The GBA. The little wonder that could is finally receiving fighting games. Nothing screams "pick me up and PLAY ME" like a fighting game. SNK managed to prove this with their stellar lineup of fighters on their now defunct in the US (thanks to very poor marketing) Neo Geo Pocket Color.

In any case, being the fighter fanatic, and the even greater SNK fanatic that I am, I ordered the King of Fighters EX: Neo Blood Limited Edition bundle. Finally receiving the coveted package today, I eagerly clutched my new GBA (impressions on that piece of shinyness forthcoming) and popped the game in. My mind swirled with expectations. Would it be just like my beloved KoF '99 on the Dreamcast but in a portable form? Would it be as good as the immortal SNK vs Capcom Match of the Millenium on the Neo Geo Pocket Color?

Yes... and no.

A quick rundown as I see it now, the animation is shoddy, the sound quality is pretty bad, the collision detection is quite a bit looser than other KoF games, the control is decent but not great, and it's almost impossible to see your health meter in less than ideal lighting conditions. Now, the good part is, the graphics outside of the animations are great, the musical compositions are still good, and it's still King of Fighters. Once I got used to the controls and the looser timing of this port, I was kicking butt with Kim Kaphwan as usual.

Bottom line. It's not perfect. It's not quite SNK vs Capcom for the Neo Geo Pocket Color. It's not quite the perfect King of Fighters on the go. Yet, all in all, it's good. It's fun. It still IS King of Fighters, and for fans of the series, the company, and even fighting games period should know that is all they need to know to pick it up as soon as they can. For others, you may want to look into Capcom's Turbo Revival first or await the forthcoming releases of Guilty Gear X and Alpha 3 for the GBA, or you could just wait for my final review coming shortly.