This is a really simple hack that essentially:
-Enables the modest amount of blood that gets displayed when attacks with cutting properties connect
-Enables the tremendous amount of extra animation for Mai
-(Optional) Restores Whip's vengeful spirit in her ending (Choose the Muchiko Edition of the patch)
These items were in the original Japanese release, but were censored by default for international releases, which was somewhat traditional for SNK during this era.
The European release re-enables the first 2 items, but has some flaws. For example, when Mai's sprite mirrors, such as when an opponent jumps over her and changes sides, or she does, she will all of sudden become incredibly stiff.
This patch does not exhibit those issues, and also has the further benefit of not having a 50 Hz / 60 Hz prompt at the start, and does not include a boot menu to choose between KoF 2000 and 2001. So if you're more of a fan of 2000, and really dislike 2001, then this is the patch for you.
With 1.1 this should now offer a full restoration of the original content.
King of Fighters 2000 (USA) - Uncensored
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This is a really simple hack that essentially:
1. Enables the modest amount of blood that gets displayed when attacks with cutting properties connect
2. Enables the tremendous amount of extra animation for Mai
3. (Optional) Restores Whip's vengeful spirit in her ending
These items were in the original Japanese release, but were censored by default for international releases, which was somewhat traditional for SNK during this era.
The European release re-enables items 1 and 2, but has some flaws. For example, when Mai's sprite mirrors, such as when an opponent jumps over her and changes sides, or she does, she will all of sudden become incredibly stiff.
This patch does not exhibit those issues, and also has the further benefit of not having a 50 Hz / 60 Hz prompt at the start, and does not include a boot menu to choose between KoF 2000 and 2001. So if you're more of a fan of 2000, and really dislike 2001, then this is the patch for you.
What doesn't this do?
-It also doesn't unlock the extra strikers or Zero for play in Practice and Versus. If you want those, I'd recommend just getting a US save file, which are commonly available and easy to convert and transfer.
Why Kof 2000 on PS2?
Generally, I think this is one of the best versions of the game. It's:
-native 240p output, which is great for a CRT
-actually a port instead of emulation, so it takes advatage of some extra PS2 horse power, draws natively, and feels solid overall for it (technically they do have some 68k translation code in there, but it's otherwise mostly ported)
-outfitted with an arrange soundtrack, which is absolutely killer. It's in many ways like an extension of what the NGCD version could have been, but without any cuts are eggregious load times. They do give you the option for the original soundtrack as well.
-got upgraded voice samples. KoF2K was notorious for all the extra strikers it had, and the tremdnous amount of v rom it took up on the Neo Geo as a result. The Neo Geo was limited in its sample output though, but hte PS2 is not, so pretty much all of the samples are of a much higher quality, and I think this might be one of the only original KoF games that got this treatment on any platform. It sounds really good.
-got more strikers than any other version of the game. Not only are the Maniax strikers unlocked to start, and no code is required, there are even more strikers that are unlocked with party mode.
If this game had one flaw, it was that it was censored in the US. Well, now you can have your cake and eat it too with this little patch.
The character sprites do have a very, very light filter applied to them, but it's not as aggressive as it was in the atomiswave games, or the Xbox ports. It's more along the lines of the lighter filter options in the later PS2 games that let you toggle between 6 different settings.
How to Install?
If you just want blood and glory, the basic patch is for you. If you want the blood and glory, and you want Whip's original ending as well, choose the Muchiko Edition, which would liekly be considered the full uncensored version (not sure if anyone has made a patch liek this for any edition of the game, could be wrong). Only use one patch or the other.
This is an xDelta patch, so just use your favorite patching utility (like xDeltaUI), and use it on a redump verified version of the King of Fighters 2000 (USA) ISO.
Nice and easy. Works on real hardware from my testing, so go to town, and enjoy one of the best and somewhat overlooked KoFs out there.
Additional Notes:
The PS4 version (which is the PS2 game emulated) is the censored version. If Sony or SNK just wanted to use this simple patch for that version of the game, they can feel free, and don't need to credit me or anything like that. An easy fix while you guys are working on fixing up how it works on the PS5 (which seems to have a lot of visual artifacts at the time of this writing).
No database match.
File/ROM SHA-1: 5C73108A87E029C4DB64E71A9FFE8626B28E3BC1
File/ROM CRC32: D2B483AA
