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It's hard to accept the fact that it's been 12 years since the very first King of Fighters game was released in arcades. And with a new title spawning every year, it gave the famed Street Fighter series a run for its money. Well, not exactly. Because with SNK making a new and increasingly better fighter every year, Capcom repeatedly overshadowed the ill-fated series by repackaging Street Fighter II over and over and over again. Coupled with the fact that word of KoF's existence was pretty ho-hum in America until the late 90's and you have one series doomed to go unnoticed. It's but recently that SNK Playmore took the helm of their popular franchise on their own to make a game that would become a noticeable standard in 2D fighting.
With the company's multiple changes between hardware and developers (see: Eolith), they finally settled with the surefire Atomiswave board from Sega. The switch meant smoother sprites and a higher resolution, which would do away with SNK's staple gritty sprite aspect. The backgrounds are also smooth and vary enough to never care which area you're in. It's almost a little strange to watch a King of Fighters game that isn't as gritty as a King of Fighters game. Thankfully, it's a welcome and fitting change, though players still have the option to revert the sprites back to their originally pixel-shedding form with a graphic filter in the option menu.
One of the underlying factors which made each new KoF game interesting was the radical change of the fighting system. As the Strikers and Team systems came and left, KoF XI's system is undoubtedly the most intriguing, complex, yet user-friendly one of them all. As in 2003, fights are 3-on-3 with interchangeable characters. KoF XI kicks things up a notch by introducing Quick Shift and Saving Shifs, which are usable by the Skill Meters over a player's Super Meter. Quick Shifting, which uses one stock, can be applied by tapping either both light and strong buttons of the same attack type, which tags out a character for who can continue chaining their attacks. Save Shifting however tags a player out with a teammate that immediately strikes the opponent, saving you in the process. It's a much riskier skill to use since it uses two skill bars and should usually be better off saved for Quick Shifts.
KoF XI also takes a few pages from 2003 by re-introducing the Leader system. Each team of three must choose a Leader, who is the only member of said group who can execute his or her Leader Desperation Move (or LDM) in battle. An LDM is a far more powerful then a regular special and requires two Super bars to execute. KoF XI pushes the envelope by allowing Dream Cancels, which is the act of cancelling a Super with an LDM. With so many different Shifts and Super Cancels available, this is undeniably the greatest system of any KoF since each skill is so abusable to the point of chaining them altogether that newcomers and veterans alike are going to have a blast just continuously experimenting Quick Shifts, Saving Shifts and the Cancelling attacks.
Although the Arcade edition of KoF XI was already a substantially deep fighter, the PS2 port is a gargantuan beast when it comes to extras and modes of play. Arcade, Team and Single Play are but the first staple modes, but an Endless (Survival) and Network Play mode were also added to the port. Although to actually go online you'll need a KDDI account and have to pay a fee, the thought alone is most appreciated and worth it if you're willing to try it out. A Color Edit Mode is available to customize the flash and flare of your team down to the very button. Challenge Mode offers up to 40 challenges which put the user through many of KoF XI's gameplay fundamentals (i.e. roll and guard cancelling, shifting, throwing, etc), which not only shows newcomers the ropes to KoF, but offers some form of challenge for those seeking something else from simple arcade ladder matches.
The neverending list of extra content continues with an Arrange soundtrack performed by Koji Takata, Masuo Okumara and Masanori Kuki as well as 7 extra unlockable characters, which bring the total of playable characters up to 47. There was also an Arrange mode added to the game's main battle system, but that's more subject to nerfing characters and boosting others for fairness.
Rarely do I have nothing but good things to say about a game, let alone fighters since they're usually nothing special and put back on the shelf after a few weeks. But with all the modes, the characters, the backgrounds, soundtracks and options added to the arcade version, which was already an excellent title on its own, King of Fighters XI is an excellent, must-have title, that is begging to be played over and over again. It's so great that you don't even need to be an elitist tournament level fighter to enjoy it. It's very easy to pick up and play, but it is incredibly deep with enough modes to last you a year. If you like fighting games, nay, games period, it would be in your best of interests to import this gem at once. SNK Playmore managed to create one of those games that does everything you wished it would do and more, leaving you stumped to think of something they could have missed. Except for Chang and Choi. We were hoping that was deliberate.
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