No, there's not been a mistake. You've not stumbled onto a retro arcade feature or a reader's own game submission page by accident. The screenshots you see here are from an actual, real, brand new Xbox title and this isn't a joke.

King Of Fighters 2002 might have gone down a storm with the 2D fighting masters when it was first released in Japanese arcades four years ago, but even with the bonus of Live support this is not the sort of game we expect to see on the Xbox in 2005.

"Ah, but it's a really deep, technical fighting game!", the fans might argue. And yes, from a certain point of view that's true. If there's one thing history's taught us, it's that 2002 is probably the running 2D King Of Fighters series. So yes, providing you've got the thumb dexterity of a double-jointed, ambidextrous, Yugoslavian thumb wrestler, you have the mental capacity to reel off 50-odd button-press combinations from memory and you don't mind graphics that look like they're one step removed from Ceefax circa 1985, you'll probably eke some kind of fun from this. But in this post DOA Ultimate era, who but a handful of dedicated retro fans are going to have the time or enthusiasm to really appreciate that depth, let alone pay good money for a game they've probably got on some other system already anyway? Not us, certainly.

Perhaps if Ignition had been good enough to release KOF 2002 as part of a retrospective compilation pack then we would have thought differently. King of Fighters 2000-2005 perhaps, with a flashy front end and a couple of KOF anime DVDs thrown in for good measure. Instead we get a handful of dull, text-based menu screens and 90s throwback gameplay that seems to think it can parade around on the back of a reputation built up over years of arcade hammerings. Sorry to burst your bubble King Of Fighters, but not even Capcom could manage that with its significantly more psychedelic Capcom Fighting Jam.

We're not questioning the worth or the technical quality of 2D fighters here. Just the sense in releasing a game that's four years old, looks much older and has no relevance to the majority of today's gamers for what is the comparatively expensive price of £20. Even hardcore King Of Fighters fans would have trouble building a viable argument against that.

1. It's arcade perfect as conversions go. Even better than arcade perfect if you're really looking for plaudits.
2. Absolutely masses of characters to choose from. No one human should be capable of mastering all of them.

1. Lacklustre presentation and ugly, blocky, last-generation graphics make this an instant turn-off to anybody not familiar with the series.
2. A very limited list of game options. Fight the computer, or multiplayer online and that's it.
3. Twenty quid is too much to pay for a single, outdated game. This should have been part of a compilation pack to be of any interest.

A fan favourite, but even at this price it should be part of a compilation of King Of Fighters games, not a standalone title.