Title The King of Fighters XI Manufacturer SNK Playmore System/Year Atomiswave/2005 Genre Fighting Players 1-2 Ports Playstation 2 A tired series is rejuvenated on the Atomiswave. Overview KOF fans haven't had much to be happy about in recent years. After the solid King of Fighters 2002, they've had to endure games that are either experimental (Maximum Impact), unfinished (2003) or uninspired (NeoWave). Now, SNK Playmore has unleashed King of Fighters XI on the Atomiswave hardware, and happily, it more than makes up for all the shortcomings of the past four years. Graphics 8/10 First off, to answer the question on everyone's minds - KOF XI uses the same low-resolution sprites as the rest of the series, which is disappointing. That said, they actually don't look as bad as they did in NeoWave. SNK Playmore has thoughtfully anti-aliased the sprites like it did for NeoGeo Battle Coliseum, so the contrast with the high-resolution backgrounds isn't as jarring as it was before. The sprites themselves are also quite well done (apart from the low-res thing). SNK Playmore has rather cunningly eliminated most characters with sprites dating back to KOF'96 (such as Mai, Daimon, Leona and Chang) from the roster, replacing them with characters with newly-drawn sprites, which really helps the overall consistency of the game's look. The new characters are well-drawn and well-animated (with a few exceptions - Kasumi, Eiji and Hayate come to mind), and they fit right in with the rest of the game's cast. Many of the returning characters have also received new animations, although the degree to which this was done varies widely. A little more consistency in this aspect would have been appreciated. XI's stages represent a vast improvement over NeoWave as well. Where NeoWave's backgrounds were static and lifeless, XI's are vibrant and full of activity. The developers even added little graphical touches to some of them, like lens flare effects on outdoor stages, and pieces of paper that blow around a deserted back alley. These little attentions to detail help to make the stages feel much more "alive." XI's overall presentation is very slick, with a circle-based motif that doesn't feel overused like Capcom vs SNK 2's yellow diamond theme. They could probably be accused of being a little plain, but personally I think it really makes the game seems a lot more polished and professional. The in-game artwork has the same clean look to it, and is very well done. The cutscene artwork, however, is drawn in a different style, which is a little inconsistent, but not really a big deal since it's now in high resolution and looks quite nice. There are also a lot of little graphical embellishments that have been added to the game. These include little things like how the screen shakes when a character slams into the ground, or how the hit counter shakes violently as you rack up more hits, or how the game notifies you of various in-game events through large text alerts in the centre of the screen. These all seem like small things individually, but they really help the presentation look stylish and exciting. XI is easily the best-looking KOF game in the series since KOF2000, and that's definitely saying something. Gameplay/Controls 8/10 Gameplay-wise, KOF XI retains the tagging feature from KOF2003. However, the similarities end there. XI totally revamps the implementation of tagging, and for the better. XI retains all the basic KOF mechanics that we've known up to now. while adding a few more. Knockdown attacks, previously done by pressing C+D and missing from KOF2003, are now back, and assigned to their own button, and you can now do forward recovery rolls while falling to the ground, but otherwise the basic mobility and system are unchanged. It's also worth noting that the timings for these feel much more like pre-KOF2003 iterations of the series, which is a huge blessing since KOF2003 often felt like it was artificially restricting the times at which you could input certain commands. Where XI makes its mark is the new things it introduces. Tagging is no longer time-limited, so fighters can tag in or out whenever they want. In addition, tag attacks, last seen in KOF2003, are gone, and in their place we have a couple of new tag-based system features. Quick shifting allows you you switch one character out for another in the middle of an attack. The other tag-based subsystem is called saving shift, which allows you to switch out a character under attack while knocking back the opponent character (not unlike Guilty Gear's Burst feature). The use of these is limited by a meter called the "skill gauge" that fills up gradually over time. All in all, the tag system in XI is implemented very well, and unlike 2003's system, it makes sense and offers incentives to learn to use it properly. The open-endedness of the system also allows for much more creativity