King Of Fighters: Heat of Battle [GameBoy]

During one of my random eBay buying sessions i started looking up KOF goodies i didn't already own.

Was quite suprised to come across the Western release of King of Fighters 96 for the GameBoy, renamed as King of Fighters Heat of Battle.

Not quite sure as to why they decided to rename it, as they did actually release KOF95, the only other official KOF for GameBoy, with it's original name in the West. But nonetheless it was pretty cool to find.

From what i remember of the Japanese version it seems, other than the language and title change, identical. Even the code to enable the hidden characters is the same. (Keep pressing select on the Takara logo.)

As you can see from the screenshot to the left there are quite a few characters in this game from 96, including a few which aren't such as Orochi Iori, Orochi Leona, and Mr.Karate.You can also pick the boss version of Chizuru (though she is called Kagura instead), and Goenitz.

Also note the SuperGameboy compatible background for the game, this changes colour depending on whether you enter the cheat code or not.

Gameplay wise it's not really that good, it's a good laugh and i think it's a decent effort for a port of an arcade game onto the GB.
As it's based on 96 the system is of course the same, A+B for body toss (aka:C+D), down+A+B to charge, and left/right+A+B to roll.

The music and backgrounds are too based on the original version of 96.

There are a few easter eggs too, for example if you check out the screen shot to the left you may notice a couple of familiar faces in the background.
Overall it's not bad, but not great either. I think it's worth picking up if you're a fan of the KOF series.

Any questions about the game, or what you think of the game yourself if you own it, feel free to add a comment and i'll try to reply as soon as i can.

(Cart image differences, don't know why they decided to put Andy there??)