While the previous game was similar to Street Fighter's 6-button setup, the gameplay system of Karnov's Revenge is akin to SNK's fighting games such as Fatal Fury. Due to change of hardware to SNK's MVS platform, the control configuration was reduced from six attack buttons to just four. A new gameplay feature is introduced in the form of "one-two attacks". When the player presses a heavy attack button while performing a light attack or blocking, the interval between light attacks is reduced, making combos easier to perform. While this feature is not mentioned on the instruction card, the final page of the home Neo Geo version's manual mentions it, describing as the "one-two attack" system. All eleven fighters from the previous game return and are joined by two new characters: Yungmie, a female taekwondo exponent from Korea, and Zazie, a karate practitioner from Kenya, for a total of 13 characters. Karnov is the only returning character who was given entirely new sprites. Most of the returning characters were given new special techniques, including hidden techniques which are not listed on the instruction card. The Ox that appeared in the bonus rounds in Karate Champ appears in this game as a secret boss if the player completes the game on the Normal setting or above without losing a round. The Ox is an unplayable character.
Release
The game was originally released in Japanese arcades on March 7, 1994. The game was released for the Neo Geo home console on April 28, 1994. In addition to the ports for the Neo Geo home consoles, Karnov's Revenge was released for the Sega Saturn exclusively in Japan on July 4, 1997. The Saturn version allows players to assign all four basic attacks into a single button, which is required for certain characters in order to perform certain special moves. A Virtual Console reissue of the Neo Geo version was released for the Wii in Japan on June 8, 2010 and in North America on December 27, 2010. It was also added to Zeebo on April 23, 2010. In 2017, Hamster Corporation released the game on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, and Nintendo Switch under its Arcade Archives series.
Reception
In Japan, Game Machine listed Karnov's Revenge on their April 15, 1994 issue as being the fourth most-successful table arcade unit of the year. On release, Famicom Tsūshin scored the Neo Geo version of the game a 25 out of 40. GamePro rated it as a modest improvement over the first game, with faster-paced action but the same lack of likeable characters. However, they said the new characters are better than the old ones, especially Yungmie and her unique trait of using only her legs to attack. Nintendo Life gave it mixed reviews to both the Wii Virtual Console release and the Nintendo Switch re-release. The author Corbie Dillard praised the weak point system and one-two attacks, but remarked they aren't enough to make the game any more notable than the other average fighting games. In the other review by Dave Frear, he said that attacks often do not flow together, sometimes making button mashing more effective than planned moves. At the end of the review, he recommended playing other fighting games like Fatal Fury, Samurai Shodown, and The King of Fighters, and wrote: "Pick one of those over this rather limp and uninspired title."
