GameSpoon - The King of Fighters XII

HELL YEAH!

SNK Playmore's The King of Fighters XII will be coming to the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 in July - worldwide! This is fantastic news, previously there had been no word regarding a non-Japanese release of this amazing hand-drawn game.

According to Kotaku's article, the game will be reinventing itself, returning "to a core set of characters, relaunching with a new look but retaining the classic feel" (Kotaku).

"I couldn't think of a more appropriate way to commemorate The King of Fighter's 15-Year Anniversary than with a gorgeously animated, high-definition installment that updates the KOF legacy for a new generation." said Shane Bettenhausen, New Business Development Director of Ignition Entertainment. "While other fighting games have abandoned the time-consuming process of creating beautiful 2D art, KOFXII fully embraces the refined aesthetic beauty that only human hands can produce" (Kotaku).

This is fantastic news to hear, riding on the tails of the Street Fighter 4 release. Combing SF4, KOFXII and the new Tekken that's in the works - it's time to seriously consider building out a custom arcade stick from Arcade-in-a-Box.

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GameSpoon - King of Fighters XII

This game is going to knock your teeth out! SNK's KOF series just got a lot cooler with the rebirth of their 2D fighting roots. So what makes this 2D fighting game so cool, other than the fact that it's King of Fighters? Because it was completely hand-drawn. Think about that, soak it up for a bit. Yes, this was hand drawn.

The game will be launching in Japanese Game Centers in April of 2009. It will continue to use the 3-on-3 team fighting system, with 5 round fights - should make for a pleasant experience. You will be able to perform Desparation Moves (DM) after you fill a guage, but there will not be any type of indicator that will tip off your opponent to the fact that you are about to unleash a beating on them; awesome.

King of Fighters XII will feature 20 characters to choose from - which is significantly less than its predecessor King of Fighters XI. Maybe this game will find itself overseas at some point? We can only hope.