This was already assumed but now it’s topical so I will talk about The King of Fighters XIII. SNK has announced that they will have a play test in April in Japan which leads me to believe that it’s been worked on since the last one came out.

I expect that it will be based on the engine already established in KOF XII, which didn’t do to well in terms of commercial and critical success. A lot of KOF fans were pissed and some have even swore that they have given up on the series(a threat that I am sure will be just as empty as those of the Modern Warfare 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 boycotts).

The King of Fighters XI was the reason people were excited for XII and the same reason they became disappointed. The King of Fighters 2003, which established a new tag system system for the franchise, but was not that great. But XI polished a lot of those concepts, and brought in save shifts, quick shifts, team leader desperation moves, and dream cancels that made it the most technical entry in the series. It was beautiful.

XII did a lot of new things that weren’t in the KOF series and it was a lot more basic in comparison. However, it also felt like a more balanced experience than before. There are a few gameplay tweeks to make in the engine but I feel that it is a solid start. I expect a similar jump in quality when XIII comes out because that is how it’s always been with the follow-up game.

I am going to make a wish list on the assumption that the game engine, art style, and existing character designs will not change much. I honestly don’t expect them too. I also don’t care how anyone else feels, this wish list is about how *I* feel. 

• Finish the Tales of Ash arc. We left off with Ash Crimson gaining Iori’s powers and his threats to get Kyo Kusanagi’s next. XI’s endings did good to get a lot of us excited only to be let down when XII didn’t even have a story in single player mode.
• Speaking of single player modes, the game needs an end boss! One that is challenging to fight and satisfying to beat! Either this rumored “Dark Ash” or the unrevealed leader of Those from the Past will suit me fine.
• More single player options. Time attack and Survival are standards in fighting games. The home version of XI had the challenge mode that could be used for unlocking hidden characters and other content. Something like that would be cool.
• Whatever the game mechanics, move sets, and combos may be, have a real training mode that teaches players how to take advantage of these features so they can get into the game quicker and play longer. THIS SHOULD BE IN EVERY FIGHTING GAME DAMMIT!

• Some characters need to come back. Whether it was because of their involvement in the game’s story or because they are just awesome I’d like to see the following back: K’, Kula Diamond, Oswald, and Vanessa because they are that awesome. Then Adelheid, Shion, and Chizuru because of their involvement in Tales of Ash.
• I don’t care for her but I’d like her fans to shut up this time. Please bring back Mai!
• Let’s have some standard teams again! It seems like XII axed a lot of things that made The King of Fighters stand out from other fighting games. Maybe that is why it deadpanned?
• If it doesn’t break the game engine and animations, speed up the fighting! I’m used to KOF fighters moving a little faster than they did in XII.
• Animation presentation counts. Redo all the knock out animations, finish some of the victory animations, and dammit have special introduction and victory animations for rival characters like the games used to! Also, when Terry Bogard throws his hat in the air, it should land at some point!

• When a character gets hit, I want them to look like they really felt it. Games like Art of Fighting, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, and Street FIghter III: Third Strike did this very well in their own way. This means that some animations need to be redone but I think it is work it.
• Every character needs more moves. Raiden, Duo Lon, and Elizabeth seemed to be lacking more moves than anyone else. Every character should have about 4-5 special moves and 2-3 desperation moves. It will add more variety to the fights and strategy.
• Speaking of desperation moves, I want to be able to cancel special moves to do a desperation move when I enter it’s input.
• Unlocking characters is annoying in an age where we don’t carry memory cards around and use hard drives instead.
• Even after XII’s online is patched, it still had input lag. Please switch to GGPO! It works!

