King Of Fighters XII
Review of King Of Fighters XII
When you mention the term "fighting games" to a video gamer most likely he/ she will think of the Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat series first. However, one other series has been around for 15 years now and is celebrating this anniversary with the launch of its 12th release on the PS3. That game? The King Of Fighters XII!
The King Of Fighters was one of the first to introduce team combat. Players pick out a team of 3 characters to go against another, set the order they go in then head into battle with the team that eliminates the other emerge victorious. Of course, the regular one on one battles are available. For those that want to get a feel for the best characters to use in their style of play or even to get the rust off a Practice mode is also available.
The main mode of the game is Arcade, where you play against computer-controlled opponents in the 3 vs 3 mode described above. Each round between characters is 60 seconds long with wins determined by knockout (deplete the power bar of your opponent within the time limit) or decision (have more energy bar than your opponent when time runs out). If you make it through 5 rounds (15 matches in all) with your team your clear times will be uploaded to a global server where you can compare your times to others and see just how you stack up against the world. The replay value in this mode is a bit limited, however, as it is simply the 5 matches- no boss battles, no story to speak of.
As is the case with fighting games, however, the main focus by players is the multiplayer. In Versus Mode you can choose to have one-on-one or team battles against either another player or the cpu in offline play and the Online Mode to take on other players the world over. Admittedly, the online play was a bit flawed when the game first came out- the recently released patch was to fix things up in this regard and makes for a smoother experience.
The options in the Online mode make sure there's a little something for everyone. The Arcade Match mode is for the ranked matches while Player Matches are unranked. Room creation is relatively simple with a few parameters to set (match type, # of players max, game mode, round time). Inviting friends to join your room is a simple matter of hitting the PS button and sending an invite through your friends list- you will find "Invitation To KOFXII in the options when you highlight someone and hit triangle. Clan support is also in here- always a nice touch.
All of that being said, there are some small things missing that were there in previous games. The roster of characters is at 22, which is a bit small compared to the others and some may be disappointed to find their fave characters are left out in the cold. Other small touches like the intro animations that highlighted the rivalries between certain characters are not there.
Graphically, this is the most impressive of the entire series with the characters being given more frames of animation and being drawn larger than usual but at the same time there doesn't seem to be anything happening that says it is pushing the envelope of the PS3's power. Some characters tend to have a "blocky" look to them and the choice of backgrounds for fighting arenas is somewhat limited. Compared to other recently-released fighters it falls just a bit short in this area.
Sound, I feel, is somewhat in the middle as well. The music is good, if not overly memorable. The voices are limited to just a few phrases spit out when hitting certain moves. To be honest, it can be a bit annoying to here the same thing after a while.
OUR PLEDGE: We promise that we have fully played 'King Of Fighters XII' before writing this review. The scores given above are our honest opinion and were not influenced in any way by the manufacturer or distributor of the game.
This review was written by Lyndon M STAFF © Absolute PlayStation
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