King of Fighters XI

Platform: PS2.
Verdict: Fighting the 2D fight.
Rating: 4/5
Despite technological advancements and Sony's PS1 era attempt to remove them from existence, 2D games still continue to eke out an existence on home consoles. Of the few modern 2D games released, you can hedge a safe bet that they're beat-em-ups or shoot-em-ups, those bastions of 90's arcade gaming and home to pixel perfect gaming.
King of Fighters XI is the latest in a long line of the revered 2D fighting series and as top contender for Street Fighter's crown has an obsessive fan base while being well known for its trademark looks and hardcore combat.
KOF XI takes the traditional gameplay and kicks fresh life into it with new characters, mechanics and moves. The 3 on 3 battles have been changed from their staid relay nature by introducing a dynamic tag-team option - reminiscent of the Marvel Vs Capcom games, it allows you to swap between players when you want and if executed correctly, a mid-combo swap can lead to devastating results.
You can also cancel special moves into super moves now (like recent Street Fighter titles) and the Dream Cancel ability has been added, which lets your lead character string together an apocalyptic series of attacks. Any worries of imbalance can be laid to rest as a mastery of timing, practice and patience is required to achieve such seamless fighting skills – take note button bashers.
With a roster of about 47 characters, KOFXI has all of the fan favourites and includes cameos from other SNK games such as the cult classic Garou: Mark of the Wolves and of course Fatal Fury.
There are a few other features like the punishing challenge mode and training options but as always, nothing compares to a bout between friends and that's where KOFXI excels as the tag-team system allows for plenty of frantic, split second improvisation while the satisfaction of pulling off complicated combos is great for post game gloating, if you're so inclined.

The King of Fighters: Maximum Impact 2

Platform: PS2.
Verdict: Minimum Success, too.
Rating: 2/5
If there was one mistake made by many in the tumultuous 3D revolution of the late 90’s, it was the idea that 3 dimensions automatically dictated success. Countless series' turned to it merely because they could and in doing so destroyed what made them strong. Street Fighter failed at it with the EX series and here we are 10 years later with SNK trying to do the very same thing with The King of Fighters.
As Street Fighter’s closest rival, King of Fighters is traditionally a polished and popular beat-em-up with its own unique characters, niche controls and exact timing. What Maximum Impact 2 does is disregard all the core gameplay mechanics that made the series great and replace them with a substandard Tekken-a-like setup, slapdash production and poor localisation.
Despite its move to 3D, Maximum Impact 2 still plays like a 2D fighter but with a side stepping button to prove that the extra dimension isn’t just cosmetic. In addition there’s a parry button for easy counter attacks (a far cry from Street Fighter 3’s precise parry system) and an emphasis on chained combos, which rely on a robotic input of button presses to a potentially devastating, imbalanced and visually explosive degree.
Combat no longer feels precise and measured – replaced instead with a loose, unsatisfying system that has traded pixel perfect mechanics for a visual makeover that’s dated at best. With the likes of Virtua Fighter and Soul Calibur to compete against, Maximum Impact can’t best them graphically and stands no chance in the ring compared to their refined and deep combat, which begs the question – why?
Fans of the series will be put out at the extreme changes to gameplay (choosing to play its excellent 2D counterpart KoF XI, released on the same day) and new players will find little of merit to choose it over its superior peers. Maximum Impact 2 plays like it’s a decade old and only the most obsessive fans will find something to glean from this release and that probably boils down to seeing Mai Shiranui’s exaggerated physical assets in three dimensions – revolutionary!

