When the fighting game genre burst into the mainstream gaming scene with Capcom's Street Fighter II, suddenly there was a stellar one-on-one game that had enough depth to keep players going for years after the initial release, but still left room to improve in Capcom's many follow-ups. Due to the massive success of Street Fighter II, several other companies jumped on the fighting game bandwagon, included SNK. With King of Fighters, Samurai Shodown, World Heroes, and many other 2D fighters, SNK quickly made a name for themselves by offering what many consider to be the best alternative to Capcom's fighting game lineup.

Times have changed since then, and now 3D fighting games are just as prominent, if not more prominent than their 2D brethren. While SNK has attempted to make the transition from 2D to 3D in the past (Samurai Shodown 64), it didn't quite turn out how they imagined. Now SNK will step back in the 3D ring with what is already looking to be one of the best King of Fighters to date, and what could be a top contender in the 3D fighting game genre.

We took an extended look at the E3 build of Maximum Impact, and we've come back highly anticipating the final build. The one worry that many KoF fans have expressed is that the series may not transition well into 3D. Well, we can now put those worries to rest as even at this early stage, the game plays almost identical to its 2D counterparts. If a certain strategy worked in the 3D KoF titles, there's a very good chance that same strategy will also work in Maximum Impact. It's simply astounding how well the series works in 3D.

One of the reasons Maximum Impact feels so much like the 2D King of Fighters titles is that you're still playing on a 2D plane. You can sidestep in a similar fashion to Tekken 3 and Tekken Tag Tournament, but everything else remains almost identical to how it was in the 2D world. All of the combos and special attacks have been retained. In addition, players will be able to use the standard three level super combo system, as well as dashes, quick rolls, and defensive break attacks.

All of the returning characters have retained the same feel they had in previous King of Fighters titles. Some of them even have outfits inspired by their classic suits, while others have completely new outfits that do a good job of matching the character's personality. Even the new characters fit well into the KoF series. However, at this stage in the development cycle, some of the flavor and passion of the characters seems to be missing. The characters in Maximum Impact, just don't seem to have the same flamboyant personality they had in other KoF titles. Hopefully this will be corrected before the game hits store shelves.

Something new to the series is a wall game that works very similar to the wall game featured in Tekken 4. Don't worry KoF fans, Maximum Impact is not a mixture of Tekken and King of Fighters. Instead, the game simply borrows a few ideas from Tekken and converts them into great new additions to the KoF formula. For example, the new wall tactics seem to have a very deep gameplay structure. Knocking your opponent into a wall with a powerful attack will cause a wall stun. From this point you get free reign over your opponent until they recover from the stun or you connect with an attack. Seasoned KoF players should already been thinking of the punishment they'll be able to dish out after a successful wall stun.

The stages look good, but there's really nothing outstanding about them. They fit well into the King of Fighters realm, and offer enough uniqueness to keep things fresh, but they just don't pop put at you like some of the backgrounds in other 3D fighting games. Of course, as any true fighting game fan knows, backgrounds are the last thing to worry about, so it's not a huge concern.

While the 3-on-3 team play mode was not available in the preview build we played, it should add a great deal of fun to the final product. King of Fighters: Maximum Impact is shaping up to become the newest member in the elite 3D fighting games club. Is it better than the likes of Virtua Fighter 4 or Tekken 3? It's still a bit too early to tell, but King of Fighters fans should be very happy with Maximum Impact, and it will definitely give Tekken and Virtua Fighter some new competition in the 3D fighting game genre. We'll have more on King of Fighters: Maximum Impact as we draw closer to its mid-September release date.