The King of Fighters XI

The King of Fighters XI (KOF XI) is the eleventh installment of The King of Fighters series. This game continues the "Tales of Ash" Saga, started in The King of Fighters 2003. Its tentative title was The King of Fighters 2004 though this name was debunked by the end of 2004. The numerical distinction for the series is based primarily on SNK Playmore wanting to avoid being locked into a rigorous yearly schedule of releases.

Storyline
Mukai, a member of a mysterious group, stole the Orochi seal in the last tournament and broke it, causing confusion and destruction to happen from within sight. Taking advantage of the situation at hand, Ash stole the Yata Mirror from Chizuru and drained her powers in the process. In the advent of a new KOF tournament, new faces are handed invitations, while old faces, such as Eiji Kisaragi, return to the ring. Among the new KOF participants are Oswald, Duck King (a South Town veteran fighter himself), Momoko, and Elisabeth. All these fighters will find themselves in a tournament full of mysteries and secrets started by motives that they’d ignored. Behind this healthy competitive tournament hides a hidden force called "People from the Past" with a mysterious goal.''

Game Mechanics
Aside from the already known gameplay maneuvers that add much depth to the gameplay, Runs, Rolls, Short Jumps, Guard Cancel CDs and Rolls, Empty Cancels, and the returning Quick Emergency Roll, the four largest innovations KOF XI brings to the franchise are the Quick Shift, the Saving Shift, the Skill Gauge and the Dream Cancel.

The Skill Stocks significantly complicate the gameplay of KOF. The Power Stocks that existed previously are still present, and are filled in the usual fashion. Nevertheless, there are now Skill Stocks as well, which gradually build up over time. Each team begins a match holding the maximum of two Skill Stocks. Offensive maneuvers, such as Desperation Moves, Guard Cancels, and Tag Attacks, continue to use Power Stocks. However, more defensive or tactical maneuvers, such as Guard Evasion, Saving Shift, and Quick Shift, use Skill Stocks.

KOF XI utilizes the Tactical Shift System from KOF 2003, but makes very important changes. The Quick Shift allows you to change into another character in the middle of any combo, prolonging it, or in the middle of any attack, no matter if it was blocked or not, canceling the frames of animation of the attack, if it's needed. The Saving Shift allows the player to take out a character when he is being hit as soon as he is hit, or in any moment, at the cost of both skill bars. This effectively cuts many combos that otherwise would do a lot of damage, eliminates the possibility of infinities by repeating chains of attacks on the ground (excluding aerial juggles) and brings an element of balance to the game. While it is possible to escape from any combination of attacks on the ground, it is not possible to use Saving Shift to get out from a Desperation or Leader Desperation move.

The last new feature of KOF XI is the Dream Cancel. Like the Super Cancel that first appeared in KOF '99, Dream Cancel allows players to use stocks to interrupt a move in the midst of its execution with a more powerful move, allowing devastating combos; however, the Dream Cancel is more deadly than ever, allowing a DM to be canceled into an LDM, at the expensive price of two Power Stocks and one Skill Stock.

Should the timer run down in a match, the winner is no longer decided based upon who has the most life remaining. Instead, the judgment bar, a new bar of circular shape composed of two colors, each one representing one player (red or blue, which are the colors displayed in the portraits of the characters of each side) acts as a quantifier of the skill of each player. Whichever player has the judgment bar towards his side will be the victor if none of the teams win defeating all three characters from the opposite team; rarely, if the bar is exactly in the center, the match will end in a draw and both sides will lose. The bar is affected by each attack that the players get in, combos affect progressively more, and when a character of the opposing team is defeated, the bar suffers a big change against that player. This makes taking care of keeping one's characters alive pretty important, giving strategy to the tags system.

Hero Team

 * Ash Crimson
 * Oswald
 * Shen Woo

Fatal Fury Team

 * Terry Bogard
 * Kim Kaphwan
 * Duck King

Art of Fighting Team

 * Ryo Sakazaki
 * Yuri Sakazaki
 * King

Ikari Warriors Team

 * Ralf Jones
 * Clark Still
 * Whip

Neo Psycho Soldier Team

 * Athena
 * Sie Kensou
 * Momoko

K' Team

 * K'
 * Kula Diamond
 * Maxima

Agents Team

 * Vanessa
 * Blue Mary
 * Ramon

Mark of the Wolves Team

 * Bonne Jenet
 * Gato
 * Tizoc (The Griffon)

