Introduction to The King of Fighters series

The series began in 1994, with the release of “The King of Fighters ’94″, a game that gathered characters from various SNK games under one title. With its popularity, the game grew into its own series with a yearly-based release, and became SNK’s most valuable asset over the years. The series kept its tradition of yearly releases, but after the release of The King of Fighters 2003, SNK decided to break that tradition for various reasons, one of which is to ensure the quality of each release by giving it a longer development timeframe.

KOFXI was not only the first game in the series to drop the year from the title, but it was also the first to abandon the Neo-Geo MVS hardware that SNK had been working on since 1991. The game received positive reviews and high scores, but with its outdated graphics and the steep learning skills that are required to play it competetively, it never broke into the mainstream audience and remained to be played solely among the series fans.

2009 marked another turn point in the series, with the release of The King of Fighters XII, a game that featured the first graphical overhaul for the series. Upon its announcement, 2D enthusiatics were pleased by SNK’s commitment to retain the graphical style, whereas rival company “Capcom” made the jump to 3D graphics with games like Street Fighter 4 and Marvel vs Capcom 3. However, The King of Fighters XII suffered from critical flaws. The consessus from gamers and fans alike was that King of Fighters felt like an unfinished product, with the lack of moves, characters, backgrounds, game modes, and a decent online netcode.

More than 2 years later, SNK finally comes with its next release, The King of Fighters XIII, promising to fix all the issues left by its predecssor. Has the series returned to capture its glorious spot among fighting games? Can it compete with with returning Jaggurants such as Street Fighter 4, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 and Mortal Kombat? Please check our review that will be up soon.

Picture sources:

King of Fighters XI, King of Fighters XII: GameSpot.com