It wasn’t that long ago I was playing the King of Fighters Collection on the Wii and telling you what it was like. Well here’s the next in the King of Fighters instalment.
The rules for King of Fighters XII are exactly the same as the others in that you fight 3 on 3 and it’s the first to defeat all of your opponents that gets the win. You can either fight in Arcade mode where you have to go through only 5 rounds 3 on 3, and you can choose any three characters you like. Or you can fight in Versus mode which allows you to fight either 3 on 3 or 1 on 1 against another player or against a CPU opponent.
The option to go online has been added which will add to the longevity of the game and will really test your skills around the world as there are mutant people out there who can pull of the moves faster than Superman can whip on his red pants.
There are a ton of trophies for you to unlock so if you’re the kind of person who has to collect every single trophy in every game, this will keep you occupied for hours on end.
Graphics
For a PS3 game that’s meant to have HD graphics, I have to say I was quite appalled. I know the characters are hand drawn which is why they look the way do and that the game is meant to have a slight “old skool” feel, but it would have been nice to have seen the characters a lot more polished rather than looking like something that has been ripped of a SNES and dumped onto the PS3.
The backgrounds are really nice and look a lot better than the fighters do. If there was ever to be a King of Fighters XIII, I would suggest much better visuals on the fighters because if you want to compete with bigger fighters like Street Fighter 4, then it’s the small details that can make a big difference to the feel of the game.
The overall interface of the menus looks nice and has a feel of the arcades, which I really liked.
Gameplay
Despite the below par graphics, the game plays really well and has some fluid animations and give your fighter the good old button bashing technique and you can pull off some cool moves. I like the option being able to choose how you pull off special moves.
If you’re a seasoned pro and have no problem in pressing left, right, down, diagonal right up, diagonal left down, right, right, left, down, up square in the space of half a second (maybe a slight exaggeration) then you can use the normal mode to show of your skills. But if you tend to find that a bit tricky, then you can choose the simple mode, which still requires some combination of buttons, but only small ones like up and X or left, left, square.
This can make your fights seem a bit more enjoyable as you’re able to effortlessly pull off all of your characters moves. But of course some of you will find this a bit too easy and feel it takes the sense of achievement out of the game, but I do think it’s a big help to those wanting to ease into a fighting game.
In Summary
Overall I’d have to say I wasn’t blown away by King of Fighters XII, but it isn’t a complete letdown. The formula hasn’t changed which can be seen as a good thing to fans of the franchise, or a bad thing if you’re looking for something different this time around If you like your fighters and are looking for a change from Street Fighter 4, then you might find yourself liking this one.
An enjoyable fighter that you can jump straight into, but lack of overall depth and average graphics have made me knock the score down a tad more.
2.5 out of 5
Danny ‘Ender’ Martin has been part of the Zath team from pretty much the very beginning since he met Zath himself at Leeds Met University whilst studying Business IT. He’s an avid gamer and a big film buff. Danny graduated from the University of Bradford with a degree in Computer Animation and SFX and now currently works at one of the biggest UK games developers, which will hopefully see some of his ideas hit the gaming world.