Lets go back to early 90’s Street Fighter series is churning arcades up there and fans of fighting games have gone berserk with the offering of Capcom,enter
Prologue
SNK's King of Fighters has been touted as the reboot of the series,to restore it to its former glory,this theme emerged from the game’s brand new style of characters and sprites which contribute to the overall visual overhaul of the series in ages,and to do what Street Fighter 4 did to the Street Fighter series.However to my dismay,this game is a disappointment.This 3 on 3, 2D fighter sports a fairly solid fighting engine much like the older KOF’s but everything surrounding that engine is either lackluster or broken. Or both. It's a shame that the one game aimed at the rebirth of a dying franchise has been rushed and lacks developer effort.
Characters
As we all know,the characters are the core of the fighting game,after all they provide an identity to the game.KOF sports all the nostalgic and series stars –Terry Bogard,Kim Kaphwan,Iori yagami and more ..however series iconic Mai Shirunai is missing (I miss her hot figure :P). 
Gameplay,Graphics and presentation
It follows the old school rules of the series,every character has a Light Punch, Heavy Punch, Light Kick and Heavy Kick. These form the basic attacks and you can combine them to execute all orts of complex combos. By Pressing both Light Punch and Light Kick you can evade an attack while you can execute a by hitting both punch buttons.You can block heavy attacks by Hitting both heavy attacks which can knock your opponent away and give your fighter some room to breathe.You can parry an incoming strike by hitting heavies while holding D-Pad which will perform a Guard Attack.
As with all fighting games,every character has his set of specials and super moves.one of new systems KOF introduces is the Critical Counter system. Fill up your gauge during a sparring session and, once filled, counter your opponent's attack with a Heavy Punch or Heavy Kick,which will activate a special combo state where you can release all sorts of combos and chain attacks together.It was a real blast (I like real damage).
When it comes to selecting stages,I was disappointed with the fact that there are only six stages to choose from, two of which are just day/night variations of each other. And there is just one soundtrack for the whole game !!!! Cant they tune it all together ?
The core battle system in KOFXII is faithful to the series however it feels bland when compared to Street Fighter 4,BlazBlue and Guilty Gear series.The new character animation are praiseworthy,but there are resolution issues,as they seem to be pixilated when the combat starts.
Modes
KOFXII can be quite fun when you mash it out with your friend locally,but it has got some serious issues on both the PS3 and 360. No unlockables,just 2 modes –arcade and multiplayer,no story and survival modes..well,WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!! The game navigation system is broken, For example, you can't back out of the character selection screen once you dive in, the game loads at odd points during menu navigation and the training mode lacks a "reset" button.
Multiplayer
LAG LAG LAG..that's what I can describe the KOF12 multiplayer as of now,the online multiplayer is unplayable.They released patches but they too suffered from horrendous lags,and in short,it ruins the multiplayer experience as most player nowadays match their skills online. Also the patch they made me (forcefully and I M SERIOUS !!!) to install was an odd 700+ MB file that installs and updates game data which you would normally install from the disc. one more act of dev-foolishness..
Epilogue
King of Fighters XII is fun to play when you're fighting a buddy locally, but everything else about the game is seriously lacking. This is not rebirth you have been waiting for and SNK was hoping for, as just smoothly animated sprites can't make a lackluster game with broken online support a topdog.I would rather recommend you to get your hands on Blazblue,play Street Fighter 4 and wait for Tekken 6 if you are a hardcore fighting fan.
Final Score – 27/40
Posted by XERO .ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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