King of Fighters is a fighting game series that has so many spin-offs that it is impossible to keep track of them all. All that i know is that i think it originated as the "Fatal Fury" series. The Maximum Impact series of King of Fighters broke away from the usual and was a 3D fighter. And King of Fighters 2006 (Proper name Maximum Impact 2) is a sequel to the spinoff Maximum Impact It is a 3D fighting game. Uh... yeah.

Plot: An unmentioned period of time ago, Alba Meira, the new badass of the series, defeated Duke, leader of Meph-- actually, i can't spell the evil syndicates name. Anyway, Mephawhatever was only a sub-syndicate of Addes, a huge corporation that rules Earths underworld. Now, the leader of Musiel has made another King of Fighters tournament to draw the most powerful warriors together. WHY?! I don't know. Can't expect an overly coherent plot from a fighting game.

Gameplay: You have heavy punch, light punch, heavy kick, light kick, block, evade, and parry. You perform combos and specials. Generic. The big attraction is the over-the-top Doathrashing techniques, which do massive damage (And several of which should either be fatal or crippling. This game really has a strange thing on that). You have a good variety of characters with their own arsenal and special techniques. A lot of them are clones from old characters though (Three characters actually have unlockable separate forms, you have Terry Bogard and Wild Wolf, Kyo Kusanagi and Kyo Kusanagi Classic, and Ryo and Mr. Karate). The combos range from simple to complex, meaning everyone will have one character that they are well suited to, but others they can't win with.

Graphics: They must've spent a fortune on motion-capture!! Forget Mortal Kombat, this game is attractive and has a huge variety of techniques in the sprites. Oh... uh... also, the breast physics must've received a lot of attention. The only thing to keep you away from some of the girls is that they are either obnoxious or homicidal.

Music: Decent. Nothing awesome or terrible. But what will bug you is some of the voice acting.

Difficulty: The easy setting is easy and the hard is hard. Think of this game as Soul Calibur with characters that hardly ever use weapons (I think Billy Cane and Lilly Cane are the only ones who use weapons outside of special techniques). Some techniques are hard to perform, but once you get the system down, there is nothing you can't conquer.

Overall: Actually, hardcore fans of the series have the right to get pissed off. Only one Psycho Soldier and three of the NESTS characters made the cut (K', Kula Diamond, and Maxima). Also, Andy Bogard and Blue Mary are absent. The lack of cutscenes is due to the huge amount of voice acting and combat depth, so you have to get used to the sprites. Luckily, what you are stuck with is top-of-the-line. But, it has a lack of variety in some characters. You have the classic sexy-but-tragic assassin, the classic huge-bust ninja, the classic American brawler with stupid catch-phrases... and it only goes down from there. Some of the voice acting is pretty terrible also (Especially with Mignon Beart and Yuri). It is a good 3D fighting game though. It has enough unlockables and sex appeal (<.<) to buy it instead of renting.

My rating: 8/10

Extra: When playing as Mignon Beart with English set as the spoken language, try to decipher what she shouts when she is defeated. I only have a guess, and it is disturbing.