When SNK was brought back to life and the company began publishing games I was quite excited. After all, with the fates of such franchises as Metal Slug and King of Fighters hanging in the balance, it was good to hear that developers were eager to revisit these classics and keep their legacies alive, but after getting my hands on King of Fighters: Maximum Impact Maniax for the Xbox I'm beginning to question exactly what SNK's up to. This PS2 port is plain, boring, and therefore just no fun to play, making it another uninspired Xbox fighting game that'll be tossed onto the pile.

KOF's biggest problem is it feels like something that would've been sort of cool had it been released back in 1998. It's a 3D fighter that features a bunch of characters that move like they have sticks up their butts, their voices are extremely annoying, the levels you'll battle within have been pulled from the catalogue of typical fighting game arenas, the AI is ridiculously cheap, and the combat is rather clunky. There's a decent selection of fighters to choose from including Terry Bogard, Yuri Sakazaki, Mai Shiranui, and the especially annoying Mingnon Beart (so annoying you have no idea), but the game's narrative is so beyond corny that it sucks the cool out of them. Then again, if I were battling in a tournament sponsored by a gang called Mephistopheles I'd feel a certain level of shame, the type that'd probably result in me developing an annoying voice like Mai's. Her final death cry (ANTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE) gives me chills.

I'm sorry if this review is all over the place, but this game seriously scrambled my brains. There are so many negatives it's difficult finding a good place to begin. After all, not only are the voices awful, but the fighting is just plain boring. It's a 3D fighter, but unless you're holding the Right Trigger and tilting the analog stick you won't move in three dimensions, and all of the attacks look stiff. The environments are also pretty bland. You'll fight in a parking garage, an airport, a rooftop, and a disco, among other standard locales that you and I have both seen in just about every fighting game that's ever been released. I mean come on! For once I'd like to see a developer do something different like set a match in a grocery store. Shake things up for a change!

I'm also not impressed by KOF's various game modes, as they're just too typical. SNK's given us a Story Mode, Versus, Challenge (Mission and Time Attack), Replay (nothing to see here), Practice, Profile, Options, and finally, Xbox Live, which actually winds up almost saving this game from complete obscurity. It's neat to match wits with someone else, but at the same time, I kept wondering why I wasn't playing Dead or Alive Ultimate online or even Soul Calibur 2 (which isn't online enabled), both of which are significantly better than Maximum Impact Maniax.

On the positive side, the game's not broken. Even as I was getting my @$$ kicked by the final boss (who is as cheap as they come), the game never froze or did anything else whacky, so at the very least this average fighting game was well tested, but that's not enough to keep KOF:MIM from missing its date with the bargain bin. SNK's published a plethora of quality videogames, but this one is quite a blemish on an otherwise solid portfolio.