When a game with 11 previous releases hits your shelves it begs a few questions that may be different to the normal ones you ask yourself when considering a review or contemplating a purchase.  Why and when have there been 11 previous iterations of this game, what's new in this one, how have they managed to get enough content, story and action for 12 games and perhaps most importantly for this review, why haven't I played a King of Fighters game before?  As a result of the last of these, I am judging and reviewing King of Fighters XII as a stand alone game.  If you would like to read more of the confusing and slightly dull history of the King of Fighters games check out the wiki entry.  If you would like to read my review of King of Fighters XII as a newcomer to the franchise, an inexperienced beat-em-up player but someone who knows games and knows what he likes, then carry on!

The first King of Fighers game was released 15 years ago in 1994 and the first thing you'll notice when you load it up is that the franchise is still living in and embracing the early 90's arcade feel.  That's where it's roots are and in many ways it's admirable that it's staying true to its roots, but to a modern gamer it is a slight shock to the system and it takes a while for that slight distaste to pass.  Loading up the game for the first time you will unlock some Gamer Pictures, nothing particularly special but its the first time I've seen this and I'd like to see more of it; take note anyone who makes these kind of decisions! You will be given a brief text based tutorial explaining the concept of the matches and the games and then you're in.

The concept of the game is a basic 2D 1on1 beat em up with a twist.  You pick a team of 3 characters who fight against the opposition's team of 3.  Each team fights in the order which you select (you can hide your order selection for human Vs human fights if you get into it enough to understand benefits, tactics or advantages) and the first team to defeat all of the other team, wins.  You remain fighting with the same character until they are defeated, so in theory you can win the 3v3 bout with just your first fighter.  A character that survives the round receives a small health boost before the next, and you'll take on the next opponent with whatever health is left.  You fight rounds against 5 different groups of 3 for a complete win and there's a secondary level of competition in the time it takes to win your individual 3on3 match and then the combined time for the 5 matches.  After winning in the 3rd round you will get a short and cheesy cut scene and after completing the 5th round a winning cut scene, 15 Gamerscore points and a Gameover screen.  This feels a bit strange and like you've finished the game; I reached this point after a combined play time of about 45 minutes.  There's no story element to the game, and there isn't much substance in terms of game modes, plot or character development/back story.  The substance instead comes from mastering characters and moves, practising and pulling off combos and beating opponents in record time.  Personally, this would get boring quite quickly, though I can see the appeal of perfecting play with a set of characters.

If you have played the franchise before and know a bit about the characters and story behind the game you can probably appreciate everything substantially more.  Personally, knowing nothing about the characters, story or context of the game I didn't get as much out of it as say Mortal Kombat Vs DC Universe where everything is quite familiar and so easier to enjoy and get involved with.  There are 22 characters with a good range of big, small, tall, fat, fast, slow, technique and strength characters.  There's loads to get your teeth into with this set of characters and I can imagine a group gaming session would find plenty of entertainment in using, changing and exploring the many different characters and styles.

In-game the fights are colourful, lively and exciting.  Fighting in 2D against the backdrop of wonderfully bright, fun and interesting hand drawn backgrounds, you are pitched in a 60 second fight against the opposition.  Whoever defeats the other person, or has most energy left at the end of the 60 seconds, wins the round and remains to fight the next opponent.  The music and sound track in general is pretty good and interesting and adds to the colourfulness and exuberance of the fighting arena. The basic controls are quite easy, hard punch + light punch and Hard kick + light kick and these are done with X Y A B, leaving the other buttons redundant. To pull off Super Special moves and Super Blocks you will need to build up the Power Bar to max, leading to some dramatic and fairly impressive moves. The button commands for moves, special moves and super special moves are accessed in the start menu, which isn't quite snappy enough to load up for my liking, as someone who goes in and out of this menu quite often!

If an FPS is about the guns then a beat-em-up is about the special moves.  Some of the most memorable or quoted gaming quotes involve either Ken's/Ryu's “Haduken” or a Scorpian's “Get over here” and for me, they make or break this kind of game. There aren't as many moves per person as I'd like to see but pulling them off results in some nicely animated and exciting combos and moves.  This leads me nicely into what I think is the best thing about King of Fighters XII, and that's the different control options.  Normal mode gives you relatively complicated commands to pull off moves, which takes a level of commitment and time that would be longer than my attention threshold for this kind of game. However, for casual beat-em-up players like me, the game is brought to life by the Simple controls option, which gives you manageable, and perhaps most importantly, memorable, simpler commands to pull off the moves.  These are basically a a maximum of 3 simple directions with the left stick and 1 button, letting you enjoy the moves, animation and the full game fairly easily and quickly.

After enjoying some offline play in the Simple commands mode I ventured online.  Entering a match is easy and fast with quick menus and minimal hanging.  During review there weren't many players or rooms available but I expect this will improve with time.  To play online, you will need to enter a room with several other players and then compete in a Mini Championship or Winner Stays On competition, the concept of both I like.  In game the fights are noticeably slower than offline.  Fights remain smooth without big laggy ditches, but it seems that this is possible by slowing the whole process down.  This makes it less enjoyable, intense and impressive but I guess is better than jumping with lag.  You are also prevented from accessing the moves list, which again is understandable but is frustrating, especially because in online play there was only the option to play with Normal controls.  All of this makes online play less accessible to casual or new players, but there is matching based on Trueskill and Battlepoint rank for anyone wanting to persevere and get a hang of it.

King of Fighters XII is fun to play, a blast from the 90's arcade past and has enough characters and moves to keep you entertained with beat-em-up-goodness for a good few hours.  Fans of the franchise, or in fact of the genre, will enjoy the HD presentation, characters and moves but I would urge other players new to the scene to spend some time with it and I'm sure you will enjoy it.  Simple mode is, for me, it's saving grace and makes it accessible to a much larger audience. It feels more like an Xbox Marketplace game that I would pitch at £10-£15, comparable in size, scope and longevity (but not quality) to battlefield 1943 and it's probably only it's history that has led to a full scale release.  £39.99 feels like too much for this game but I don't expect it'll be long until you can pick it up from the cheaper shelves.  By no means a bad game but while being fun to play for a while there's not much new, not much to keep your attention and not much to keep me coming back for more.

6/10