Throughout the 2D fighting game resurgence over the last few years, one of the kings of the genre has been largely absent. As franchises both new and old continued to thrive, The King Of Fighters seemingly vanished, with the once yearly fighting game franchise failing to see a new release since the thirteenth game released in 2010. Using the last six years to regroup, refocus and rebuild, SNK Playmore’s flagship fighter has finally returned with The King Of Fighters XIV. Re-debuting with both a visual and mechanical overhaul, the series aims to make its current gen debut on PS4 the most accessible to date, all while keeping its solid team based fighting at the forefront. Succeeding in some aspects and failing in others, XIV may not be a return to form, but that doesn’t mean its not an enjoyable title in its own right.
Many years after the fall of Ash Crimson and the apparent demise of Orochi, The King of Fighters tournament has failed to re-surface. Suddenly, a mysterious benefactor by the name of Antonov revives the tournament while claiming that he is the one true fighting champion. To see if anyone can prove him wrong, the powerful warrior hopes to back up his claims by inviting teams from around the world to compete in his tournament for a chance to face him, featuring competitors like the legendary Team Japan, (Kyo, Benimaru and Goro Daimon), the heroes of South Town, (Terry Bogard, Andy Bogard and Joe Higashi), and a mysterious new trio Antonov invited personally. As usual, not all is as it seems, with a more sinister plot taking place underneath the surface.
The Rivalry Continues
Taking an opposite approach compared to its most immediate competition, KOF XIV sticks to a more traditional set of modes when it comes to its feature set. Featuring a giant 50 character roster, (48 to start with and two to unlock), 17 are brand new. Among the 33 characters returning, some of which haven’t been playable in over a decade, and even old favorites have received some big changes, for better and for worse. The core fighting revolves around choosing a team of three fighters, each of which take turns against the opposing group. Becoming somewhat of a survival fight, your first fighter will stay in the match until they’re knocked out, moving on to your second and third character, with the loser obviously being the team who loses all three members first. Using a four button control scheme made up of light and strong punches and kicks, using them to activate the right combos, special moves and super moves at the right times will be the difference between winning and losing.
Considering that this is the fourteenth game in the series, chances are you’ve already played one of these games, which also means you’re well aware of the basic mechanics that make up these games. Moving on to what’s changed since last time, SNK Playmore has delivered on their promise to make the game more accessible to newcomers with new abilities and easy combos. Tapping the light punch button in succession will trigger an auto combo that ends in a devastating super move, (assuming you have enough special meter to pull it off.) Hitting the strong punch and kick buttons at the same time activates a Blow Back attack, instantly creating distance by knocking the opponent to the other side of the screen while setting them up for long range damage. Past KOF games let you pay one meter for a temporary power boost, which gets taken a step further this time around. Once in Max Mode, you’ll have a set amount of time to activate your EX special moves as much as you want. Other fighters usually make you pay per use of an EX attack, but having unlimited usage of the stronger versions of your special attacks can help you turn the tide of battle real quick. Couple these with your Max Super SP moves, and it won’t be long after comboing in these souped up versions of your super moves take down your enemies. Then again, when you want your victories to have that extra flair, new Climax Super SP Moves can wipe out half of the enemy’s health in one attack at the cost of three meters, complete with a special cutscene to accompany the chaos.
Old favorites return alongside some new faces
Once you’ve gotten the hang of the core mechanics, KOF has plenty of ways to put what you’ve learned to the test. Namely, its Story Mode functions much like the Arcade Mode of past games, with an added cinematic presentation at certain points. Aside from the mandatory cutscenes that play no matter who you’re using, having certain characters fight each other will activate some back and forth dialogue that can both explore character motivations and relationships. If playing with one of the game’s established teams, finishing the game will reward you with a lengthy ending, complete with some well drawn still frames depicting the aftermath of the tournament for your team.
