Review

The King of Fighters XIV

A top contender back in the glory days of arcades, SNK had a decent market share thanks to the creation of a little known game called The King of Fighters 94. While fighting games weren’t exactly new, KOF offered some unique elements – like a roster made up of characters from past SNK games. Little did we realize the phenomenon this franchise would prove to be given time. Basically, spanning fifteen plus games over a twenty-two year period, KOF has always provided an excellent alternative to the Street Fighter’s and Mortal Kombat’s of the world!

KOF XIV marks the beginning of a new saga as it takes place years after the events of thirteen.  Antonov, a shrewd businessman purchases the rights to hold his own KOF tournament. He plans to move things in a slightly different direction for some reason or another. Fighters from all over (including other dimensions) are preparing for battle. Some are doing it for glory while others have joined up for more practical reasons. A few are there to investigate the host; though everything looks legit on paper, there seems to be something else going on. Does Antonov have ulterior motives for hosting a new KOF tournament after all this time? Well…I’m not going to tell you of course.

The “why’s” and “what’s” are explained as you go about completing the story. Unfortunately, it isn’t as fleshed out as past entries. I’m hoping that changes with the release of KOF XV (although that is quite a few years away) because storylines are something SNK has always had over Capcom. What matters most though is the actually fighting. Now, in case the gameplay trailers didn’t get the message across, allow me to first address the biggest concern surrounding this game…KOF XIV does indeed play like traditional KOF titles. As fans all over take in a collective sigh of relief, let’s get to what this means.

Game modes include the usual story, training and trials mode standard in today’s fighting games and while the trials are a lot easier than KOF XIII, it still serves as a decent starting point to familiarize yourself with what each character can do. Also and obviously KOF 14 features online play. Unfortunately, I was unable to play any online matches beyond what was available (SNK set up times to play with their devs). I will include an update after launch when the game is out in the wild. SNK did promise that the netcode will be up to par, so expect some intense online matches in the future. As far as the online modes go you can play casual and ranked matches and set up lobbies. You can also enter training mode and wait for challengers while you brush up on your skill set. A cool mode featured however is the new Party Mode. This mode in particular let’s 6 players duke it out in teams of three, so everyone can play as their strongest character.

This iteration, for the most part, kept the fighting system of the previous games intact with only a few tweaks for better or worse depending on your personal taste. The tag format is still absent. Matches use the normal 3 on 3 elimination ruleset but you won’t be able to shift out a character that’s taking a beating or follow up a combo using another teammate. The control scheme remains unchanged however. The 4 face buttons make up attacks: light punch, light kick, hard punch and hard kick. The power gauge remains unchanged as well, with each player starting with three power stocks and gaining an extra as members of their team is eliminated.

Stocks are needed for the various offensive and defensive tactics at your disposal. On the offensive end you of course have EX moves, super special moves, max super special moves and climax moves. Super special moves cost one stock and typically yield 20-30% damage while max super specials inflict 30-40% and cost 2 stocks (these are powered up versions of super special moves). Lastly we have Climax moves. These supers cost 3 stocks each, are the most powerful moves in the game, and feature a cinematic reminiscent of the Ultra’s from recent Street Fighter games. While each character has 2-3 super special moves, they only have one climax for good reason. Care and caution should be exercised when using these moves considering the amount of stocks will be used. In addition, practically every move (including the Climax moves) can be cancelled into one another for massive damage. Canceling Terry’s Burning Knuckle into his Buster Wolf could really work over an opponent for example.

An advance cancel happens when you cancel a super special move into a max super special move. In order for this to work you have to use two different SSMs so finding the best combination to optimize damage will take some time. This particular cancel is new to KOF and I have mixed feelings about it truthfully. On one hand it provides another offensive weapon and on the other, a cancel with this much damage potential should only be able to be utilized via Max Mode – a temporary state of being that allows the use of EX moves – as it can dramatically change the flow of a match. Climax cancels as you probably figured out, occurs when you cancel a SSM, MSSM or even just a regular special move.

