Customer Reviews

King of Fighters XI

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

SNK's long running King of Fighters series makes a return to it's 2-D roots with King of Fighters XI, and be glad that it has. 3 on 3 tag team fighting is the name of the game here, as KOF XI is nearly arcade perfect in it's conversion to the PS2, so don't let the budget price fool you when questioning the quality of the game. The fighting system is surprisingly deep and varied, and the large roster of fighters from other SNK titles like Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting is nicely selected as well. The graphics are fluidly animated for the most part despite some moments of choppiness, and controls are pretty tight for the most part as well, even though tagging in isn't always as easy as it sounds. There are also a nice selection of bonuses to unlock, including extra characters, character endings, and artwork as well, which up's the overall replayability, and as mentioned before, the budget price doesn't hurt one bit either. If you're not into old school 2-D fighting though, KOF XI won't win you over. All in all, if you're a fan of the King of Fighters series or old school 2-D fighting in general, King of Fighters XI is definitely worth picking up, and the fact that it won't hurt your wallet only makes the deal all the sweeter.

This is my first attempt at a review but I'll make it very brief and easy to read. The king of fighters series have always done something that street fighter never seems to address, new material. King of fighters XI (KOF 11) is no exception, adding instant tagging from the traditional 3 on 3 fights KOF is known for, at the cost of the stock bar (the small bar above your super meters) and introducing powerful new characters and adding bosses as playable characters in the console version. After unlocking them all, your looking at 40+ characters, all useful unlike street fighter.
(I was brainwashed by Capcom, I once thought street fighter was the best fighting game on earth, and while I'll say SF 3rd Strike, SF Alpha 3, and the VS. series, like Marvel vs. Capcom, are my favorites, they never "change", don't even get me started on SF 4, super 4, and probably a turbo 4 in the future, bet money.)
All in all, your gonna play these KOF games:
-KOF XI
-KOF 98 ultimate match
-KOF 2002 dream match
until KOF XIII comes out, skip 12, that was a quick buck that SNK Playmore had to do, I forgive them bc 13 is gonna be awesome. You won't be disappointed with either of those KOF games. With the exception of my Capcom rant, that wasn't so bad right?

I'm a long time Street Fighter veteran, going back to SF1 when you played Ryu on the left side, Ken on the right and your final boss was a very large, unscarred Sagat. Aside from the occasional dabble with Fatal Fury, I have not really played very many SNK fighting games. After completely falling in love with Capcom vs SNK, I decided I wanted to try my hand at the KoF series.

This is easily one of the best 2-D fighting games that I've played. The ridiculous number of characters rivals CAPvsSNK, including a number of characters that I recognized from that game. I appreciated how similar the mechanics were to what I was used to while being inventive when needed to create something new and surprising. The controls are definitely on point, and for a lot of the characters, a challenge to get out some of their more powerful moves. If you're playing alone, the final boss is going to test your anger management skills, and once you unlock him as a playable character, mastering him will make you the most hated person in the gaming world.

Besides the opening roster, there are at least that many characters that are unlockable. This is achieved through a combination of playing the game straight through with the various teams and characters, and going through the missions; characters are unlocked as rewards for completing your missions.

My favorite aspect of this game, however, is that it's great for parties. Huge amounts of characters means people can sit and play and not get too bored, as there's always going to be something new to explore.

If you're a fan of 2-D fighting games, I recommend this one. You will burn hours upon hours on it easily.

King of Fighters XI is a great installment in the long running KOF series.

Whereas previously the King of Fighters series were released yearly, with the year released being in the game's title. However, SNK-PLaymore made the decision to break from that habit to have more liberty with what they can do with the franchise. As such, a much more detailed, in depth, and rewarding King of Fighters game was born.

This game adds a lot of new gameplay features, such as the judgment gauge, where during a battle that ends in Time Over, the winner is judged based on performance rather than by who has the most health. The game also has a great challenge mode that unlocks characters and galleries.

New additions to the roster are the overly impressive Oswald, who fights with playing cards (not like Gambit. Whereas Gambit in the Marvel/Capcom games was a projectile fighter, Oswald is a combo king with only one projectile attack which most people don't use). Momoko joins Athena's team as their resident Capoiera master. Elisabeth is a french femme fatale who has a past with anti-Hero Ash Crimson. And many more.

The game is the best installment of the franchise, with crisp 2D graphics, a revamped fighting engine, and as usual, many great characters.

It boasts 47 characters but it's only 33 unless you can unlock them. The following challenge modes unlock the following characters. 5=Shion, 6=Magaki, 10=Robert Garcia, 15=Hotaru Futaba, 20=Mai Shiranui, 25=Tung Fu Rue, 30=EX Kyo, 35=Mr. Big, & 40=Geese Howard. I haven't been able to do Mai (big disappointment) or Geese (small disappointment) & I'm not sure how much more I'll try.

