I was first exposed to the world of 2D fighting back in the good old Street Fighter 2 days. I didn't know of The King Of Fighters even existed untill 2000 when Capcom VS SNK was first released in arcades. Although I have played games like Art Of Fighting And Fatal Fury, the King of fighters was something completely forgin to me. It wasn't too soon after I came across KOF 96 at that same arcade. It was kinda near all the older games that no one really played. I put in a quarter ( beacuse Neo Geo games are always one qwarter ) and tried to see if I was as good at this game as I was at CVS........ To make a long story short; I hated it. It played nothing like any of Capcoms fighting games. I don't know if it was the ancient neo geo joystick the machine had, but the controlls seemed stiff and unresponsive. I was so Disapointed with KOF that I Didn't even give it a second thought....... That is untill I has seen a coppy of KOF Dream match 99 at a local Fun co Land ( back when Fun co Land existed ) for $5 and bought it just for the sake of having it. It was hands down the best $5 I ever spent. Although the controlls were still alittle slugish campared to Capcom Vs SNK, It was still a solid fighter with much more personality than any Capcom game. However, after the release of King Of Fighters 2003 my opinion of SNK has drasticly changed. The action was fast, the controlls were tight, Some of the character animations were re done allong with some touch ups on some old favorites. This is a great game

Gameplay:
Tight responsive controlls. There are some deadly combos that you can pull off with pretty much any character. The 3 on 3 tag matches make for an interesting twist with a new element of strategy. You can go into an offensive tag where you hit your opponent, tag out, and your team member tags in with a jump kick of some kind that can be linked into a combo.

Graphics:
this is kinda where the game takes a hit. Even though the graphics have significantly improverd with new 3D backgrounds and a new feature in the options menu where you can give the sprites a softer look. alot of the animations are still taken from older kof titles. it would have been way more appealing if the animation were more compareable to Garou MOTW or Street fighter 3 Third strike. But all things concidered, the graphics have seen a much needed boost, even though the improvements are still dated.

Sound:
The sound isn't bad. It's nice and crisp and the music is ok, but it's no Guilty Gear. A Hard rock or acid techno score would have been nice. I Could definately live with out fighting to some lame Jazzy music.

Value:
This is a game I know that I won't get tired of for a long time and I think others would feel the same way.