SNK befuddles me

I’d been anticipating King of Fighters XII for a while. For too long SNK relied on the same sprites powered by the same technology for all of their games in the franchise. Not to say they don’t look nice, of course, but come on; everyone who plays every game in the franchise likes to have something new every once in a while, and though the mechanics improved, the aesthetics remained a little too similar. That’s not to say that those old sprites don’t have their charms (they do, and by the bucket load), but it was time for SNK to embrace newer technology. And by that, I don’t mean 3D.

And they did! With King of Fighters XII, SNK finally redesigned the sprites from the ground up. What’s basically the first generational leap in the franchise is a celebratory event for longtime fans of the franchise, and it should be enough to regenerate interest in a franchise a lot of gamers lost interest in because of how stagnant it became (which actually paralleled the entire fighting game franchise a few years back). It seemed like SNK was doing everything right with revitalizing their flagship franchise, but there’s one thing that’s hindering its success: SNK.

Specifically, their decisions as to how they’re releasing it. I was nearly dead set on purchasing it, but hearing about its problems makes me hesitant about paying a $60 price. That’s also not helped by some pretty negative reviews. The apparent main problems with the package are the lack of single player modes, bone-headed AI, and worst of all, horrible online. At best, matches tend to handle fine and with minimal lag/input delay. At worst, which is apparently usual, matches can be equated to having a one-bar connection in Street Fighter IV, which I can say from experience is one of the most frustrating things ever. When we have games with great netcodes like Blazblue, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix – and Street Fighter IV, if you substitute “great” for “passable” – stuff like this pretty unacceptable. This is stuff that we would expect in 2004, not 2009.

The first warning signs arose when the XBLA releases of Garou: Mark of the Wolves and King of Fighters ’98: Ultimate Match were releases with online play that was kind of crummy. This was a real shame for Garou, but a heart breaker for Ultimate Match. Most big fighting game fans have been playing Garou for a while via emulation and GGPO, but this would’ve been the only way to play Ultimate Match online. How SNK handled its release is soul crushing, not only because of the online, but with the quality of the rushed port as well. Instead of being a port of the great Playstation 2 version, it’s a port of the not-as-great arcade game, meaning it’s lacking the 3D backdrops and arranged music. Oh, and the win quotes, which are still entirely in Japanese.

That’s not even mentioning certain issues (which are kind of hilarious in a way, unless you main Raiden or Elizabeth. They’re also reminiscent of something) that KoF XII itself has. Yeah, it’s pretty apparent that someone didn’t test the gameplay thoroughly before releasing it. The good news is that they do plan on patching it again, and publisher Ignition Entertainment is listening to fan complaints in order to help. Hopefully they can grab SNK by the balls and get them to cooperate.

All of this is a real shame, too, because apparently the gameplay is pretty great. I’d really like for SNK to get this right down the line with another patch, and by that I don’t mean with the next game. I’d love for the XBLA release of King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match to be mostly completely flawless, but I’m not entirely optimistic at this point. They have until 2010 to release that, so let’s see what happens.