Very janky and unpolished game in many ways, and although I would never recommend playing this over the remake, it still has a certain charm to it. From the creepy music and atmosphere, to the HILARIOUS dialogue and voice acting, it's just so... captivating, I guess.
I still hate the Ink Ribbon system though. Fuck that.

This game is underrated af, actually one of the best KOFs. Sure, Magaki is a bitch and the menus and backgrounds do not look good, but these are honestly very minor problems. The gameplay is a HUGE step up from 2003, from the physics to being able to actually use the tag mechanic in more creative ways now. Also it has probably one of the best OSTs in the franchise and I really like how some of the endings are linked together.

This game feels like it's in beta, it's way too fast, movement feels weird overall and a lot of the classic confirms characters used to have just don't work anymore because the physics are all fucked.
Mukai is my least favorite final boss in the franchise to fight against, too.

The fact that this game even exists is really fucking impressive.
Honestly I think the gameplay overall feels pretty good even with the useless strikers.
Zero might seem unfair at first but he has a fuck ton of punishable moves and Igniz is the hardest boss in the franchise on paper but the AI is so dumb it's really easy to cheese him.