![]() KoF XIV introduced the “Rush” system, which allows players to perform more complicated attacks if they manage to successfully punch their foe a few times in a row without being interrupted. The King of Fighters XV’s story mode is as good as your run-of-the-mill shonen, but hey, it does have one… One thing people have always complained about the series as a whole was the complexity when trying to pull off special attacks, since almost none of them were comprised of your traditional “quarter circle + punch” combos. Its special gauges and tag team battles have always been a little bit less straightforward than the simplicity preached by Capcom’s franchise. The KoF has always been known for being a lot less newcomer friendly than its main competitor, Street Fighter. This is what you’re here for: three-on-three bouts against dozens of different fighters, with flashy combos and unpronounceable move names. I didn’t exactly think they were the best cutscenes featured in a fighting game, with the overall plot and voice acting feeling like the most generic of shonens, but it was a nice distraction in between fights. This is just your run-of-the-mill single player arcade mode, just sprinkled with a handful of fully animated, fully voiced CG cutscenes. First of all, this is not a story mode per se. I was surprised with the scope of the game’s story mode. Yeah, SNK isn’t very creative when it comes to protagonist names… What’s in here is pretty great, however, with SNK optimizing the hell out of the limited resources at their disposal. The King of Fighters XV can’t compete with the likes of Tekken and Guilty Gear when it comes to visuals (which are good, but far from being considered a next-gen standard), animations, and amount of content. I also know that the SNK of today is just a mere fraction of what it once used to be in terms of size and financial prowess. ![]() I love SNK, I grew up playing a multitudes of games on tons of Neo Geo cabinets and my trustworthy (and lethargic) Neo Geo CD. And yes, it does feature rollback netcode for its online multiplayer. The end result is pretty good, despite the latter: this is, without a doubt, the best looking polygonal KoF game ever made, with the smoothest gameplay and performance of any game in the franchise. Let me be clear that, despite all the glitzy marketing campaigns and previews, The King of Fighters XV is not a reinvention of the wheel, retaining a good chunk of what made its predecessor so fun to play, all while adding more content on the side, and removing a bit of content on the other. Another fun fact: he was the inspiration behind Street Fighter’s Dan Hibiki. ![]() Everyone else can play The King of Fighters XV on launch this February 17 on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S and PC.Fun fact: Ryo’s design was based on Patrick Swayze. Those who’ve pre-ordered the game’s Deluxe Edition can play right now. There’s free upgrades from the PS4 to the PS5 version too, with both of the latter also supporting cross-generation play. There’s plenty of modes to get stuck into too, including Ranked, Casual, Room and online training. The game’s already announced DLC will add a further 12 fighters, bringing the total up to 59.Įxpect plenty of frenetic 3-player action, bucket loads of special moves and improvements to MAX Mode and RUSH mechanics. There’s also guests from other SNK fighters too, such as Fatal Fury favourites Terry and Andy Bogard. There’s plenty of returning classic characters including those from the Orochi, NESTS and Ash Sagas of previous games. Fast forward one year and a whopping 37 characters later, and the fisticuff saga’s newest iteration is about to launch. However, all would be very quiet until January last year when it finally resurfaced revealing its first character, Shun’ei. ![]() The latest entry in the long running series was first announced all the way back in 2019. Beat-em-up The King of Fighters XV finally launches this week, which means naturally there’s a launch trailer to celebrate.
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