King of Fighters XII
At times I get that urge to pick up a controller and beat the piss out of someone in 2D glory. It's an urge that tends to pass quickly once I've toughed it out a round or two but with the addition of online matches and trophy support, I stuck around for a bit longer than I normally do. After checking out the screenshots online for a while and then witnessing first hand a "Best Fighting Game" nomination at E3 (IGN has since awarded The King of Fighters the top prize and had Tekken 6 and Marvel VS Capcom as runners up...), I thought for sure The King of Fighters XII would be a home run.
SNK Playmore is approaching this title as a commemorative 15 anniversary edition for the fans along with a chance to attract any potential new gamers to the series. They're pretty much going after two sets of gamers here:
1. Loved The King of Fighters 1 - 11 and have a boner in anticipation for the new one
2. We're depending on you (n00b) to help our franchise grow and succeed in these troublesome times.
I will represent the voice of the second marketing target. I've never played any of the previous games so I can't be considered a fan boy by any means. I will provide you, the faithful Dashhacks visitor, with my first impressions from an unbiased standpoint. How refreshing.
I was at first taken back by the default 3-on-3, best out of five game mode. I slowly started warming up to the idea and at that point things were definitely looking a bit better. You get the opportunity to cycle through the majority of the characters pretty quickly this way if you're playing in a Versus or Online match. Time trials obviously took a lot longer to get through as you are stuck with the first three fighters for 5 matches. This wasn't a big deal really because you'll get to know the strengths and weaknesses of these particular fighters at a pretty fast rate. I found myself trying to best my overall time in some matches by retrying them even after winning. This of course was to facilitate my trophy whoring needs. Trophies are available for winning the 5 matches and beating them in certain time frames (10 minutes, 8, 6, 4, 3:30 etc..) along with a approximately 1000 more. Definitely lots of trophies to be had here. A timer displaying your overall accumulated time so you can keep an eye on how you're doing which is a nice touch as well.
There is a hefty selection of 22 hand drawn HD characters to choose from that look very nice. New gameplay elements such as Critical Counter Attacks, Air Guarding and Deadlock Counters and Guard attacks have been added to spice things up a bit. The action is face paced and I actually found a touch of depth was involved in this game as well. The ability to sneak past an opponent or to slide forward and backwards allowed me to really time things well and it opened up whoever I was fighting to a few vulnerabilities.
The King of Fighters XII comes with 4 modes of gameplay. Arcade Mode which is your standard 3-on-3 matches where a second player can jump in to challenge you. A Versus Mode where you can fight against a friend or the CPU. Practice Mode allows you to hone your skills against an A.I. opponent that can be set to perform various actions. Lets not forget Online Play.
Online play was really supposed to be the kicker for this game. Lots of features where set up such as the ability to record you fights and upload them, clan formation and a worldwide online ranking system. It's too bad it lagged and chopped until I found it almost impossible to go on. Good news though, a 755MB update was available the next day correcting a few online issues. Another firmware update is on the way to address a few of the bugs that were reported early on as well. Hoo-Ray.....
The King of Fighters XII is what it is folks. A slick looking R2, D2 err....I mean HD, 2D fighter with gameplay modes and all sorts of things we've all seen before. The game looks polished but unfortunately doesn't play that well at times. Bugs, glitches and a not-so-sturdy online mode take away from a relatively deep and fun fighter. I'd say pick this up if you've been following the franchise for the past 15 years and love your 2D fighting action. If you're new to the series, rent it out, try it online and if its still buggy, return the copy before your allocated rental time frame is up to avoid a late charge.
Check out TestFreaks for more reviews of this game.
