The King of Fighters XII came out fifteen years ago back in ’09 for PlayStation 3 along with Xbox 360. KOF XII was created by SNK Playmore and was the sequel to King of Fighters XI which was released back in 2005. One of the reasons why KOF XII stands out from most of the other installments within its own series is because the game did not have a storyline. However, KOF XII was considered to be the third installment within the Ash Crimson saga which began following the release of The King of Fighters 2003. The graphics for KOF XII looked amazing and the characters sprites looked very smooth which were considered to be strong positives for the game itself. The King of Fighters XII saw the return of familiar faces from older installments including Andy Bogard, Mai Shiranui, Lori Yagami, Kyo Kusangi, Ash Crimson, King and others. The roster of characters in KOF XII was also noticeably smaller than what SNK fans were used to in older installments of the series. Similar to other installments 3 v 3 gameplay remained the same and despite not having a storyline KOF XII did have a story mode.

In the game story mode had dialogue along with some cutscenes here and there but it was nothing spectacular. New gameplay features like “Critical Counter” and “Guard Attack” were nice additions to KOF XII but something that would be difficult for casual gamers to master in a short period of time. King of Fighters XII was also a fighting game that stood out in ’09 mainly because it barely had any competition that year other than the likes of Arcana Heart 3. There were games like Tekken 6 and Street Fighter 4 which came out during ’07-’08 which ended having far more commercial success than KOF XII to a point where SNK’s game ended up being overshadowed during the late 00’s. The King of Fighters XII was not considered the best installment in the series but its also not the worst. SNK should have focused making 3D installments in relation to the KOF series outside of the Maximum Impact Spin of series that we got during the mid 00’s.