I'll admit that I'm not one for change - I like my home comforts just the way they are, and even though a change is sometimes as good as a rest, I won't move on from some of my sentimental things, or habits I have developed throughout my life, such as taking a bottle of water to drink through the night if I wake up a bit thirsty. Of course, you have to move on from some things, or we'd all have black and white TVs and be recording Lost on a reel of tape! It would seem that SNK have an issue when it comes to moving on though. They could keep their habits and possibly integrate that into a new next-generation game, but instead they've chosen to re-release King of Fighters 2002, more out of date than that old stodge cake we have from Christmas of 2003 and equally as unpalatable too. Let's move on, shall we?

Here's a little riddle for you. What could be worse than a 16-bit port? Well, the answer is simple - a 16-bit port with loading times. You'd expect no loading whatsoever, seeing as how the graphics are an absolute displeasure to look at - but alas, this is not the case. Fight a round, win a round, load the next round and because there could be five or so rounds in one match, that's a couple of loading times I can do without. The thing that bugs me is that the Neo Geo probably had no loading times with this game, because it was on a cartridge. This game belongs on the Neo Geo - and when you say that, you've said it all.

The gameplay is simple, as you'd expect. You can play in two modes that are almost identical - Team Play and Single Play. Team Play, which is probably the stronger of the two, consists of you picking three characters from a long list of potential players, to form a team, to fight against another team. Once you've recruited your terrific three, you can select which order your team plays in and what team out of the choice of two you will play against. Then you enter a level with your first player from your team going against their first character. The winner of the two goes to the next round with their remaining health to take on number two and the process continues until one team is beaten. If you lose then you get taken to a screen to continue and improve your chances next time by either selecting for the difficulty to decrease, the enemy's health to be significantly lowered, or for you to go out there with full power. Sometimes this feels like an unfair advantage, but it's good to be able to continue with a fighting chance - and I love this feature.

The above there is great gameplay in itself - it works well and it plays, or should I say 'played,' well back in the day. Single Play is exactly the same except there are no teams. You still go through picking your opponent and whatnot though. The only trouble is that this game is simply a dated port. Why not port the game and add some online play, or offer it as a freebie with titles people wouldn't mind paying for? £20 for something you could download with an emulator on a 56k connection in minutes makes me weep. Obviously I don't recommend downloading the game on an emulator, unless you own the Neo Geo version, but I'm simply making the point that King of Fighters isn't one of those timeless classics that holds enough value to warrant a £20 note.

The fighting engine is quite basic; each character has his or her set of moves. At least I can say in the game's favour that there are loads and loads of characters to choose from, each with a set of special moves that you can execute by filling a special meter, which carries over to the next team member when playing a team game. While things feel quite satisfying to pull off, the 16-bit graphics quickly ruin any fun you could be having, with little in the way of dazzling special effects. There's not much more to say about the graphics, except that everything looks authentically old and stays true to the 19th Century. The sound showcases even more authentic retro sounds for kicking and punching impacts, as well as some annoying background midi-sounding music, which we now call ringtones in this day and age. A true blast from the past!

All in all, King of Fighters 2002 feels far from royal. I'm sure ten years ago this game went down a storm. Now I can only say that I'd be ashamed to have this on my GBA, let alone on my PS2, which can play budget classics such as Jak 3 for the same price tag. If you're a fan of King of Fighters and you simply must relive those arcade days with a friend on multiplayer, then this might be a good investment if you both pay half towards the game. Otherwise, don't waste your time or your money.

Reviewed by Dexter Pearson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).