Adelheim, Gai Tendo, & Hayate are unlocked in team, arcade, or singles mode by beating them which is easy enough. Edit - I suspect you can also unlock them by beating them in endless mode.

Jazu & Silver are unlocked by beating them in endless mode which I did with Shion on her 1st try. I'm sure some others could do it. Not easy, easy. Edit - I've now faced them in team mode as well so there's more than one way to unlock them.

I don't mind having to unlock trophies etc but characters do bother me unless its alternate versions of ones already there like EX Kyo. That's my only real complaint about the game though.

Great diversity of characters, modes, difficulty levels make this a great 2-D fighter. I think I like the fighters on NeoGeo Battle Coliseum better but I like that this game has 1-1 mode. Luckily both are real cheap & both a great pick-ups.

I had to take 1 star off for the unlock situation. Edit - I gave the star back. It's just a great game & I'm getting "high mileage" out of it.

Well what are we to do? Why not give KOF XI a try. With KOF XII competing with the likes of SFIV and BlazBlue for
2-D fighting supremecy they failed miserable. There foray into the HD era did not go well. I sure hope it didn't go as planned, because if they planned on bringing out a lackluster title with updated graphics that won't sell, and the masses won't like. Then poor SNK is truly done for. Even in the graphics department they didn't compare to the previously mentioned games. While not bad by any they just seemed not to be on the level of those games. They didn't even include Mai for God sakes! How are you going to relaunch a frachise and leave one of your most popular and sexiest character. Thats like SFIV leaving out Chun Li. What was going on in there minds. I can see them now hmmmmmm we want to restart the KOF series so the first thing we should do is leave out Mai. Big boobs are so 90's. Nobody liked her anyway. Good idea, we'll sell millions of games now : ) Look I'm not saying that would have saved the game, because was missing a lot and I do mean a lot like a story for one. But it did coin the phrase "No Mai, No buy" and thats just funny. So while SNK licks there wounds and try to re restart the frachise lets look at a good KOF game in the not so distant past.

What does KOF XI have that KOF XII didn't have. Think whatever KOF XII didn't have I garantee this game has it. It has 47 character one of the characters being Mai just in case you wanted to know. More stages, a story with cut scenes. No its not at the level of Metal Gear Solid 4, but they made the effort. More modes to choose from, to keep you busy and dare I say have some fun and unlockable content. The game has tight controls as usual. And I think the presentation is nice. Its clean and simple. I have seen better but all and all its not bad. Now for the graphics. There dated and updated at the same time. The sprits while I think some are newer, and not the ones from the 90's they for the most part have the pre KOF XII look. They have a smoothing filter, but thats all you can do for them. The backgrounds are rendered in 3-D and look quits smooth and nice. Just think BlazBlue but not on that level. Better yet think KOF 98 Ultimate Match and that is where they are at exactly. So graphicaly I like it. But, I like old SNK graphics. To wrap this up it is a worthy title to ad to your fighting game collection fun, with enough characters and stuff to keep you busy. This game is selling for very cheap so you have little to loose in giving it a try. Fighting games are making a comeback, so it might be time to brush on those skills. If KOF XIII is as good as it looks to be. You can use this to get your skils together, before you dive into that one. I also recomed KOF 98 Ultimate Match, SF 15th Anni collection (for SF Third Stike), SF Alpha Anthology, Darkstalkers 3, Guilty Gear Accent Core plus, Tatsunoku vs Capcom, Marvel vs Capcom 2, Super Street fighter IV and last but not least BlazBlue. That should keep you busy.

I finally decided to review King of Fighters XI. You could say I'm reviewing it again because my lost draft got eaten by the digital lurker beast never to be recovered again. Anyway let me start by saying this game has a lot of quantity. There are many galleries to unlock, modes to play, and hidden characters to find. Likely of any 2D KOF so far this one is the most generous with the sheer amount of content. However though this insane amount depth warms you up to the game at first you begin realizing more does not always equate to better.

I love SNK and as much as I love KOF things do not look as good now as they did a few years ago. When KOF first came out it only had Street Fighter as competition. However with games like Guilty Gear XX and Arcana Heart revitalizing the genre KOF once again has stiff competition. The aforementioned properties have introduced prettier sprites and new fighting game physics that are unique, fun, and far more balanced. (Though definitely not as fast. KOF has always been about the speed beatings.)

