Brutal Gamer

The King Of Fighters XII (PS3) Review

By Mike - September 27, 2009 - 17:27 UTC

Get ready to fight.

Most readers will likely be familiar with Capcom’s Street Fighter series.  You might also be aware of the other well known fighting series, SNK’s King of Fighters.  SNK’s series has been going for 15 years now, and now we see the 12th game in the series.  But is it any good?

The King of Fighters XII is an old school style 2D fighter.  The game contains a roster of 22 different fighters, who engage in a series of 3-on-3 battles.  Fans of the series may be disappointed to learn that a couple of the regular characters, including the much loved Mai, are absent from this iteration of the series.

The graphics have a very classic 2D anime style to it.  The animation on the fighters is very smooth, and the fighters themselves are very distinct, with the odd strange character here and there.  There is a small number of different arenas to fight in, all looking very pretty, but in some cases, there is so much going on in the background that it’s easy to to get distracted from the action.  There is a dynamic camera system which zooms in and out depending on the distance between the fighters and makes it much easier to see what’s happening in close quarters.

The sound itself is pretty good.  The intro music has a very retro feel to it, and the music as a whole has a very old school feel to it, and the sound effects when you hit an opponent with a big move are satisfyingly meaty.

The gameplay itself is very solid.  The fighting works pretty well with no big issues, and the controls are responsive, using the well established fighting practice of quarter and half circles for special moves.  The characters are well balanced, so playing against someone of a similar level of skill to you shouldn’t leave you feeling overpowered.  There are better fighting engines out there, but this does what it does well.  One thing I found quite odd about the game is that the 3-on-3 fighting doesn’t allow you to swap out characters on your team in the middle of a round, which feels a bit regressive compared to fighters these days.

One major problem with this game is the total lack of variety.  You get your standard Arcade, Versus and Practice modes, and that’s it.  Surely an extra mode or two wouldn’t have hurt too much.  The Arcade mode itself consists of a handful of bouts that the most prolific fighter will have beaten in a matter of a few minutes.  As if the shortness of the game wasn’t bad enough, there are precisely zero unlockables in the game.  Not even alternate costumes for your fighters, basically meaning there is no real reason to play the Arcade mode over and over unless you really love the game, and the lack of any kind of story will mean that newcomers to the series will have no idea why these people are actually fighting.

Then we come to the multiplayer aspect of the game.  Local multiplayer is fun enough with a mate or two, attempting to beat the snot out of each other.  However, the online multiplayer has some problems.  It’s not too bad when you’re playing from people in the same region, but try to play against anyone from another continent, and things really do start to go wrong.  The lag is absolutely crippling, and it just feels as though you are taking part in an interactive slideshow.

FINAL THOUGHTS
This is a solid, retro styled fighting game, with some good looks and a nice soundtrack, and it can be a laugh with a mate.  But the lack of different play modes, coupled with the online problems and the complete omission of unlockables means it’s hard to recommend to even hardcore KoF fans as a full price purchase.  It feels very unfinished, and you are getting very little for your £40.  If you really want a new fighting game, then just rent it, because this will get old and repetitive quite fast.

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