Its hard to believe that King of Fighters: Maximum Impact was released 20 years ago for PlayStation 2. KOF: Maximum Impact was published by SNK Playmore and developed by Noise Factory and was the first 3D installment within The King of Fighters series. The 2000’s was a decade where 3D gaming was all the rage which was one of the things that lead to SNK attempting to take the series in a new direction. There are many who believe that the King of Fighters series should have went 3D during the late 90’s but KOF: Maximum Impact was pretty solid for its timel. KOF: Maximum Impact had at least 20 playable characters including the likes of Kyo Kusanagi, Lori Yagami, Leona, Terry Bogard, Ryo Sakazaki. KOF: Maxiumum Impact had fast paced gameplay and nice voice over acting which added to the quality of the game. The main antagonist of KOF: Maximum Impact was Duke the leader of the Mephistopheles gang splinter group of an underworld organization known as Addes.

Aside from the KOF: Maximum Impact entries Duke does not appear in any other entries within the series since game itself is non-canon. King of Fighters: Maximum Impact was a game that got overshadowed during the mid 2000’s due to all of the competition that existed within the fighting genre of gaming. During the mid 2000’s we had games like Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3, Soul Calibur III, Tekken 5 and others that shined more on the PlayStation 2. King of Fighers: Maximum Impact was more interesting than most of the 2D installments that SNK released within the KOF series during the 2000’s. The story mode for KOF: Maximum Impact could have had more depth and campaign mode where the characters had separate interconnected stories could made the game twice as better. Its unlikely that SNK will ever remake KOF: Maximum Impact or even make another 3D installment within the King of Fighter series since 2D works better for series.