Now THIS is what I wanted out a Dream Match KOF game
By 1998, the King of Fighters formula was familiar to many. You had 3-on-3 team fighting, some great pixel art, and a cheap boss to top it all off. I felt like the original KOF 98 was just another sequel to the series - KOF 97 had already added Advanced and Extra modes for the power gauge. KOF 98 didn't add much to the gameplay, but it did bring back 9 characters from the past. The soundtrack was more lively than KOF 97, where only certain characters had music, and for the rest of the fights, you essentially had what seemed to be ambient noise (not bad for me, but it's not a choice everyone enjoyed).
Ultimate Match, on the other hand, went above and beyond. On top of what was originally available in KOF 98, there's an improved presentation to the game, and even more characters were added (or rather, different versions of what was there). Though, honestly, just adding Eiji (my boy from KOF 95) to the mix was good enough for me. More characters have EX versions of themselves - Leona and Iori now have EX versions that are the Orochi versions of themselves. Blue Mary and Yamazaki now have EX versions, as does King. Orochi and Goenitz are now unlockable characters. There are also new soundtracks here.
Extra mode (where you can charge your power gauge) got some goodies to improve it, but personally, I never cared that much for that mode. I was always an Advanced mode guy, I like being able to charge the power gauge gradually. If you want to combine features from both, you can do that by choosing Ultimate mode.
More options aren't bad to have when the core gameplay is ultimately similar to the original KOF 98. It's 3-on-3 fights from an era before the Striker system or the tag team system, and I'm perfectly happy with that. On the PS2 version, you have other modes outside of the usual Arcade mode.
As the screencap shows, there's the typical Arcade and Single play you'd have in a Neogeo port. "Endless" is a survival mode, and Challenge has a series of challenges to do with characters in fights. I'm personally not a big fan of some of the challenges, but that's there for the more hardcore fans. Neogeo mode is the original KOF 98 from the Neogeo, so if all these new graphics and features are too fancy for you (or your mediocre emulator), there you go.
The stages all got 3D graphics, and there are new ones to fight in. Depending on how many super moves you use to finish rounds, you can face different bosses. Don't worry too much about missing other bosses, the game itself shows you what you missed after beating it.
I should mention that you can also edit colors of characters, which is very nice for me and a few other people on this planet. On a serious note, there's a good amount of content to find here. The EX versions of characters, as well as Ultimate mode, give players plenty of reason to come back. KOF 98 Ultimate Match is a good trip back in time to take, and I have no problem recommending this game.
