Rather, we've got 22cm statues of KOFXII's Elizabeth Blanctorche and Mature. Both are priced at ¥10,500 (US$112). Both are out September 20. Both are not Mai Shiranui.

Volks KOFXII 1/6 Elizabeth Blanctorche resin kit and Volks 1/6 Mature KOF2002UM resin kit [Tokyo Hunter]

While it's been established that I know little about The King of Fighters series, I am not without a sense of reportorial obligation to cover the series well. So when I returned from my E3 meeting with The King of Fighters XII publisher Ignition without having asked about Mai Shiranui's whereabouts in the game, I vowed to make amends.

I did so when I met with Ignition folks in New York today.

I did want to know why she was in such heavy demand. Not that I hadn't seen pictures of her and couldn't guess. And, sure enough, I was informed that it was not because of her love of making boxed lunches (which I have verified). It is assumed it is because she has large breasts. (She's 87cm, 55cm, 91cm according to the official site, that first number converting to 34 inches).

OK, then. So, she's not in the game. Any expectations to the contrary due to her recently being featured on The King of Fighters anniversary website should not be seen as proof of anything, I was told. But perhaps she'll be in DLC?

Ignition's director of business development, Shane Bettenhausen, to me: "SNK has not divulged plans for downloadable characters at this time."

Bettenhausen said that while there will be downloadable content, it's not been clarified whether that content will be new characters, levels, or who knows what.

I questioned SNK's decision to leave their popular character out. Bettenhausen likened it to Capcom leaving their most popular female fighter, Chun-Li, out of the original release of Street Fighter III. He theorized: "I think the thinking is that they are making you wait because you want her."

He then started making a fruit analogy. Something about waiting for fruit to ripen. Not wanting fruit to go rotten. That was enough on that. No further questions.

Five of The King of Fighters XII's characters get the showcase treatment, letting fans peruse each frame of three animation sequences, just so you can see how much work does into designing an uppercut in two dimensions. They also offer a clear, pixel level detail of two of the game's stages, so you can see every single chubby French woman without the distraction of fisticuffs.

SNK also offers a brief look at how it progressed from old-school Neo Geo era The King of Fighters graphics to where we are now.

2D Dot Graphics Gallery [SNK Playmore]

New shots of the game in action were released today, showing off an optional anti-aliasing graphical style, one that makes SNK Playmore fighting royalty a little less pixelated. These shots represent our first look at that mode, according to Joystiq. Never was a fan myself. Specifically, of anti-aliasing on 2D visuals.

In other The King of Fighters XII developments, producer Masaako Kukino reveals in the newest issue of Game Informer that when the 2D fighter comes home, it will do so with a roster beyond the 20 confirmed for the arcade release. Any requests?

Mull it over while enjoying four new screens.

Yeah, we've seen it before, and it's looked great before, but AOU is really the first time we've been able to see the game in any great length. In all, there are five clips here, and four are long (you're looking at around 30 minutes of KOF here, people), so settle in for a marathon session of hand-drawn animation and face-punching.

Love how they announced six characters at a time instead of one or two. So fitting for a 3-on-3 fighter. The hand-drawn KOFXII will be released in Japanese arcades next Spring. New (and so very hot) screenies highkicking in the gallery below, plus bonus character art.

『KOF XII』に参戦する6人のキャラクターと新システムの情報が明らかに！ [Dengeki Online]

The game is one hundred percent hand drawn. There is zero cell shading in The King of Fighters XII.

Hardcore. That means that an actual human hands lovingly drew and colored in everything in the game. Every single frame, every character and every background. Everything — down to the game's in-game title. SNK gave us the full rundown, so here's how it worked: The original character drawings were modeled into 3D. Those 3D models were then rendered back into 2D. That way the 2D characters could have a greater depth of motion. Since the 2D models were devoid of color and details, artists went through each character, background, image and painstakingly added colors and drew in details pixel-by-pixel on a tablet PC. In one day, one artist would be able to draw one frame and a half for whatever image he or she was working on.

"We knew it was going to be hard going in," says Kukino. "But we wanted to make the ultimate 2D fighting game." Up close, that meticulous attention to detail becomes apparent, and you're always noticing a flourish here or a nice touch there. Every inch of the screen has something interesting going on. "We wanted the look of the game to have more in common with manga or anime," Kukino adds. With KoFXII, it looks like SNK hasn't only created another stylized 2D fighter, but this time, a genuine work of art.

Street Fighter IV... I saw it at the AOU 2008 show... I was impressed. It's very similar to King of Fighters in that we're trying to do something new with the franchise.

Hit the jump for a higher quality clip. Do it!

Street Fighter IV will also be making an appearance, most likely in playable form. Despite persistent reports that Osaka-based DIMPS (comprised of former SNK staff) are working on Capcom's flagship fighter, Capcom themselves are officially stating that the project is being developed in-house. Either way, should be a good weekend for fighter fans, who probably haven't partied this hard since the summer of '93.
THE KING OF FIGHTERS XII（映像出展）[AOU 2008]