This is an Updated Re Release of KOF: Maximum Impact 2, designed for competitive play in arcades. Primary changes are dedicated to character balances, with only four newcomers: Blue Mary and Ash Crimson from the main series, Xiao Lon, a half-sister of Duo Lon, and Mizoguchi, a guest character from the Fighter's History series.
The core gameplay is mostly identical to the previous game, but Regulation A shakes things up a bit by featuring the 3-on-3 gameplay of the main series to the front, which was originally reduced to an option for Versus Mode in Maximum Impact 2. However, Regulation A does not include some contents from Maximum Impact 2, including hidden stages and character costumes.
Regulation A is the last game of the Maximum Impact series. While there was some talk about sequels from SNK, with an announcement in Tokyo Game Show 2007, there has been no news since.
This work shows examples of:
- Adapted Out: Regulation A removed a lot of features from Maximum Impact 2:
- Story Modes and Challenge Modes. They're simply gone.
- Character costumes. Maximum Impact 2 featured 8 different color variations for both the normal and alternative costumes of each character, which makes for 16 costumes in total. Regulation A removed the alternative costume and reduced the color variation to 4 types.
- "Armor Ralf", an Infinity +1 Sword version of Ralf, is not in Regulation A. It's likely because he's just too broken for competitive play.
- All There in the Manual: The official Japanese website
includes prologue stories for each character. Since the game has no Story Mode, this is the only way to get to know about the characters, including the newcomer Xiao Lon. - Announcer Chatter: The announcer practically waxes poetic whenever something interesting happens.
- Guest Fighter: Makoto Mizoguchi from Fighter's History appears as a secret opponent at the end of Time Attack mode. If you defeat him, he becomes playable.
- Mooks, but no Bosses: While you do fight a team consisting of Duke, Jivatma, and Nightmare Geese at the end of Time Attack mode, they're no different from the randomly generated teams you fight before them.
- No Plot? No Problem!: There's no real story to speak of — the game's only dedicated single-player mode is a Time Attack mode where you fight against several randomly generated teams.
