King of Fighters XII

You know, I really wish King of Fighters didn’t so closely resemble the screenshot to the left. But unfortunately, it does.

After stellar fighting games like Street Fighter IV and BlazBlue this year, does SNK really think gamers are really going to accept a game that looks like this?

OK, I will admit that the animation is fluid, but when that fluid animation is applied to the most pixelated characters you’ve seen since PSone, the animation kinda falls by the wayside.

I’m not particularly well-qualified to talk about the mechanics of the game in any depth, but I will say that I like the Simple mode. I’m bad at fighting games – like really bad – and it lets me play and have fun with the game without having to know everyone’s moves.

I really like the three-fighter mechanic of King of Fighters, it makes for an interesting match and forces fans to become adept with more than one character. I also like the fighting system itself just because it’s a little different than Street Fighter.

Overall, I’m glad I rented it, but more because I didn’t have to buy it, versus having had the opportunity to play it. As much as people are saying graphics don’t matter anymore, King of Fighters XII is one argument otherwise.