Ok I got KOFXII yesterday. So here are my impressions
Graphics(7): Well I was quite excited to watch the new sprites in action but at some place they do seem to be a little pixelated. This is very prominent when the two characters fighting are standing right next to each other. Here have a look
Enlarge the images please
The background looks top notch, even the special effects like fire and lightening sparks looks great but I can't seem to understand why SNK didn't try to polish the characters as well. Seriously, the sprites used in SF 2 HD Remix were MUCH Shaper than these. I will be showing the game at the RWP/ISB meet up tomorrow and see what others have to say about this.
Presentation( 2): Ok let me state the obvious first, the reason everyone liked KOF more than other Fighting games was because its huge list of characters and 3v3 battles. Well lets start off with the bad news first. KOFXII only has 22 characters and thats not all it is missing some of the major characters in the series like K`, Mai, King, Blue Mary, Shingo, etc. In short the presentation is very poor to say the least. Bad Menu screen, poor intro video, etc. I even miss the small video that used to come up showing the controls of the game or the different things you can do in game. The story mode is not entertaining as well as you'll be fighting a team comprising of 3 random characters. I was hoping that SNK would at least group up the characters like they used to do in the previous installments. Seriously, don't try to change things that we like about KOF.
One thing which I liked was the replay feature. You will be asked if you want to save the replay of the match you recently played. This is very good considering you can look upon your weaknesses or just see other players in order to improve.
Sound(8): Sounds was pretty decent except for the English voice over. Now I know the game is originally Japanese but look at Street Fighter for a second. T Hey also have English voice over. They may not be that good but at least they are lip synced.
Game play(9): This is the only department they have improved a lot. I was thinking that I might need to get an arcade stick for this game but the controls have been adjusted to the user's needs. Pulling off combos and Super Combos is as easy as pie. You just need to practice a little and you are good to go.
Longetivity(5): Well its kinda on the average for me. People will enjoy playing this game online but you can't do shit when you are offline(Pardon my French). I was hoping that they could have atleast put some challenges like pull of a 10hit combo, defeat 3 opponents with one character, defeat a team without using an ultra, etc but they didn't. Some people think that KOF Maximum Impact was bad but at least they had this feature. I'm still scratching my head that why SNK didnt think about it before releasing this game. The only thing I could find in offlline mode is the Gallery feature. You can see the art work for each character by finishing the game without losing a single match.
Well the good part is the online mode is going to be great. You can do quick matches or set up private matches with you friends. However, the best thing are the clan matches. The good thing about this is 3 friends can make a clan and each one of them picks one character. In this way, each one of you will be playing with their best character thus making the matches more competitive and fun.
Lets say I'm good with Benimaru, IronTriggor is good with Shen Woo and BadMofo is good with Terry then the three of us can team up and play against another team. In short, it is still a 3v3 battle but its more fun and this is where team play counts.
Overall(6.2): To be very frank, SNK messed up this game big time. I was really looking forward to this game as how will SNK compete against Capcom's SF4. I don't think SF4 needs to worry about it for a while unless SNK has something hidden up its sleeve. I would like to mention that there is a PlayStation store option in the game so you'll be seeing a lot of downloadable content lately. Maybe this was SNK strategy all along? Only time will tell.
