The King of Fighters 2001: Debt, Bankruptcy, and Super Cancels 

I really love weird messy gaming history like this. I'd always known about the anecdote about Angel's creation but to learn it was actually between Evoga & Eolith during the messy post-bankruptcy era adds a whole new layer to it. Really happy SNK has stayed alive to this day given their multiple bankruptcies.

I really really liked KOF2001. I Played it a lot in one of those arcade boards with losta games in them..fun times. And it has wakamoto as the final boss. Cant complain about that voice. Even if lovable Ignis was busted AF.

You gotta love how SNK has such a bad luck to go bankrupt and a good luck to stay alive at the same time... Is technically s miracle they still exists to this day

While i agree that players can still pick this game up and have fun, it's a huge step back in quality especially when you compare it to KOF 2000, which perfected the Striker mechanics imo (and is more similar to MVC in that regard), which is off since KOF games that built off foundations of others are meant to be improvements so this really stood out like a sore thumb. Great video, love the documentary on it's development cycle

Great video, funny tho this was uploaded on KOF's 30th anniversary

As much as this game was a huge problem and a 1/2 from the ugly art style to the gameplay mixed up being very awkward and it feeling like a not good KOF game at least it gave us Angel and several years in the future, we got a cool version of the character who looked like a certain character from a certain movie but now he looks cool back so I guess there's something.

Not one of my favorites, but i'm glad that this game came out, kof was still alive and kickin'.

There was a King Of Fighters 2001 port for the Playstation 2. I'm not 100% sure but I wanna say I had a 2001/2002 combo for ps2 but that might have been a Japanese exclusive.

2001 was the first KOF I played. I really liked it and it got me into the series. Make sure to pour one out for lovable Igniz the next time you're hanging with your fellow snoop dogs.

10:27 KOF 2001's PS2 port made it overseas, but through a combo pack with KOF 2000.

*a little bit more trivia 11:10 Not only K-9999 heavily resemble Shima Tetsuo, but he also *VOICED* by Shima Tetsuo VA himself, Sasaki Nozomu. Simply because SNK staff are Tetsuo fans, until they forgot they literally make Tetsuo in the game rather than make a character homage to Tetsuo

I can't hate KOF 2001 Especially after knowing the development and behind the scenes stories One thing KOF 2001 did great, was balancing the strikers thanks to the bars In KOF 2000, the strikers broke the game (especially Joe) to the point that some countries made in house rules to play 2000 at competitive level Another thing I like about KOF 2001 is that you can choose how many characters you want to play and how many strikers you want Depending of how many strikers you have, the characters make more or less damage I usually play with 2 characters and 2 strikers If only KOF 2001 had an update version to fix all the other issues And this is something that SNK (and Eolith) should have realised, annual releases was not a good idea Sure it worked in the 90s but most of those games were rushed and suffered because of that especially in the NESTS Saga games KOF 2003 was the last game with a year in the title because SNK Playmore finally realised that annual releases were no longer ideal (and also the fact that the MVS system was very obsolete to make new games)

Kof 2000 for me was the peak SNK before it's downfall. The drawing is the best, the music is the best. And then come kof 2001

Hate to say that this is 2nd favorite KOF game for the Neo-Geo despite its graphics and music. I like the gameplay mechanics alot and yes I found Angel an appealing character just like how Iori was in KOF 95. Plus my Dreamcast port KOF 01 is my cherished Dreamcast fighter.

2001 is a mess of a game and pales in comparison to the other NESTS titles however it’s still a fun SNK fighting game in that 90s unbalanced ¥100 munching arcade way. The story behind it too makes it worth playing. Thanks for giving 01 a bit of love.

