| The King of Fighters 2000 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | SNK Playmore (DC/PS2) Dotemu (PC) |
| Publisher(s) | SNK
|
| Producer(s) | Y. Inui |
| Designer(s) | Chikara Yamasaki Tomoyuki Hosokawa |
| Programmer(s) | Kohji Mannami Souta Ichino |
| Artist(s) | Toshiaki Mori |
| Composer(s) | Hideki Asanaka Hiroshi Yamazoe Yasuo Yamate |
| Series | The King of Fighters |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release | 2000 |
| Genre(s) | Fighting |
| Mode(s) | |
| Arcade system | Neo Geo MVS |
The King of Fighters 2000[a] (KOF 2000, or KOF '00) is a fighting video game that was produced by SNK for the Neo Geo arcade and home consoles in 2000.[1] It is the seventh installment in The King of Fighters series for the Neo Geo and the final game in the series SNK produced before the original company's bankruptcy. The game was ported to the Dreamcast (in Japan only) and the PlayStation 2 in 2002. The game's story, a sequel to The King of Fighters '99 and the second part of the "NESTS Chronicles" story arc, focuses on a new tournament held by the commander of the Ikari Warriors, Heidern, who seeks to capture and interrogate former NESTS agents K' and Maxima into revealing crucial and critical information about the NESTS cartel. The gameplay retains the Striker system of the previous games in the series, but the assisting character can also cooperate with the playable character to generate combos.
SNK entered into bankruptcy while The King of Fighters 2000 was still in development, resulting in glitches and bugs remaining in the game because staff members—most notably producer Takashi Nishiyama—left the company before the game was complete. The biggest desire of the game was improving the Striker System assisting mode that KOF '99 created. SNK attempted to add further depth to the NESTS cast with K''s new enemy Kula Diamond; other new characters like Vanessa and Seth were intended to attract different audiences. The PlayStation 2 version of the game was released in North America and in Europe in a two-in-one bundle with its immediate sequel, The King of Fighters 2001, as the first two games to be published by SNK Playmore USA. In Europe, the bundle was published by Ignition Entertainment.
Critical reception to the game's fighting system and characters has been mostly positive due to the improvements SNK brought to the franchise. There were mixed reactions to the company's handling of the graphics and backgrounds, which divided reviewers opinions about its status as one of the best games of the series as they believed previous installments were more appealing. Two novelizations and an audio drama have also been published in Japan.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
- ^ "The King of Fighters 2000 Official Website". SNK Corporation. Archived from the original on August 1, 2001. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
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