Should you delve into this saga or leave it alone?
Game compilations are a mixed blessing sometimes, especially for modern systems. The King of Fighters Collection – The Orochi Saga has already debuted on PS2 and PSP, but now finds itself on the Wii. It’s an odd choice of platform for Ignition, although it’s fairly obvious why they chose it.
The Wii dominates the gaming industry, even in the recession we find ourselves in. So what better way to amass funds than to release a fighting game collection on it? That was perhaps the initial thinking behind the decision to bring the game to the system, but I still wonder why the game lacks any motion control, improved visuals or online play.
The collection offers The King of Fighters 94, 95, 96, 97, and 98. It offers several control methods including using the Wii Remote, Classic Controller and GameCube controller. There’s no special reason for playing with one controller over the other, which is a shame. It would have been nice if one had an advantage that the others didn’t, instead the collection is nothing more than ports of the games from the 90’s.
Having said that, it’s good to see they haven’t messed with the game…which surely would have irritated fans, so I’m in two minds about the collection, making my point about them being a mixed blessing very clear. Each game has its own story, but it’s all pretty standard stuff. Of course, this was back in the day when story didn’t matter so much unless you were a nut for Metal Gear, Final Fantasy or Zelda.
Controls for either method are fairly similar and simple, although you have to change what your way is in the settings. You can’t just plug your Classic Controller in during the game without changing the settings, it’s annoying to have to do that…but it’s only a small complaint. The gameplay is also very simple, you choose 3 fighters and take on 3 opponents in each fight as you make your way through the game. Like I said, there’s a story element but it’s not all that important.
Seeing as the game has no specific Wii elements, I can’t see what the point is of it being on the system. Why they didn’t just port each game to XBLA/PSN, give it crisper visuals and add online is beyond me, instead the games are limited to a Wii disc with nothing different than the old versions. The manual claims that the game is in 480p, but I’m a bit sceptical, probably because the pixels haven’t been improved and on a big TV, the game looks pretty ugly…especially by today’s standards. I wouldn’t mind all that if the game had a reason for being on the Wii, but I just can’t find it.
If there’s one good thing to say about the collection, it’s that there are plenty of fighters for you to choose from. Between the 5 games, there are a total of 60 to select. It’s a nice selection too and each has their own unique fighting style, but it becomes clear that there are better fighting games out there, meaning this collection will only truly appeal to those who played at least one of the games in the 90’s.
The Verdict
The King of Fighters Collection – The Orochi Saga doesn’t do anything wrong as a collection, it just doesn’t give enough reason to justify its existence on the Wii. If they were each downloadable on the Wii VC, XBLA and PSN then I would be more accepting of it…but as it stands, it’s a Wii collection that has no specific Wii controls or improvements, which just isn’t enough these days.
