The King of Fighters XIV Ultimate Edition - first impressions

gbatemp_review_banner_king_of_fighters_ultimate_edition.jpg

When it comes to the fighting game genre, it usually brings to mind titles like Street Fighter, Tekken, or Mortal Kombat; ones that have been around for decades, cementing their place in video game history. However, there’s a fighter that’s been around for just as long, and has an equally illustrious history: The King of Fighters. After all, if something is still around after 14 entries, then they’re definitely doing something right. Though The King of Fighters franchise has been overwhelmingly more popular in eastern territories as opposed to the west, the series has found a loyal niche here, especially in recent years.

With a fifteenth installment on the way at some point, despite facing an unfortunate delay this month, SNK isn’t quite fully ready to let go of The King of Fighters XIV yet, which released all the way back in 2016. This leads us to the recently released swan-song for the game in the form of The King of Fighters XIV: Ultimate Edition. Supposedly, this is the most feature-packed entry yet, and considering that KOF XIV Ultimate boasts a roster that consists of 58 different characters, I’m inclined to believe it.
image3.jpg

image9.jpg image7.jpg

2D fighting games have never been my specialty—though I do have a soft spot in my heart for some of Arc System Works’ licensed games. Outside of that, I’m fairly fresh to the world of fighters, and that was made blatantly apparently the moment I glanced at the character selection screen. There’s a veritable army of characters to choose from, each with their own moves, specials, mechanics, and intricacies. It’s absolutely staggering to consider all the different play styles, ranges, and pertinent information professional players would need to keep in mind. Fortunately, new players won’t have to be that hardcore—and the tutorial system is of immense help when it comes to learning the basics.

SNK has decades of experience creating these types of games, and it truly shows when you get into the combat. Whereas Street Fighter has you pick a single character and go toe-to-toe for a few rounds, in King of Fighters, you pick a team of three fighters. These characters can't tag in or out like how some team-based fighters work, like in Dragon Ball FighterZ, but instead act as an extended health bar, in a way. The two teams of three will duke it out until one side is out of fighters, an easy enough concept. Your health will remain constant when a new round begins, but if you managed to score a K.O., you'll gain a slight bit back. It keeps things tense without being too frenetic or hard to follow.
image8.jpg

image0 (1).jpg image1.jpg

For the hardcore enthusiasts out there, it's worth noting that XIV operates on a delay-based netcode, and not rollback, the latter of which being considered as far preferable for online matches. Playing the game online through wifi worked fine in my case, with no weird stutters or noticeable lag, though a more discerning veteran might find faults where I didn't.

After thirteen prior installments, KOF XIV made a very major change to the formula, by replacing the traditional 2D sprites with 3D models on a 2D plane. Visually, it feels like a downgrade, but that doesn't mean KOF XIV looks bad. It's...different, but at the same time, the characters look distinct and pop against the background, their hitboxes are precise, and the animations are all exaggerated and over the top--exactly what you'd want from a fighting game developed in Japan. Interestingly, the original release of XIV suffered from such lackluster graphics that SNK had to completely revamp them in a patch sometime after launch. The Ultimate Edition utilizes these updated visuals, and it seems that their efforts to improve the game paid off.

As previously mentioned, KOF XIV Ultimate has a roster of 58 characters--yes, that wasn't a typo--which includes the original release's cast, along with each of the DLC characters that were released later on, along with ten costumes that were also released as paid DLC. SNK also crosses over some of its cast from other fighting games it's developed in the past, including Terry Bogard from Fatal Fury--otherwise known as "that one guy from Smash Bros.". There's a lot of variety to each of the 58 characters, especially the DLC ones, which I honestly found to be surprising; it'd be easy to assume that a lot of them would feel "samey" to play as, however, the combos and differing attacks felt individually defining.

image5.jpg

image6.jpg image4.jpg

While I have no prior concept as to who these characters really are, I found myself enjoying their designs and finding out their respective “gimmicks”. Kyo’s attacks have lots of high kicks and long-reaching sweeps that can catch opponents off-guard. Terry is super weighty and needs to be up close to do the most damage. One of Ramon’s moves has you hilariously parkouring onto the chest of your opponent and majestically somersaulting back to the ground. Most of the DLC cast, such as Rock or Vanessa are also really fun to play as, even if I didn’t know what I was doing half the time. The story mode will help get you acquainted with all these faces, where you go from battle to battle to become, well, the King of Fighters. It works well as a way to jump in, play a bit, learn more of the game’s systems, and take a break, as does the mission mode for when you’re a little more experienced.