• Why do Sousai cancels, which take great skill and timing to accomplish, take away a player’s health while guard attacks, which have are easier to use and have a longer period to counter, do not? Sousai should not have a penalty to the player’s health while guard attacks do. Or at least lessen the time a guard attack can be used to counter a move so it isn’t spammed as often in matches.
• Find a new publisher. Ignition bailed out hard when shit hit the fan during the online fiasco. SNK entrusted the next Metal Slug game to be published by Atlus. They know how to sell niche Japanese titles to Americans. I think it would be great if they handled KOF XIII as well.

I don’t think I am being too greedy here. It’s a fairly reasonable list. While I would like some new things in the game, I am currently more concerned with getting old things back that worked before and made the last game feel lacking when they were left out. If new characters and gameplay mechanics are introduced, that’s cool; however, SNK needs to focus on getting some standard aspects of the franchise back in.

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.)

Sega Dreamcast came out in the United States 10 years ago on September 9th, 1999. It had a great library of games, brought online gaming to consoles in a big way, and was considered by many to be the best gaming console ever. I disagree with the latter; the Super Nintendo holds that title. However, Sega Dreamcast had a lot of amazing games and innovations throughout its short lifespan. Production of the console ended in 2001, but games were still being made for years after. The power that Sony wielded with the Playstation branded and easy Dreamcast software piracy led to the console’s early death. Despite that, Dreamcast had many classic games in its library of over 700 and I am going to name off a bunch of them and the people who brought them out.

Contributions made by Capcom
Capcom released a lot of awesome arcade ports for the Dreamcast, mostly consisting of shmups and fighters. This massive list includes Marvel vs Capcom 1+2, Street Fighter III: Third Strike, Power Stone 1+2, Rival Schools, Capcom vs SNK 1 +2 , Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Plasma Sword, Tech Romancer, Giga Wing 1+2, and sequels to some of the aforementioned games. Not only that, this was the first console to get Resident Evil: Code Veronica. The Dreamcast versions of many of these arcade ports were excellent; not only that, games like Marvel vs Capcom 2 are still played at the Evo Championship series on that console.

Contributions made by Midway
Sega Dreamcast was the last console that Midway released games for that weren’t classic arcade compilations and still worth playing. This company has fallen far from its glory days but they did release the best version of NFL Blitz with its “2000″ edition, and they also ported one of the most fun racing games ever, Hydro Thunder. Other great games they released on the Dreamcast included NBA Showtime and Ready 2 Rumble Boxing. They excelled during the Dreamcast era at making arcade sports games, but then they fumbled the ball when they couldn’t decide between making Blitz and arcade football game or a simulation like Madden.

Contributions made by Namco
Namco made Soul Calibur more awesome than its arcade counterpart by putting it on the Dreamcast. This was unprecedented and was unfortunately the beginning of the end for many arcades. I think the first Soul Calibur is still the best in the series, even with its weird physics. Some also consider it to be the best Dreamcast game ever.

Contributions made by SNK
As the Sega Dreamcast died, so did SNK. They did come back as SNK Playmore, but the Dreamcast had some of the best SNK games ever. For starters, they had The King of Fighters ‘98, ‘99, 2000, 2001, and 2002. Some of those games had extras that other versions of those games didn’t have, including characters and strikers. But SNK kicked it up a notch with Last Blade 1+2, a weapons-based 2D fighting series that does some things better than Samurai Showdown, and some things that series doesn’t do at all. But that’s not all. SNK also released their best game ever on the Sega Dreamcast, Garou: Mark of the Wolves. That game deserves its own post and some day, I am going to write it.

Sega, the leader
Sega had its work cut out for them. They had some solid support from some of the big third party publishers at the time, but were missing EA and Square, who were dominant on their respective sides of the gaming planet. Sega countered EA by making better sports games with the NFL2K, NHL2K, NBA2k, and Virtua Tennis franchises. EA later countered, not by making better games, but by buying exclusive rights to the NFL license. Not having Final Fantasy or its copycats didn’t help Sega either, but they did try things with the genre like airship battles in Skies of Arcadia and attempting to simulate a life experience in Shenmue. Speaking of simulating life, they had a game called Seaman in which you could communicate with this creature that conversed with you. Its genius seems to have been forgotten during the recent storm of Peter Molyneux’s latest hypefest, Natal.

