King of Fighters 2000 on the Genesis is one of those ports that shouldn’t work as well as it does—somehow, SNK squeezed a decent chunk of that arcade chaos into 16-bit. You’ve got your usual suspects like Kyo and Iori throwing fire everywhere, but the real surprise is how smooth the Striker system feels here. Call in an assist mid-combo, and suddenly you’re juggling someone across the screen like it’s nobody’s business.

The pixel art’s obviously scaled back from the Neo Geo original, but the animations still have that snappy SNK weight to them. Landing a desperation move feels brutal, especially with the crunchy sound effects. Just don’t expect the AI to go easy on you—even on normal, the CPU loves to punish button mashers. I still get flashbacks to that one time Chang’s chain kept locking me in the corner.

If you’ve got a buddy around, it’s a blast for quick versus matches, though good luck agreeing on who gets to pick Rugal. This version’s rough around the edges, but it’s weirdly charming for a late-gen Genesis fighter.