There is always something nice about having your favorite game from childhood arrive on your next-gen consoles in an all new avatar, complete with a shiny new paint job, updated graphics and new features. The year of 2009 has been especially good in that regard when it comes to the fighting genre. First it was Street Fighter 4 wowing long time fans with its jump to the HD age. Now was the turn of King of Fighters XII (KOF XII) to appear on our PS3s and Xbox 360s. After having successfully maintained a huge fan following on multitude of consoles and arcade machines over a period of fifteen years, all eyes were on KOF XII to see if it could recreate the same magic that has sustained it over so many years.

One major improvement that the game saw was the re-drawing of its 2D sprites. The same sprites were being re-used for most of the KOF games that have preceded KOF XII. SNK Playmore sought to change that with KOF XII. For this game, all the sprites were re-drawn to make their transition to the hi-def era much smoother. Furthermore, the game boasts of completely hand-drawn sprites; no cell-shading or computer wizardry here. All characters are completely hand drawn and animated. Not only the character sprites but the level backgrounds and ambient music are now new and improved, flashier and bursting with bright, vibrant colors.

At the core of the game, it plays like any other good one-on-one fighting game, but with a small twist. Instead of choosing one fighter and sticking with him/her through the levels, KOF XII allows you to pick up three characters to go head-to-head against a similarly numbered team of opponents. You get to select in which order you will face off against the other team. If your fighter manages to win one round, he/she will move on to the next round, with a small health boost. If your fighter loses the match, the next one in line will take over from there. This goes on until the one with no more fighters left to field loses the game. A good roster of fighters means that you have plenty of fighters to mix and match from.

You get to try out these characters in three game modes; The Arcade mode has five stages with three rounds each while the Versus mode will throw you one stage where you fight either 3 vs. 3 or 1 vs. 1. Surprisingly, SNK Playmore decided to drop off the story from the Arcade mode. Though we agree that a story in a fighting game is not all that great a requirement to start throwing punches and roundhouse kicks at each other but the short anime clips of news-casters discussing the upcoming match or the reporters just doesn’t gel well with the whole gameplay. Instead, they look disjointed and will have you reaching for the skip button as soon as one shows up on-screen.

Having three fighters go against another three could mean balancing issues but thankfully, that is something that the game takes good care of. All fighters feel well balanced against each other. Given some skills and time to learn the stronger points of one particular character, you can take on any other fighter and come off better. Each fighter comes with a unique set of moves, both offensive and defensive. A new “Critical Counter” system can leave your opponent briefly dazed and venerable for more if you can time your counter-attack just right. “Guard Attacks” can intercept opponents attack while a “Clash System” will throw the fighters apart if their attacks connect at the same instant. Attacks are flashy enough to make them rewarding when you pull of one.

KOF XII seems to lean more towards the defensive form of fighting. The “Clash System” and “Guard Attacks” are more inclined to a defensive posture than overtly aggressive ones. This can lead to matches where both the players will be waiting for the other to make a move. While the risk of getting an aggressive move reversed and instead turned back right on your face is always there, gamers would be encouraged to learn the combo system of the game even better. The game allows you to string your combos more easily than the other fighting games out there. It is just a matter of learning the combos a little better than your opponent and getting the timing right.

The character roster of KOF XII has left fans cribbing quite a bit. Even though the current game features twenty two characters, the game has had thirty plus characters in its earlier iteration. One reason for this downsizing is that the game characters are hand-drawn and the developers wanted to polish the few rather than cram unpolished many. Console version of the game also gets two exclusive female fighters as well. The limited roster means that some fan favorites were left on the drawing board itself but to be fair, twenty two fighters is still a pretty good number to have and will not be a limiting factor when you have to pick out a team of your choice.

For all the things that it did right, KOF XII seemed to have slipped on one of the most important aspect of a modern day video-game; the multiplayer component. Right from the day of release, gamers have complained of horrible lag that renders pulling of combos nigh impossible as a lot depends upon getting the timing right. “Rage quitting” is one more term that get thrown around a lot when it comes to KOF XII online. SNK Playmore has released patches for the game and the situation seems to be improving. We were able to get into and enjoy a lot of multiplayer matches online, not to mention win a few. Things definitely seem to be improving here.

Graphically, both the PS3 and the Xbox 360 version of the game are at par. The PS3 version has one extra feature than the Xbox 360 version in form of clan support. Both the versions support game replay for the hardcore gamer to analyze and dissect. There are occasional hiccups with loading screens and badly designed menus that would have you burrowing deep through the menu system to get to what you wanted. Strangely, while upgrading the sprite art, the developers have chosen to retain the character pixilation that shows up on the screen. Why they would do something like this when it mars the look of a game is beyond explanation!

King of Fighters XII is a game that is sure to please long time fans of the series. It packs in enough to keep them glued to the game and keep fuelling discussion boards with the merits and demerits of a particular super-move for countless pages. For those new to the series, KOF XII might well fall short of getting them hooked for the lifetime. Yet, KOF XII is a fun game in its own regard. Solid fighting mechanics, a nice selection of fighters, beautiful hand drawn animation and friend to go head-to-head with; King of Fighters XII delivers on all these counts. So if this is what you are looking for in your fighting game, go pick it up now.

7.0 / 10

Review Copy Courtesy:

Distributor: Milestone Interactive

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