Think about it. SNK makes games. Expensive games. Few people review SNK games. And information is usually very hard to come by where SNK is concerned. Even the worst games from SNK are usually better than most. SNK games are very hard to get once a good review for the game in question comes out. So you have to buy it immediately if you are ever going to get it. At SNK's high price. Once you get it home, what then? Is it really worth all that money?

I am talking about KOF'98 - bought it for $300.00 early to make sure I got one and now that I have it I am not pleased. '97 was very good but the control wasn't the greatest (those damn shortcuts). '95 was good except the dodge in 2 player mode became decisive move of the game - he with priority won. '96 was between the two - with the rolls fairly useless turning it into a good old fashion head-on fight.

I knew I should have bought a new 17in monitor and StarCraft or a new HDD and Starcraft but no, I figured KOF'98 wouldn't let me down. Besides Iori Had a new move (about time - Kyo has many moves and they all have some kind of auto-counter).

Iori is my favorite character and I can kick mega butt with him - until '98. I cannot even get close enough to the opponent to attack him with Iori - the game is so unbalanced - I was screwed, not only does my favorite character have a new useless move he gets his ass kicked by almost every character in the game regardless how I play.

I am hopeful that I am missing something big and that the character I most love to play has not been botched as much as it seems, Except for the loose gameplay, the too tight control (some moves simply will not work) and many characters apparently unbalanced (especially Iori - neutered) the rest of the game is pretty good.

A couple of years ago I made a rule of never purchasing a game which everyone said was good. I have broken this rule often and almost always been disappointed. Let this be a lesson to all of you, SNK has you right where they want you whether they know it or not. By the time you find out how the game really is, it is too late.