Written by: Alex

 

 

 

It is hard to see the thinking behind SNK Playmore ‘s "King Of Fighters: Sky Stage". Taking characters from their popular 2D King of Fighter games and trusting them at scrolling shoot-um-up is unexpected to say the least. Cashing in on popular characters is commonplace in gaming, but is strange to see one so outlandish as the one on one fighting characters find themselves flying through the air shooting down opponents.

 

Originally hitting Japanese arcades the game was something of a novelty but its home console release cements it as something more serious forcing players to pay the 800 Microsoft points rather than 100 yen for a single turn.

 

 

Perfunctory stories are routine for shooters, but in a title borrowing character’s from the already unnecessary tacked of stories of the one on one fighting genre, King of Fighters – Sky Stage reaches new highs, or lows, of absurdity. In fairness to the developers both shooters and fighters are some of the most mechanic focused gaming experiences available more akin to sports (at least by comparison to most modern games) and I don't expect my rugby to have a story in order to enjoy it.

 

 

For what it is worth each of the six characters has their own reason for fighting their way through the game (with seemingly no explanation of why they are suddenly able to fly). Illusions are made that the whole thing is a dream, and frankly this is my favourite answer to events as because it saves me pretending any of it is of consequence as I blast my way through the levels.

 

 

Not being well acquainted with the King of Fighters series it is hard to say if each of the characters play well into their usual personas and back-story, but each adopts to a standard Japanese anime stereotype, which for the most part prove inoffensive to fans of the genre. End of level bosses follow a similar mould, equally sized to the player characters they attack spraying forth projectiles like a bullet fountain, the filling the screen with glowing orbs; again much like the majority of Manga as the underdog battles the more powerful opponent.

 

Even with all the stereotyping on show, Mai (the large boobed skimpily clad sex kitten) comes across as a mindless bimbo obsessed with finding her love. While I appreciate there is a short hand necessary in gaming’s vocabulary this example still comes across as reductive and out of place outside.

 

 

On the topic of characters and stereotyping it is hard to ignore the combat classes of each of the characters. With six characters on offer there is some diversity to the play styles available, but the basic key to understanding each character’s class is simply ‘male = offence, female = defence’. It is an effective shortcut to understanding but again feels slightly lazy in a genre not bound by the more conventional biological rules applied to it parent fighting series.

 

 

King of Fighters – Sky Stage’s mechanics follow the basic bullet hell experience of most shoot-um-ups. Thousands of bullets fill the screen and it is left to the player to weave their way through the projectiles while focusing as much of their own ordinance as possible at any opposing ships. It is a tried and tested formula that is always enjoyable but it soon grows stale in KoF – Sky Stage as there are few extra twists to enemies and their pattern’s bar the shear number of bullets they spray.