King of Fighters: Maximum Impact brings classic and long-loved SNK characters into the 3D world for the first time in this great blend of 2D-fighter and 3D-fighter styles.

KOF: Maximum Impact is a stunning and beautiful game. The arenas, models, lighting, effects, and moves are all lovely and are extremely fluid. I was incredibly impressed with the way SNK was able to translate its well known 2D characters into the fully 3D environments. All of the special moves come off great as fire flies from the ground, electricity shoots from someone’s hand, or even when a beam of energy comes from the sky. Both the in-games and fully cinematic movies were also pleasing to the eye.

The music was energetic and typical to that of most other fighters out there -- but it never seemed to stand out. The sound effects were at about the same level as the music. At times it seemed like the comments spoken in-fight were repetitive and got a bit annoying after an hour of non-stop play.

King of Fighters: Maximum Impact brings back 14 KOF fighters, who are joined by five new people to the character select screen. Each one is equipped with a huge move list that will do everything from quick strikes to super-flashy powerful attacks.

KOF: Maximum Impact has several modes of play. The first is Story Mode. Here you will select a character and fight your way through an underworld street-fighting syndicate. Eventually you will go up against the King of Fighters himself, Duke. Your story progresses between fights when a member of the syndicate introduces you to your next opponent. Depending on the story, your character could be working for Duke and eventually decide to try and take his title from him, or the character may be seeking revenge. Either way, most of the stories are fairly loose and are merely there to fill in space between fights.

Versus Mode lets you fight either your friend or the computer. You can choose to use only one character each, or if you select the Team modes, then you can form a group of three fighters to go head to head. And if need to refine your skills with a particular character, you can go to Practice mode where you can duke it out without the fear of losing life.

The other mode is Mission Mode, which has Challenge Mode and Time Attack in it. Challenge Mode puts your character through three levels of challenges. Each level has a dozen or so missions in it. When you complete a mission, you will unlock something. This is typically a new costume or color scheme for a character model.

Time Attack lets you attempt to break the standing time. This time is how long it takes you to beat a series of computer controlled characters in a constant barrage of fights. The mode will end either if you beat all of the characters before the current record, or if you’ve gone over that time limit.

Maximum Impact also comes with a cool “making of” DVD, so you can see what went on to bring the 2D fighter into the third dimension.

Difficulty was an interesting thing in King of Fighters: Maximum Impact. I could play through the Story Mode with some characters and not have any problems. I was able to reach Duke at the end without losing a fight -- or at least a match, while it seemed like other characters had a harder time getting through. Now that may sound like I’m saying that it is harder to control or play as some characters -- but that isn’t the case. For all of them, the feel and controls of the fighters were the same. It just seemed like a particular opponent’s strength or speed was higher against some opponents when compared to how they fought against others.

The other thing that bothered me about the game was that no matter who I went up against Duke with, I could not beat him. I don’t mean I couldn’t win a match -- I mean I couldn’t win even one fight. He is fast, he is powerful, and he is hard as all Hell. There were several occasions when I could take out a lot of his life -- but by that time, I was so close to defeat myself, the fight was over before I could finish him off.

There are a lot of unlockables in this game like character profiles and stuff. But most of the features are only unlocked when you beat the Story Mode with a character.

As far as the difficulty in the other modes of Maximum Impact are concerned, the Missions Mode starts off simple with tasks like “Land 10 hits.” But the more missions you go on, the harder they are to complete.

King of Fighters: Maximum Impact is a blend of 2D-Fighters and 3D-Fighters. I guess the best way to explain it is that it is a 2D-Fighter set in a 3D environment. You don’t have the ability to run around the arena like Soul Calibur II. Instead, you are allowed to side step toward or away from the camera -- then the camera angle changes so the fighters are on the same plane again.

This had an interesting effect on me attempting to get used to the controls. Maximum Impact doesn’t use any of the analog features on the controller. It’s all D-Pad, which if it was any standard 2D-fighter, I wouldn’t have had a problem getting used to the controls. But my eyes kept saying the game was a 3D-fighter, so I had to force myself into the 2D mode, which took some work. But once you get into that mode (hopefully it will be easier for you), the control scheme is clean, simple, and responsive.

You move your character with the D-Pad buttons, you side-step away from the camera with the R1 button, and toward with the R1 and Down buttons at the same time. The Triangle and Square buttons are the strong and light punches respectively, and the Circle and X buttons are the strong and light kicks.

KOF: Maximum Impact is a great fighting game that brings classic SNK characters into the 3D world. This game should go on any SNK fan’s shelf. If you are an avid fighting gamer, then I would recommend it as well. Otherwise, go out and rent it before deciding to buy it.