Index

Page 1 - Characters
Page 2 - KoF 94/Rebout, 95, 96
Page 3 - KoF 97, 98, 99
Page 4 - KoF 00, 01, 02
Page 5 - 03, Neowave, XI, XII
Page 6 - Portable Versions
Page 7 - Maximum Impact
Page 8 - Spinoffs / Media

The King of Fighters 2003 - Arcade / PlayStation 2 / Xbox (2003)

Japanese PlayStation Cover

King of Fighters 2003

King of Fighters 2003

With the resurrection of SNK, the original team took back over and once gain reinvented the entire series. Inspired by the Capcom Versus series, King of Fighters 2003 finally features tag battles, so you can switch back and forth between any of your three characters during battle. The action has been sped up quite a bit too, making for a faster game overall. Out of your three characters, one of them is designated the "Leader", which grants them an extra special attack called a Leader Desperation Move. You can also perform combos btween characters, calling one out immediately into the fray, which costs a power stock. The new hero of the series is the girly-haired Ash Crimson, who can wield the power of green flames. He's joined by newcomers Shen Woo and Duo Lon, who star as the heroes of the new "Sacred Treasures" saga, SNK also began melding King of Fighters together with Garou: Mark of the Wolves - Terry appears in his leather jacket uniform, and both Gato and Tizoc appear in a KoF game for the first time. Chizuru also returns, along side with her identical twin sister Maki. The new main boss is Adelheid Bernstein, the son of Rugal, although the true boss is a demon named Mukai. The music is also much better than the previous two entries, and while it lacks the variety of the older games, it's still damn good. The official artwork is all done by Falcoon, and is some of the best looking designs the series has seen. Mai jiggling is, once again, gone in the American arcade release but implemented in the home ports. King of Fighters 2003 was ported to both the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Both feature arranged music and plenty of new 3D backgrounds, although the Xbox version also has online play. While many more serious fans seem to prefer 98 and 02, KoF 03 is probably the most newbie friendly entry in the series, and is still incredibly fun. MP3s Joyrider Splendid Evil

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PlayStation 2 Screenshots

The King of Fighters Neowave Arcade / PlayStation 2 / Xbox (2004)

American Xbox Cover

King of Fighters Neowave

King of Fighters Neowave

After programming for the Neo Geo for ten years, the team needed a bit of adjustment in moving to the Atomiswave platform. Rather than simply letting the members get familiar with the new hardware, they created King of Fighters: Neowave. For all intents and purposes, it's another Dream Match title, similar to 98 and 02. It's closest to 02, but some of the characters have been dropped (May Lee, Angel, K9999) and replaced with others (Jhun Hoon). None of the characters introduced in 03 are here. SNK also brought back young Geese Howard, who was the hidden final boss in Art of Fighting 2. Neowave feels more like a step back than a step forward. The tag mechanics of 03 were removed in favor of the traditional fighting scheme, and there aren't really any new characters. The move to the new platform doesn't make much of a difference either - sure, the new high-res backgrounds look pretty nice, but the character sprites look exactly the same, except for a bit of filtering. If you're expecting the makeover given to the Rebout characters, you can forget about it. The new high-res artwork, done by Tomokazu Nakano, is pretty nice (and bears a distinct resemblance towards Range Murata artwork), but there aren't any win quotes, or any real plot line, making this seem more slapdash than usual. Even the music, while technically superior to the Neo Geo synth, is bland and forgettable. There are only minor modifications to the gameplay. At character selection, you pick three options, which lets you execute Super Cancels, Guard Breaks, or MAX2/HSDM attacks. Additionally, the fifth button activates the "Heat" mode, which temporarily powers up your character in exchange for a bit of health. While it's still a solid game, the biggest problem is that Neowave just feels redundant. The game got a PS2 release in Japan and Europe, and an Xbox release in America, along with the usual Live support on the latter. Both feature 3D backgrounds, although the quick load times in between characters changes leads to the music constantly restarting, which hasn't been a problem since the Dreamcast version of 98. Ugh. There are several additional characters added to the home versions, including Seth, Kim, Ramon and Vanessa, although May Lee and Angel only appear in the PS2 version.

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The King of Fighters XI - Arcade / PlayStation 2 (2005)

