STORY: Being the final instalment in a story arc that began with The King of Fighters 2003, there are a lot of loose ends to tie up plot wise. The question is, can KOF XIII finally entice mainstream fight fans to the King of Fighters tournament, or is it another 2D rumble destined to remain a niche title? This time around we are promised a conversion of the 1.1 coin op revision of the very well received sequel, SNK Playmore’s sophomore effort on Taito Type X2 arcade hardware, along with a stack of extra content, including exclusive new characters. The single player experience was a joke, and I skulked back to my older KOFs to get my fighting fix.
When I first played it, it had the feel of an unfinished product. The last time we got to play a new console KOF was the decidedly poor King of Fighters XII, which featured a meagre roster of fighters, an art style that split the fans, and a severe lack of gameplay modes. Going right the way back to the days of the Sega Saturn and PlayStation, there have been conversions of nearly every instalment in the franchise for PAL gamers, a tradition that is thankfully upheld to this day by Rising Star Games, who have assumed publishing duties from Ignition Entertainment.
One thing that we mustn’t grumble about, however, is the availability of the series in the UK. Whilst wildly popular in Japan and with the always fervent SNK fanbase worldwide, the average man in the street probably wouldn’t know who Kyo Kusanagi was even if he was on the end of his signature flaming uppercut special. Available On: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 (Reviewed on Xbox 360)ĭespite being in existence for more than 15 years, The King of Fighters has never been as commercially successful in the West as contemporaries like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat.