The roster went from a measly 22 fighters in KOF XII to 36 fighters in KOF XIII, greatly enhancing the gameplay variety and even bringing back boss battles to boot.With proud, i finally remade the KOF XII / XIII collection.Ĭlick in the author name to download and if you have any material related to KOF XII / XIII, you're free to post. KOF XIII offered detailed stages and backdrops which complemented the detailed and fluid character sprites, and even the basic presentation was jacked-up too thanks to stylised menus and a soundtrack which had a lot more range and energy. KOF XII may have offered some fancy new graphics, but as a complete fighting package it simply couldn’t hold up against Street Fighter IV or BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger.Ī couple of years after the unceremonious release of KOF XII, things were done right with follow-up KOF XIII, which not only improved upon the graphics engine but did everything right in other areas as well. Even if the gameplay had some redeeming features, the roster was jarringly thin by series’ standards (it at least had the essentials such as Kyo, Iori, Terry, Mai, and other SNK icons) which meant the gameplay variety didn’t offer much to make it a game worth coming back to again and again.
Some players certainly would have favoured the slower and heavier pace, but this was not what KOF was about.
The smaller roster also meant the gameplay balance was generally consistent for the most part, but for a franchise which became known for its blistering fast combat, KOF XII slowed the flow of fights to an absolute snail-pace. For one thing the core combat felt responsive, tight, and heavy, and the actual battles were a lot of fun. The fighting system of KOF XII did some things well. Shame the new character sprites and animations were placed in such boring andīland stages, which resulted in a highly inconsistent visual presentation. Were impressively detailed and sported fluid animation and flow. Preferences for art, there was no denying that the character sprites in KOF XII Models were completely redesigned, and while some may have different It introduced a brand-new graphics engine which meant the character sprites and Rebooting the then ageing franchise and literally starting-over from scratch.
KOF XII was nothing more than a glorified demo disc, and this was especially disappointing given how games like Street Fighter IV and, the then-newcomer, BlazBlue overachieved in their gameplay variety, presentation, and production values.įighting game release, KOF XII still achieved what it set out to do by Even the stages felt basic and unfinished as they clearly weren’t given the same attention as the rest of the graphical presentation. Thin gameplay aside, it was very basic and unfinished in presentation with a repetitive musical score likely made up of leftover stock music from SNK’s archives. The King of Fighters (KOF) XII on its own offered very little in terms of content as it had no storyline, no teams, and the roster was so thin that the game didn’t even have a final boss battle. The King of Fighters XII (12) quite literally felt like a demo disc for a future game in the series, which really ended up being the case when the intended vision was realised roughly two years later in the form of The King of Fighters XIII (13). The King of Fighters XII certainly produced incredible graphics, but sadly this was all the game had going for it as even by 2009 gaming standards it was sorely lacking as a fighting game experience. Undoubtedly, 2008-2009 marked an epic resurgence of 2D fighting games a resurgence which has only gained more momentum a decade later in 2019. This reboot of sorts was joined by the likes of BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger and even Street Fighter IV on the very same arcade platform. SNK would then move on to the Atomiswave arcade board for a short while before making the jump to Taito’s then revolutionary Type X-2 Hardware, and it was on this platform where SNK were able to truly reinvent their graphics and art style in The King of Fighters XII.