Anti-Kyokugenryu Team

 * Eiji Kisaragi
 * Kasumi Todoh
 * Malin

Rivals Team

 * Elisabeth Blanctorche
 * Duo Lon
 * Benimaru Nikaido

Kusanagi-Yagami Team

 * Kyo Kusanagi
 * Iori Yagami
 * Shingo Yabuki

Mid-Bosses

 * Gai Tendo
 * Sho Hayate
 * Jyazu
 * Silber
 * Adelheid Bernstein

Sub-Boss

 * Shion

Boss

 * Magaki

Playstation 2 Exclusive Hidden Characters

 * Mai Shiranui
 * Geese Howard
 * Mr. Big
 * Robert Garcia
 * Tung Fu Rue
 * Hotaru Futaba
 * EX Kyo Kusanagi

Unrequited Love (?) Team

 * Sie Kensou
 * Ramon
 * Robert Garcia

Justice Team

 * Kim Kaphwan
 * Tizoc
 * Athena Asamiya

KOF Heroes Team

 * Kyo Kusanagi
 * K'
 * Ash Crimson

2003 Heroes Team

 * Ash Crimson
 * Duo Lon
 * Shen Woo

Girl Team

 * Kula Diamond
 * Momoko
 * Athena

Bird Team

 * Duck King
 * Tizoc
 * Jyazu

'96 Art of Fighting Team

 * Ryo Sakazaki
 * Robert Garcia
 * Yuri Sakazaki

Punishment Team

 * Whip
 * Elisabeth Blanctorche
 * B. Jenet

Older Brother Team

 * Adelheid Bernstein
 * Gato
 * Ryo Sakazaki

"Older Sister" Team

 * Vanessa
 * Elisabeth Blanctorche
 * King

Buriki One Team

 * Gai Tendo
 * Ryo Sakazaki
 * Silber

Ninja Team

 * Eiji Kisaragi
 * Mai Shiranui
 * Jyazu

Currently Reforming Team

 * Kim (as the leader)
 * Next two members can either be:
 * Ash Crimson
 * Iori Yagami
 * Shion
 * Magaki
 * Silber
 * Jyazu
 * Geese Howard
 * Mr. Big

New Challenger Team

 * Any team solely composed of PS2 exclusive characters

Stages
Note: The featured stages are only available on PS2 version.
 * Ruins (Cambodia): The ruins of Angkor Wat. The fight takes in the Bayon Temple. Can be seen birds, trees, tourists, monkeys and a stone face.
 * Temple (Japan): The upper storey of a temple in Japan. Can be seen panels with a hawk perched on a tree branch and a tiger in a forest, a shinshoku, a dog, people cleaning the floor and a forest with sakura trees and the source of a river.
 * Alley (America): A street at night. Can be seen people cheering, two bridges, neon signs and graffiti. A motorcycle goes through the stage a few times.
 * Ice Festival (Russia): An ice festival. The fight takes in a ice castle. Can be seen statues and people filming and throwing snowball at each other.
 * Beach (South America): The surroundings of a beach. Can be seen a mechanical workshop, veichles, palm trees, radios, a tent and people cheering, listening the radios, filming and in sun loungers.
 * White Town (Italy): The city of Ostuni. The battle takes in a tunnel next to the cathedral of the city. Can be seen houses, people, posteres with the game's name, the cathedral and some veichles passing, in the background.
 * Aqueduct (Spain): The Aqueduct of Segovia. The battle takes in a roof. Can be seen other roofs, the Mirador de la Pradera de San Marcus, in the left, and the Segovia Cathedral, in the background.
 * The Final Hall: A cloudy sky and ruins of a temple. Can be seen lanterns, other temple in the background and destroyed beams. Associated with Shion.
 * The Different Space: A hideout with beams, a hole with a floating ball and gargoyles. Associated with Magaki.
 * Shuttle: A plataform next to a rocket. Can be seen workers in the left. This stage have two versions: in the first, the rocket is launched and it's daylight; in the second, it's night and the rocket returns to the launch base.
 * Esaka: Two stages. In the first, the fight takes in the center of Osaka, on a busy avenue. Can be seen people cheering, cars, trucks with the game and SNK Playmore's logo on the carriage, some cameo characters, trees, buildings, traffic cones and a crosswalk. In the second, the battle takes in the front of SNK Playmore's headquarters. Can be seen the company and game's logos, people and cameo characters, trees, scenes of the game and cellphones holograms.
 * Wheel (England): The London Eye. The fight takes in one of the domes. Can be seen the Westminster Palace, in the background, and the game's name, in the floor of the dome. The only variation is the sunset in one of the versions.
 * Concert: A stage. Can be seen a crowd, lights, ballerinas with Athena's KOF 2003 costume and a screen with artworks of Athena in his original game, in KOF 2000 and in KOF Neowave. In other version, the stage is empty and can be seen various screens with Athena.