Sega released a lot of original games and arcade ports on the console that are also noteworthy, including Chu Chu Rocket, Phantasy Star Online, Crazy Taxi, Jet Grind Radio, and Samba de Amigo. That’s a lot of amazing stuff! Sonic and his shitty friends also went 3D with Sonic Adventure 1+2, which where okay games. I thought the second of those games was more fun to play, but that’s not saying much because the first one had you play as Big the Cat, a retarded cat fisherman(or is it fishercat?) who is essentially the Jar Jar Binks of the franchise. If I were to pinpoint the exact moment that the Sonic franchise started going downhill, it would have to be the second you had to start controlling Big the Cat. In all honesty, I think Big the Cat is the real reason Dreamcast died. Okay, not really, but his presence had a negative impact on the Sonic series of games from that point on.

Dammit. I hate to end this post on a negative note, so I won’t. Sega did some awesome things during the time of the Dreamcast and a handful of publishers also put out their best work ever. A lot of the Sega Dreamcast games have some things in common; they are typically bright and colorful, simple arcade-style games that are very easy to jump into. I think that was the strength of the Dreamcast, but it’s possible that lacking games with deeper experiences didn’t help the console too much, nor did a lack of support from some key third party developers. In spite of those shortcomings, the Dreamcast is still fondly remembered for having a great collection of games and will continue to do so.

This weekend is Mini-Megacon, a multi-genre geek convention being held at the Orange County Convention Center. One of the more anticipated events of the convention is “Year of the Fighting Game: Round 2″, a 90 minute panel that will cover all 2009’s fighters, including Street Fighter IV, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, The King of Fighters XII, Tekken 6, Tatsunoko vs Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars, and others. I will be hosting it with my fighting game buddies Chris Smoot and Mike “Brotha Kyo” Burgess. We are going to break down the titles that have already come out and discuss what we like and don’t like for each one. Also, we are going to cover some of the more notable aspects of each game’s design and even show some interview clips from each games’ key development staff. In addition, the panel will have time for open discussion so you are feel to share your thoughts at this panel. Lastly, we’ll talk about upcoming fighting games, classic revivals, and the future of the genre.

Fighting games are a passion of ours; it’s definitely a genre of games that doesn’t get the accolades it deserves for players forming creative strategies in order to win. This year has brought back the competitive nature of many old and new fighting game fans. Not only that, advances had been made in several of the games that have already been released have made significant improvements in either game balance, developing characters and story, or online play. This panel will not only be a discussion of fighting games but also a celebration of the genre’s return and its advancements. We hope to see as many of you as possible because an awesome to will be had!

]]> http://www.kentward.com/2009/08/year-of-the-fighting-game-round-2/feed/ 0 http://www.kentward.com/2009/07/day-1-thoughts-on-kof-xii/ http://www.kentward.com/2009/07/day-1-thoughts-on-kof-xii/#comments Sat, 25 Jul 2009 07:46:20 +0000 Kent Ward http://www.kentward.com/?p=182

The King of Fighters XII - Joe's Screw Upper!

SNK Playmore’s biggest franchise, The King of Fighters, just had it’s twelfth entry into the main series break street date at GameStops around the country and I made sure that I was able to get myself  a copy! I’ve put many hours into playing the game this afternoon before work, and then once again tonight after dinner with friends. I’ve gotten very use to the game pretty fast, despite that the fact that it really doesn’t play like KOF XI or KOF ‘98, which are the games in the series I’ve played most. Rather, it feels more like Capcom vs SNK 2 in terms of speed along with some of the character move sets being similar.

The game has been anticipated for over two years and SNK Playmore has put a ridiculous amount of effort into the final product and it shows. This game plays well and it’s now artistically the most beautiful fighting game ever created. The game does have it’s flaws in what it lacks, but makes up for it in what it brings to the fray in what myself and others are calling the Year of the Fighting Game.