And really, if you weren’t interested yet, there’s just a guy called The King of Dinosaurs, and he fights in a giant dinosaur costume. What else more do you need from a video game?

Where the game really takes things to the extreme is in its combos. Light attacks chain into heavy ones, and when your gauge is high enough, you can pull off all sorts of specials, supers, climax moves, or go into a Max Mode, where your attacks become even more damaging, flashy, and show-stopping. Once more, the tutorial is nothing short of amazing in terms of helping you know what buttons do what on screen, but KOF has so many things, it's difficult to comprehend. That's both its greatest weakness and strength.

I doubt I'll ever come close to mastering the gameplay of King of Fighters XIV, but as someone who has always wanted to experience SNK's super-influential fighter, I'm glad to have started with this game. A lot of the deeper mechanics are out of my grasp for now, but it's a blast to play casually. The Ultimate Edition is clearly an easy way of getting fans to reinvigorate the same old game that's been around for years now, but at the same time, it's a wonderful jumping-off point for newcomers, and if you're a lapsed fan, you'll have an endless amount of catching up to do when it comes to trying out all the new fighters you might have missed in the past. Less octane-fueled that Arc System Works' games, but more exotic than your run-of-the-mill everyday Street Fighter, King of Fighters XIV: Ultimate Edition is an easy recommendation to anyone interested in 2D fighting games.
 

Attachments

  • image2.jpg
    image2.jpg
    449.4 KB · Views: 124

JuanMena

90's Kid, Old Skull Gamer & Artist
Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2019
Messages
4,818
Trophies
2
Age
30
Location
the 90's 💙
XP
9,758
Country
Mexico
Make it the E.O. Easy Operation one and you're in. ;)
Adding on that... not so long ago I played the game with my brother-in-law...
I was on regular controls and he opted for E.O. mode.
I choose Eagle and he played with Ultimate Rugal... so go figure...

Beat him easily dodging and returning his attacks :rofl2:
 
Last edited by JuanMena,
  • Like
Reactions: Silent_Gunner

Sonic Angel Knight

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
May 27, 2016
Messages
14,395
Trophies
1
Location
New York
XP
12,890
Country
United States
You say that, but then there's Dragon Ball FighterZ. Games just don't get any prettier, and neither does anime.
Okay, now get square enix to remake chrono trigger with the same style. Or better yet. All future episodes of Dragon Ball or games of dragon quest should look this way. :P
 
Last edited by Sonic Angel Knight,

Xzi

Time to fly, 621
Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2013
Messages
17,716
Trophies
3
Location
The Lands Between
Website
gbatemp.net
XP
8,462
Country
United States
I strive to differ:


That comes awfully close, but it's the full 3D models in DBFZ that they somehow made to also look 2D which really do it for me. Both by Arc though, and I struggle to think of more than maybe two other developers who can match that level of visual brilliance.

Definitely gonna be adding Strive to my wishlist, but it doesn't have a Steam page yet for whatever reason.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Julie_Pilgrim

Silent_Gunner

Crazy Cool Cyclops
Banned
Joined
Feb 16, 2017
Messages
2,696
Trophies
0
Age
29
XP
4,727
Country
United States
That comes awfully close, but it's the full 3D models in DBFZ that they somehow made to also look 2D which really do it for me. Both by Arc though, and I struggle to think of more than maybe two other developers who can match that level of visual brilliance.

Definitely gonna be adding Strive to my wishlist, but it doesn't have a Steam page yet for whatever reason.

DBFZ was made after Guilty Gear Xrd, which is when they did the trick of "making 3D models animate like 2D" and the dynamic camera angles and everything. Here's some of that in action!

 

lordelan

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2015
Messages
5,769
Trophies
1
Age
44
XP
6,476
Country
Germany
I’ll never get over the lack of sprites in modern games :( they’re just so nice. So much better.

