The King of Fighters XI (PS2)
2008 SNK/Playmore

In A Nutshell: Do I really need to explain what King of Fighters is? Well take that basic premise, add a clumsy tag system, and up to 20% Falcoon-brand pansexuals as the leading KOF installment

SNK, I love you. As Santa Claus once said on The Tick, “You’ve kept the faith longer than any sane adult.” I gotta admit though, as far as overall fun things peaked for me around ’97-’98, coincidentally it was after that point that the sprite artwork on male characters increasingly began sporting flashes of male midriff. I can’t rightfully pin it ALL on Falcoon, but the shoe fits so well it might actually be a prosthetic foot he left at the male strip club. With this Korean fan-artist of admittedly awesome skill as the actual head honcho of the KOF series, it’s been made abundantly clear what he likes- rave fashion with a touch of Final Fantasy X hand-me-downs, normally sported by thin, androgynous male characters who look more likely to shatter like glass after being hit than be a real scrapper. This really reaches new heights with the mid-boss/boss duo from the conclusion of XI: a spear-wielding Bridget named Shion, and Magaki, who mutates from someone who would look threatening if he wasn’t wearing bright red lipstick, into a bug-eyed, dreadlocked, pink-skinned mutant of astounding cheapitude. In fact:

THROWN CONTROLLERS SUPPLEMENTAL II

Shion- Actually, not all that cheap other than her spear’s range, which can be negated by landing a hit (the spear goes away when he/she/it lets go of it) She does have a handful of lengthy and painful combo strikes, and is made tougher by the damage scaling put in place to make the 3-on-1 match more fair.

Magaki: HATE AHTE AIUSHDSDA.SD FUCK. Wouldn’t it be great, the makers asked themselves, if a boss from a bullet-hell style shooter was the last boss of KOF? Apparently their dog answered yes, because Magaki is an oversized mutant who showers you with storms of pink bullets from various angles in hard-to-dodge patterns. His worst attack are the large, massively damaging and half-translucent fireballs, one of which counts as an overhead and can pass right through the crouching block you used to block the other, huge invisible fireball. Actually, no, his worst attack might be the full-screen Orochi-style blast that can last long enough to damage your next fighter as they enter the screen. Nice.

So as you can see, they’ve moved on from putting lipstick and earrings on Rugal. I hope the authorities have been tipped off.

All semi-playful Falcoon-bashing aside, XI is a pretty fun addition to the lengthy series. The tag system of ’03 is used once more, allowing you to cycle through your team members more or less at will, rather than waiting for them to get whittled down one by one. One of the nicer tweaks to gameplay is assigning some of the quick-escape and cancel moves to ‘Skill Points’ stored next to the meter so you can use the more advanced techniques without sacrificing a powerful attack. The LDM system continues as well, giving the team’s designated ‘leader’ an extra super strong attack which is.. most of the time removed from their normal move list and can sometimes partly gimp a character. (Ralf’s Galactica Phantom, for example.)

Though it seems an odd thing to remark on, it’s noteworthy to me that XI has a really large number of rearrangements of classic character and team themes, which is just plain awesome after a few games’ worth of largely forgettable stock techno sounding things. Noodling is still there in some stages, but not as noticeable. as NeoGeo Battle Coliseum’s at some points (I was convinced an out of tune gong noise in one stage was related to some moves I was doing, like a weird ‘hit noise’) Yuri’s ‘Diet!’ theme from Art of Fighting is in there, for example, as is Shingo’s ‘Still Green’ from ’97-’98, assuming a character with a special theme is first in the ring, anyway.

As far as plot goes, the mysterious gang of androgynous Orochi sympathizers continues to work on reviving the great serpent, while nominal new lead character Ash “I Paint My Nails And Am French” Crimson goes around being generally creepy and suspicious. As thrown-together as all of this is feeling, I sort of like the use of Orochi’s forces as the ‘enemy’ again, despite the fact the seal was supposed to be safe for some time while he recharged. Ash’s agenda is pretty clear at this point- well, his immediate goal anyway- as he steals Iori Yagami’s flames, having stolen the Yata Mirror’s power from Chizuru in ’03. He schemes to take Kyo’s flame next, why he doesn’t do it when Kyo is lying unconscious at the end is anyone’s guess unless he’s playing Arrogant Bad Guy. The big game play question then, is how will Iori play next year? Will he get his ancestor’s red flames back? Or will he do his usual thing without any fiery accompaniment?

At any rate, KoF XI bears technical note as it marks the last use in the series of the recycled sprites, something I’m sure tons are going to cheer. It was also the first KOF to move off of the moldy Neo-Geo arcade boards. When you consider that some longtime characters like Iori have been using the same set of sprites and animation for ten years (or more!) it’s really an overdue change, and probably a reason so many have been turned off to the series in this recent, graphics-spoiled era. Well, you graphics tards, you’re getting XII in glorious high res, GGXX-style animation along with some downright gorgeous flame effects. So get back on the wagon, already!

*I should make one last warning- even though the roster is actually pretty good, it marks the first absence of Mai Shiranui other than her unlockable status on the console versions. Leona is also absent, which makes me a whole special kind of sad.