Unlike your traditional fighters, KoFXII uses a 3-on-3 team system. Instead of just selecting one character, you will select three and fight until one team has depleted all their fighters, meaning that rounds can last up to five. This system is not new to the KoF series although the gameplay has been tweaked a bit for its jump to the current generation of systems.

As you take and give damage, your critical counter meter builds. Once full, you’ll be able to launch a critical counter in which your opponent is stunned and you’ll be able to link together multiple attacks. Also new to the game is guard attack where you can intercept and hit an opponent’s strike while not receiving damage yourself. Finally, the developers have included a clash system. Blows that land at the same time will cause a clashing effect and push both fighters away from each other. Chaining these varieties of attacks and blocks together proves to be one flashy experience.

KoFXII features the least amount of characters in the series to date with 22 for home consoles. This is mainly due to the fact that all the graphics you see, characters and backgrounds, are newly created hand drawn sprites. While I commend the team for such an amazing feat, unfortunately it works against the game more so than it helps it.

The 22 character roster is pretty meager when compared to its predecessors and some of the more popular fighters don’t make an appearance, such as Mai Shinarui for example. The graphics, while beautiful, don’t seem up to par with current generation titles. The fighters appear very grainy but the backgrounds are absolutely gorgeous.

There are a total of three ‘different’ modes; Arcade, Versus, and Online. In Arcade mode, you’ll fight through five different stages shooting for the fastest completion time. Versus and Online are pretty self explanatory as you just play matches either against the CPU or a friend. That’s pretty much all there is to do. There is no storyline involved or challenges to complete. Somehow, KoFXII doesn’t capture and hold your attention like the other fighters out there do and the gameplay is rather slow as well. Executing combos isn’t that fluid and is rather stressful more than anything.

With such a wide variety of fighting games to choose from, it’s difficult to recommend The King of Fighters XII. Yes, it has a few gems that are unique to the game but for overall performance, it doesn’t satisfy that 2D fighting urge we all get every once in a while.