What’s good?

The graphics are lush and lovely, featuring bright colors and exotic landscapes. There are only five stages in the game but a single stage in KOF XII is more lively and exciting than most fighting games’ entire collection of venues. One of my friends and I joked earlier tonight about one of the stages possibly being inspired by Water 7 in One Piece. The locales even have shadows generate on the character sprites depending on their location in the stage. The character sprites are bigger than ever and are very detailed, to the point that can clearly see their facial expressions and the details on their outfits.

The characters also feature far more animation frames than for any other SNK fighter, and this coupled with the games high-definition colorful graphics makes for some beautiful looking battles. Not only that, the explosions and effects from various actions in this game provide a lot of energy to the fight and in some cases provide some key visual cues for players to react to. The game makes great use of generating key effects for moments like guard attacks, critical counters, sousai cancels, and special attack start ups.

The fighting game mechanics are probably going to be the best in any fighting game. The franchise has taken a step away from executing long chains of combos and has focused more on strategy. Timing is key in this game because executing guard attacks and critical counters can determine the match’s victor.  Guard attacks are performed by pressing back, heavy punch, and heavy kick at the same time. When this happens, a blue flash will appear in front of the character executing the guard attack; this flash represents a period that a colliding enemy attack will be parried. If this happens, their move will be canceled and the guard attacking player will unleash a knock-back attack. What’s also great about this technique is that even if the parry fails, they move will still go off which has helped me beat novice players online.

Critical counters are probably the best part of this game. I’ve never felt such a rush while doing one, and that’s the idea. You’ll fill up a green gauge under your character’s health bar. When it fills up completely, it will begin to drain. You have that window of time to press back and heavy punch or back and heavy kick simultaneously will cause your character to strike with an orange aura around their attack. If the attack lands while the other player’s character is striking, a rainbow flash will emit around both fighters and the other character will fall prey to their knees to take a flurry of your character’s customizable combos of normal attacks, special attacks, and even being able to finish with a super combo move. It can turn a match around and even finish it and it doesn’t happen too much that it breaks the fight; in fact, it happens enough just to cause an adrenaline rush. I have shot myself out of my chair at times when I have initiated a critical counter and I have been good at experimenting, especially with Andy and Kensou.

Actually, that never happened. I play KOF standing up because I can’t sit down in fear of falling off of the edge of my seat.

Overall, the game mechanics are extremely balanced to promote strategy as opposed to memorizing combos. I’m really happy about this because memorizing button presses that are only useful in one game is inadequate and I’d rather focus on timing and predicting the movements of my enemy, kind of like chess. Basically, what I am saying a good fighting game is one that has tactics and mechanics that a smart person can take advantage of to win. Memorizing looping combos is a waste of time and is sonething that idiots will do. (Want to guess what game I am referring to that promotes this behavior?)

KOF XII, addition to featuring guard attacks and critical counters, has many other useful tactics like charging strong attacks(heavy punch and heavy kick pressed together) that can either stun an opponent or break their guard, evasive rolls( forward or backward, light punch, and light kick pressed together) that can help fighters dodge attacks, and sousai cancels that will cancel out attacks of equal strength when they collide at the same time. Air sousais are particularly sweet when two characters do jumping kung-fu kicks that clash at the same time; it’s like a scene from Enter the Dragon or Fist of the North Star.

The game features 22 characters in this roster that are already unlocked and they are all awesome. Every one of them has their own strengths and weakness in categories of strength, speed, durability, striking, projectiles, grapples. anti-air attacks, and dashing attacks. One simple example of this would be anti-air special moves. Just about everyone has them. Some are easy to combo into, especially moves like the rising tackle or the jumping uppercuts; however, they have a period of recovery if they whiff, leaving them vulnerable to the opponent. Some characters don’t leave the ground when they do their anti-air special move, which won’t have as much range and it may be harder to combo into but the benefit is that their recovery time is greater and they probably have some other move that’s easy to combo into when both characters are on the ground. I think for this reason of balance, that some of the special moves of veteran characters were removed. Most characters have either three or four special moves and either one or two super combo attacks.

