King of Fighters XII

The standard procedure at Gamereactor is to write reviews that anyone can make sense of whether they are familiar with the genre or series or not. However, this is nearly an impossible task when it comes to King of Fighters XII, because not only is it something as hardcore as a 2D fighting game, but it's also aimed at the most hardcore fans of the series who have studied specific moves for years.

With its teams of three characters, the King of Fighters series has always held an edge at the strategic level over competition such as Street Fighter, Tekken and Virtua Fighter. Through your selection of three characters you have the option of implementing very specific strategies, in case this always ends up with me picking one ranged fighter and two fighters who storm in for close combat.

While the concept has remained the same, the quality of the games have varied greatly. Despite the fact this is the 12th chapter most fans still hold King of Fighters '98, the 5th game, in the highest regard. The many additions and improvements attempted have simply not caught on. This is way this latest chapter should be seen as a reboot, a newly balanced game in brand new packaging.

The constantly growing stable of King of Fighters characters has therefore been cut from 40 to just 22 characters, which means some of your favourites will be missing. Mainstays such as Terry Bogard, Joe Higashi and Iori Yagami are naturally still included. And all have been revised and given new tricks.

Regardless of which trio of characters you choose, you will need to learn two new techniques if you wish to be successful online. Guard Attack is a semi-automatic system that with a bit of timing, both parries an attack and gives you an opening to counter. The problem with Guard Attack is that it is almost to convenient and can be used to parry all attacks except for throws.

Critical Counter is not quite as easy to use, but still manages to cause problems with the balance. When a Critical Counter is activated you can combine a large number of attacks during a couple of seconds, and if you're playing against someone who can finish the Critical Counter with a super attack it can quickly spell the end of the fight.

SNK have tried to modernise the King of Fighters series, not just with new gameplay ideas, but also when it comes to the presentation and visuals. This chapter brings the first proper modernisation of the graphics so far, and unfortunately the results are mixed. And while it is nice to see the redrawn characters, there are still issues with the pixels. Even worse is that the animations have remained the same.

King of Fighters XII is a disappointment, which is even more evident in a year that has given us Street Fighter IV. Even if SNK seems to have the will to improve, maybe they just don't have the financial muscles to reinvent their flagship series the way it deserves. And that is why I'm disappointed to have to conclude that King of Fighters '98 remains the best game in the series.