I’ve been dabbling with the King of Fighters series, mainly just messing around with the arcade mode and playing with the CPU. I’ve sampled all of the mainline entries from ’94 to XI. ’98 has been my favorite for a few years but I think it may finally have been surpassed by…KOF XI.
How is this game not more beloved?
The combat is fast and flows nicely.
The tag system works and is a refreshing change (even if it sort of is SNK succumbing to what other people were doing and not standing by Their Own Thing).
It continues the original dream of KOF which had sort of gone stagnant, namely including characters from different SNK fighting games. It’s fun getting Gai from Buriki One and Sho Hayate from Kizuna Encounter.
It’s got cool UI and visual themes with lots of pleasant greens, oranges, and whites.
It’s got leader desperation moves.
It’s got Oscar!
I was pleasantly surprised with XI because I don’t hear people say much good about it (though maybe I’m not listening to the right places). I still haven’t played XIII, XIV, or XV yet, but for now, this is my King of Fighters.