I’ve never seen so much dedication in making the roster of a fighting game so balanced as this that I don’t event think a tier ranking is even necessary for this game. This is wonderful news because tiers need to leave fighting games like quick-time events need to leave action games. It’s much preferable to have all the characters have their strengths and weaknesses balanced out so when matches are fought amongst players, the winner will be determined by who has both the better skill and understanding of the game mechanics and characters. The differences between the each character’s strengths and weakness also lend to different play styles of those who play fighting games, whether you go for speedy attacks, powerful strikes, or grappling moves, their are a variety of characters to fit your strategy well. The problem with some of the past KOF games is creating a team of three fighters that would fit your play style and one of them would be a dude. Thankfully, that is not the case here. In the future, glitches and other forms foul play may be exploited as they are discovered in the game; for now, things are going great.

What’s lacking?

While the design choices of the fighting system are genius and the roster very balanced, the game is missing some things. For one, it’s the smallest roster in any King of Fighters game. While it’s great to have 22 awesome characters available in the game from the get-g0, I and others wish there were more. Characters like K’, Kula Diamond, Mai Shiranui, and Oswald were characters  that I saw requested by many fans. I was also hoping for Rugal to be the game’s final boss. But wait, isn’t he dead? He is indeed dead in the cannon storyline; however, this game doesn’t have a storyline and doesn’t represent the KOF cannon. Therefore, I have no problem with him being back. It’s never explained why Terry Bogard is back sporting his old look, why Ralf and Clark shockingly appear roided up, or why Ash Crimson doesn’t use the flames he stole from Iori in the the last game in his move set, while Iori fights without it. With the story non-existent and inconsistencies unexplained, it was time for someone like Rugal to come back and remind everyone the wrath of SNK Boss Syndrome!

So what did we get for a boss? Nothing, and that’s the biggest disappointment I have with the game. SNK fighting games, especially The king of Fighters, always – ALWAYS – has a ridiculous final boss that is nearly impossible to beat. It may take hours if not days to conquer such menacing opposition. They fight dirty, have ridiculous attacks and priorities, and will always pull out some bullshit destroying move right when you are about to bring them to their knees. It sucks and you yell and swear and probably break your controller, or punch your girlfriend in the face. But you keep trying… and then you eventually beat the boss. Once the dust has settled and the realization of victory has connected with your mind, you feel like the god of fighting games and that is why SNK Boss Syndrome is necessary for The King of Fighters.

Whether it was Rugal, Magaki, or the lovable Igniz; we needed someone. Not having the boss battle made the single player arcade mode seem anti-climatic and the motivation to play arcade mode is not really there, other than to unlock achievements and trophies. In all honesty, arcade mode sucks; it’s just five matches done in a time attack setting and the the credits roll. Not even a character splash screen or animated ending to show what the characters did afterward.

The lack of some kind of storyline in the game hurts the overall experience and there aren’t any other options for the single player experience besides practice mode. What happened to survival mode, or the various character challenges that existed in the PS2 version of KOF XI? Remember when we had to have Robert Garcia deflect all of King’s low and high venom strikes with only the ability to counter with low and high projectiles of his own for 3o seconds and were rewarded by having him unlocked in the game? Okay, well I did it and when I beat that challenge, I felt a badass sense of accomplishment. I really wish challenges like that were in here again.

Final thoughts… for now

So if you really want to experience KOF XII right, then you’d better have some friends who enjoy playing fighting games or have the ability to play others online. Hell, if you don’t have any friends who don’t play fighting games, then ditch them and get new friends that do. Trust me, you won’t miss them when you start playing Garou: Mark of the Wolves with your new compadres.

