The King of Fighters EX: Neo Blood

Most fighting games are a one-on-one deal where the best of three rounds moves on to the next battle. King of Fighters EX Neoblood is a bit different in that all battles are fought by at least two people (even though one is sort of a standby character for emergencies). The main battle mode is a three-on-three affair where the first team to defeat all the members of the other team wins and moves on.

In addition to your team you also have a strike character you can use a few times during a battle to step in and throw a few punches before ducking out. As with all other fighting games this one also has a horde of special moves that can be learned although they certainly aren't required to beat the game. You can also play a couple different Survival modes or just practice your moves in the practice arena. I found the challenge of the game to be just right for a mid-range player of fighting games although the difficulty can be changed.

This game has several nice features such as being able to register your name and save the scores but one of the coolest is the in-game listing of special moves on the pause menu. All good fighting games should also incorporate multiplayer and fortunately this is a good game, so you can take on a friend if you have another GBA and a link cable. (Note: the manual says nothing about needing a second cartridge for this but I couldn't test since I didn't have another GBA available).

Speaking of the manual, it too lists the moves for the characters as well as some advanced moves that'll really help you out if you can pull 'em off. The graphics are great'they did a good job of shading and animating the characters. Some of the backgrounds appear slightly washed out but that's a good thing since they don't interfere with the gameplay. The sounds and music are pretty standard for a GBA game except for the grunts and screams of the characters when fighting'those sound awesome.

Although the rating is 'Fans Only? it really should be 'Recommended Buy for Fans Only'?. This is a great fighting game for the GBA and should take care of your portable fighting game needs ' especially if you're a fan of any of the SNK NEO-GEO fighters.