Developer – SNK
Release Date – February 17th, 2022
Platforms – PS5- Reviewed, Xbox Series S|X, Xbox One, PS4, PC

Today we are taking a look at SNK’s latest fighter King of Fighters XV. A classic fighting franchise back for a new generation.

KOF, unlike Dragonball Fighters before it is not quite a tag fighting game. For those not in the know, KOF opts for a 3v3 style with all the usual tricks of the trade. No tags or tag assists, while keeping all the based fundamentals you would expect from one of their games.

The other major hook outside of its gameplay design is the fact that its online features rollback netcode out the gate. Blazblue CF and Strive have shown good netcode is an essential in a pandemic world with very few if any local events for the FGC to grow.

In a lot of ways this game feels like SNK paying homage to the King of Fighters legacy. From the gameplay styles, the huge and varied roster, it even brings back some classic supers from the respective games. As somebody who isn’t a huge fan of any of the earlier games it can be easy to brush it off as too much. Great tutorials help ease the transition for newcomers.

That dissipates shortly after playing because each character feels pretty unique. A simplified control scheme with some standardized inputs and auto combo’s are deceiving. The game has a lot of depth and the characters are all pretty nuanced. Except Ralph, screw that guy.

The game also has a decent story mode that tries it’s best to conjure up some insane reason for all of these fighters to come together, well done training modes and excellent netcode and it adds up to a stellar package.

As somebody who wasn’t a fan of these franchises before, this game has increased my interest and has me curious to go back and try out some of the games I missed along the way.

The new fighters feel like they shine the brightest. With so many characters to choose from, they all feel very different from one another. They also have the benefit of not being in a previous game, so all of their sprites were created from scratch. They tend to move and have better looking supers and animations in general compared to the rest of the roster.

Even better is the game is on all platforms. It runs great and performs well no matter what platform you play it on. At this point if you own any modern platform and want a fighter you should give it a shot.

If you are a fan of fighting games give King of fighters XV a look. It plays great, has a ton of unique characters and has something for casual and hardcore fans alike.