January 12, 2011
But no, seriously, where’s Mai?
King of Fighters XII is pretty terrible.
It was never the sort of game I was going to buy, but I had it in my Gamefly list to give it a try. I enjoy King of Fighters. I was fairly decent at them at one time (Note: fairly decent means able to hold my own against semi-difficult computer opponents). It interested to see how they were attempting to update the franchise after Street Fighter IV was so fantastic.
I could only stomach about an hour of it. It was really bad.
I mean, okay, the graphics were pretty nice. There is that.
Okay, that’s all I got.
First off, how could you not have Mai? I mean, come on. It’s fucking MAI. Everyone’s favorite boob-bouncing hentai-bait. You have to have Mai for the creeps out there. Plus, I mean, I enjoy how Mai plays. That’s why she was one of my mains. I have no idea why she didn’t make the cut for this game’s roster.
Secondly, the menus are pretty godawful. I attempted to get into an online game, just to achievement whore, and the menus are pretty incomprehensible. Like, I joined a lobby, but that was like… the wait to join a lobby lobby? Then I joined one where I could actually play, but it was winner stays in and I couldn’t watch matches in progress. It was kind of a disaster.
The gameplay, too, just made me scratch my head. Granted, it has been awhile since I played a KoF, but oh my goodness, it just felt all wrong. None of the characters I knew felt right, and all the new characters I tried didn’t seem to do anything. I even turned on this “assist” mode that was supposed to make me throw out special moves all the time, but even this “easy” mode was so weird I couldn’t figure out how to use it well.
I guess it just goes to show what a fucking fantastic job they did with Street Fighter IV. That game immediately feels familiar, and yet is an evolution of the fighting game genre. It’s fantastic. It is everything King of Fighters XII is not. I sent that shit back the same day I got it.