King of Fighters 2002 beta-test details

The beta version of the hotly anticipated King of Fighters 2002 has gone on public test in Neo Geo Land in Japan, proving Breza, Sun, Eolith and Playmore can indeed produce games on time between them. Excellent work!

The finalised character list has been shown for the first time. Here goes:

Kyo
Bernimaru
Goro
Terry
Andy
Joe
Ryo
Robert
Takuma
Leona
Ralf
Clark
Athena
Sie
Ching
Mai
Yuri
May
Lee
Kim
Chang
Choi
Iori
Mature
Vice
Mary
Billy
Yamazaki
Yashiro
Shermie
Chris
K
Maxima
Whip
Vanessa
Ramon
Seth
Kula
K9999
Angel

The version of Yuri here has a double dragon-punch as seen in the CVS series, and both versions of Shermie and Chris will be available.

There is a new Capcom-inspired cancel system that enables players to cancel special moves into super moves and vice versa. As we disclosed some time ago, this is a Dreammatch release of KOF and will have three playable characters per team, the same as KOF 98, as opposed to three playable characters and one non-playable striker as seen in all KOF games since 99.

It was also revealed that Rugal, reportedly the most powerful version yet seen, is the final boss.

More on all things SNK as we get them.