and flexibility when planning your strategy. In addition, team chemistry has become a lot more important than it was in previous KOFs, where it was limited to deciding who built meter for who. In XI, factors like ease of quick shifting, level of stun damage, ability to finish a quick shift combo, among other things are highly significant and cannot be ignored. The aforementioned skill gauge has also been extended to some traditional KOF subsystems like super cancelling and cancelling normals into forward rolls, but its main other use is another new subsystem - the Dream Cancel. This allows leaders to cancel their DMs into LDMs. While this may sound rather broken from a design standpoint, another crucial feature added to KOF XI mitigates it. This feature is proper damage scaling, something which many would argue KOF has been needing for a very long time now. KOF2003 featured a damage scaling system, but it was crudely implemented and tended to penalise characters with one-hit moves. XI's damage scaling is much more well-thought out and refined. There are still a few rough spots, though. XI intoduces a new feature called the "Judgement Indicator," that is used to decide time over matches or draw games. Every time you land a hit on or throw an opponent, the indicator tilts slightly in your direction. KOing an opponent team member causes a large swing in your direction. It's a nice, albeit arguably unnecessary addition to the system, but it still needs some ironing out in terms of how certain aspects are implemented. In all, XI is the freshest, deepest and most fun KOF game in ages. There may be some who are disappointed with the lack of substantial changes to the core system, but the additions SNKP have made help to make KOF XI feel like a brand new game. Sound/Music 9/10 You've probably heard me say this before, but XI's soundtrack is superb. It marks a return to the quality in-game soundtracks that the series was known before the Playmore era, with an eclectic mix of rock, techno, pop and jazz tunes. The music is mostly fast-paced, much like KOF2001, but it avoids the pitfall of that game's soundtrack, namely lacklustre composition. The fast pace certainly suits KOF, and there are really no complaints to be had with the music overall. As for the in-game sound effects, they've also seen a marked improvement. NeoWave re-used sounds and voice work from KOF2002 for the most part, but XI features completely redone sound effects. Gone are the soft-sounding and weak hit sounds from KOF2003. In their place we now have attacks that sound like they actually hurt, and redone voices for most of the cast. The latter have been recorded in high quality unlike NeoWave's poor quality samples, and sound clearer than ever. Overall, XI certainly nails it in the sound department. Replay Value 8/10 Single-player replay value in KOF XI is actually quite high. The first few stages feature brain-dead AI as usual, but once you hit stage 3 (right before the midboss) the AI starts using human-like patterns on you. You'll see the CPU Gato using hop Ds and mixing up with his crouch B to keep you guessing, the CPU Iori pressuring you constantly with short jump Ds and Cs, and the CPU Kyo using his Aragami to stuff your poke attempts with his autoguard. Sometimes, it can be annoying when the CPU starts doing psychic things like throwing you out of your high priority DM, but on the whole the XI high-level AI puts up a really good fight. In addition, since the roster has changed quite a bit, and a whole load of new subsystems have been added, a lot of the replay value in XI comes from learning the nuances of the many new characters as well as learning how to utilise the new systems effectively. It's possible to play XI like any other old KOF, ignoring the tag system and other changes, but to do so is to ignore what is an integral part of the game which adds much depth to it. Of course, single-player replay value is a fairly insignificant aspect of fighters. Versus is what really counts, and here, XI fares quite well. Because of the important of team chemistry rather than having an S-rank character on your team (as was the case in KOF2003 with the top 5 in that game), it's quite possible to see people using supposed low tier characters and doing quite well. The game doesn't quite hit the near-perfect balance of KOF2002 - characters like Gato and Oswald are plainly better than everyone else - but it's far from the mess that KOF2003 was balance-wise. Overall 8.5/10 KOF XI takes everything that was wrong about KOF2003 and replaces it with systems that work, and improves on almost every aspect of the latter game. The result is a better-balanced, deeper and overall more enjoyable KOF game, one of the most enjoyable since KOF2002. XI is a great return to form for a series that has been wallowing in mediocrity for such a long time. - by ShadowSonic