Japanese PlayStation 2 Cover

King of Fighters XI

King of Fighters XI

After messing around with Neowave, SNK finally got back on track with King of Fighters XI, which drops the yearly subtitle in favor of a roman numeral. The tag system from 03 has returned, with some minor changes to the tagging attack and super cancel system. You now have a separate "Skill" stocks which determines how you can execute these manuevers, so some of them no longer remove your regular power stocks. You can also immediately switch a character out of the match by using both Skill stocks, which is useful if they're being pumelled by a powerful combo. The high-res backgrounds are pretty decent, the fancy artwork by Hiroaki is quite nice, and the character portraits are some of the best of the series. All of the music was composed by SHA-V, who is known for guitar-heavy songs like "Goodbye Esaka". The soundtrack is a mixture of that same rocking attitude, mixed with the hard electronica of KoF 2003. Also, there's now a gauge beneath the timer that determines who's "winning" the match, based on performance - if the timer runs out, this gauge will decide the winner, as opposed to basing it on remaining health. Also new is a Dream Cancel, which is like a regular Super Cancel, except for a Leader Desperation Move. New characters include little girl dancer Momoko, card-wielding badass Oswald, and the classy dominatrix-style Elisabeth, along with Duck King from the Fatal Fury series, and B. Jenet from Mark of the Wolves. The new sub-boss is Shion, an androgynous spear-wielding fighter, and the final boss is Magaki, who's pretty close to Onslaught from the Marvel vs Capcom series. Needless to say, he's remarkably cheesy. There are also several hidden subbosses from other SNK titles - Gai Tendo and Silber from Buriki One (a Hyper 64 game) shows up, as well as Hayate and Jazu from Kizuna Encounter. Some of them seem a bit out of place (especially Jazu), but it's cool to see SNK grabbing from lesser known series. The problem is, a lot of old favorites have been removed from the roster - Andy is still missing, and Joe, Leona, and Mai are gone entirely, at least in the arcade version. Thankfully, the PlayStation 2 port adds a bunch of exclusive characters, including Mai, Robert Garcia, Geese Howard, Mr. Big, Hotaru Futaba, and Tung Fu Rue. All of these character are the same versions as found in Neo Geo Battle Coliseum. You need to unlock all of these through the Mission Mode, which offers over forty challenges, most of which are pretty difficult. There are plenty of new endings, several new 3D backgrounds, and a few remixed character specific songs (like "Diet" from Art of Fighting 2, "Big Shot" from Fatal Fury 3 for Terry, "Bad Girl" from Mark of the Wolves for B. Jenet and "Still Green" from KoF 97 for Shingo.) Surprisingly, the load times are even shorter than the arcade version. It also features the original "Arcade" as well as an "Arrange" mode, which changes some of the character balancing. KoF XI is undoubtedly one of the best, most refined entries in of the series, both in gameplay and presentation, and shows that SNK still knows what they're doing after all these years. The PAL release contains a number of glitches. The North American releases fixes all of these up, but neither version has the progressive scan option that's available in the Japanese version. MP3s Joker Smell of Gunpowder

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The King of Fighters XII Arcade / PlayStation 3 / Xbox 360 (2009)

American PlayStation 3 Cover

King of Fighters XII

King of Fighters XII

The King of Fighters XII represents a radical shake-up for the series. It's the first since the olden days of 2D fighters to have completely new character sprites, done at twice the resolution as the previous games. And it looks fantastic. The artstyle retains all of the skillful design of the previous games but with improved detail. It looks fantastic in motion, too, with some quality animation that outshines the previous KoF games (although not Mark of the Wolves and Street Fighter III, still the most smoothly animated 2D fighters out there.) It's also the first 2D KoF that utilizes a scaling camera, and the sprites are absolutely huge when fully zoomed in. It does look a bit old fashioned when stacked next to Arc System's Blazblue, the spiritual successor to Guilty Gear that redraw the sprites at an even higher resolution, but KoF XII's sprites are still more detailed and better animated, if not quite as crisp. Nona returns as the character artist, and he's improved significantly since KoF 2002. There are new attacks called "Critical Counters". Similar to the Revenge meter from Street Fighter IV, there's a secondary gauge that fills up as you take damage. Once it fills, you can execute counters standing still and pressing an attack button, but only for a limited time. If timed correctly, you'll stun your opponent and can execute custom combos, similar to the custom combos from Street Fighter Alpha 2 (and the V-ism from Street Fighter Alpha 3.) This can potentially cause skeezy opponents to spam Critical Counters when they're activated, although they're not too hard to punish. There are also "Sousai" or "Deadlock" effects when two characters hit each other at exactly the same time, repelling them both. There's also a Guard Attack, which is essentially a counter move for every character that executes a blowback move when attacked. It's nice to see SNK try to modernize the visuals, but it came completely at the expense of everything else. The character roster is the smallest it's ever been, topping out at 20 in the arcade version and 22 in the console versions. The selection largely hearkens back to the early days of the series, bringing back Andy and Joe, but removes other long time stalwarts. Mai, King, Blue Mary, Yuri, and Takuma? All gone. All of the NESTS saga folks are AWOL too, so that means no Kula, K', Vanessa, Maxima or Whip. The stars of the Sacred Treasure arc - Ash, Shen Woo, and Duo Lon - are all here, and Elizabeth shows up in the console release, but otherwise it's all older characters. The console version also features the addition of Mature, who now has an eyepatch. The only really "new" character is Raiden/Big Bear, who initially appeared back in the original Fatay Fury but has never made it into a KoF before. The fighting itself also plays out like older games on the series. The tag-team switching is gone completely, and the action is a bit slower than KoF 03 or XI. As a result of some of these changes, many characters have significantly dwarfed movesets. Most only have two or three specials, and only one super. Some characters play differently as a result, sometimes for the better (like the drastically redesigned Kensou, who now wears his Chinese uniform from Psycho Soldier), others for the worse (such as Iori and the lack of his purple flame attacks.) Much of the timing and range for the existing moves have changed, too. The rest of the game feels remarkably barren. There are only five backgrounds that, while nice looking, feel sparse and empty. What little music there is is barely memorable. Since this is technically a Dream Match game, there's no story, no predetermined teams, and no ending. The single player mode is just a standard time attack. The console versions feature online play, but both the 360 and PS3 versions suffer from inefficient network code. While KoF XII is still technically a solid game and looks quite fantastic, it feels remarkably incomplete. It suffers from the same problem as Capcom vs SNK, Street Fighter III and other first installments in new series - the content just isn't there, and it ends up lacking compared to what's come before it. Indeed, when it was released in Japanese arcades, it was trounced by The King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match, which despite being a remake of an older game, has more than double the character roster and substantially more features. As such, it's really just a stepping stone to KoF XIII.

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