The game's presentation drew mixed reactions. While "Pure Nintendo" enjoyed the character designs, backgrounds, and theme songs, "IGN" said these elements appeared dated due to similarities with those of previous installments and the improved graphics of new consoles. "GameSpot" said while SNK attempted to improve the designs of the characters, the quality was still not as appealing as it should have been and that the background stages felt hollow. Echoing "IGN" comments, "Bonus Stage" stated that despite being a fighting game, the plot amazed fans because of the further exploration of NESTS organization, which is briefly explored in "The King of Fighters '99", and said the game's storyline offers such an appealing dark ending that most of the fans wanted to play the following and final game from the NESTS saga to see its conclusion. "HardcoreGaming" found the PlayStation 2 port of the game superior to the Dreamcast version because the former fixed some slowdown issues and said Kyo Kusnagai's theme "Goodbye Esaka" was one of the best themes performed by SNK.