KING OF THE FIGHTERS XII - AN SNK PLAYMORE GAME

Mon Oct 26, 2009 12:33 pm by Hendo 259

KING OF THE FIGHTERS XII REVIEWED BY CHRIS HENDERSON

Now when I received this game I wasn’t sure what to expect, with being a newcomer to KOTF brand. With this being a highly anticipated game, I was hoping it to be like a certain other classic beat em up which received an update recently. I won’t go in too much detail right at the start as I will leave that for later in the review but I was in for a shock!

Now where to start.....

Well once I put this game in my disc drive I was full of anticipation as I am a big beat em up fan. But as I said earlier I was in for a shock, as soon as I started the game I noticed the graphics. They looked liked they would be more comfortable as Xbox live arcade game. But as I have come to understand, this is the charm of KOTF. As it’s that personal touch that comes with these games, which is so appealing to the huge fan base. So as I continued to play through the game the graphics grew on me and I started to see why they appealed to everyone on of the fans of the series. Although not next gen graphics I would give them a good mark for authenticity and the feeling the graphics give you, it was just like being stuck at home playing my good old super Nintendo!

Now we go on to gameplay, well as with most beat em ups you have a good choice of combatants to choose from. And I must admit I have two favourites Terry Bogard and Benimaru Nikaido, I found myself having these two in my teams most of the time. A good feature of this series is the team battles, which some beat em ups only introduced after seeing this series. But only little problem with this is you can’t switch between these when you want. Each fighter has to be Ko’d before you can use another. The controls are like that of normal beat em up’s a rotaional movement of the analogue and a button will bring for all mighty wrath or some pink sparkly stuff if you are playing Athena!

The arenas you compete in are nothing special, each one has certain things going on in the back ground, but they are mainly just for effect as you don’t really pay much attention to them. But the overall feel of the game is retro and I won’t lie to start with I wasn’t a fan. But as I played on it grew on me and I found myself starting to like the game.

The main arcade mode of the game is straight forward but short, you have 5 rounds of a time trial tournament.The faster you defeat the opponent, the better time overall you achieve. this leads to time based achievements being unlocked. The arcade mode is far too easy for seasoned gamers but for newcomers it will be a welcome introduction to the series. The absence of a final boss is a let down as it’s always nice to know your working towards something or someone. But there is no story to the arcade mode or the game itself really which as a fan of the story part of beat em ups was a down side!

The online play was also a bit of a let down as it took me ten minutes to find a bout and then I had to wait for the two competitors before me to finish before I got to throw a punch. But then the game seems to have a lag problem as every person I fought against seems to have poor connection. You can build up your fighting rank online, but this will take you a while as most people who play this are extremely good and it will be hard to even beat one of their fighters.

There are not any other modes to play apart from practice, there is unlockable artwork and that’s it too the game really. I think they could have done a little bit more with the game as the series has such an accomplished background. I would have liked to see a story mode or even a background for each fighter but there isn’t that. As a new comer to the series I didn’t know anything about any of the Fighters.

Now to finalise this I would recommend this game to hardcore beat em up fans as it has that little bit of retroness to make it an attractive purchase. But for a person not a fan of the series, it might not float your beat em up boat. I started with a slight aversion to the games graphic, but ended up liking them alot. Sso you never know if you might end up loving it too!

Thanks for reading

Chris Henderson

Comments: 1

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