You didn't experience the full Shingo maining experience. He hits like a truck to make up for the goofiness... If you land the combos the chance of getting critical hits (+25% damage) is huge!

K' is honestly one of the biggest reasons I got into KOF. The moment I saw him do some Albert Wesker type shit with his Chain Drive was the moment I was sold on this series

'99 was the first KOF i ever purchased. Saw it in a bargain bin or something for like $19 and figured at that price even if i didn't like it i would still probably get my money's worth. Prior to it i'd only played street fighters and KI and 3d fighters, foolishly believing snk games to be poor imitators. I ended up LOVING it and played it a ton. Loved SNK ever since.

Seeing Max this unimpressed by 99 and '00 makes me genuinely concerned for when he starts up '01

10:06 The way "Dear Falling Angel" kicks in with the machine in the background gearing up.

Glad Max went through these games, I personally loved the Nests Saga for the introduction of some fan favourites like K', Vanessa, Ramon, Kula, Angel etc., the story I actually liked the human villian approach and whilst I agree '99 didn't feel as responsive as '97-98, imo it improved a lot by '00. Plus the absurdity you could get with Strikers to get TODs.

weird. I usually have similar tastes to max, but I love 99. the roll mechanics and max modes that encourage you to keep on the offensive, the plot going sci-fi, the best version of kyo and the (admittedly undercooked) introduction of strikers. so much to love about this game

Still love how the boss for KOF 2000 is Super Freddie Mercury. You can't stop him now!

I kinda feel the big reason is hard for you to get nto 99 and '00 is purely on the new characters that are the canon win team. It's obvious you're no comfortable with them, and since you are not looking up their moves and combos NOR practice with them a bit before going full, of course the mechanics of the game will feel weird or outright bad to you It doesn't help that you're still trying to play the game in the same way as a SF game tho when KOF is not the same style

Wish he had unlocked the extra battle against Kyo/Iori in 99, besides that i disagree, 99 its a pretty solid entry, the series needed serious changes after Orochi saga, New characters, new story bug changes in gameplay but still keeps KOF's dna

That KOF99 rainy stage at the beginning is so beautiful. It really is pixel ART.

As a Mexican (we do love our KoF over here), and a person who grew playing this games, it terrifies AND amuse me watching you try to understand and play this games that i have played over the years, for me is natural and love them, for you is weird, love it. Also, Yes, I find the whole Nest Saga dope, when i was a kid it was even cooler, now is stupid but still nostalgic dope.

2:45 “He felt like an uncoordinated version of Dan.” Greatest compliment Dan will ever get 😆

99 has a special place in my heart. It was my first entry into KOF, and the reason K Dash is one of my favorites.

I think the weirdness can be attributed to the major transitions going on in the company. Morale was low, they just got bought by a Pachinko company in January 2000, and I think the series suffered as a result. Since you're playing the arcade versions, I think a lot of the weirdness got ironed out in the home releases too. On the flip side, the NESTS era was the same time that CVS and CVS2 came out. They finally get their shit together around KOF 01 and the almighty KOF '02 but the NESTS saga ends in '01. At least we got Norio MOTHERFUCKING Wakamoto as Igniz in '01. If you want a villain voice, hire Wakamoto.

Man I have to disagree on ‘99 feeling bad and “weird” to play. It never felt that way to me. ‘99 is a pretty solid entry in the series, I’ve always liked it. It has really good music, the striker system is pretty cool and adds some extra flavor, and the gameplay is just as tight and solid as any other game in the series. The one complaint I did always have was the weird change to rolling tho. But saying it feels worse than ‘94 is completely outrageous to me. Lol

While I don't really like the strikers system I love the nests saga for the new characters and general vibe it has, K' still is my main in KoF. Also 2000's music is some of the best in the whole franchise.

I gotta admit, Zero calling Heidern a simp caught me off guard. KOF 2000 was truly ahead of its time. XD

K' 's character and personality sold me on the series in general. Teleporting dude in a leather jacket with white hair, 2003 kid me was fascinated. Love this guy so much

Max man, you broke my heart, KoF 99 is my fav KoF ever and one of my fav games ever, but it's not because of mechanics, that's the LAST thing. This game has a major role in my life for so many reasons...that doesn't make it a good game tho :( EDIT: wow I love it that so many people in the comments love 99, 2000 and K'. K' is one of my favorite things in the world, not just a fav character of all time, but just...from anything. 23 years later after 99 and I'm still crazy with all my heart for this character. Did any of you know he's a combo between two characters from a very unknown fighting game called The Fallen Angels? The character artist responsible, Shin'ichi Morioka, later joined SNK and made K'.

