My KOFXII review

I've been wanting to do this for a REALLY long time.

For four years, SNKP has been developing this game, or were they lying because honestly, this game looks and feels like it didn't take four years to make.

SNKP was shooting maaad retarded ****, making boisterous claims that they were opting the make the "ultimate 2-D game."

I thought," well, it's about damn time they rebuild the game from the ground up. Maybe they can make something halfway decent.
"

The last KOF game I played was KOFXI and in all honesty, I really enjoyed that game. It played pretty well, controls were smooth and ultra-responsive, the roster was huge and great. New characters like oswald were a blast to use, the systems used for the game were far more deep than SNK has ever used.

All in all, it was the last great KOF game in my eyes, and I only REALLY liked two or three of them.

I feel that in terms of gameplay, the KOF series was definitely moving in the right direction. Taking cues from MvC2 and implementing it into KOF was a pretty fresh thing to do.

Now, consider the options that SNKP were working with while developing KOFXII, they could've easily expanded on the systems it's predecessor used, maybe add some new gameplay element, while tweaking the foundations set by XI, while adding a shiny, new coat of that fresh HD paint the series so desperately needed since 1997.

Did SNK deliver? No.

Is it ultimate? No.

does it suck? Totally.

And sucking is an SNK institution.

Here's what I liked:

- the fact that I was able to trade it back in along with blazblue to get brutal legend.

- character sprites look fine, some look really weird and the overmuscular look to most of the male characters seem kinda forced.

What I didn't like: (jesus, where to start...)

- the price tag.

- the fighting system that takes 12 steps back twelves years to KOF94 territory. I'm almost convinced that the fighting system used in this game was purely a test engine to examine the fluidity of the character sprites.

- character movesets are abysmal. In a series of games where a lot of characters get a ton of moves at their arsenal, characters like elizabeth get like, 4 command dodges, and 1 command move.

Iori get's the worst moves in the entire KOF saga. And this puzzles me because wasn't KOFXII supposed to end the ASH saga? Why give Iori a moveset when this entry isn't series canon? Why call it a "dream match" when only 4 characters from the ash saga make an appearance with 22 characters in all? Why call it a dream match in the first place? Why not call it a beta? A 60 dollar beta? What kind of crack was SNKP smoking when such boisterous claims were made? Why is water wet?

This game is broken beyond any kind of repair. And to think, someone on board 208 claimed that this game was worth a full 60 dollars. Man, cocaine's a hell of a drug.

- there's only five stages.

- no story mode.

- the arcade mode is a time attack.

- broken online mode in which SNKP/Ignition are still attempting to fix. It's unbearable, unplayable, unbelievably choppy, and laggy. Tons of input lag as well. And this is after...2 or 3 updates.

- characters react to hits in extremely odd fashion.

- only one DM per character. Not even LDMs.

- this game was 60 bucks at launch.

- it's an incomplete mess. Raiden v. Elizabeth matches are an ordeal due to the handcuffs glitch that was never #*?!ing fixed.

I close this review with this:

You're pretty much asking for an expensive coaster that you can actually insert into your 360/PS3 and watch diarreah in HD, in all of it's jagged glory. You will get your 60 dollars worth in about 1 playthrough the arcade mode.

What SNK should've done was to spend another 50 years on the game, maybe then it would've had potential, but for a company in shambles as SNKP is, it really shouldn't come as a shock when they release yet another steaming pile of garbage to a bunch of people hoping to capitalize on the fighting game revival (thanks SFIV) only to crash and burn hard.

SNKP released this game to turn heads, to hopefully gain new fans thing is, they forgot that nobody buys their games, nor does the public (US public) care for that matter.

Games like SFIV, blazblue, and tekken 6 justify their 60 dollar price tags because they offer a complete and satisfying experience. They seemed to have gotten everything right in terms of pleasing the consumer/ fighting gamer.

For SNKP not to follow such important criteria just makes me want to climb a clock tower and go on a shooting rampage.

tl;dr

In short. This game blows. It sucks. It spits. It gargles. It chokes. It's a complete mess of a game. This title proves that the developers were more concerned with visuals rather than a visceral experience.

And to be quite honest, the visuals are a mixed bag.

You'll like it if you've never played a fighting game in your life.

You'll hate it if you've played countless fighting games in your life....or any video game for that matter

3/10

I give it a 3 because at least the controls aren't sluggish like classic KOF games.

and in a shameful attempt to please fans...whoever they are, SNK decided to release ASTs for download on XBL. Really?? I hope it fixes the GAMEPLAY and adds like, 100 new features to the game....

Seriously. FK SKN.