A good graphic re-birth of the KOF series, lacking depth of predicessors
Let's cover the bad first, no story mode, or story related poses. This has been a hallmark of the KOF series. Granted there is no story, normal for dream matches, there are no pre-fight introductions either. These introductions really showcased character's personality and shows relation to rivals. Not seeing this does take a bit away from the character depth.
There are other issues to mention, like short character roster (22 characters, smallest roster for the series ever!), other issues have been laggy online play (should be fixed with recently released patch), lack of certain modes, no boss fight, and ease of game play (KOF XII's Normal difficulty is easier than KOF98UM's easiest setting). It appears that most of these issues will be fixed with DLC or future patch updates (see King of Fighters XII Facebook or Twitter discussion threads) also it is not clear if some of the DLC will be free or not. The other let down is the manual contains no move lists or character bios explaining why they are in the XII tournament, which was included in previous KoF releases.
Before I continue, I am sure that many of you (epically if you are not familiar with previous installments of the franchise) do not understand why the many of these things I classify as "Bad"... let me take you on a brief history of the KOF series.
Before KOF there were two games by SNK Playmore (Neo-Geo at the time) Fatal Fury, and Art of Fighting, these games came out in 1991. The main differences between the two fighters were characters and storyline. The overall fighting mechanics were the same. In 1994 the two franchises were merged to create the King of Fighters series.
Over the course of the games (which came out every year) there have been over 150 characters, each with their own storyline and personality, and 3 sagas, each with their own protagonist and antagonist. Unlike the all other fighting games of its age and style, it has been the only one with such a colorful and interesting storyline. On top of that this has been known to be one of the most difficult fighting games out there...
Now the good part, game play mechanics are there, and the game is still about reading your opponent, and setting up the right counter attack. Counters are really nice with this game because if the move's hit location and power are the same then the characters clash and return to their fighting stance, where neither player takes damage. There still is the classic counter where you attack with a light attack (or a mid attack) to respond to a strong or low or high attack given by the opponent. This will knock both players back while both receive damage accordingly. Finally there are critical counters which if executed properly; they will allow you to cause massive damage to your opponent.
This game is still not a button masher, unlike Namco's soul caliber and Capcom's Street Fighter and Marvel VS Capcom games typically tend to be. Despite this the character moves are much easier to execute than its predecessors. So mastering characters doesn't feel nearly as rewarding. This almost makes the game feel a little boring.
The best part is the graphical overhaul, grated this does partially have to do with how good your HD TV is. I have a VIZIO 26" LCD (720p with standard screen and 800:1 Contrast ratio) and a Samsung 40" Series 6 (1080p with 120Hz screen and 40,000:1 Contrast ratio), so I will mention differences between the two.
On the Samsung there is little to no pixilation, colors are vibrant and for the most part the level backgrounds aren't distracting (except for the France stage). In contrast the Visio I noticed pixilation until the characters are 6 steps further away from each other than the starting positions. The Backgrounds are a little more distracting as well.
Sound is dead on, and unlike many Japanese to English voiceovers, their English voices do not make the characters sound cheesy. In most games I have to keep the audio language in Japanese, but the English is really good.
In conclusion, the game is a solid start for SNK Playmore, but still needs more work. If you are a diehard KOF guy or determined to try out this latest release then get it. If you are new to the series or on the fence, I would recommend renting it first. If you like the game play style but find the game to easy and short for the price, purchase KOF 98 Ultimate match off the Xbox Live Arcade, it's 800 MS Points ( $10 USD) Not to mention the roster is much larger and contains many of the missing parts of KOF XII.
All and all, it's a great start for the rebirth of KOF but it's still in the infant stages. I look forward to the series growing up to the game it was... like all things it just takes time.