The King of Fighters '99 (PS1)-
This one has a special significance to me which is why I picked it. Sometime between the 16-bit era, and the 32 bit era, I fell out of playing 2D fighting games. With the Tekkens, the Soul Blades, the bloody Roars, and all the other PS1 3D fighters out there in the world, I lost track of 2D fighting gameplay. Furthermore, I lost my 2D fighting skills, and know-how.
When I finally got My Sega Dreamcast, I got Street Fighter Alpha 3 on it, and you'd think that that would have been the game that brought me back to 2D fighters, but I just couldn't get into it. In fact I was getting slaughtered. Up till I bought Alpha 3, the last 2D fighter I had put significant time on was Super Street Fighter when I rented it on the Sega Genesis, so I was completely lost on what to do. It was an extremely frustrating experience for me, and I pretty much shelved the game after that.
Not too long afterward, I came across The King of Fighters '99 for a mere $10 at my local Walmart, so I decided to give it a try. At first I wasn't that big on the game, because I was trying to play it like I would Street Fighter (spamming the specials), and I didn't know any of the characters save Terry Bogard. I had the general consensus of the mainstream that SNK fighters were just cheap SF knock-offs. Even when I had rented SNK fighters in the 16-bit era, I also looked at them as second-rate rip-offs (and to be fair some of them were), but once i finally took the time to learn KoF '99 I was actually really impressed with the play engine, and the different maneuvers you were able to perform (like the dodge maneuver that allows you to dodge through your opponent's projectile). I also realized that my first response to some of the character specials I thought were lame (Fireballs that don't go across the screen?) were actually that way on purpose. As I learned the game, I really started to like it, and after playing the game, I finally re-learned 2D fighting basics. This game brought me back to 2D fighting, and for that reason, I'll always respect this game, and SNK fighters in general.
The PS1 isn't known for being strong at 2D visuals due to ram limitations. In fact the Saturn was a 2D beast while the PS1 usually got butchered ports of 2D fighters. Well, safe to say that this port is on the list of completely playable, and good 2D fighters on the PS1. Sure, it's hardly arcade perfect, and it's probably the weakest port, but even then it's still a quality fighter. I actually later picked up The King of Fighters '99: Evolution on the Dreamcast as well, and by comparison, the PS1 port is still pretty impressive, and it's definitely worth a look from PS1 gamers.
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