (and the final) episode of the NESTS Saga.

Plot
Taking place a year after South Town was blown up by the now-destroyed Zero Cannon, the NESTS executives are in a situation worse than ever. They wanted to dominate the world, but the fighters of the good side won't let them do this. After both Krizalid and Zero failed the mission, Igniz, the highest tier of all the executives, had no choice and decides to enter the battle.

Gameplay
Both KOF99 and KOF2000 required you to choose four members for your team, but only three were playable and one must be used as a Striker in a stage. KOF2001, on the other hand, optionally allows which of your team members will be Strikers or not. This gives the opportunity of allowing you to play with all four members in one stage, something never done before in the series.

The power gauge is now limited by how many members were set as a Striker (eg.: If you have one Striker, then you'll have two stock bars). Now only two bars (rather than three bars or a low health) are required to perform a Super Desperation Move. The same 2 bars are also required to perform Super Cancels (rather than being in a Counter state).

The mechanics for both Counter and Armor states were removed. The "Maniac" (alternate) Striker was also removed. These things were done due to limitation reasons.

Bad Qualities
The game was outsourced mainly to the South Korean studio Eolith, due to SNK's bankruptcy at the time. It also didn't help that the franchise had to meet an annual release, meaning that this game feels rushed. Most of the pointers below are likely due to these reasons.

Overall

 * 1) The interface looks worse than the previous game.
 * 2) The portraits are either ugly or rushed feeling.
 * 3) *The PlayStation 2 version changes them to the already existing promotional artwork, which looks so much better. However, the same portrait is reused over and over again, which feels pretty emotionless and repetitive.
 * 4) Some of the fighters' moves were modified and worsened:
 * 5) *The worst offender is for Bao. His "Psycho Ball Attack" moves were either removed or extremely simplified, with only the "Psycho Ball Crush" moves remaining intact.
 * 6) *Ralf Jones' iconic Galactice Phantom was reduced from a Super Desperation Move to a simple Special Move.
 * 7) *Yuri Sakazaki's likeliness to rip-off the Ansatsuken's moves (Hadouken, Shoryuuken, Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku, Shun-Goku-Satsu, etc.) is worse than ever. One of her SDMs is so notorious, it had to be forgotten in next games.
 * 8) K9999, one of the newcomers, has a very strong resemblance to Tetsuo Shima from the manga Akira. With a similar appearance, identical quotes and movements, and even the same voice actor.
 * 9) *Because of copyright issues, he was removed from mh:awesomegames:The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match and replaced by a new, similar character named Nameless. Later in The King of Fighters XV, he was named Krohnen and got a redesign to avoid this blatant homage.
 * 10) The mh:atrociousgameplay:SNK Boss Syndrome is the franchise's "registered trademark" flaw, and Igniz is no exception. Just with his slicing whip and magical powers, frustration is guaranteed.
 * 11) *It is easily possible to make an infinite 100% combo with him! This also happens in KOF2002UM.
 * 12) *His SDM, Brutal God Project, can take 80% of the character's health.
 * 13) Voice acting new to this game sounds average at best.
 * 14) The soundtrack almost sounds like a typical sample MIDI file.
 * 15) The strikers are still responsible for most of the game's glitches, and arguably even worse than previous games.
 * 16) Blood is removed from the Western release, for some reason.

Why the Neo-Geo AES Version Sucks
NOTE: There are two versions of the same game on the said platform. One version fixes most of the pointers below, but it is unfortunately said to be a bootleg (as seen on the WinKawaks emulator). The pointers below focuses on what is seen on the version that is not considered "a bootleg".
 * 1) The main menu is extremely unfinished. It feels like a debug mode or a safe mode screen. Something with glitched sprites and incorrect-looking color palette.
 * 2) The Options menu is a pure black screen. While there are still selectable stuff, you can't see absolutely nothing. This means you (almost) can only play the game by default, with little-to-no customization.
 * 3) Strikers can be triggered at literally any instance (rather than only in a normal/stand position), and are able to interrupt the enemy's mandatory position for something. This can result in many bugs and glitches.
 * 4) The Practice mode is prone to freezing/crashing the game.
 * 5) Once again, due to the Neo-Geo's hardware limitations, there is a rare probability of getting a "TASK OVER !!", depending on what happens in the middle of the fight. Notice that the game slows down during this. If that happen at the point of worsen, the game will freeze, forcing you to reset the machine. All credits and progress will be lost.

Good Qualities

 * 1) This is the only (so far) KOF game that allows you to play with a team of four fighters in a single stage, which is pretty good, because it breaks the standard of 3 of the previous games.
 * 2) *However, there is a disadvantage of giving you a maximum of only one stock bar. This means you cannot perform Super Desperation Moves or Super Cancels.
 * 3) Still pretty solid roster, with lots of good fighters to play with.
 * 4) *First appearance of May Lee, Angel and Foxy.
 * 5) *The return of some fighters from previous games like Goro Daimon, Heidern and Li Xiangfei.
 * 6) Some SDMs new to this game are totally unique and would later be used as a basis for the "Hidden" Super Desperation Moves for the next game.
 * 7) Robert Garcia's special moves are not charge-based anymore. This was a criticism in both KOF99 and KOF2000.
 * 8) While the soundtrack is totally not the best, the soundfont is pretty unique.
 * 9) The PlayStation 2 version is a considerable improvement. It even features a totally new opening.

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