2001 will always be my favourite entry of the series

Oh snk, i hope they dont go bankrupt another time

KoF 2001 absolutely was released here in the states after its worldwide arcade debut, well before the aforementioned Switch release. It was eventually packaged alongside KoF 2000 for the PS2. The release was actually kinda of a BIG deal at the time here in the west since it was their first US published product after SNK Playmore reformed a US publishing arm under the new name SNK Neo Geo USA Consumer Corporation after the closure of the old SNK USA branch. The US arm would eventually rebrand to simply SNK Playmore USA before quietly dissolving once again after the end of the 6th console gen. I still have my KoF 2001 trading cards that were available thru mail order upon the games purchase 😅

I literally have KoF 2k1 on my western PS2. Europe is west. Poland is west! BTW PS2 version has remade backgrounds and character's artworks!

Thats hella hype, i didn't know that about Angel 😂 👏 a desperate ass-pull created a freakin' icon 🤣

Man, this is a great video!!! Fast, concise, and bloody interesting, this is outstanding! Bonus points for Pop Team Epic. I lived just north of Mexico for about 13 years, but I had no idea that KOF was so popular there. It makes sense though from a cultural perspective. Between this and your last video on Amingo, I guess you're on a southwestern kick. Follow it up with a screening of Guillermo Del Toro's Cronos. It's an extremely unique take on a vampire movie. Keep up the good work man. This was a great one. 😃👍

I like how Athena and Andy look in KOF 2001 Short hair Athena is underrated 😊 (Also, she got Psychic 9, easily her best Desperation Move) While I am not a fan of Andy- I have to admit he looks cool in 2001 About K9999 I actually like his design He looks like a fusion between Tetsuo Shima (AKIRA) and Chirico Cuvie (Armored Troopers VOTOMS) Nothing against Krohnen but I do miss his short hair and seeing his face. Something interesting is that Krohnen's official nickname is 'The Exceptional Esper' Esper was the name for those kids with psychic powers in AKIRA SNK REALLY LOVES AKIRA And I am not talking about K9999, Kyo's prototype design was Kaneda The Japan Stage in KOF 94 is Neo Tokyo the music for one of the stages in KOF 97 sounds similar to a track from AKIRA The prototype design for Chris was based on Akira (the character) in one of the covers of the manga where Akira wears an uniform with a cape The Zero Cannon from KOF 2000 is a reference to the SOL cannon from AKIRA Syo Kirishima, a striker in KOF 2000 (and the prototype design for Kyo) is voiced by Mitsuo Iwata, the same man who voiced Kaneda The more I think of it, the more I believe K9999 was not something Eolith ordened Brezzasoft to make. Instead, I think Brezzasoft made K9999 the way he is on purpose.

Small correction. Kof 2001 didn’t come out right before kof2002UM. 2002UM came out in 2009 years after kof 11 and months before kof 12. The original kof 2002 was not received that well so things didn’t get better for them after 2001. Not immediately. Other than that great research and video. Oh and I don’t know the real story but sadly apparently the angel origin story is a myth. It’s not true. Her and k9999 make a good pair in that regard.

Regardin' the start bit, 2002 Unlimited Match wasn't right after 2001, that'd be a crazy huge glow-up if it were, haha. 2002 UM came out in 2009. Not tryin' to sound rude, you did make it clear you were a casual fan which is chill, but was just a little bit I wanted to point out. 2002/2002 UM are different games

Very inteeresting read. Thank you for this.

After SNK went bankrupt, outsourced titles like KOF 2001-2002 and Samurai Shodown V/V Special were made without the dev kits and instead used ROM hack-like development on decompiled ROMs.

