The King Of Fighters

King of Fighters Collection- The Orochi Saga
$9.99
This games emulator cheap from computer look the background not same the original NeoGeo games...

King of Fighters 2006
$29.99
Cool game. Really fun. English voices suck, but that's to be expected because Americans cant really act...combo system is easy and is a real challeneg on maniac mode. Has cool featers and refreshing extras.

King of Fighters XI
$14.99
This has to be up there with Kof 98 as my favorite all time fighting game. This game offers new dynamics to the kof gameplay while still keeping things oldschool.
The graphics in this game look incredibly old and outdated. Very little has changed at all graphics wise since the late 90's. I still think the characters look cool and the backgroounds look nice as well. But no one is going to buy this game because of the graphics. That all rests in the gameplay. This game has the most seamless and fluent combat of any kof game. The controls are tight and the specials are easy to pull of. My only gripes with the gameplay is that I found it a bit too easy and the final boss, contrary to the rest of the game, is completely cheap. He is by far one of the hardest and cheapest bosses i have ever fought.
I highly recommend this game but do NOT pay [...] bucks for it [...]

The King of Fighters XII
$59.99
The King of Fighters franchise has never been a well-known franchise, but it's usually been a good one (KOF98 on Xbox Live Arcade is a good example of what a good KOF was like). This game, however, was horrible. I read about the bad online play, so I waited until recently to buy the patch. Surely, they would have the patch out for the 360, since it had already come out for the PS3. I wanted to believe this game would have some redemption. I've played KOF games now for over a decade, so I didn't think it would be this bad. I was wrong.

So, let's talk about what's right with the game.

The core game mechanics are solid. It is a fun and playable engine, and the controls for it are solid (granted I am using TE stick). If you have someone to play it with, it'd be worth renting. However, even here the game mechanics have been simplified too much. Everyone has one DM, can't distinguish between LDMs and HDMs, no power gauge store, and so on. While the critical counter system is nice and fun, it doesn't make up for streamlining the options of characters too much.

That's what's right with the game, and that's *it*. Now let's talk about what's wrong with it.

The graphics are pretty, but they weren't done right. They are pixelated so that they look blocky. They included a filter to try and solve this problem, but all it does is make them look fuzzy. I wondered why this was until I installed it on my HD. It is scarcely left a footprint. These graphics are not HD graphics. If they are, they are the bare minimum. I suspect they were recorded low res then scaled up. It seems only the stages are really HD, and for the most part, those are forgettable designs. The videos before release really don't give the same impression the game does when put into the system.

The music is forgettable and annoying. I turned down my BGM so that I didn't have to listen to it anymore.

Its single-player component is nonexistent. All you have is a practice mode and a time trial (excuse me, an "arcade" mode). That's it. The AI is pathetic to boot. It's hard to tell the difference between hard and easy. I never lost a single match and rarely a round. Usually I do when I play KOF on hard.

This would be forgivable if we had online play. After all, the game is solid. However, when I log into XBL, I never have a game that doesn't move as slow as molasses. Their solution is to change my router settings, and that doesn't help (note: SFIV and BB don't have this problem). So, you can't play this game online. I had waited so that this would surely be patched by the time I got it, and I was gravely mistaken. Since it hasn't been patched, it's too little too late. If they patch it now, there will be absolutely no competition online, much less a chance to find a decent connection even if it had good netcode.

The achievements are atrocious. A large number require you to use the broken online mode. No chance of that. Another requires you to complete the game without continuing; it's so easy as to not be noteworthy at all. It has completionist achievements that are simply tedious (KO every character with a given character in arcade mode). It includes some timed achievements, and the best of them 3:30 requires you to spam a combo over and over with one of a handful of characters who can. You won't lose, but if the NPC goes into its dodging mood (even one NPC), then you won't get it. Why include an achievement aimed only at tedium, not fun or difficulty? That's all it is.

So, this is the way SNK-Playmore regards their Xbox users: we get a truly useless product. Its offline play is almost non-existent, and its online play is so defective as to be absolutely broken. They patched this (somewhat, and from what I hear not well) on the PS3. We simply don't rate. As much as I like KOF games, if this is what they're going to put forth now and how they're going to treat their customers, I don't need them, and I'd advise everyone else to do the same. Go play BlazBlue. It has real HD hand drawn graphics, real netplay, and an even better fighting engine. Stay away from this. It's an insult to everyone who's been loyal to them over the years. The only reason I gave this game two stars for fun is because if you can find someone around you who'll play it, then it'd be a blast, but that's not likely to happen, and you certainly going online with it.

I won't be so eager for the next release, and if it happens again, I'll most likely write off KOF permanently. If they wanted to make sure that their signature game series goes under, this is the way to do it.