It's been a number of years since a prominent 2D fighting game franchise made a leap to the third dimension. If you hadn't guessed, that would be the Street Fighter series turning into Street Fighter EX. After, arguably, three failed attempts, Capcom's rival/partner SNK is giving it a try as well. Unfortunately, King of Fighter Maximum Impact - Maniax makes the same lackluster debut that EX did years ago.

It's not that KOF Maximum Impact is a bad game necessarily. There's some fun to be had here. But, it neither captures the essence of what makes the 2D games so enjoyable, nor can it compete with the kings of the 3D genre, like Virtua Fighter 4 and Tekken 5. So, what's the point right? I don't know, I suppose every game appeals to someone.

Maximum Impact has the big name combatants like Iori, Mai, and Terry, but a lot of the cast is missing. Some new characters are introduced, but they're easily forgettable. The character graphics are pretty good. Everything is sharp and colorful. The animation could have been better. It just looks like it's missing a few key frames.

Standard game modes apply, plus a mission mode that isn't unlike the original Street Fighter EX. As a matter of fact, just like comparisons can be made between just about everything Street Fighter and King of Fighters, these 3D games ended up very similar. The mission mode has you fight through challenges from simple to rage inducing difficulty. Things like counter attack three times to complete a 14-hit combo. AI couldn't be cheaper, even at the normal difficulty levels. I have 15 years of fighting game experience under my belt, and I can't remember the last time I got whooped by the CPU in the first match. I seriously lost in 5 seconds without touching him once. Anyway, with some work, it becomes bearable. That is, of course, until you hit the boss. If you've ever played an SNK fighting game, I don't have to tell you how cheap it is.

The gameplay comes off a lot like Bloody Roar. It's kind of fast paced and combo heavy, if you can get a handle on the timing. They tried to keep the game grounded in 2D, so there's very little free roaming on the levels. Side step isn't that effective, so you're basically fighting on one plane. The control feels a little off. I don't think it's the responsiveness, just something feels imprecise.

Although there's nothing broken about Maximum Impact, there's certainly nothing here worth buying either. You'd have to be a pretty hard core collector of King of Fighters games to want to add this to your collection. There's just no reason with games like Tekken 5 and Soul Calibur out there.