Max... the reason why the game feels weird is that you don't even know the character's moves. I mean c'mon you are only discovering K's DP in the middle of playing 2000.

The NESTS saga is probably one of the most gratuitous in terms of "We _have_ to run this fighting game tournament in order to take over the world" storylines, but man did it introduce some cool characters. K' and Kula are easily in my Top 5 KoF characters.

Ahh KOF 2000. Where Takuma reverts a city level destroying beam like the mad lad he is. For us it was an awesome display of power. For him it was basically flex day.

Ah yes, KOF 99 K' with his super powerful Chain Drive when he is in low health. Good memories. Barely overpowers the trauma of Krizalid tornadoes and axe kicks.

I always thought the Nests saga was a considerable leap game wise and canonically especially but overall cool and loveable (‘99 and 2K) !!

The classic Kof 99 is one of my favorite aside from kof 2002 and 2013, the assist part is something new in 99 that some classic kof games doesn't have, like it 👍

The fact that you don't know how to play those characters doesn't mean that the gameplay is weird, just they play diferent from Kyo, Beni and Goro. The assist mechanic was really fun, just you need to know how to use optimally those. And the story of nest saga is less loved just because the Orochi saga fits more the japanesse culture. just watching the cinematics isn't enough to understand tbh lol. But for me that I start playing from 99, y really love the nest saga, just people need to know better these games

God Clone Zero looks so funny to me, he just looks like some normal dude in a wicked villainous cloak

I was really looking forward to when you would enter the nests saga, this is the saga who got me into Kof so I’m really happy it’s time Edit: Also I can understand your confusion with the gameplay because the nests saga really is different from what came before, but, I can assure that if you give it a little time to learn you can see that the game has it charm (don’t get me wrong it isn’t perfect but it can still be fun)

99 was the first KOF I ever played when my aunt put the arcade cabinet in her store.

99 indeed was weird 00 is the heaven for fun combos with strikers

First time I played 99 I felt like the game was sluggish and weird especially after the nervous 98 but it grew on me quickly. It is a more slow paced game and need more anticipation rather than quick reflexes, I love it, it felt different at least.

By the end of this series Max will be a full fledge Benimaru main. Benimaru is in almost every main team 😂

Oddly NeoBlood EX 1 on the GBA was my first game in the series for me, but it’s super easy how much aspects and content were straight ripped from ‘99 into that game… everything from the maps, UI, character sprites/art.

I grew up with '99 specifically, love it to death. And yet Max's opinion really doesn't hurt me personally at all lol I see a lot of ppl like me in the comments, who grew up with 99 and 00 and feel really upset that Max doesn't feel the same. Yeah, it'd be cool if he did, and it'd be cool if he stopped for a bit to practice combos with the canon teams, but at the end of the day this is a casual retrospective series. Not a "Watch this veteran 2 decade KOF master in his journey through the series." With so many games in the franchise, and with '99 marking a shift in the way the games handled, it's only natural some are gonna hit the right notes and others not. ... Although the comment about '94 feeling better *was* pretty rough not gonna lie lol

I remember '99 when NESTS was trying to do the Bodegalypse on Earth.

I guess his combat ranking was so low that he didn't get to fight Kula in 2000? I didn't know that could happen.

"I read your moves like the Funny Papers" ~ Maxima Jesus fuck, I thought Canada was a peaceful place, you murdered them.

"Do people like the NESTS saga?" Me, who knows what comes next: "Yes."

While I can see where you're coming from one thing I must say is that 00 has arguably the best set of music in the entirely installment!

You didnt seem to try to want to actually figure Shingo out. Hes a super solid character. "Uncoordinated version of Dan"?? At times, i feel you are a bit biased if a character isnt "easy" or a "shoto type" character. I loved 99. 2000 introducing new characters was cool also.

Honest question, how did Benimaru end up on so many canonical winning teams? Like, even after the Orochi saga, he was in I think 4 more winning teams between now and XIV? Was he put in the team to keep a character people were familiar with the new faces? SNK, I need answers to a 20+ year old game!

Shingo Yabuki is one of my favorite KOF characters ever! I WISH they wouldve put him in Capcom vs SNK 2 Mark of the Millennium 2001

About to cry with this video, the NESTS Saga was my fav, i love the music, the Bosses and K' was for a kid on the early 2000's the coolest charachter ever dessigned... im glad you played it Max, i hope at least 2002 (my absolute fav) does something for you.

These backgrounds are GOD TIER! Too bad people overlook these kofs for bad gameplay and only plays 98, but the backgrounds are pure art, it's insane that they made these games per year.