While lacking a huge roster of characters that more recent KOF games have had, KOF XII has characters that are far more balanced and detailed than ever before. The game depends more on skill and has a well developed set of mechanics that promote match variety, make comebacks possible, and turn good defense into devastating offense. While the single player experience is lacking as well as the story, the fighting system makes for legendary matches between skilled players, and that in itself makes The King of Fighters XII worth getting. It’s hard to say if KOF XII is the best fighting game of the past year when Tekken 6 hasn’t come out in the states yet and I still haven’t played BlazBlue. Even so, after a day of playing this, it already pounds the other competition that includes Street Fighter IV and Soul Calibur IV. Despite such claims, fighting games have more variety this year than in any other this decade in game choices.

I’m sure that later on I will develop new feelings about this game as a I play it more. I don’t know if it will have the potential to exceed the quality that other SNK games like KOF XI and Garou have established, but the potential exists. I for one can’t wait to play this game some more after I take care of the many responsibilities that await me in the near future. I hope by the, the online mode of the game is patched to remove lag so I can fight more people online. Hopefully, this game will be recognized as an incredible and well-balanced fighter that could be one of the games for EVO next year. We shall see. Until then…

Let the year of the fighting game continue!

The King of Fighters XII has been announced by Ignition Entertainment for release in U.S. stores on July 28th! I can’t wait! I’m getting it for Xbox 360 and unfortunately it will lack the clan mode that the PS3 version will contain. I hate exclusives like that because that would have been cool to try with my friends. I should get over it as soon as I start delivering burning knuckles and rising tackles. The game has turned out awesome and I can’t wait to play that and BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, which I purchased earlier tonight.

After doing some hardcore digging, I found out that the final roster is 22 characters and not 26, as I stated earlier. That’s unfortunate but the game’s got Terry Bogard and a lot of my other favorite characters, so I should not have any problems getting over it.

What system are you getting it for?

I’ve been wanting to talk about this game on the site for a very long time! Anyone who’s in my circle of friends knows that I have love The King of Fighters franchise and that I have been pretty pumped about The King of Fighters XII for the past couple years. It’s coming out in America in just less than a month on both the XBox360 and the Playstation 3 and it looks poised to take on Street Fighter IV and BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger for prestige of being the best fighting game of this year. All of the character and tournament videos have been looking great thus far, so I have a very optimistic feeling about this game. I am trying to avoid being over zealous this time because that ended up with me being somewhat disappointed with Street Fighter IV after I played it for a few months, though I’ve always expected KOF XII to be the better game in the first place.

So what’s cool about this game? Visually, it’s probably the most impressive looking 2D fighter to date, beating out Street Fighter III: Third Srtike and BlazBlue. Everything is hand-drawn(or hand pixeled, to be more accurate), colorful, and lush. Each character holds an impressive amount of animation frames for their full range of moves and motions, which makes this the most fluid-looking 2D fighter to date. One of the other great things about the artwork is that everything has been redrawn in bigger, high definition sprites that really do a great job of showing the emotion of the characters as they fight or get hit. That was something I felt previous KOF games were lacking. It’s not as over the top as SFIV, but it’s still pretty nice to see the characters showing off more personality than ever.

Speaking of characters, while each character has an impressive amount of animations, this is actually the one of the smallest rosters for any KOF game to date with 26 playable characters. Considering how much time and money goes into redrawing every single character from scratch, each with a high amount of animation frames, it’s not too surprising to see a roster that small. I like the trade off though because I’d rather have a smaller roster of characters that I care about have lots of detail put into them than have that effort spread thin over a larger roster. This may result in some fans’ favorite characters being left out, but all of my favorites are in there. We got Terry and Andy Bogard for starters, then other greats such Joe Higashi, Kim Kaphwan, Leona Heidern, Elisabeth Blanctorche, Sie Kensou, and Ryo Sakazaki. Hell, everyone in the game is looking awesome now, even Raiden whom I initially complained about being in the game for looking slow and useless at first!

