Hello, this is Kenneth$2 and today I'm going to do a review on The King Of Fighters 97 (NES, Rex Soft).   Is it good or is it a piece of junk?
Read the review to find out.

Graphics - 8

Okay, the graphics aren't too bad - the graphics are actually reasonably good for a NES pirate.  The characters LOOK like the characters seen in the King Of Fighters 95 game and both the graphics and the characters are reasonably well detailed.

Sound - 9 

Wow.......the sound (on King Of Fighters 97, NES, Rex Soft) is actually really good for a NES pirate (and that's saying a lot, considering how pirated video games sound like (most of the time)).  I actually felt like dancing to this, because it's actually THAT good.  There are six main themes in this NES pirate: the Women Fighters Team Theme, the Garou Densetsu Theme, the Ryuuko no Ken theme, the Arashi no Saxophone theme, the Saisyu Kusanagi Theme and the Desert Requiem Theme (never mind that they're the themes from KOF 95, but whatever, they are still pretty awesome to listen to).  There's also the Title Theme, the Character Select Screen Theme, the Opponent Defeated Theme, the Rugal Cutscene Theme and the Rugal Defeated Theme.  That's 11 pieces of music in total!    My favorite soundtrack in this NES pirate would be a tie between the Arashi no Saxophone theme and the Women Fighters Team Theme and my least favorite soundtrack would be the Saisyu Kusanagi theme - because THAT theme's kinda repetitive (for my tastes, though it's still pretty good; at least I think it's pretty good).   The Title Theme also got my attention because THAT theme is also pretty awesome to listen to.   

Addictiveness - 7

Yes, there's EIGHT characters to select from; they are Kyo Kusanagi, Mai Shiranui, Ralf (from Ikari Warriors), Clark (also from Ikari Warriors), Andy Bogard, Choi Bounge, Robert Garcia,  Chin Gentsai and Eiji Kisasagi.  They are different in moves and movesets - but there is one problem with that, as you will see if you try to play this game.  There's Single VS (which pits a human against a human), Single All (which pits you against all the characters that are available in KOF 97 for the NES), Team Mode and Team All (which I probably don't need to explain what they are).

Story - 7

The story is that Rugal Bernstein (or just Rugal in this game) has organized a tournament containing the most powerful fighters and you, as the player, have to defeat Rugal (which can be easy or not so easy, depending on the character you chose).  The story is also in surprisingly good "engrish".  

Difficulty - 5

I'm going to say this right now - the difficulty REALLY depends on whenever you choose the character or not and the character you're fighting against.  If you're Andy Bogard or Choi Bounge, then you'll generally have a really easy time.  If you're not either of those two characters - you might have a harder time.   However, while the regular moves work, the specials DO NOT (either that, or they require some really precise moves to pull off).  That isn't too much of a problem if you're Andy Bogard or Choi Bounge, because Andy can duck under his own projectiles (despite it clipping his head), Robert's and Rugal's.  Choi is a force to be reckoned with in this game - he's short enough that he doesn't even need to duck under Rugal's, Robert's and Andy's projectiles - Andy's, Robert's and Rugal's projectiles completely MISS Choi even when he's standing up - he's that small!  To sum it up, Choi Bounge is probably the most to be reckoned in this NES pirate - that is, unless his opponent is Mai or Kyo (because those two fighter's projectiles are low enough that they can hit him).   The funny thing is, that, if you block, any projectile goes through you without damaging you (most of the time, anyway).   So yeah, blocking does work reasonably well.  
However, I was able to go through the entire game with Andy Bogard (by duck kicking the opponents to death) without losing once.  I was also able to go through the entire game with Choi Bounge (because, seriously, he's THAT short in this game) by just walking up to the opponent and by clawing them to death (I only lost once; it was against Kyo).  The A.I. in this game is pretty stupid, too - if you position yourself just right (and you're not facing Mai or Kyo), the A.I. will continuously jump against the wall or punch/kick at the air like the A.I's an idiot (until time runs out).  I guess A.I. should stand for Alzheimer's Initiative in this game, because the A.I. reacts rather poorly to duck kick attacks and claw attacks.  Even A.I. Rugal is really easy (as long as you aren't Ralf, Clark or Robert), because he'll continue to let himself be kicked around like an idiot by your duck kicks or claw attacks.  A.I Rugal is even easier as Choi -  because, remember, Choi's short enough that he can stand up and have Rugal's projectiles completely miss him and since A.I. Rugal is just as stupid as the rest of the A.I. characters, that means he'll get knocked out easy-peasy!   I suppose if you do TRY to play it properly, it might be frustrating (or try to play as anybody other than Choi).  Most characters's standing kicks and punches MISS Choi too - the only way Choi can get hit (by most of the characters in this game), is by duck kicking, duck punching or by jump attacks.  One other thing: you walk really slow but jump really fast (some people might think you jump TOO fast).  Yes, everybody jumps differently.  However, I do have to mention one thing: the glitches.  Oooh boy.....the glitches - they're kind of bad in this one.  In Team Mode, the characters morph into RANDOM CHARACTERS (because the game is apparently really glitchy in Team Mode) and other random glitches too.  It's like the Game Graphic Glitch Gremlin (of AVGN fame) decided to inhabit THIS pirate and mess up the game - not too badly, mind you, but I thought I'd warn you of it.

Depth - 3

I do not rate the depth very high (because of the fact you can just claw through everybody as Choi without much resistance) and the fact that the endings do not differ at all.  Yes, everybody has their cutscenes, but I don't really care about that too much.

Overall - 6

If the controls had been smoothed out and the glitches fixed, then this would've been a decent game. I mean, most of the music is pretty awesome and the graphics aren't too bad (provided they don't glitch out in Team Mode).  As it is.....it's just meh.