Metal Slug Anthology

Platform: PS2, £14.99.
Verdict: Tanks for the memories.
Rating: 4½/ 5
In this age of 3D, bump mapped, shadered and bloomed graphics, it’s always refreshing to settle down with an old-school 2D pixel pushing game. There’s something about the art direction - the fact that the designers have to squeeze so much character out of what basically amounts to a collection of different coloured squares is testament to why the pixel art scene is flourishing. The Metal Slug series is one of the last champions of 2D although even it has recently and unsuccessfully succumbed to the glamour of 3D. Starting out on the legendary NeoGeo it has blazed a trail as an over-the-top, run and gun two player shooter with a distinct cartoon style, wildly imaginative design and of course its trademark humour and the titular Metal Slugs - Super Deformed tanks, gun laden vehicles and armed animals. This anthology brings together all the arcade classics into one home console delight, notably including the reworked Metal Slug X and the previously unreleased Metal Slug 6. It’s not a comprehensive list as versions such as the NeoGeo pocket or Gameboy Advance games are missing but with seven games of raw, explosive fun included it’s an absolute bargain for nostalgia heads and shoot-em-up fans new to the genre. The series could easily be accused of being repetitive, with each iteration recycling old sprites and adding little new to the core gameplay but playing with a friend is an essential and entertaining part of its draw and Metal Slug 6’s score multiplyer system and weapon switching mechanic seeks to rectify the repetition and is enough to justify the purchase alone. Thankfully the PS2 version of this anthology doesn’t suffer the awful loading problems that mired the PSP, which means it’s nigh on perfect for the price, If you like shooting zombies from atop a thawed out wooly mammoth with mounted cannons that is.

The God of War 2

Platform: PS2.
Verdict: It rocks.
Rating: 4/5
When our ancestors were granted with opposable thumbs, not only did it allow them to emerge as a dominant species and a master of tools, it allowed for the future creation of the iconic joypad and the subsequent need for blister covering thumb plasters.
The God of War series seems solely based around the punishment of your unsuspecting thumbs, requiring them to tap buttons like an uzi with infinite ammo and the latest instalment is a trip to Hades for them in more way than one.
Continuing the story of Kratos, God of War 2 sees him stripped of his powers and embark on a quest from the dead to slay the god Zeus with the aid of the mighty titans.
With his trademark chain weapons, Kratos rips and sunders his mythological enemies with claret spilling ferocity and a brutish disregard for life amongst exotic and fantastical locations.
Easily earning its age rating, God of War revels in its on screen carnage but aptly so - war is sick and brutal so its god must surely lead by example.
Kratos easily lives up to his title, slaying his way through Greek mythologies finest and GoW2 provides updated combos, new attacks and new weapons to create deeper combat and bring more variety to the admittedly repetitive action of its predecessor.
As well as the wanton carnage and thumb burning button combos, GoW2 is laced with puzzles. Giving you time to rest and a chance to flex some cranial muscles instead, GoW2’s puzzles are often satisfying and simple to work out.
Unfortunately some can be so subtle that the answer can be staring you right in the eye when your progress has halted in frustration.
Boss fights can slow progression too with some unfair difficulty spikes but each generally just requires learning attack patterns and keeping calm amidst a flurry of button presses and curses at the screen.
Like an Epic Metal record cover come to life, God of War 2 is loud, brash and a graphical swan song for the aging PS2.
It’s also what thumbs were made for.

Final Fantasy XII

For PS2.
Verdict: Back with a vengeance.
Rating: 4½/5
As an avid fan of the iconic Final Fantasy VII, I played it for over 100 hours with my best friend. Admittedly we’d just finished our degree shows and allowed ourselves some hazy downtime that involved sinking into an epic adventure and forgetting about the outside world for a week.
Despite Final Fantasy’s continual success over the years it was becoming a little stale as each iteration settled for dated rehashes of tried and tested gameplay and far too many random battles.
Thankfully Square Enix’s latest is a grand return to form and pushes the recently superseded PS2 to the limit in a swan song of epic proportions.
Creating a living, breathing world based around the lands of Ivalice, first seen in Battle Tactics, FFXII is a breath of fresh air.
Mixing sci-fi with distinctly medieval and Middle Eastern aesthetics, its tale of a petty thief mixed up in world changing affairs is entrancing, involving and of course, huge.
Besides a maturer approach to story telling, the most notable change to FF is the combat.
Ditching the static, turn based mechanics for a quasi-real time system that at first feels more like an action title than an RPG, FFXII has made a bold leap from its roots and will make fans of Vagrant Story and Knights of the Old Republic feel right at home.
Placing emphasis in combat on pre-defined ‘Gambits’ you can programme your team of adventurers to react to different situations mid-battle or pause the action and make on the fly changes if needs be.
Traditionalists may find it odd at first but once you settle in it works a treat and the fact that random battles have been banished to the history books should be more than enough to make up for any initial misgivings.
With an epic story, masses of side quests and a talent system that allows you to sculpt your characters how you like, Final Fantasy XII is brimming with charm, confidence and features that’ll entertain for hours and hours. If only I had a spare 100 to play it.