It would be nice to have been able to use characters like K’, Oswald, and Bonne Jenet once again; however, this won’t be the last KOF! What’s also interesting is that there are no new characters at all being introduced in this game. A rarity for the franchise and fighters in general. SNK wanted to go back to the basics, but at the same time was anyone going to use them? Street Fighter IV added six new characters to the series but half the people who play that game still stick with Ken and Ryu. To compensate for the lack of new characters, just about half of the roster has had their looks and move sets redesigned, most notably Iori Yagami, Ralf Jones, Sie Kensou and Mature. What I am concerned with most right now is whether or not there is a boss. SNK fighters are famous for having legendary final bosses who are so fucking impossible to beat that actually doing so is a life achievement. The arcade version didn’t have one but I hope the console versions have a surprise like the return of Rugal Bernstein. It’s not a complete KOF game without the famous SNK Boss Syndrome!

Like I said before, SNK wants to go back to the basics. The roster is focused on more familiar characters, and the series has returned back to the original 3 on 3 team format for matches. This means strikers and tag matches of previous entries are gone. There are no team leaders either(or the bonuses that come with that) and stocks for attack cancels and dream cancels have also been taken out. Instead, the rules have been simplified so players can focus on the fight itself. You pick your three characters and the order they will fighter and you do one on one matches with you opponent until all the characters of a team have been eliminated. You still have a lot of the classic combos and signature moves with new ones and the gameplay looks to rebalanced. Other added features include Sousai(Deadlock), Critical Counter, and Guard Attack.

Sousai occurs when strong kicks and punches and attacks of greater force collide. Instead of a possibly unfair priority being used to determine who gets it, the attacks will clash, cancel out, and by default the opponents will step back from their attack to give players some distance from each other. However, you can cancel that backstep after a Sousai with an attack of your own by entering any attack command. You can also move the joystick to make your character jump(and then attack) right after the Sousai occurs. You can do Sousai with characters that are standing, attacking from the air, or have launched projectiles from a distance. The drawback to Sousai is that your character will take a fraction of the damage from the attack your opponent tried to use on you, so be careful with how you use it!

Critical Counters come into play when the green bar under your character’s health bar is fully charged and an orange aura appears around your character. When that happens, you can crush an opponent’s attack with a strong punch or kick , leaving them defenseless to a flurry of moves that can now be chained together in unbelievable combos, but only for a short time. It works a little like Street Fighter Alpha 3’s custom super combos, but the start off if much different. In addition to being a nice way to make a comeback, I think it’s a great technique to counter players who try to jab into combos and super moves. You can also start off a Critical Counter differently: instead of unleashing a flurry of moves, you can instead use a powered-up version of your Super Move if your Super Meter is full. It looks insanely badass!

Finally, Guard Attacks occur when you are holding back to block and hit strong kick and strong punch at the same time to attack an attacking opponent from your guard stance. You will not only cancel their attack, but you throw them off balance so they can counter your attack! This is a nice way to counter and I think it will work better than SF IV’s focus attacks. Guard Attacks, like the other new features in KOF XII, are still going to depend on your timing and ability to predict your opponent’s moves. But in all honesty, any good or better fighting game will depend heavily off the timing of your moves and the ability to understand your opponent.

It looks like I covered quite a bit this time! The King of Fighters XII is the game I have been looking forward to the most this year and I think it will deliver. Much of the franchise’s fat has been cut and all the game features and roster is all killer, no filler. The artwork is more amazing than ever and the series has never looked more alive than this. The progress over the past couple years has been remarkable and it’s only a few weeks until it releases! I can’t wait to do battle once again with my friends and rivals to see who is the local King of Fighters and to see what online play will offer in addition to that. See you guys on XBox Live and at the local tournaments!