The King of Fighters XII

most revered fighting 3-on-3 game franchise celebrates its 15th anniversary with its most ambitious entry to date: The King of Fighters XII. Meet more than 22 beautifully hand-drawn 2D characters in the history of SNK Arcade Floor The King of Fighters XII promises to meet the expectations of next-generation console owners play attractive, high-resolution graphics and all the best ..intense battles!

Product Details

Amazon Sales Rank: #5797 in Video Games

Brand: Ignition Entertainment

Model: 400043

Published on: 2009-07

Released on: 2009-07-28

ESRB Rating: Teen

Platform: Xbox 360

Number of items: 1

Dimensions: .33 pounds

Features

Over 22 hand drawn characters, two of which, "Mature" and "Elizabeth Blantorche," are unique to the Console releases of the game.

Classic The King of Fighters 3-on-3 team fighting combat that now allows you to create a team with any mix of characters you want.

New Gameplay elements such as critical counter attacks, air guarding, deadlock counters, clash timing and guard attacks.

Ability to form clans, create your own personal Clan emblem and compete against other clans online, as well as record and replay your matches, then upload them to the Internet.

Four robust modes of game play.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Product Description

The legendary 3-on-3 fighting game series that united rival brawlers from SNK PLAYMORE's classic arcade franchises celebrates its 15th anniversary in style with the 2009 release of The King Of Fighters XII. For the first time in its history, this epic martial arts showdown has undergone a complete graphical overhaul. The antiquated character sprites used over the past 14 years have been dropped in favor of all-new, high-resolution fighters fluidly animating across painstakingly detailed, 100% hand-drawn backgrounds. Create a 3-on-3 dream team. View larger. New "Critical Counter" system. View larger. Redesigned character animation. View larger. 2 console exclusive characters. View larger. Gameplay The King of Fighters XII is a pure arcade fighting title. Like a few other releases in its franchise it does not contain a storyline, instead focusing on the tried and true 3-on-3, five round team fighting gameplay mechanic. Far from a liability, the lack of storyline plays into the fighting mechanic by eliminating official teams linked to the prevailing story, which in earlier releases compromised the characters that could be added to a team. In addition, the game also features new combat elements including the "Critical Counter" system which opens up the possibility of additional linked attacks and finishing moves when players land effective counter punches following an opponent's attack, and "Clash Timing," a break effect during a bout that separates combatants when they land blows on each other at the exact same time. More Than 20 Playable Characters Although the more than 20 characters featured in The King of Fighters XII is only about half the numbers veteran players of the series may have grown used to selecting from in earlier releases, the characters that are included having each been recreated for the game are very much graphically superior to anything ever seen in franchise history. Going for an old school feel, the majority of these are pulled from early King of Fighters games. They also retain, as close as possible, their original move set and have been rendered in costumes either from their classic King of Fighters appearances, or in some cases that of their original game. In addition, two of the playable characters, Mature and Elizabeth Blantorche, are exclusive to the console releases of the game and are not found in the arcade version. Both are clad in new outfits. Aside from these two, a sampling of the playable characters includes: Ash Crimson Slender and effeminate, at first glance Ash does not seem like he would be much of a fighter, yet he is a first-class combatant full of hidden motives and tricks, and possesses the powerful ability to control a strange green fire. Athena Asamiya A Japanese high school student, powerful psycho soldier and part-time pop idol, Athena splits her time between Japan and her training under master Chin Gentsai in China. She has a strong sense of justice and a hatred towards wrongdoers. Kyu Kusanagi Successor to the Kusanagi clan's flame-wielding fighting style, Kyo is brash, self-confident and very powerful. He has been in the top tier at every KoF tournament he has entered and he and Iori Yagami are bitter enemies. Iori Yagami Iori is the successor to the Yagami clan's devastating Violet Flame fighting style. Although this style is similar to that of the Kusanagi, a hatred simmers between the clans which Iori takes nearly to the point of insanity. Key Game Features More than 20 playable fighters from The King of Fighters franchise history, specially redesigned for Next-Gen consoles, and including console exclusive characters Mature and Elizabeth Blantorche. Classic The King of Fighters 3-on-3 team fighting combat that now allows you to create a team with any mix of characters you want. The "Critical Counter" system which opens up the possibility of additional linked attacks and finishing moves when players land effective counter punches in response to an opponent's attack. "Clash Timing" break effect that separates combatants who land blows on each other at the exact same time. A return to the series' standard four button layout, with which players can not only attack, but also more easily dash, backstep, and perform rolls as they evade.

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Customer Reviews

For the life of me.....
This is one of the most terrible SNK games to date.
I bought this orignially without reading up on it, but since past SNK games were over 20+ characters I thought it would have been the bomb-diggity. Boy was I wrong. This is almost the same as playing KOF 95 with a smaller pool to run off of. The controls are a lot flakier than most SNK games too. My suggestion if interested in any SNK title, is to buy a PS2 and buy the KOF95, KOF99, or any other SNK related games on that system. Sure, the graphics look much better BUT...does that mean anything when the playability is almost zero? I gave this two stars-one star for the fact that SNK released a title on XBOX360, the other star for the graphics.

Disappointing
SNK's long running King of Fighters series makes its next-gen debut with King of Fighters XII, which offers up a decent cast of fighters, but sadly not much else. The biggest addition of King of Fighters XII is that the game offers up online play, which is decent enough, but other than the typical single and versus-player modes, there aren't any other play features to find here, such as Time Attack or Survival, or whatever else one can think of that could have been included here. Graphically speaking, the game is very well-animated and moves fluidly enough, and the core fighting engine remains virtually the same, and also remains just as rewarding as it ever was. Still though, considering the full price-tag attached to King of Fighters XII, there just should have been more included here. With its small amount of gameplay modes and such, there's really no reason why King of Fighters XII isn't a cheaper downloadable package, but alas, it isn't. All in all, King of Fighters XII is still worth checking out for longtime fans of the series and fans of 2-D fighters in general, but in the end, the game as a whole is a disappointment.

Horrible Online Mode! Too Slow!
As expected from great franchise... I was ready to be dazzled like Street Fighter 4 but... online mode is just simply unplayable. I'm hoping that XBOX Live will correct this problem. I guess it's fair to judge this game if XBOX Live is at fault. If it does improve, I'll edit my review.

Other than poor online play. Here are my verdicts

Graphic: B
I played BlazBlue and it's not even a comparison in terms of graphic but it's playable

Music: C
Nothing too exciting

Game Play: A (if online play is fixed!)
On off-line play, it rocks! The critical counter move is intuitive and I like it!

Anyways, I'll probably stick w/ SF4 and BlazBlue for couple weeks and hopefully online play is fixed!!! Just be aware that currently as of writing this review..online mode is litterraly unplayable.

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