The King of Fighters EX2: Howling Blood
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Hudson Soft (Extreme)
| The King of Fighters EX2: Howling Blood | |
|---|---|
 Cover of The King of Fighters EX2: Howling Blood featuring Kyo Kusanagi | |
| Developers | Marvelous Entertainment (GBA) Hudson Soft (Extreme) |
| Publisher | Atlus |
| Series | The King of Fighters |
| Platforms | Game Boy Advance N-Gage |
| Release | Game Boy Advance January 1, 2003 (Japan) December 11, 2003 (North America)[1] N-Gage January 31, 2005 |
| Genre | Fighting |
| Modes | Single-player, multiplayer |
The King of Fighters EX 2 Howling Blood (KOF EX 2) is a fighting game developed by Marvelous Entertainment for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance. It is a spin-off of SNK's The King of Fighters series and acts as a sequel to The King of Fighters EX: Neo Blood. Despite taking graphics, characters and audio from The King of Fighters 2000, the game features an original storyline that focuses on Kyo Kusanagi and his allies in stopping the revival of the demon Yamata no Orochi from Heavenly Kings.[1] It was announced for a 2003 release in the same console.[2] The game was also ported to the N-Gage under the name The King of Fighters Extreme.[3] Hudson Soft developed the game, and it was published by Nokia in Europe.[4]
Critical response to The King of Fighters EX2: Howling Blood and Extreme has been generally positive as a result of its accessible and improved content over the previous Game Boy Advance game. However, critics still found issues with the presentation and lack of innovation.
Plot and characters
The game is modelled after The King of Fighters 2000 but without the NESTS narrative and instead focuses on the Orochi arc. It was developed by Marvelous Entertainment.[5] Atlus published the game in Western regions.[6] Similar to most The King of Fighters titles, the game fights using special moves and combos to defeat the enemies. The player uses team of three members to defeat the opponent's teams. The player is also assisted by supporting "Strikers" to defeat the enemies. For the Extreme version, defeating the final boss requires using only one character.[3]
Set after the events of The King of Fighters EX: Neo Blood, a new tournament is formed with the host being one of Orochi's assistant, Sinobu Amou, who wishes to revive Goenitz. Kyo Kusanagi and the rest of the Sacred Treasures Teams in charge of sealing Orochi in The King of Fighters '97 participate in the tournament to stop Goenitz's revival. The game features 21 playable characters, an arcade mode, a story mode, a single player and two player mode.[7]
The cast includes:
- Hero Team
- Kyo Kusanagi
- Moe Habana
- Reiji Oogami
- Fatal Fury Team
- Art of Fighting Team
- Ikari Warriors Team
- Psycho Soldiers Team
- Korea Team
- Yagami Team
- Boss
- Sinobu Amou