I don’t know that much about fighting games, mainly because I grow up in household filled with shooter enthusiasts, but I know for a fact that The King of Fighters series has been around for along time. So long that, if I recall, KOF series played key part as the counter to the popular Street Fighter series. However, over the recent years, The King of Fighters series has lost some of its momentum, make that all of its momentum. Fortunately, The King of Fighters XII doesn’t disappoint.

Boasting a total of 22 fighters, this King of Fighters title is a radical departure from past titles. If you played previous KOF titles, you’ll know that there’s a large amount of fighters normally featured in a game of its kind, but this installment doesn’t have a large group of fighters. The main reason being, for such a low fighter count, is the amount of time the developers spent making a fighter – because all the fighters have been drawn by hand. But, SNK, the developers, have already stated that they’ll be working on more characters as DLC. However, compared with some of the other fighting titles out there, this isn’t a bad turn out.

This hand-drawn style took a lot of man power to create. So much, in fact. That SNK had to set aside a complete team to do the visuals. By doing this, SNK insured very detailed environments and characters. But, as you can tell, this style has a questionable side to it. One, obviously, being the time it takes to create one character. However, as I stated, this is a very good turn out for any fighting game today. Another thing about the characters in the game, KOFXII features a list with character that were in the early titles in the series, this was done with the plan to please fans of the series. And it works.

Speaking of visuals, The King of Fighters XII is absolutely gorgeous – thanks in collaboration to hand-drawn visuals – the game is smooth and stunning. Basically, making up for the series’ lowest franchise count, which, for a fighting title these days, isn’t a bad turn out. However, the key issue with the characters is pixilation. As you can tell, this hand-drawn style is meant for modern day arcades, and it doesn’t play out so will on consoles. Luckily, SNK realized this and added three selectable levels of character filtering options. These filters blur the still-pixilated models making them easier to look at in high-res. But, one can only wonder why KOFXII’s sprites weren’t featured in HD. But, The King of Fighter XII finds all of its triumphs in its combat.

Losing Tactical Shift, the game introduces a Critical Counter and Clash mechanic. Critical Counter mechanics is activated when one player counters an attack with a heavy punch or kick, giving the player that activated it a small window to preform a damaging combo. Along with that, the Clash system works like this, when both fighters strike simultaneously with the same attack, the game breaks the characters up. Anyway, the reactions made by both systems are very enjoyable and entertaining. These aspects are what make the game entertaining and, like I stated, this is were The King of Fighters XII finds its triumph. That and its control scheme.

Closing Statement:

The King of Fighters XII is a mixture of both pain and pleasure. The pain being some of the very poor presentation chooses, like the repetitive menu music, boring menu screens, and a barely functional online component. The pleasure being the awesome gameplay, which is the core of the game making put for almost everything. However, when you put aside all the pains, in which I didn’t list all, you’ll find a true to the heart fighting title. But, because you have to put aside so many mistakes, this game is bitter sweet but it doesn’t disappoint at its core.

Score: B-

The combatants fight for various reasons, but have their sights set on the same goal, to become the next King of Fighters.

“Our development slogan for KOFXII is “KOF Re-Birth” and we’ve aimed to create an entirely new King of Fighters game. To make this a truly unique fighting game, we’ve revolutionized the graphics by creating state of the art visuals – and made no compromises in that process whatsoever,” said Masaaki Kukino, SNK Playmore.

Update: Capcoms Chris Kramer has confirmed that this is no rumor and that Tatsunoko vs Capcom will be making it’s way to the U.S.

Original: It’s about time. According to a Nintendo Power article scan, it looks like Capcom is finally ready to bring its crossover fighter Tatsunoko vs. Capcom to United States. A paragraph in the top right corner of the article reads:

“They said it couldn’t happen, but it is! Fighting extravaganza Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is coming to North America.”

As you can see, the scan doesn’t reveal much information about the release, but Capcom has previously stated they wanted to bring the game across seas.  ”The rights holders for Tatsunoko in Japan are one company, but in the U.S. it’s…13 companies – and some are very attentive and some are not,” Capcom community manager Seth Killian recently said.

However, for now this is just a rumor, but with E3 coming up you can never know.

If you will, take a trip back with me to 2001 and, would you kindly, try to remember all the gaming related rumors that were revealed in that year. I know that it’s hard to recollect, but there was one very interesting rumor that I will never forget, and that was the Capcom vs. SNK 3 rumor.

In an interview with Jeux-Actu, Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono commented on the possibility of Capcom reconsidering the development of Capcom vs. SNK 3. In the interview Yoshinori Ono recalls Capcoms firm focus of unwavering fans of fighting games.

He even goes back far enough recalling being asked about Capcom considering the development of Street Fight IV. With that, he goes into there being a demand for Street Fight IV saying, “because fans demanded it they got it,” or something along that road. And he says that the same may go for Capcom vs. SNK 3, that if fans demand it.

As it was stated in many reports over the last week, Street Fighter IV will not be spending this holiday season, in Japan, under a tree. In a press event held in Tokyo, Capcom release its plans to reveal Street Fighter IV in Japan in February of ’09 on both on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The direct release date for the game is still waiting to be know in the United States, but still we can’t wait to play the game in the U.S. This news was released to the public in a fighting game press event by Capcom in Tokyo, just for you guys that missed it in my other article.