Supplementary single player modes include your typical Survival Mode, Time Attack, Training, and Vs. Mode against both other players or the CPU. Who would have thought!? Sadly, Trial Mode, the combo tutorial feature that has become a fighting game staple over the last few years, went from my most anticipated mode to my least favorite. Unlike other games that delve into some of the more complex mechanics for each character, each set is nearly identical in KOF regardless of who you’re playing as. Serving as a way to test your basic understanding of cancels and super moves, it does little to help you bring out the full potential of your fighter.
Mui Mui, the face of SNK puchinko, makes her fighting game debut.
Yet, in a reversal of fortunes, Online Mode, which was the weak point of the previous game due to horrible netcode, is much improved this time around. Aside from most of my matches being lag free during both Player Match fights and Ranked Match fights, there’s just so much to do with friends and strangers alike this time around. First off, SNK had the sense to only make you use your preset team in Ranked Match, which prevents counter picking while letting you switch things up in Player Match lobbies. Speaking of, KOF XIV handles lobbies better than any fighter I’ve played before. Rather than make say… A queue of 10 wait for the top 2 people to finish before taking turns, anyone in the lobby will automatically be paired up to fight with someone who’s not in a fight, making it so that the only way someone won’t be playing is if there’s an odd number of players participating. Even then, the person not fighting can choose to spectate any of the fights they want. So if they see a character fighting that they’re not familiar with, they can spy on the fight and pick up some tips! Either that, or they could go into the online practice mode, where you can head into training mode with another real life person and brush up on your combos. For the extra sociable brawlers out there, Party Mode delivers a true to life KOF experience, pitting three individuals against three others for a six player fight for supremacy. Just remember, that super meter isn’t just YOURS anymore, adding an extra caveat to keep in mind when you don’t want to piss off your friends.
We can’t talk about the game without addressing its most obvious shortcoming, which is its bland graphics. Looking not too far off from what you’d expect from the Maximum Impact series from over a decade ago, its wasn’t long before I was longing for those gorgeous 2D sprites from the last two games. Everything from the character models to the effects look far from what you’d expect from a PS4 exclusive, and it doesn’t gain any points from its pre-rendered CG’s, which don’t look too much better.
The mysterious Kukri is one of the better newcomers.
Then again, fighting isn’t about how one looks, but how one plays To its credit, XIV has its fundamental play down. For veterans however, you’ll likely come across a series of small changes that aren’t game breaking by any means, but will definitely feel like a step backwards. Namely, the game feels far too easy to complete, taking a series that has been known for its punishing bosses, and delivering a final fight that won’t feel like much more of a struggle than your typical brawl. Combos don’t seem to scale back damage as much, leading to some basic chains wiping out nearly an entire health bar for some low risk high reward game play. The most puzzling aspect however, is how some classic characters have had some odd changes to their tool set, making them less effective while keeping their core abilities intact. Unlike say, how Vega is a completely different character in Street Fighter V, Athena is largely the same, but is made to be even more vulnerable after certain attacks, having her Phoenix Arrow’s ending kick be interruptible, and losing her wall jump. Taking away abilities that some characters have had for two decades feels unnecessary, but doesn’t detract from the overall excitement of the game play after making the proper adjustments.
The King of Fighters XIV has a lot going for it. Its huge roster, proper single player modes with rewards in the form of endings and artwork spanning 22 years, easy to pick up and play mechanics and its hidden depth are all still here, along with one of the best sets of online features in the genre and some features to make the game more accessible for new players. Still, I can’t help but feel like something is missing compared to past games that make this entry stand above all the others. Maybe its the easy difficulty when it comes to beating the Story Mode. It could be the dated graphics, or the lack of effort it takes to pull off huge damage compared to other games. Then again, having characters changed for the worse doesn’t help either. If anything, this game is a perfect case of “death by 1000 needles”. There’s no one problem with it that overshadows what it does well, but so many small issues take what is otherwise a great game, and turns it to one that’s simply better than good. Fighting game fans will find plenty to love, but with that in mind, there’s also plenty of room to get better. Let’s just hope we won’t have to wait another six years to see the improvements.
Final Score: 3.75/5