Going back to the aforementioned Max Mode, activating this will allow you to pummel your opponents in style. This is because it gives you more options, like EX moves, and the ability to extend combos. The downside is that it requires one power stock and activating it during a combo will shorten the amount of time you can use it. Basically, you got to make it count. These limits helps to address super aggressive play to a degree, yet doesn’t hurt the flow of a match thanks (or no thanks) to the different cancels that are possible. Even though you can only use EX moves when maxed, there are plenty of other abilities you can use to overwhelm a foe.

There is a lot to take in for sure but with a little practice, most will be able to deal just as much punishment as some of the season players. This actually brings me to one of my only real complaints about KOF XIV. Out of all the KOF’s I have played (and I have played them ALL) this one is the easiest to play by far. In a lot of instances it feels like SNK tried too hard to make it easy to play. For instance, there is a new mechanics called the Rush Combo. By pressing LP four times your character will auto perform a combo that finishes with a special move. If you have any power stocks the character will finish with a super move instead. Rush combos do as much damage as a basic SSM and cannot be cancelled so they only serve as a beginner’s offense tactic; you’re encouraged to learn the combos on your own in order to do more damage via canceling and such. Now, I totally understand adding a feature like this as it allows newer gamers to not only do harder moves easier but make them feel powerful. They don’t have to train to be decent. That said, being able to destroy someone with little effort seems a bit unfair.

It isn’t an issue concerning accessibility because the game is more accessible (that’s a good thing). It’s the damage output that seems off.  The most powerful moves always required strict timing and white knuckle execution. That’s not the case here; even though you can’t cancel moves during rush combos, the amount of damage done is still high. Better players will land on top most of the time, but the balancing is troublesome when good players are using these easy-bake maneuvers. As a veteran KOF player, I am not a fan!

In general any seasoned KOF vet, will need a couple of hours to acclimate themselves to this current version. The challenge as always is finding a team that best fits your play style and figuring out the nuances of your favorite returnees. I don’t see the move to be more accessible hurting the game too much, but it is worth pointing out. Moving away from fighting systems, another interesting change is the inclusion of multiple new characters in this year’s tournament. KOF XIV has over 14 new characters (huh), an unheard of number for this series. What’s really great is that most of them are either brand new or have been pulled from unusual places (like Love Heart coming from a pachinko slot machine).

Most of the characters feel right at home and fit in well (Nelson, Bandeiras, Kukri,) while others seem very odd (Xanadu, Sylvi, Zarina and Love Heart) and by SNK standards, that is quite a statement. In SNK’s defense, I feel that once this story arc is fleshed out more it will provide much needed backstory for all the newcomers. From the extensive amount of time I spent with the game, Nelson and Bandeiras, both representing Brazil, are my favorite newcomers. Nelson is a boxer with a strange left arm, essentially an SNK cliché – mysterious fighter with a strange appendage. Bandeiras is a ninja who utilizes an interesting moveset, not typical of your average ninjutsu practitioner. The returning characters transition well, some with new moves and others mostly unchanged. Due to the changes from KOF XIII, a few characters lose effectiveness and overall potential and others gain more prominence and usefulness though. Because of the events of the last story line, Iori regains his flames of Yagami powers…

Graphically SNK took a huge risk by changing the look of KOF, this time following Capcom by going the 2.5D rout using 3D models. In the early development stages SNK faced huge backlash from fans (myself included) over the lackluster appearance shown in trailers. It was so bad that SNK released a statement asking fans to be patient while they continued to polish the game. After playing the final build, I am pleasantly surprised at how well the character models look. Particle effects and articles of clothing impress – it appears that the gamble has paid off so far. The graphics engine isn’t without shortcomings though. Some of the color palettes on certain characters look cartoonish and the backgrounds in general appear bland opposite the character models but for the first outing of this new engine, it’s mostly successful.

As a HUGE longtime fan/supporter of SNK and KOF in general, I am both pleased at how well the game turned out and hopeful at what else SNK has in store for its fans. There are so many IP’s that can/should be resurrected and I am extremely excited at the possibilities. KOF XIV is far from perfect but it does lay a promising foundation for future iterations to build off of!