Kotaku: the king of fighters XII

The King of Fighters XII Playable Next Month!

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:00:00 MDT

Next month at the arcade Amusement Machine Show in Chiba, Japan, SNK is rolling out the first playable King of Fighters XII cabinets for Joe Q. Public! SNK has also released three new screenshots as well.

While writing the arcade book, I had a chance to check out The King of Fighters XII at SNK's offices on the actual cabinet — they even opened it up so I could check out the TAITO Type X2 system board. Obviously, it was an earlier build, but the game looked (and played) great. Those who like SNK fighters should be very, very happy, and the 100 percent hand-drawn graphics are stunning. The game is slated to hit Japanese arcades later this year.

If you live in Tokyo and want to hit the Amusement Machine show (it's the 46th one — think about it!), it show will be held at the Makuhari Messe. It runs from the 18th to the 20th with the 20th being a public day. If you purchase your ticket in advance, it's only ¥700, but ¥1,000 the day of the show. If you are over sixty or under than elementary school age, then it's free.

9月のAMショーで『THE KING OF FIGHTERS XII』が試遊可能！ [Dengeki via Insert Credit]

The King of Fighters XII Screens, So Pretty

Brian Ashcraft — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 01:00:51 MDT

Finally! Good quality The King of Fighters XII screenies. There's images of the China stage and the Egypt stage. Just look at those shades and fire effects. Truly dazzling stuff.

KOF12 Screens [Famitsu]

The King of Fighters XII First Mag Scans, Location Test

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:00:21 MDT

Hooray! This April, The King of Fighters XII is getting its first official play test in Japan. As pointed out in Famitsu, it's traditional 3 vs. 3 team match-ups. Also, the screen's edge forms a hard barrier that players will have to balance. What's more, attacks can cancel each other and there's a Guard Attack system that lets players switch from offensive to defensive modes on the fly. SNK says that the game system had gotten too complex and they were aiming showing that would be more approachable and put emphasis on "reading the opponent's mind." Famitsu scans below — which do the 100 percent hand drawn game no justice whatsoever.

KOFXII Info [mmcafe via Arcade Renaissance]

Holy Crap, King of Fighters XII Is 100 Percent Hand Drawn

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 07:00:50 MST

When SNK showed off The King of Fighters XII at arcade show AOU in Japan and industry event GDC in San Francisco, the unanimous reply was: Nice cell shading. That, or it's "just" hi-res 2D. Thing is, that's totally incorrect. And for SNK, who's been working on the game for the past three years, frustrating! Today, I checked out the game's latest build at SNK's Osaka office and saw a few stages that haven't been revealed. Screens weren't available, but there was a French stage, complete with fat, rich women and an Egyptian one that had loyal subjects worshiping before the Pharaoh. Colorful stuff and classic SNK. The company set out to make the ultimate 2D fighter — unparalleled by anything else out there, attempting not only to raise the bar, but snap it in half. KOFXII producer Masaaki Kukino tells Kotaku:

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.

First The King of Fighters XII Trailer [Updated]

Brian Ashcraft — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:28:00 MST

Look. At. This. Well, we called it, here's the 2.5D King of Fighters XII clip. And damn, it looks nice. The game is slated for 2008. Can't wait. [Thanks, Bryan!]

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