However not all is stuck in the dark ages . KOF XI does have new perks like the ability to assign a leader for your team that allows him or her to do a boosted desperation attack AND as expected you can switch characters in and out of the match as you string together devastating combos as tag teaming chaos ensues. There are also more ways at defense ,charging, and evasion through dream cancels and skill stocks.

The big thing going for KOF is it is the only 2D "team fighter" with a very intricate cohesive story-line. However villains such as Rugal Bernstein, NESTS, and Orochi have come and gone as have their intricate well laid schemes for world domination. KOF is not so friendly to fans who know nothing about the previous games. In this arch of the story a weird guy by the name of Ash Crimson with green flame energy is seeking the sacred treasures. He already got the orochi seal by back stabbing and murdering the last tournament's enigmatic female boss and now he is seeking the yata mirror held by a half Sephiroth half Marilyn Manson knock off named Magaki. What does that mean to you? A lot of confusion if this is your first KOF. SNK tries netting money off the whole "continuing series" ploy. Sadly it attempts to force you to play the other games or be left in the dark. However not all is lost. There is always Wikipedia. See it as the cheaper alternative to know KOF without having to have every game in the franchise on your
shelf.

As expected KOF is like a world spanning house party of the awesome and the weird. SNK always tried having at least one character that catered to each person playing their games thus you have a mixture of manly bristle-chinned karate masters, metro-sexual sharply dressed men, cutesy school girls, a goddess reborn pop singer, a bundle of super spies, a flock of leather clad clones, a sexy boxer girl, a merry band of hardened mercenaries, ninjas galore, angsty cursed immortals, part cyborgs, a beautiful yet tormented Wu-Shu mistress, a promiscuous hot pirate fem fatale, and a pro-wrestler bird guy. It's easier to put it in terms like that instead of listing every fighter because by the time you unlock every character you have close to 50. (The actual number of characters is 44 I believe.)

Of the characters the new comers are a hoot. You have Oswald, an English gentleman who uses razor sharp playing cards as his weapon of choice as he styles and profiles with crimson shades. There is the attractive black haired Elisabeth who is a woman of nobility and enigmatic origins that uses a riding crop as a negotiation device. Lastly there is Momoko, an adorable capoeria master who likes to butt bounce foes into oblivion as she shows off her cute blinking eyes and belly button piercing. It's odd Arcana Heart stirred up so much controversy. KOF XI is ten times more odd and has ten times the questionable content. I'd say if you are bored by the general audience fluff common in Arcana Heart you should consider this game a purchase. There are definitely more adult themes here symbolizing everything from alternative life styles to risqué fashion.

In the end KOF XI is a great 2d fighter. It is not the best looking 2D fighter but it is the fastest, most brutal, and most combo-centric brawler of the bunch. While I have to somewhat frown on it for corner trapping exploitation, a few unbalanced characters, certain glitches, and a cheap as hell Boss these are things fans of the franchise expect. However a little evolution would be nice and it looks like KOF XII is keeping that in mind based on the trailers I have seen!

Break down

Pros

-Many characters.

-A good story line

-New fighters

-Introduction of dream cancels and assigning team leaders

-A lot of fan content to unlock

-Endings are worth seeing.

Cons

-Unforgiving to those who are not caught up on their KOF lore

- Dated sprites

- After you unlock everything you feel bored and overwhelmed simply because it takes true commitment and multiple play through to get everything. See it as over-dosing on KOF crank. There is too much of even a good thing.

- Cheap boss (Yes Magaki is cheaper then Mildred Avalon and M Bison. However he's not as bad as I-No at her worst.)

- A few unbalanced characters (So unbalanced in fact some are not allowed to be selected in legitimate KOF XI tournaments.)

-Some heroes and villains may seem "fruity" to more abrasive traditionally conservative players.

You might also like: SF Alpha Anthology, Arcana Heart, Guilty Gear Accent Core, Melty Blood Act Cadenza, Street Fighters anniversary (which incudes 3rd Strike), Garou Mark of the wolves, Neo Geo Battle coliseum, Dark Stalkers Vampire Savior, Samurai showdown series

Well I know there a lot of people who love KOF like me, I really really love 3, 98, 2002 and XI are the only Best games ever for KOF series. This game HAVE a LOT of chars, and unlockable too.- this make this game very cool, because not only you play for check the endings, but to unlock a lot of stuff.-

I have been a King Of Fighters fan for many years and I have to say this is a great game. It has many characters to chose from and overall great appearance.

I think this is very challenging in survival mode, even at the beginner setting. Fun game, and lots of characters to choose from. Very smooth graphics I feel compared to stuff from the 90s.

Very enjoyable and challenging. Very good controls as well. Responsive I mean.

Thanks for reading!