2001 was very peculiar in my experience. The arcade version was quite populated by a lot of strong players. It wasn't as popular as the other fighters, but it was fairly crowded with people pulling off a lot of fun combos. We also had 2000 and that's the one I stuck with since everyone moved on to the newer game. Personally I wasn't a fan of the art nor the music, but you're right in that at least, it does feel pretty KOF (if a good bit weird. Like making charge characters have motions the way Chang and Heidern did for example). I wanna also say Maxima's counter wire Vapor Cannon here involves you having to activate his Guard Point/Autoguard off the heavy punch Vapor Cannon? I'm not entirely sure at this point, has been a while but that's how they implement it in the newer games (it's still a thing in XV but more consistent in a sense heh) Also Nona, the artist of that game, I don't think his style is *that* bad but it was definitely mad weird for this entry. While I feel he got better in SVC Chaos, we still see his art nowadays in the ending cutscenes since XI (as well as doing art for that indie TMNT x Justice League game). Fun video!

KOF 2001 gave us Angel 🥰 That is enough reason to not hating it 😁 I do also like K9999, May Lee, Original Zero and Igniz I like the electric techno soundtrack 🎵 Queen of Fighters, NESTS Ruler of the Dark, Psychic Guys, All OK!, 0, I am the Strongest, My Whip are great tracks About the in game arts, I am a fan of Nona I like the cartoony/anime artstyle Xiangfei and K9999's winner arts are excellent Sure, some characters look weird but still, I prefer 2001 arts over 2003's generic anime art style

Others have already said what I'm gonna say but it needs addressing: Kof 2001 on PS2 did get a western release, bundled with kof 2000 the US and the UK. I had it. Also the games before KOF 2002 "unlimited match" would have been Kof Neowave, kofXI or maximum impact 2, NOT 2001. KOF 2002UM was many years after 2001, 2002, and 2003. I know you said you were casual, so I get the confusion but facts are facts.

From my totally anecdotal experience in my city Rio de Janeiro, KOF 2001 was very successful around here (as any new KoF was back in the day, but still). It was totally totally eclipsed by 2002 when it came out though, as expected. The overall feeling about it is that it is bugged and unbalanced. The people who like the striker mechanic prefer to play KoF 2000.

I personally recommend watching Persona Cafe's combo video of 2001 to understand what the game really plays like and how it should be done, the cmv with TM Revolution is another good one To anyone who didn't end up enjoying it, hopefully it can help change your perception of the game. 😊

This game is extremely ugly and the soundtrack is a collection of noises in succession

8:35 Well, Idk if this a true mechanic in the game but depending on how much playable characters you have on your team, your character's strength also changes. A 1 playable with 3 strikers has more health and does more damage than 4 playable, zero strikers. I don't know if this true however

Great video!!!

probably one of the most interesting games in the series, up there with 2000 (for similar, though more depressing bankruptcy reasons). honestly don't think the game deserves the wrap it had for a while.

this kof is underrated due to its bad presentation but the mechanics make it still great even better nowadays with our better understanding of fg mechanics , you should have covered the console port which was refresehd with new graphics to see the love this game was given by devs

2001 was released in the west on the PS2 in the form of the 2000/2001 double pack. It had extra strikers for 2000, but it lacked the arranged music for 2001, and both were laggy as fuck. K9999 has the same voice actor as Tetsuo, so it's def not a coincidence. Also, CvS2 was NOT successful. It was one of the main reasons Capcom largely wrapped up it's fighting game production by the next year.

Who the hell was buying an AES in 2001?

Anyone know where i can find that footage featuring capcoms offices

KoF 2002 Unlimited* Match

Being mexican of course they won lol so true

Never understood why it took them so much money to develop such a simple 2d fighting game. When western gaming studios can easily churn out 3d triple A titles yearly. Most of its core system mechanics and existing character sprites are recycled every year. What's really so hard in designing a few new sprites, frame animations, music, stage graphics and character portraits? A hardcore enthusiast can probably even solo dev a new entry in a couple of months all by himself. The japanese are simply unproductive and inept in optimizing resources and efficiency. I can imagine an entire studio pretending to work overtime just to look like they're hard at work.

I hate 2001 with every bone in my body from the portraits to the music just 100% trash worst kof game

this games soundtrack is terrible, almost as bad as alpha 3's, gameplay is pretty good tho, and it has may lee