The King of Fighters: Maximum Impact Maniax
  

 
 
STORY:  Addis was the most powerful gang in Southtown. Its leader, a man known only as Fate, was considered a modern-day Robin Hood to the poor and downtrodden. He himself had adopted two twin brothers, Alba and Soiree Meira, and trained them to be successors to his legacy. Six months before the in-game events, Fate is killed by Duke, the leader of the up-and-coming Mephistopheles gang. Duke then proceeds to exploit the poor to serve his own twisted thirst for power.

In the present day, the Mephistopheles Fighting Tournament is beginning, with the venue being all of Southtown. The participants ( Minus the Meira Brothers and Lien.) believe that the tournament is being sponsored by a charity organization known as the Metatron Foundation, but they soon learn that its true sponsor is the Mephistopheles gang. However for Alba Soiree and Lien they are contacted directly by Hyena so they know Metatron has nothing to do with this.

 

MANIAX updates the selection screen design... improvement!

   
REVIEW
The last time I checked, MANIAX is not a word... not a good start, guys. I'm guessing SNK was thinking something along the lines of "WE were MANIA(CS) for giving the characters in KOF: Maximum Impact English voices." Thus, the Xbox version of Maximum Impact fixed the terrible English voices that cursed the PS2 version, and put them back the way they should be... Japanese. Thankfully, the characters sound like themselves again. Now, Maximum Impact at least seems like it's a "3D KOF game," instead of something from the twilight zone.

 

Lien's about to land a nasty wall combo.

 

The Xbox version has slightly better graphics than the PS2 original, and also supports online play (for the 5 people in the world who actually want to play this game online). It might be entertaining to try out your favorite KOF characters in 3D for a little while, but the gameplay of Maximum Impact seems to be lost somewhere "in-between" 2D and 3D. After playing this, it kind of made me want to play either a traditional 2D fighting game or a (real) 3D fighting game. 


The core gameplay is all about combos and juggles, and maybe some projectile wars for fun... but that's about it. You can also sidestep, though it's not very useful. MANIAX also has an exclusive mode that lets you pause the game and rotate the camera around the action. You can even snap a picture of the action, and the in-game effects actually look relatively cool when paused. It's possibly the most fun part about the entire damn game, and that's pretty sad.
 

I've seen better Power Geysers in my day... just sayin'.

 

Page Updated: December 14th, 2019
Developer(s): SNK Playmore
Publisher(s): SNK Neo Geo
Artwork by: Falcoon   (Initial design only, not CG renders)
Platform(s): Xbox, PS2, PSN
Release Date(s): June 28th, 2005    Xbox
Feb. 18th, 2015
     PSN
Characters Alba Meira, Soiree Meira, Lien Neville, Chae Lim, Mignon Beart, Kyo Kusanagi, Iori Yagami, Terry Bogard, Ryo Sakazaki, Ralf Jones, Clark Still, Yuri Sakazaki, Athena Asamiya, K', Maxima, Rock Howard, Leona Heidern, Seth, Duke

.

Featured Video:

Related Games: KOF: Maximum Impact, KOF: Maximum Impact 2, KOF: Maximum Impact Regulation A, KOF '94, KOF '94: Re-bout, KOF '95, KOF '96, KOF '97, KOF '98, KOF '98 Ultimate Match, KOF '99, KOF 2000, KOF 2001, KOF 2002, KOF 2002 Unlimited Match, KOF 2003, KOF XI, KOF XII, KOF XIII, KOF XIV, KOF XV, KOF EX Neo Blood, KOF EX2 Howling Blood, KOF R1, KOF R2, KOF Collection: Orochi Saga, Street Fighter EX, Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition, Final Fight: Revenge, Kenichi
  

Gameplay Engine  5.0 / 10
Story / Theme  5.0 / 10
Overall Graphics  7.0 / 10
Animation  6.5 / 10
Music / Sound Effects  7.5 / 10
Innovation  5.0 / 10
Art Direction  5.0 / 10
Customization  6.5 / 10
Options / Extras  6.5 / 10
Intro / Presentation  5.5 / 10
Replayability / Fun  5.5 / 10
"Ouch" Factor  6.0 / 10
Characters  4.5 / 10
BOTTOM LINE

 5.8 / 10

 

 

Final Words:

MANIAX is definitely a better version than the original, but that's really not saying much. The roster is still uninspiring, along with the gameplay... you'd think they'd add an extra character or two for this "updated" version.... Nope! The sequel, Maximum Impact 2 ended up being a more complete game.
~TFG Webmaster | @Fighters_Gen  
 
 

 
FOLLOW    ON:                            
TFG NEWS CHARACTERS GAMES