Max gotta watch some combo videos before playing the games if he wants to have an idea of what he can do, going in blind with characters he's not used to control is gonna be a learning curve IMO. These are not the usual shotos or charge characters everyone can figure out in a few minutes, Maxima is a slow hybrid of a grappler with rekkas and a lot of moves with armor for example. He's gonna play KOF 2001 next and, to me personally that's the KOF with the best game feel ever. The gameplay is fluid and satisfying in that game. Protips K' in 2001: Jump & HK, HP, forward LP opens up so many combos. Also when you do the Shoryuken motion with HP, you can add forward + any kick to add 1 more hit that slams the opponent to the ground, a great addition to K's moveset Maxima in 2001: Jump & HK, HP, then do his rekkas is an easy combo that can be cancelled into his LV2 as well, it should do between 30% (no cancel) to 80% damage (if cancelled into LV2)

The intros to this series are so damn awesome!

"99 feels worse than 94" is probably the worst take I've seen from max in years. What the hell.

KoF 99' Dream Match was my first in the series, got it for Xmas after I bought a Dreamcast, watched the opening intro a hundred times.

I remember that in kof 99 some teams have alternative endings depending on who you beat krizalid with or was it because of the number of points? and you can also fight against kyo or iori after beating krizalid

99 Fun Fact Lore: Clones here work different from what you think cloning is Here, the NEST cartel kidnap people and infuse them with Kyo cells to change his appearance, turning normal people into replicas of Kyo Kusanagi. Here, K' is a modified clone of Kyo who have the Kusanagi flames, but the flames were so strong that, he have to use a glove to restrain the flames. K' was a kid when he was kidnapped by NEST and turn him into the best clone of Kyo there is. The only memory that he retains was a little girl calling him brother. In 99 K' and Maxima were send by NESTS cartel with the only memories that they need to win the KOF tournament for recolate data about the fighters. In the end of 99 we found that Krizalid is a direct clone of K' and that is reveal by Whip, who her real name is Seira and we found out than Whip is actually a modified clone of K' sister, who was also kidnapped in the process and use like a guinea pig for the first stages of cloning but the girl didn't survive the experimens. They use the dead girl to realize the first cloning process. Whip is created but with the memories of the little girl, she work for NESTS and work side by side with Krizalid thinking he was his brother, until she discovers the truth and betray the organization and join the Ikari Warriors and tell everything about NESTS.

Kof 99 the Big Fighter Origin of the after credit sequence.

Max not being too keen on 2000 (one of the best KOFs imo) makes me sad

99 was my first KOF game, I still have it on ps1. If you play enough and and get more familiar you can do pretty crazy stuff with the assist.

I just love the fact that there is a stage in KOF2000 where you are doing mortal combat while families look a Manitees at Sea World. My life is now complete

What’s hilarious about Shingo is that despite what an absolute goof he is that kid is JACKED 😂

Yes! this was such a fun one. Glad he played my favorite KoF and first one in my childhood.

Shingo: Hello May from Guilty Gear Strive May: Hello Shingo from Kof 99 TOTSUGEKI!!

I like the NESTS saga

I played 99 back in high school and never noticed the guy in the background of the stage was chasing a dog around. I noticed he had a stick but thought he was beating a person up

Idk if this is just me, but I don't like how this video is edited. I feel like we are missing so much of the '99 and '00 experience 🙁

Every time Max plays KOF 99, I will remind people that Krizalid says OLD NAVY whenever he does his wind kick 😂

The most simple combos in KOF 99 and 2000 starts with HP or HK, and it's followed by forward and LP or LK. I guess every character has a combo with that, and you can mix with some other attacks, like an air attack to start the combo, and some ⬇↘➡ stuff, right after.

99 is my favourite KOF! I played it constantly between various Capcom fighters on my Dreamcast back in the day and I still love going back to it...

I want to say I got 99 in a $15 triple pack with 2 bad games at Walmart. I loved this game so much, and it was the first time I saw a fighting game super, it blew my mind!

