Get into King of Fighters 2002

This is going to be a flyby article that is intended to give even novices insight into why KOF 2002 and its Unlimited Match revision are so exciting both to play and watch. After reading this article you will have a better understanding of the game and be able to get more enjoyment from the upcoming Neo Geo World Tour 3 which will highlight 02UM (shorthand for the Unlimited match revision of KOF 2002). I'm not going to just be talking about combat engine related things, but also some lore and personable aspects that I think are fun as the backdrop of each entry in the King of Fighters series is a tournament festival and that's something I don't think is appreciated enough.

Dream Match

King of Fighters 2002 is unique for lacking a lot of the set dressing of the previous few entries and kind of just feels like an impromptu festival featuring characters that had left the series and/or are definitely very dead. 2002 also seemingly has no story in a series that has been pretty narrative driven. This is all because KOF 2002 is what is called a "Dream Match" entry in the series. These are titles that exist outside of the narrative and often come out just after the end of a story arc. Another well known Dream Match title is KOF 98. While the original subtitle is "The Slugfest", its Dreamcast port's subtitle was "Dream Match" and is most likely where the term originated. Dream match titles are a celebration of everything that has happened in the previous arc and other entries in the participating characters' stories. For fun, let's look at some of those.

You know you're old when your main becomes a parent

While Terry Bogard was the last person you'd have be responsible for a pet rock, much less a child, he became the foster parent of the late Geese Howard's son, Rock. We first found this out in '99 with the release of Mark of the Wolves as we see an older Rock drifting apart from his adopted father, but KOF 02 shows us a much younger, more innocent Rock run out and imitate Terry's taunt and get a window into both Terry being a cool dad and how much Rock idolized him growing up which gives more context to their bittersweet departure at the end of Mark of the Wolves.

Goro Daimon didn't participate in several of the entries before 2002. Why? Well, he was having a kid! 2001 marked his return to the series after a two year dad-cation. Again, intro animations and win poses show he and his kid interacting sometimes.

These kinds of things, to me, are really beautiful and contribute to the familial feeling of King of Fighters that I feel make it such a unique series. At the start, Daimon was a judo expert that wanted to spread the popularity of judo. Now, we see he has settled down, has his own dojo and has a family to share his successes with. It's not the kind of story you expect of a fighting game character, but that's the kind of thing you can expect from KOF sometimes.

The Many Kyo's

Anyone that has played or watched 02UM has most likely at some point said to themselves, "Why are there so many Kyo's?" Well, the answer is pretty straightforward. This is a Dream Match game and Kyo has had a lot of changes in his play style across the earlier games so SNK wanted to give players the ability to play as older versions of him whether that's fireball Kyo or the most recent NESTS arc variant.

Kyo isn't the only character that gets alternates to reflect their history either. Robert, Kensou, Takuma, Yashiro, Shermie, and Chris all have alternate move lists should you wish to try out Robert as a charge character or play out a scenario where Shermie was the member of the New Faces team to receive Orochi's power.

King of Fighters is a TEAM game, but what does that mean?

Sure, we know you pick three characters, but just pick the three strongest, right? Well, what does that mean? We know K' is often strong, but does it matter what order we place him? Is there any point to setting my order?

While a lot of players start their time with a KOF game playing single mode so they can focus on one character, I actually think this is a terrible idea because KOF is not balanced to be 1-on-1. Each character is unique and have strengths and weaknesses that can be emphasized by the position you place them in your team. You can also have teammates that counter characters that your point character (the character you choose to be first in your team order) is weak against.

What would this look like in another game?
Let's use Street Fighter as an example for how this works. Let's say you play Zangief. You're doing well, but the last character on their team is Ryu, a character Zangief historically struggles against. You lose with Zangief because you just can't penetrate Ryu's zoning. However, you were prepared for this potential matchup so you set the next character on your team to be Rose. That way if someone chose to counter pick you, you were ready to counter pick their counter pick!

Where do you put characters then?
If you're a Marvel player, then some of these terms will be familiar, but let's talk about a few different types of characters. To preface all this, character types are not static and they can change depending on play style and preference.

Let's start with the easiest type to understand; the anchor. Anchor characters are the big boss at the end of your team. They're the 3rd slot character and they generally share a few traits.

• Anchor characters generally benefit from having meter more than other characters so it becomes advantageous to put them on the end of your team to guarantee they have meter when they come into battle.
• Anchors are often the character a player is most competent with.
• Anchors should also be a character the player is best at adapting with as by this point in the match you will have the most information about your opponent and being adaptable allows the player to possibly have that edge in the final moments of a match.

