Back in the summer, SNK Playmore released The King of Fighters XII to both Japan and America and the response from gamers and reviewers have been very negative. Sales have been poor and it has just been reported that the game got dropped to under the equivalent of $11 at a Japanese retailer in order to get rid of the game. I imagine with poor sales all around, that we’ll see this game in American bargain bins during the holidays.

I enjoyed battle system that featured mechanics both familiar and unique to the franchise and most of my favorite characters were in the game. I felt that this was one of the more balanced fighting games released in the past few years and I appreciate that the battle systems was built for players to win on their skill and experience as opposed to spamming moves or using broken characters. I played this game over the weekend and I still like it as much as I did when I first got it.

Unfortunately, the game was lacking in a lot of content. The single player mode is barely existent with it being a boss-less time trial mode. A noticeable amount of fan favorites(Mai, Kula, and K’ for example) are missing. And did I mention that there is no boss!? SNK fighting games are notorious for not having a final boss fight that is so ridiculous and unfair that you’ll spend 30-60 minutes cussing up a storm while you try to beat it. And when you beat it, you feel like you just took down God himself; it’s an awesome moment! Now it’s gone.

The characters that did make it into the game seem to be missing animations and signature moves. Previous installments of the games would have taunts, special intros based on who was squaring off, multiple victory poses, and other animations that happened during the matches that brought more life to the characters. In earlier games, characters had about half a dozen “special” moves and two or three “desperation” moves. Now these moves are cut into half for each character.

SNK said they were going to go back to the basics, but even the first game in there series offered more than this. Many players feel that having less special and desperation moves cut on the game’s depth, but I really think the franchise was layering more and more mechanics on top of each other and it became more complex for players outside the hardcore crowd. However, the game definitely feels rushed. Four to six more months of development would have made a big difference.

SNK could have reinvented the franchise for a more causal crowd that that doesn’t want to spend as much time mastering the battle system and characters as they would in a game like Street Fighter IV or BlazBlue. However, they stumbled on that too. It isn’t really explained how critical counters, guard attacks, and move cancels work in the actual game, and with no story or any of the other flare that the KOF series is known for(like a real single player experience), they don’t do well to get that crowd into the game either.

It is really hard to tell who SNK was making the game for, because it’s not like new fans got into that game and many existing ones didn’t like this one as much as previous entries. I do think a lot of criticism for that game was a bit harsh, especially since so much undeserved praise has been given to Street Fighter IV this year. Despite the comparable lack of fan service and content KOF XII has, it’s a more balanced game and controls better than SFIV, and I have a lot more fun playing KOF XII too. Though like SFIV, I wouldn’t call KOF XII “Fighting Game of the Year” either.

The King of Fighters franchise is on the ropes right now. With poor sales and reception of their biggest release in a while, along with an upcoming live action movie that may just make Legend of Chun-Li look like a masterpiece(okay, that was an exaggeration), SNK really needs to come out swinging in their next game. There is some good ground laid with the current battle system. Now they need to build on it by adding in more characters and moves, include an explanation of how to play the game, and add a more rewarding and deeper single player experience.

The series is not dead yet, but it’s advertised “re-birth” was definitely premature.

(You probably noticed that I didn’t mention anything online. I’ll explain why that matters little next time.)