"No Mai, No Buy!"
Story: No story...at all. Just a time trial for arcade mode. No boss, no unlockable characters, no nothing. Just a time trial to see how fast you can beat CPU 5 opponents in 3 vs 3 match.
Gameplay: Same regular gameplay and character moves from previous KOF games. Dissimilar to any Capcom game. SNK produce very difficult move set for specials. Which give hardcore fighting gamers to test their skills to the next level. It'll help some beginnings to learn some combos or least understand SNK's style of fighting games.
Graphics: They improve the sprite graphics, that's it. However the artwork is an absolute superb, it's quite an improvement from previous artworks on their KOF series. The character designs are great and the backgrounds are very creative. Especially the box art, very creative once again.
Online: Online play is still completely laggy. Even SNK release an online patch to fix online play, but however they only place it as "average." Rather than perfect then Street Fighter IV and Blazblue. If you want face your friend "lag-free online," invite him/her, and play KOF XII in Versus mode on your 360/PS3. Here's your lag-free online plan.
KOF XII is a huge disappointment due of laggy online play. But however it's useful for KOF beginners such as myself. In my advice, I'd recommend you to rent the game or buy it for free/least minimum wage of $1-5. I'd rather get it free myself. Hopefully SNK will realize how disappointed every single KOF fans with this twelfth installment.
This review was written last year before King of Fighters XIII is released. Get yourself King of Fighters XIII rather then this. Unless it'll suit nicely to your King of Fighters collection!