The next type of character is the point character. This is your first character on your team and arguably your most important because the first round is where heath and meter advantages are first established. There are several types of characters that do well here, but there's some general themes. Those are "control" and "momentum." Mixup heavy characters are best here as they don't require much meter to do damage and they revolve around a fast-paced play style that can fluster your opponent and allow you to start the set with momentum. Control can mean anything from a disorienting mixup gameplan to an oppressive zoning approach. The point character is arguably the most flexible position and is most likely the slot you're going to see low tier heroes as being comfortable with the character and being able to build momentum is the most important aspect of picking your point character.

• Point characters need to be a character you feel very comfortable with and feel you can build momentum with easily.
• The less meter they need to be effective, the better as this is the one round you cannot start with meter already built.
• Don't be afraid to use less conventional characters in this position as an opponent's unfamiliarity is your gain.

The final type is your support character. This is the character in the 2nd slot. They generally play a more supportive role such as a counter pick to your point's counter pick, a battery (a character that is very good at building meter) for your anchor, or a heavy control character like a zoner to maintain a lead your point created or to regain control after losing the first round to a very strong opponent.

• Support characters most often exist to compliment your point or anchor.
• This is one of the most effective positions to have a battery because of how advantageous it can be to have meter advantage with your anchor.
• This position is best picked last. Pick your anchor or point character first and build the team around them.

Teams in practice

Let's look at a team dynamic in practice and what better team to examine than the venerable Japan Team. Headlined by Kyo, this is the original KOF team and includes KOF mainstays Benimaru and Daimon. Now let's look at their dynamic as they're originally ordered, Kyo/Beni/Daimon.

Kyo leads the team as an aggressive, momentum heavy point. He doesn't need meter to put a hurt on his enemy, but with a bar of super he can very quickly deal big damage and wrap a round up in a heartbeat.

Benimaru works as a great support having some of the best neutral in the game and being an allrounder when it comes to abilities even having some potential as a battery via whiffed mach knees being a very safe way to build additional meter for his anchor which gives his point more freedom to use what meter they build in that first round.

Daimon is a great anchor as he is not quite as threatening when he doesn't have meter, but with meter he can end a character in two hits. It's important that Benimaru passes a lot of meter to Daimon so he can wrap up the match as Daimon does not build meter well on his own and his meterless punishes are on the lower side.

These aren't the only positions these characters can play as Beni is a common choice for anchor and point while Kyo also finds himself in the anchor position from time to time. This is just how this team in this order's dynamic flows.

Why bother changing your order?

One of the things that's unique to KOF is that even if you win, while you're not allowed to change your characters, you can change your order. This is important as this makes every match a blind order pick. That means your opponent has no idea what order you intend to play your characters and there are a bunch of tactics born from that.

Burying your anchor/front-loading your team - This is when you take your anchor and move them up to the 1st or 2nd slot of your team. Generally speaking, the anchor of a team is usually the player's strongest character and by moving them to point, you can catch your opponent off guard. It's like walking into a dungeon and being jumped by the boss. People aren't always ready for it. I do this a lot to people. I'm generally thought of as a Terry player so I will put Terry in the 3rd slot and slip my actual anchor, Kim to 1st. Again, people's best characters are usually their anchor and unless your opponent did the same thing, you're probably playing your main vs their pocket character. And if they don't know who your anchor is, they may mentally fatigue as they'll assume you're much better at the character you've shoved in your 3rd slot than this supposed "point character". A really mean way you can do this is by having a support battery on 1st to build meter for a buried anchor in 2nd to execute the traditional gameplan of an anchor early and burn all that a meter for mad damage, then leave your point in 3rd to clean up any characters your anchor failed to beat using the same low meter gameplan as you would normally use when your point character is in your 1st slot.

Point swap - While roles like point, support, momentum, and battery are easy enough to define and delineate between, the characters themselves seldom fall cleanly into just one role. In fact, most characters are capable of multiple potential roles to varying results. A common tactic is to switch your point if you feel they've been "figured out" or you think your gameplan for another character would counteract your opponent's opening gameplan better. A simple example of this you see often is when a player is running Kyo on point and K' on anchor. If the opponent is running a zoning character that Kyo can't seem to get in on, K' also works well as a point character as well as having some battery potential with whiffed Ein Triggers, and Kyo is a strong anchor so, they will swap their point and anchor to adjust to the situation. This is different from front-loading your team as K' will play more conservatively with meter and stick to meterless combos, but his fireball game will make him much stronger vs a zoner than Kyo.

Properly understanding and utilizing these principles is more important than just picking the top tiers you found on some list in a forum. Even though your team members can't be tagged in or called for an assist, there are still lots of ways they can help each other throughout a match. Try to think of some more ways than I've listed here.

Standout Characters

Now that I've said to not look at tier lists, let's look at some tier lists... This is just some characters you're going to see and some of the reasons they're so strong.

