(KOF XII) is the twelfth installment of The King of Fighters series of fighting games developed and published by SNK Playmore. The game was originally released in Japan in April 2009 for arcades. Home versions of the title for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 had a worldwide release on July 28 of the same year. Like The King of Fighters '98 and The King of Fighters 2002, this game does not have a storyline; but it is the third chapter in the Tales of Ash Saga that started in The King of Fighters 2003.
Gameplay
The King of Fighters XII uses the usual 3-on-3 team system with each fight consisting of up to five rounds. However, the Tactical Shift System from The King of Fighters 2003 has been removed. KOF XII also introduces the "critical counter" system. During a match, a bar beneath the player's vitality will fill. When it is full and a player lands a strong punch as a counter, the character enters into a critical counter mode where the player has a short amount of time during which their character can link multiple attacks together. Once the critical counter's time period has expired, the player can finish with a special move. The new "Guard Attack" feature allows a fighter to intercept and hit an incoming opponent's strike damage-free (even Desperation Moves can be repelled in this fashion). Finally, there is also a "clash" system in place (called the Sousai or "Deadlock") whereupon every time characters land blows on one another with matched timing, the engine will generate a 'break' effect and push the characters away from one another into a neutral standing. As happened with The King of Fighters '98 and The King of Fighters 2002, the game does not contain a storyline, allowing the return of several characters depending on their status in the series. Additionally, there are no official teams, leaving the player to create any team to use. Players can still dash, backstep, and perform rolls as their evade. The Guard Breaks from previous games can now be done at any time.
Characters
The arcade version of the game features a roster of 20 playable KOF competitors, which is half the number of characters featured in KOF 2003. With the exception of the return of Elizabeth from the previous KOF XI and the debut of Raiden from Fatal Fury in the series, the character roster is composed primarily of characters from KOF '96, with the majority of them reverting to their classic KOF and pre-KOF (with the exception of a Classic Iori that was originally planned) designs and move set as the SNK staff wanted to return to the original concept from The King of Fighters series. Raiden, however, was initially meant to appear as his unmasked persona from Fatal Fury 2, "Big Bear"; in order to add more villains to the game, the SNK staff decided to use his Raiden persona, which was one of the sub-bosses from the first Fatal Fury. Due to half of the intended roster being scrapped from development, KOF XII does not feature any of the pre-defined teams traditionally featured in the series, despite presence of members from recurring teams such as the ones from the Orochi Saga, the scrapped characters would later make their way in the roster of KOF XIII. The home versions feature two additional characters: Mature, one of Iori Yagami's teammates from The King of Fighters '96, and Elisabeth Blanctorche, who starred in KOF XI as the leader of the Rivals Team. Both characters sport new outfits.
Development
On February 14, 2008, the first gameplay footage was revealed, showcasing the new, much larger, higher-resolution sprites at the Arcade Operators Union Amusement Expo (AOU) 2008. The SNK staff decided to create the new graphics during 2005 and 2006, and commented that they spent more than three times longer developing it than the previous game. A location test was scheduled in April, but it was canceled since SNK was looking at games made by other companies. They mentioned that if they released in April 2008, they would have developed the game with less than 20 characters. As such, they decided to wait for more information from the location test. In March 2009, Ignition Entertainment confirmed they would release the home version of the game worldwide for PS3 and Xbox 360. Shane Bettenhausen, Director of Business Development with Ignition, commented that they made the release worldwide in order to commemorate The King of Fighters 15th anniversary.