It may be a "beta" but its a damn good one.
Ok first and foremost this is supposed to be a rebooting of the series. So if you come with an open mind you may see the potential that this game may have. So first of you'll notice the graphic overhaul if your a kof fan or if you played any of snk's fighters. All are hand drawn the characters and the backgrounds. Iv heard some complaints that the backgrounds are offensive like racially offensive for example the people in the backgrounds cheering on the fight seem to fit in a certain stereotype. I never had a problem with this but I could see why some people would. In all they are only 6 six stages/backgrounds 2 of them being day/night versions.
Now on to the controls, I played this game with both the 360 wireless controller and a wired arcadestick. I feel that this game/series has easy to learn controls, 2 punch buttons and 2 kick buttons. All assigned to the face buttons. It should be said that most buttons that you have to press for the standard commands are 2 buttons with a directional input for evasive rolling, blowback attacks, counterattacking and throwing. Depending on what directional input the command will vary. Now alot of people have complained about the throwing command changing, I personally like it as it doesnt become much of a throwing fest unless If a grappler is going head to head.
In XII snk decided to put in a couple of new features called the critcal counter and the clash system. With the critical counter a bar on under your character's health fills up and when you connect with a strong punch of kick and it happens to be a counter it goes of into a mini custom combo kind of like sfa2 or sfa3 but without the trails and cant be performed during the air.Its a fun feature and can be devastating if done properly and with a supermove done at the end of it. But it feels somewhat simple a little too simple. I dont mind the feature in future titles but it should be reworked. On to the clash system , it reminds me alot like parrying from the sf3 series. Only done differently, were player 2 throws a fireball player 1 then times their hard kick to connect with the fireball no damage is taken and the fight continues. This can be useful in close matches if mastered.
The music is definately not the best in the series, and the american voicework is subpar so the japanese voicework is perferred so you can switch it.It should be mentioned that this game doesnt really have unlockables so all charcters are all available from the get go. Also the arcade mode is a time trial mode where you pick you team of 3 characters and try to beat the other team in the fastest time possible for 5 stages. Oh right there is no final boss since there is no story to this particular game. The online is...laggy in most cases but there is talk that the patch should be coming out sometime in the future. If the online is improved this would make this title better since fighters are mostly for multiplayer.
All in all its good if you arent into all the bells in whistles that other games offer and its very barebones. If you have other people to play against locally or if the online is patched you should give this game a try as it has a very good fighting engine.