The King of Fighters 2002 (KOF 2002, or KOF ’02) is a fighting game produced by Eolith and Playmore for the Neo Geo in 2002. It is the ninth game in The King of Fighters series and the second one to be produced by Eolith and developed by Playmore (formerly Brezzasoft).
The King of Fighters 2002 was ported to the Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, and the Xbox, where in the PS2 and Xbox versions were released in North America in a two-in-one bundle with the following game in the series, The King of Fighters 2003. The Dreamcast port was released only in Japan, it was also the last game in the series to be officially released for the Japanese Dreamcast.
Gameplay of The King of Fighters 2002
The game brings back the team play composed by three characters each that was a tradition in previous games. The game has also several important changes in the gameplay, like the “Free Cancel System” or “Max Mode System”, the “Quick Emergency Evasion” and “Quick MAX Mode Activation”, aside from the countless changes in each character’s special moves and their properties.
Max Mode compared to the previous The King of Fighters 2002 games, while it enables Free Cancels (which use up a set duration of the mode), now halves the damage done at a cost for its duration. Normal DM’s now no longer use up an extra gauge stock when performed, and now only instantly end Max Mode. SDM’s instead use one extra stock while also ending Max Mode as well.
One of the most notable changes is the inclusion of MAX2 Desperation Moves (also known as Hidden Super Desperation Moves), which are DM’s that can be used only with 3 stocks and at a certain threshold of low HP.
Another notable changes are the allocations of both normal DM’s and SDM’s, as not all normal DM’s have SDM versions and some SDM inputs may be completely different attacks depending on the character(s). Nearly all SDM commands end with 2 of the respective buttons for their inputs (A+C or B+D) due to the fact that Normal DM’s can be used in Max Mode.
The King of Fighters 2002 Cheats
Characters and Arenas
Perform the following actions to unlock more characters.
- Kusanagi – Highlight Kyo on the character select screen and enter this code: UP, DOWN, RIGHT, LEFT, DOWN, UP, LEFT, RIGHT
- Omega Rugal – On the character select screen, choose the black panel under Kyo’s team.
- Orochi-Chris, Orochi-Shermie and Orochi-Yashiro – Choose any picture and hold START.
Controls
Player 1:
- Select / Insert Coin: shift
- Start: enter
- Move = Arrow keys ← → ↑ ↓
- Button 1 = z
- Button 2 = x
- Button 3 = a
- Button 4 = s
- Button 5 = q
- Button 6 = e
Player 2:
- can be configured in the game
- Hover and click the gamepad icon to view/change controls.
Note for 2 players:
It is recommended to remap the controls for both players and to make sure that there are no duplicate mappings.
