I don't normally like to review a game after a single night of play, much less a fighting game that can take months to truly appreciate, but I'll make this exception for KOFXII because it really only offers about one night worth of entertainment.
In its long life the KoF series has seen its fair share of drama. It was advertised (damned near prophecised) that with King of Fighters XII the series would see its way back into prominence, leading the charge with a breath taking 2d graphical facelift, the first in almost twenty releases. The reality though, is that thats the only thing they led the charge with and the rest is just an incomplete and uninspired mess.
Now, the game IS quite a sight to behold. You can almost taste the characters and their respective pyrotechnics in motion, and while the animation counts don't rival such epic achievements as Street Fighter 3 or Mark of the Wolves, its no slouch. The first problem, however, is that its totally under utilized. Even beyond the move list reductions, there's a distinct lack of anything that might be considered graphically showing off. There are no prefight animations or intros at all, no taunts, extraneous standing cycles, or exaggerated animations to speak of, and not more than a single win pose per character. No fancy pants super effects or stage changing effects, and none of the backgrounds are any more interesting than having a bunch of people or pigs or snakes jiggling around in the back. Outside of battle is even more barren, as there are no endings or cinematics anywhere, just an obnoxious faux news presenation that frames what the game calls a single player mode.
Said single player mode is a major sticking point for me. Matches are still fought in the series staple team format, but there are no defined teams and no boss to call a finale. The mode itself is just a time trial, consisting of 5 bouts against random arrangements of characters until the credits roll. It feels criminally short compared to 7 or 8 team + boss affairs of yester year, and shines a big spotlight on the games tiny cast. You can retry each match once if you're intent on stretching it out or scoring a good time, but the pathetic AI grants no sense of satisfaction, and seems most interested in jumping around and making it difficult for you to score a good time than actually competing. Turning the difficulty up or down doesn't seem to have any effect on its tactics either, just rendering the damage higher or lower. The only silver lining here is that its tremendously easy to knock out all the "beat arcade mode with a single character" achievements, but the 30 or 40th time you jump kick low sweep your way to victory you'll probably decided the gamerscore isn't worth another couple hundred.
I will admit to having some fun with the versus mode though, as this is still KoF we're talking about. If you've ever played one, it will take you about 30 seconds of play to settle into the XII playstyle, but the comfort is bitter sweet. Many notable cast members are in the game, but others you've come to love and adore are missing or had their movelists hideously disfigured. Its even hard to deduce if the culprit is the staggering cost / difficulty of high res 2d development or just lazyness because there's inconsistency in its disappointment. Main characters are pretty much complete, missing some things you might want and never need but still solid enough to strategize with. Others have been whittled down to optionless one trick ponies who must feed on opponents who lack basic kof skills like blocking and dashing and rolling. The truly damned characters are so stupid and inneffectual they might as well not even been included, which is a shame because they are most of the ones who got the biggest graphical overhauls and redesigns!
The gap bridger to the gross character inconsistencies are the new gameplay features, old hat and new. Stand bys like ab rolls and cd knockdowns help put you in the KoF mood, while the ability to punch out fireballs and the new way that hits are traded create interesting new outcomes to otherwise mundane scenarios. The new Critical Counter system takes all that and turns it right on its head though. Taking a page of the SF4 revenge meter book of failure, critical counters reward turtling players with the ability to score a devestating counter attack that opens up a world of hurt for the former aggressor. After a successful counter, you get a free pass to chain whatever basic attack you want together and juggle indescriminately for big damage. In just a few minutes of toying around in vs we clocked a 50% damage combo with Shen Woo, and a 60% or so with Ralf off a well timed standing hard punch. I suspect this system, more than any of the character changes, decides ultimately what is effective and isn't in XII, and that sucks because I hate the system totally.
The bottom line is that if nothing else, KoF XII is horribly undercooked. With another few months or maybe a year of development this would all have been mind blowingly impressive, with the new graphics, personality, and gameplay tweaked to back it up. But this release is so shallow it only took me a couple hours to grow bored of it. The single player effort is laughable, the online code is a joke, and the vs intrigue only last as long as someone stays away from character win buttons like Ash, and Terry, and Kim, and Robert. The training mode gets the job done, but no survival or generic exhibition mode just allows you to square off against the cpu, without the absurd time trial rule. The new gameplay is neat to mess with, but if you start to take it seriously, it only sheds light on problems KoF has always had with broken short sighted balance. Without all the extraneous soul the games are usually packed with to compensate for their shortcomings, the enjoyment is simply not there. I will give them credit for trying to sweeten the deal by tossing two extra characters into the home ports, but they, like the crappy online code, unimaginative achievements, and generally underwhelming presentation are too little, too late for the main game.
-F.
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