Ahhh the King of Fighters tournament. Nearly a decade of wonderous memories. The Orochi Saga of 96. The pruning and development of Iori Yagami and Kyo Kusanagi into the immortal warriors they are today. The insanity of the Korea team. The spirit of the Lone Wolf. The ever-increasing quirkiness of SNK-glish. All precious memories to fans of the series. So, SNK has handed the reigns to the portable version of their baby over to Marvelous Entertainment. Do they have the goods?

Graphically speaking, they did a wondrous job shrinking the sprites and backgrounds down from their original versions. They retain all the personality and charm of their console and arcade counterparts. The still shots prove this nicely. Unfortunately, in motion they don't fare quite so well. The problem here is a lack of key animation frames. While SNK is rather well known for using a limited number of animation frames for many things, they tend to pull it off rather decently, hiding it from all but the most discerning eyes. That is not the case here. Standing animations especially are glutted with jerky three-frame animations as they unnaturally bob up and down.

As for sound, the game features music from King of Fighters '99 and 2000 re-sampled for the GBA. Unfortunately, while the compositions are solid, the quality is downright terrible. Great songs are marred by tinny instruments and faded melodies. When recent games such as Golden Sun, Castlevania and Advance Wars have proven that great music is more than possible on the GBA, this just doesn't cut it. Sound effects on the other hand run from bad to good. While it's great to hear Bao shout "Psycho Baaaall!" in all his glory, other voice samples such as Kyo's sound too high pitched. Also, the sound effects accompanying each punishing blow are surprisingly muted. Anyone who's spent a lot of time playing fighting games will immediately notice the lack of oomph in the hits. When you connect with Kyo's fully powered-up 182 Shiki desperation move, and all you hear is a muted whiff, you know something is wrong.

In terms of controls, again it's a mixed bag. Thanks to King of Fighter's four-button design, they were able to map the controls perfectly over to the GBA without a hitch. Unfortunately, the buttons cannot be re-configured. The weak hits are mapped to the face buttons and the strong hits to the shoulder buttons. This presents a problem for those who depend more on the strong hits than the weak hits as it becomes difficult to hit the L button to perform a strong punch in the midst of a fight. As an alternative, Marvelous Entertainment included a 3-button configuration which maps both strong kick and strong punch to the more accessible R button. Pressing forward and R performs a strong kick, while pressing back and R performs a strong punch. While this may be a boon to some, it unfortunately eliminates at least one move from every character's arsenal, as it becomes impossible to perform due to the limitation of the button layout.

With all this griping and groaning, it's a good thing that the gameplay is still King of Fighters at its core. Taking major cues from the '99 edition of the King of Fighters series (along with bits of the 2000 edition) you are given a choice of three fighters and one striker (a character that can be called a limited number of times per match to perform a special move). The roster is as follows:

Hero Team - Kyo Kusanagi, Benimaru Nikaido, Moe Habana, Shingo Yabuki

Fatal Fury Team - Terry Bogard, Andy Bogard, Mai Shiranui, Joe Higashi

Art of Fighting Team - Ryo Sakazaki, Robert Garcia, King, Yuri Sakazaki

Ikari Team - Leona Heidern, Ralf Jones, Clark Steel, Whip

Psycho Soldier Team - Athena Asamiya, Sie Kensou, Bao, Chin Gentsai

Korean Team - Kim Kaphwan, Chang Koehan, Choi Bounge, Jhun Hoon

In addition to these immediately selectable characters, two boss characters can be unlocked, as well as four extra "striker-only" characters. Although the roster looks pretty solid at first glance, it is rather unfortunate to note that the fourth character in every team is a "striker only" character, meaning that they can only be chosen as the striker for the team, and thus cannot be used in normal battle. Another issue with the gameplay lies with the collision detection system, which is not nearly as tight as previous games in the series.

Yet, even with all these problems, the game still stands up tall. Once you get moving and become involved in the match, the animation, the music, and even the controls aren't as big of a problem. In the end, what it comes down to, is that it is still King of Fighters. It is still an excellent fighting game engine that can provide a ton of fun. Classic combos have been left intact. Jump-ins, set ups, striker combos, are all still there. It really is King of Fighters on the go. While it may not be as perfect as it could have been, it all executes well enough so as to hold up the true centerpiece of the King of Fighters series, the gameplay.

Ultimately, SNK stalwarts should not waver in their purchase of this game. Unless you'd be absolutely devastated with a less than perfect port, on a console with less than ideal controls, then you're getting exactly what you need. King of Fighters anywhere you go. For other fighting game fans, you may want to wait and see how the forthcoming Guilty Gear X and Street Fighter Alpha 3 turn out, or even try out Capcom's recently released Super Street Fighter II Turbo Revival. For light fighting fans, you should probably await the domestic release and give it a rental.