Kizuna Encounter: Super Tag Battle

• Release Date: 1996
• Genre: Fighting
• Style: 2D Fighting
• Similar Games: Savage Reign (Arcade), X-Men vs. Street Fighter (Arcade), Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes (Arcade), Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (Arcade)

Game Description

Kizuna Encounter is a 2D fighting game from SNK that's a pseudosequel to Savage Reign. Along with Capcom's X-Men vs Street Fighter, it has distinction of being the first tag team fighting game. While SNK's earlier King of Fighters '94 was a group battle in the sense that players chose multiple fighters for combat, Kizuna Encounter is a true tag team match with players being able to tag players back and forth during the game.

Players have a selection of ten armed fighters, from which two must be selected. Before each round players must select the character that fights first, and the order can be reversed in subsequent rounds. The fight takes place on a single 2D plane, with the two active fighters in the foreground and the two inactive members in the background.

Each two-fighter team has a small square of ground on their side of the stage that's colored differently, that's the tag area. Anytime a fighter is on his or her team's tag area a tag can be performed, which involves the active character jumping into the background and the inactive character jumping in and becoming active.

Each fighter has a health bar that initially starts fully yellow. Underneath the yellow bar there's another red bar. To defeat the fighter both the yellow and red bars must be empty. In other words the health bar must drained twice for a fighter to lose. It's not necessary to defeat both fighters on a team in order to win a tag match. When a fighter from one side is defeated that team loses even if the other fighter is at full health. The other way a match can end is when the clock runs down; in that case the active fighter with the higher health is considered to have won.

Roots & Influences

Kizuna Encounter was an experiment in gameplay using the characters from a previous SNK game, Savage Reign. The tagging system is entirely new to the fighting game world, and was introduced by this game and Capcom's X-Men vs Street Fighter.

Review: Overall

Kizuna Encounter can't help but be compared to Capcom's X-Men vs Street Fighter game. They were concurrently developed and released in the same year, yet both are different takes on the tag team concept. Each has strengths and weaknesses, but ultimately they're both different enough that the comparison isn't really fair.

The tagging system in Kizuna Encounter is really novel. Instead of going the XvSF approach where you can tag anywhere and have to defeat both fighters to win, you only have to defeat one in this game. In fact, with luck and strategy you may never have to face the opposing second fighter. Conversely you could get screwed and never be able to bring out your second fighter. The tag zone, which a fighter must be in to tag, is fairly small and located about halfway between the stage center and the corner for each team. So cornering your opponent and keeping the fighter from being able to reach his or her team tag zone is a surprisingly effective strategy. On the other hand very offensive players may want to be careful, as they can easily be trapped in the opposing corner and have to fight their way back out to tag. When the opposing fighter's strength is low you also have to watch out for tag attacks when you wander into their tag zone. The choice of limiting tags to small zones really adds to the amount of strategy in jockeying for position.

The game's actual fighting system, however, doesn't live up to the cleverness of its tagging system. The ten characters each have a standard set of moves, as well as a desperation move that can be pulled with a low health bar. There are no power meters to charge or stocks to carry over. Compared to other fighters being released in 1996 the fighting system seems almost primitive. Some of the characters are pretty poorly thought out, with Joker being a prime example, and most of them feel pretty shallow.

Game graphics are fairly good. The characters are animated pretty well, and they're screen dominatingly massive. While all the characters do look pretty smooth in their movements, a lot more time was given to animating Rosa and Kim, with the result being these two fighters move particularly fluidly. There's a lot of detail to the characters, but the real stars are the stage backgrounds. Although there aren't many backgrounds, they all have a lot of detail to them, have well planned and executed layers of parallax, and in general look excellent.

Kizuna Encounter's sound and music are typically average. The sound effects are the sort of standard clips that you would expect to hear from an average fighter. They do their job, but aren't impressive. With one exception, none of the musical tracks really stand out. Oddly, the one track that isn't instantly forgettable only plays during the ending credits sequences. Most players will probably skip the ending credits or just turn the Neo Geo off after they win, so the game's best track will go unappreciated by many.

Kizuna Encounter shows a great deal of improvement over its non-tag predecessor Savage Reign. While the fighting system itself isn't very deep, the strategy involved in the tagging system should keep most gamers interested.

Review: Enjoyment

Even though the fighting system isn't very deep, the strategy involved in tagging is great

Review: Graphics

Large characters who move well fighting in a series of good looking backgrounds

Review: Sound

Average sounds with one notable tune

Review: Replay Value

Ten characters are pretty slim, but there's a lot to explore in tagging

Review: Documentation

Adequate documentation

---

Copyright © 2012 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Game Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.

---