King Of Fighters XIII for the K.O.!
Content (5/5)
This game has so much more content than the previous one. Several game modes to choose from: Tutorial, arcade, story, versus, practice, network, replay, gallery, mission, and customize. Most of these features were missing from the previous installment, including arcade mode which is a strange exclusion from a fighting game. This also has more than fifteen stages, which was a much needed improvement. The four disk soundtrack with music from kof 94'- kof xiii was just the cherry on top.
Story (4/5)
In my opinion this is the least important part of a fighting game. From what I gather this takes place after kof xi.
Graphics (5/5)
Starting with the epic opening scene and displayed in up to 1080p it looks simply beautiful! Over 30 hand drawn characters, all of them look very unique and are very detailed, with only slight pixilation in some of the sprites motions. I'm not sure if the backgrounds are hand drawn but they look amazing, off the top of my head... I couldn't stop staring at the stage with all the elephants in the background must see to appreciate.
Sound Effects and BGM (5/5)
High quality original music, can't say much here kof has never disappointed in this department. You can choose from two setting in the music section, from what I gather one is kof xiii music and the other is randomized music from various kof games.
Game play (5/5)
The game play is solid as always, this is the strength of the kof series. I'm going to focus on "Arcade mode" which is the one I spent most my time on so far. My opponents never felt overly cheap, the A.I. was challenging but satisfying to compete against. Difficulty is well balanced on all five settings.
Controls (5/5)
I had no problem pulling off some special moves and short combos without looking at a move list. Overall most of the moves are instantly familiar if you played kof in the past or even fighting games in general. If you have a choice I do recommend the use of a decent arcade stick for extended play sessions.
Replay value (5/5)
The extensive game modes will keep you busy for a while. I can't stop customizing characters; it's a fun little feature. You can customize every character up to five separate times, not to mention the custom colors that are already pre-made. The online experience will ultimately extend the life of the game. I spent about 2 hours getting by behind handed to me over the network, the connection with other players was a lot better than I expected, I only had two or three sluggish connections in a 2 hour period. The improvements of this feature are like night and day over kof xii.
Minor Imperfections:
Three small things I do want to mention: Vibration on the duel shock 3 is poorly utilized so far, it would have been nice if this feature was better supported during game play. Also there is beautiful animation and cut scenes during the arcade mode which lack voice acting. The other small complaint I have is the omission of "Dynamic" zoom in and out of camera perspective, its still there but not during actual game play. This makes some of the sprites seem thin. All of these are just small things I noticed, not a big deal.
General View (5/5)
I know I'm going to spend endless hours playing online and trying to achieve gold and platinum trophies. I'm glad SNK did proper justice to this installment, the arcade port out does the previous one in every way. My pre-order choice was very wise and I encourage others to pick up this game, it is worth every penny to own even without the soundtrack, it's a great alternative to Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and it's an awesome game for your library. King of Fighters is back baby!!!