Shingo is voiced by the same guy who did Dio :) also I forgot all about Zero's wacky dialogue, plus he called the player a "simp"

Yeah! NESTS Saga is cool

Stickers has their own advantages like holding and attacking your opponent while you are preparing for a combo or even for a max super

I had the gba version of this. One of my first fighting games after Tekken advance. I loved this game

Does anybody see the shadow of the guy chasing the cat with the stick 4:00 and the restaurant says Chinese kitchen🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

2000 is by far one of the best Kofs

18:55 "And it's gotta be strong, and it's gotta be fast, and it cannot be totally laaame"

I remember playing KOF ‘99 on the PS1, still have it to this day

99 was my first KOF and the one I played the most with my brother. It’s not the best, but I have fond memories of 99. 98, 99, and 2002 UM are my favorites.

it hurts so bad max not liking the 99/2000 version. literally what made me pick up the kof series. sigh. well get em next time lol

If there's something good about KOF 99 is the music just that "dear falling angel" and 00's credits theme, man. Really good tunes

20:41 I'm sorry, but I'm just losing it at "All you had to do was rub us out." and "You simp!" being back to back lines Fighting game writing is something else!

6:08 just had me dying 🤣

I feel Shingo is a character Max would like if he took the time to learn him.

The introduction of K'!

The 99 and 00 arranged tracks are some of the best of the kof series my dude

i love every aspect of 99, 00 and the whole Nests saga, but i do like that Max was honest on his opinions.

This games are awesome, sadly Max don’t know how to play them :-(

Ah. The King of Fighters Clone Saga. Because it worked so well for Spider-Man. Was the NESTS games popular? Eh, some of the characters that came out of them were but, like with Spider-Man's, I think everyone was just relieved to be done with it by the end.

6:14 I'm dying lol 😂😂😂

The classic era of SNK went out in a blaze of glory with 2000. Man, the variety of assists were crazy fun and the overall soundtrack are one of the better ones (Ice Place is the only weak one and even then it added to the mystique that Kula had back then). Helps that Clone Zero is also one of the (relatively) easier bosses in the series. (Edit: I’ve seen the criticisms. Now wouldn’t it be funny if Ripley somehow got raised into playing SNK games instead?)

25:10 *Sigh...* No, Max. What actually happened in that scene was Whip telling them what Zero had revealed to her: She is K's older sister (a clone of her, at least), and that his memories weren't lying to him. So, they finally reunite and team up for the next game. I don't blame you for the weird interpretation though, as the scene does play kinda hokey...

Yo I am LITERALLY in tears. Max... 😭🤣🤣

Whip: (flies away) EEEEAAAAAUUUUUUUUGGGGH

Max trying to skip the how to play section: "DON'T EXPLAIN, STOP EXPLAINING!" Also Max while playing in stage 1: "B and C? "Let's try B and C." See that, kids? If only you never skip the how to play sections, you'd already know how to use Strikers.

I last played ‘99 back on the ps1 and I initially didn’t like it. I recently got it on the PS4 along with 2000-2003 and I’ve gotta say it’s decent. I didn’t know you could unlock Iori and Kyo. Looks like I gotta play the hell out of that one again

Thank you Max for picking Shingo! Really wish you'd do a Shingo Yabuki Legacy vid series!

Watching Shingo get whooped or be absolutely useless has to be the funniest thing I've ever seen in a long time.

The off thing you mention is simply the fact that many moves' timings were changed so the game could feel different, most of them were made a bit slower, others faster to conform a 'new' feel with the arrival of a new hero team, that and coupled with the fact that you knew very few special moves let alone how to execute them (and you didn't know how to use any strikers), made you feel weird but these are, at least from the viewpoint of (and the AST soundtrack is arguably the best of the KOF series) gameplay and mechanics, some of the most enjoyable (doesn't mean most competitive) KOF games. Me and a lot of people in my city spent countless hours battling in KOF 2000 to see who was the best and we had such quality times, yeah, dealing with infinites a lot but still having a lot of fun trying to extract the oil of these games and believe me there's a LOT of crude oil to extract in them. I am glad to have had the priviledge, to an extent, of living out intensely the year of the last KOF for many and the au revoir of the legendary SNK KOF staff. I have to admit that KOF 2000 has a pretty well elaborated atmosphere although not so much story, it's a game that feels very special to play versus other people, it has a special mystic, like 2002 and 98. I noticed that you were enjoying how lost the game made you feel hahahaha.

20:44 Zero was ahead of his time. Also I liked the NEST saga because of all the cool characters introduced and crazy science backstory with cloning.

Max only plays as a few characters in the entirety of the fighting game genre. Everyone else feels weird to him.

20:43 Sad that Max didn't read that part out loud.

KOF 99 was the first fighting game which I finished back in year 2002 on Snk neo emulator on a Intel pentium 1 processor with 32 mb vram :D Killer Instinct. I'm glad max is playing through this series.

"Kyo is FUCKING everywhere" -Maximillian Dood

Played this a lot on Playstation One. So much that there was a point I couldn't stand it. PRetty cool to see MAx playing it now!