With King of Fighters '98: Ultimate Match recently hitting the XBLA, eager early adopters might be slightly confused and disappointed. For those who've already purchased the game, you might be aware that the entire game isn't in English with parts of the game, such as the win quotes, appearing in Japanese. So what's the reasoning behind this shenanigan? The answer's really quite simple; this version is actually a port of the Japanese arcade version. And now you know.

Did you play The King of Fighters ‘98: Ultimate Match on Xbox Live Arcade? It’s only partially translated into English.

That screenshot is from the US version of the game. The decision not to “translate” victory quotes and some menu descriptions baffles me since an English version of The King of Fighters ‘98: Ultimate Match exists. It just came out on PS2! OK, even if Ignition, the company that published the KOF ‘98: Ultimate Match internationally, owned the rights to that translation SNK could have used text from King of Fighters ‘98.

The simple answer to the question is the Xbox Live Arcade version is a port of the Japanese arcade game and I understand these aren’t game breaking bugs, but SNK could have treated the XBLA version better.

McClubbin via siliconera.com »