The King of Fighters XII



The King of Fighters XII (ザ・キング・オブ・ファイターズ　トゥエルブ; Za Kingu obu Faitāzu Tūerubu; KOF XII) is to be the next installment of the King of Fighters series. SNK Playmore has announced that it is abandoning the Atomiswave system and is moving its most popular game franchises to the Taito Type X2 arcade system. In addition to KOF XII, KOF Maximum Impact: Regulation A and a new Samurai Shodown game in 3D will be released on the new arcade system. According to a report in Arcadia, KOF XII has no story and the Ash Saga will conclude sometime in the future. The game is seems to be towards its final stages of testing and a beta was unveiled to the public in September 2008. The main illustrations were done by Ogura Eisuke.

Development
It has also been revealed that the game will undergo a complete graphical overhaul, confirmed by Nona, artist in charge of the art in the The King of Fighters XI endings. All the sprites used in previous games for over 10 years will be dropped and will be replaced with new high definition sprites. The programmers have stated their intention is to create the "ultimate 2D fighting game". Nona reaffirmed this once again in The King Of Fighters Year End Party 2006 in Tokyo.

SNK Overseas Manager Yoshihito Koyama revealed that the game is going to be "3D mixed with 2D"; this led to speculation that the game could use cel-shading to give the game a 2D look, but it was later revealed at AOU 2008 that KOF XII will use newly-drawn 2D sprites on detailed 2D backgrounds. Producer Masaaki Kukino informed Kotaku that the game is one hundred percent hand drawn, there being zero cell shading in the game. He has also stated that the main goal of the game is to give a new "rebirth" to the series. They have no intention of changing the main series into 3D in the future. The staff decided to create the new graphics during 2005 and 2006, and commented that they spent triple the amount of time developing it than the previous game.

In an interview with Fighters Front Line, Kukino replies that each character took 16~17 months to complete with a team of 10 different designers. Additionally, the sprites were personally checked by Nona for quality. Due to the time demands of drawing such detailed frames of animation, as well as the decision not to incorporate older assets as previous games in the series have, there will be only 20 playable characters, the lowest number ever in a game from this series.

On February 14, 2008, the first gameplay footage was revealed to the world showcasing the new, much larger, higher-resolution pixel art sprites at the Arcade Operators Union Amusement Expo (AOU) 2008. The footage also revealed the presences of Benimaru Nikaido, Terry Bogard (reverting to his original Fatal Fury outfit), Athena Asamiya and Kim Kaphwan in KOF XII. A location test was scheduled in Japan for April 18-20, 2008, but was canceled for unknown reasons. There has also been an recruiting ad for part-time positions on SNK's Japanese website, asking particularly for a game graphic designer with experience in animation and color design. A playable demo is scheduled for the next AOU on September 18, 2008 and the 2008 Tokyo Game Show on October 9, 2008.

To promote the game, SNK announced a cellphone series called "KOFXII Tokusetsu Corner" for the Yahoo and imode Japanese networks on August 1, 2008. Each volume features an original story and bio information for three characters that will be in the game's lineup (revealed to be Ash, Kyo, and Terry). The style that these are presented in is similar to the in-game profiles of KOF: Maximum Impact 2. These novelizations were later added to the character profiles on the official website.

Game Mechanics
KOF XII uses the usual 3-on-3 team system with each fight consisting of 5 rounds. The Tactical Shift System from The King of Fighters 2003 has been removed. Super special moves will now be executed in real-time. Some will take some time to charge, others can be pulled off instantly.

Confirmed Characters

 * Kyo Kusanagi - KoF 94 moveset
 * Ash Crimson - new moveset
 * Terry Bogard - pre-KOF 2003 costume and moveset
 * Ryo Sakazaki - back to AOF stance
 * Athena Asamiya - Psycho Soldier costume, gained a few pounds in an adorable manner
 * Benimaru Nikaido - Pre-KoF 2003 costume
 * Leona Heidern - new costume
 * Kim Kaphwan - no major changes
 * Goro Daimon - no major changes
 * Ralf Jones - new moveset and costume
 * Iori Yagami - new costume, new moveset
 * Shen Woo - no major changes
 * Robert Garcia - pre-AOF3 costume
 * Raiden- New costume and move list
 * Andy Bogard - Wild Ambition costume
 * Sie Kensou - Psycho Soldier costume, new stance + moveset
 * Chin Gentsai - pre-KoF 1999 costume, new moveset
 * Joe Higashi - Fatal Fury costume
 * Clark Still - new costume, probably new moveset
 * Duo Lon - seems to have no major changes
 * Elisabeth Blanctorche - New outfit