There was a time when fighting games were a dime a dozen. Now it seems as if some of these same games are hardly worth even that. However, SNK has always remained pretty relevant with their King of Fighters franchise. KOF has an extremely loyal fan base, which will swear KOF is miles ahead of its long time rival, Capcom’s Street Fighter franchise. King of Fighters XII has been toted by many as the rebirth on the franchise, but can it live up to the hype?
Let me start with a warning: this probably isn’t the rebirth fans were expecting. KOF gets a nice 2D HD makeover, but graphically it isn’t much to look at. The sprites move very well, however look poor up close. I really did enjoy the different fighting styles of each character, giving each one his or her own style of dominance. With 22 characters, there’s plenty of ass kicking to be dealt out.
One thing I will say, I had a much easier time learning to fight -- and fight well -- in KOF XII than with most fighting games. While there’s nothing easy about learning advanced moves, casual players and people who are picking it up for the first time should have no problems with the learning curve. The game plays mostly in 3 on 3 battles, elimination style. There isn’t any swapping out characters, you fight till it's finished. KOF is, in simple terms, a pretty straightforward fighting game, with the only frills being the special moves of the characters and the newly introduced Critical Counters. Again, the game isn’t too difficult to learn, so learning to CC was fairly easy, making the game almost too easy at times. Critical Counter allows the player to pull off insane counters and deal considerable amounts of damage.
Where KOF falls flat seems to be the online multiplayer. SNK did release a few patches to help fix some problems (most of mine we solved), but there seems to be an awful lot of lag during matches. Most times I usually got quit on after a player became fed up with the lag. However I’m still all for the local multiplayer…get out the house and find real friends to play with you!
All in all, the new KOF isn’t great, but by no means is it terrible. Being easy to pick up and just play is a huge plus, considering I missed the last 11 games in the series. I’m sure in time the online issues will be worked out. Meanwhile keep practicing. Cause I’ll be waiting.
"King of Fighters XII (X360)" is on sale July 28, 2009 and is rated T. Fighting. Developed by SNK. Published by Ignition Entertainment.
