King Of Fighters XIII

The premise is always simple when it comes to fighting games. Taking different fighting styles and letting our fingers and imaginations do the rest.  One of the staples of fighting games since the mid 90′s has been the King of Fighters series. The titles had a three-on-three concept that gamers enjoyed and it became very fundamental to the series longevity. There was a dedicated fanbase of gamers that enjoyed these titles and characters, however with SNK’s troubles, King of Fighters has struggled into getting into the mainstream. In fact the last console installment,  King of Fighters XII, fell very short of expectations. Fans were disappointed in what was considered to be an “unfinished product.” Some time has passed since that release and now we have the next installment of the series, King of Fighters XIII. Now, with all the criticisms of the previous installment in mind, Atlus had hoped to revamp this edition in order to bring a popular series in fighting games to a bigger audience, giving fans the proper HD King of Fighters title they deserve.

This title takes pride in going with an old-school approach. There is no 3D graphics or anything fancy with the presentation. However, the presentation of this game makes for an enjoyable and nostalgic experience. King of Fighters XIII features a wide range of beautiful colors and vivid backgrounds, and yes there are a couple of stages that are downright silly (tribal animals cheering on a fight in the jungle?). That aside, the visuals in this title are very impressive and have a unique look when compared to the other fighting titles that are currently available. The soundtrack of this title is also very impressive, giving the fights an additional charge. Songs from this game are very catchy and give a good insight as of to why the featured soundtrack discs were a highly anticipated pre-order bonus.

How a fighting game is presented is important, however, the most important part of a fighting game is how it handles. In this department King of Fighters XIII shows no slack. The contrast in fighting styles between all of the different fighters sometimes makes it difficult to pick your team of three.  The controls in this game are very precise, allowing players to really get creative with a variety of different motions from hops, rolls, cancels, ex-special moves, and super attacks. The drive system allows players to shred opponents with some really impressive combos. The gameplay is highly technical and requires a lot of practice for most players. However, with the defensive maneuvers available to players, it makes it difficult for matches to become overly aggressive rushes. Also, players will find it difficult when if they try to mash/spam specific maneuvers. Like most King of Fighters titles, this game is very old-school, and elevates 2D fighting in fashion that SNK fans have become accustomed to.

• See Below for a video released by Atlus showing off what exactly is possible for players in this title:

As exciting as this title is, it does have a few minor flaws. A minor complaint regarding this title would pertain to the much advertised Story Mode. While the Story Mode does go into depths regarding the King of Fighters story, it borrows too much from BlazBlue. The Story Mode requires a lot of reading. There aren’t many cut scenes, it just provides a lot of nice pictures with a lot of written text. It was pretty cool to include dialogues between fighters before each round, which is how it is presented in the Arcade Mode. None of this takes away from the experience of this game in any significant way though.

Online matches, while never a perfect experience, seem to have some difficulty with the net code. While playing there were a few disconnects, and occasional issues with lag but hopefully this is something that Atlus will address with a patch. While the online gameplay can be fantastic, the offered modes for online play could be described as bare bones. A bigger complaint is that Atlus didn’t borrow a page from Capcom and include a fully-fleshed out Spectator Mode. The Spectator Mode in Street Fighter IV allows you to save all of your matches and watch them online with friends or other players. In King of Fighters XIII, you can only save your online matches, but watch them offline. Watching replays with other players online would have been a great way to get feedback and ways to improve in a game that is so highly technical. SNK missed the boat.

This game is old-school to the core. There are no assist attacks or team attacks, just 1 vs. 1 action with a 3 man team format. 30-plus fighters with unique styles and approaches. This game makes for a fantastic alternative to Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. Fans of fighting games would definitely be doing themselves a favor if they added this title to their collection. At 50 Dollars, it is slightly more expensive than Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, but this title is a very impressive package and is a fresh new fighting game on the scene that competitive fighters around the world are currently buzzing about. Atlus did the fighting game community a service by doing such a great job with this title. Buying King of Fighters XIII will satisfy gamers with the depth in gameplay as well as it’s old-school approach and presentation.  Gamers should definitely not sleep on this title.

Every fight no matter the outcome, has an intense feel from how it's controlled to the way it looks.