K' - K' is strong in just about every KOF he's been in. He has a very strong fireball game, Ein Trigger makes for okay battery meter building, and he has a great jump-in vs invincible uppercuts on wakeup. He's one of the most solid characters and he's ranked so high because he can work any position on any team. Since a lot of people play him, most people have experience against him so if you're being predictable, a decent opponent will knock you to your next character faster than you can blink. Great character for newcomers as he's not terribly hard to use and having a fireball can be nice for players coming from Street Fighter.

Orochi Chris - The first word that comes to mind with this character is "oppressive." With a very low jump arc, one of the best jump CDs in the series, and very deceptive teleporting moves, he's very hard to keep up with. His slow projectile makes for very safe albeit simple oki and his metered damage is scary. You'll see him often on anchor. Very divisive character. Either you love him or hate him.

Nameless - A revamp of controversial character K9999, Nameless shares a lot of his moves. A very aggressive character with a great fireball, normals, and high damage output. Generally an anchor for his massive metered damage. Hyper aggressive players will like him.

Jhun - Jhun is a stance character with some truly mean tricks. From stance he has a projectile whose hitbox stays active for what sometimes feels like years, a guard break that can be combo'd out of for major damage and hop kick combo that is sure to make first time viewers laugh as he takes his opponent offscreen for a super finish. Players with strong neutral that are willing to do a little more work to understand the ins and outs of his stances will be rewarded with great mixups and a very stylish character that can hold his own in multiple positions.

Kasumi - Daughter of the Todoh family, Kasumi is one of the strongest characters in the game not just for her raw meterless damage, but for a very strong counter. I've watched the greatest minds of my generation crumple before a good Kasumi. She'll read your mind then eat your soul. Players that like to take a more counter-aggressive playstyle will gel with her very easily.

MAX-imum effort

If you've even so much as heard of KOF, you're probably familiar with MAX-mode, a system wherein a character very temporarily becomes stronger. Now, what "stronger" means when talking about MAX-mode changes from game to game, but in 02UM, it means a few things, but most predominantly MAX cancels. When I initially mention MAX-mode to new players, they often start by comparing it to going Super Saiyan in the Dragonball Z series, but if we can stick with the Toriyama metaphors for a moment, I'd more aptly compare it to Kaioken. You become a little more powerful, but it's very brief and very expensive. When a character enters MAX-mode, you'll see a pop and your character will flash. There will then be a small meter above your super meter. That's your Max. It'll tick down like a timer until it runs out at which point you will leave MAX-mode. While in MAX-mode, there's a few things you can do.

Free cancel - In 02UM you can actually cancel most specials into other specials while in MAX-mode. Doing so will spend a little of your MAX meter each time. This allows for unique combo continuations.

Super cancel - While in MAX mode you can cancel specials into supers at no additional cost. (normally it costs additional meter to cancel a special to a super outside of MAX-mode)

So what would that look like? Well, let's grab Terry and see what he could do with a free cancel since I think everyone knows Terry's move list pretty well. If Terry was in MAX-mode, Terry could combo to Burn Knuckle, but instead of ending the combo there, could cancel Burn Knuckle to Power Dunk. Very Stylish. Maybe Terry wants to go a little further. Maybe he could do a Power Charge, cancel it to Burn Knuckle, then cancel that to his super, Power Geyser! How you choose to route your combo is up to you and there's tons of room for creativity!

MAX-cancels - This is one of the harder things to do in KOF 2002 regardless of which version you're playing. See, in modern KOF games, when you perform a max cancel, your character auto-runs to close the distance. However, in the 2002 series, MAX-cancels work more like Roman Cancels in Guilty gear and reset you to a neutral position. So MAX-cancel combos aren't seen as often as you may be used to in modern entries like KOF XIV and they are absolutely not essential to being competitive in 02UM. There is, however, still a way to MAX-cancel to run. What you do is press ➡️, then plink B+C to another ➡️. This will buffer a run to come out after your MAX-cancel. It's worth repeating that this is an advanced trick and shouldn't be your focus if you're just learning to play. There are plenty of ways to get big damage in 02UM. This is just one of them.

Get started!

If you want to try playing for yourself or you've been watching the Neo Geo World Tour 3 and it has you pumped to play yourself, then I have some good news for you! King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match is actually pretty cheap and goes on sale regularly! You can find the Steam listing here. As for community, I encourage you to check out Dream Cancel. It is a fan run site devoted to SNK games and has a massive repository of information on 02UM and other KOF titles. They also have a Discord channel for matchmaking so I would encourage you to check that out as well.


If you enjoyed reading this, you can find me on Twitter at @Play_More_KOF.