The PS2 is still getting games for it, and while most people attribute sales and popularity to who wins the console wars, I attribute longevity. In terms of the last console war, the PS2 is the clear winner and evidence of that comes in the fact that you can grab a pretty sweet fighting game for it that just hit shelves in 2009. The game is of course KOF 2002: Unlimited Match. This version of the game tweaks several elements, most of which are entirely under the hood. The noticeable changes are the roster which now boasts 60 playable characters right out of the box with 6 additional hidden characters. One of the new characters, Nameless, was added to the game to replace K9999 (clearly a Tetsuo clone).

The game plays like 2002, though I’m sure the more observant or hardcore KOF fans will notice little technical differences here and there that change up the game in some big and small ways. It might be safe to say that this could be considered a whole new game, given that those changes and the addition of characters will alter gameplay strategies. The game also works much like KOF 98: Dream Match in that it can be considered an alternate reality of 2002 in a way.

Musically and graphically the game is on par with the arcade original, but there are slight variations here and there to stage design. The music doesn’t seem to be the arranged tracks, though that may be an option within the game. There is an interesting feature that allows you to alter the colors of the characters and in some cases the colors use by their attacks. This is interesting as some characters seem to have more time put into them than others due to the limitations of colors they may have.

This game is easy to play, if you know KOF, so knowledge of Japanese isn’t an issue. There is a lot of Japanese in the game though, from win quotes to menu options. Many of these options I’m totally unaware of how to operate, but I’m sure they are translated somewhere on the net. This makes the game totally import worthy and also a good stand in for the miserable KOF 12.