I absolutely agree. I've been loving good sprites ever since I can remember.

Did you not see Street fighter 3? :blink:
Of course. I played the sh*t out of every single Street Fighter game (well except SF I of course lol, since that sucks).
And while SF 2 looked very good back then, I was not speaking about it but the Remake (or Remaster?) of it that Capcom did for the Nintendo Switch. Look at this and tell me if that's beautiful or not (it even looks way better than SF 3):
ultra-street-fighter-ii-screenshot-3.jpg

Ultra-Street-Fighter-II.jpg

Ultra-Street-Fighter-II-Screenshot-Ryu-Vs-Ken-Character-Select.jpg

SF 3 is still beautiful (and a wonderful game to play) and it comes close to these graphics but to me this is the most beautiful SF I've ever seen.

@Sonic Angel Knight @Silent_Gunner

This is what Chary really needs:

This indeed is a gem, among the 5 best fighting games ever and I can't be thankful enough for the fact that something like the Nintendo Switch exists, it's hackable, it has RetroArch, it has a Dreamcast core (Flycast) and that one runs this game perfectly well.

Edit @Silent_Gunner Guilty Gear is a great franchise too and an underrated one although I don't have a damn clue why.

From all non-sprite games, Dragonball Fighter Z is the only one that's really good looking and well made.
Although even in this case I'd prefer "Hyper Dimension" (SNES) since it has got some good old sprites and a very unique feel to the game too. Still the devs of DBFZ did the anime more justice than any other anime game I've ever seen. They did all animations and camera angles and effects so well, it's really like we're actually playing the anime.
 
Last edited by lordelan,

Silent_Gunner

Crazy Cool Cyclops
Banned
Joined
Feb 16, 2017
Messages
2,696
Trophies
0
Age
29
XP
4,727
Country
United States
I absolutely agree. I've been loving good sprites ever since I can remember.


Of course. I played the sh*t out of every single Street Fighter game (well except SF I of course lol, since that sucks).
And while SF 2 looked very good back then, I was not speaking about it but the Remake (or Remaster?) of it that Capcom did for the Nintendo Switch. Look at this and tell me if that's beautiful or not (it even looks way better than SF 3):
ultra-street-fighter-ii-screenshot-3.jpg

Ultra-Street-Fighter-II.jpg

Ultra-Street-Fighter-II-Screenshot-Ryu-Vs-Ken-Character-Select.jpg

SF 3 is still beautiful (and a wonderful game to play) and it comes close to these graphics but to me this is the most beautiful SF I've ever seen.


This indeed is a gem, among the 5 best fighting games ever and I can't be thankful enough for the fact that something like the Nintendo Switch exists, it's hackable, it has RetroArch, it has a Dreamcast core (Flycast) and that one runs this game perfectly well.

I'm sorry, but those aren't high quality animations like what you saw with SF3. Those are just HD sprites layered over the originals without any new frames of animation to bring it up to the level of that game.

USF2 is literally just Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix with Evil Ryu and Violent Ken added to the roster.
 

lordelan

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2015
Messages
5,769
Trophies
1
Age
44
XP
6,476
Country
Germany
I'm sorry, but those aren't high quality animations like what you saw with SF3. Those are just HD sprites layered over the originals without any new frames of animation to bring it up to the level of that game.

USF2 is literally just Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix with Evil Ryu and Violent Ken added to the roster.
You are absolutely right. USF2 is SSFIITHDR with two additional characters (that don't add much to the roster) and slightly better graphics. And yes, SF3 (and many other games released way before UFS2) indeed has many more animations.
I was only talking about a direct screenshot comparison, nothing more, nothing less. And I'm not saying UFS2 is the best SF ever - although I could play it for hours. It's not even the best SF2 since they messed with the balance and hit boxes. Nevertheless it's beautiful.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Silent_Gunner

Skeet1983

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2012
Messages
3,586
Trophies
1
Age
41
Location
Somewhere, out there...
XP
3,177
Country
United States
Hi guys. I am thinking about getting this game, but I have a quick question before proceeding. I read in the Review that there are 58 Characters/Fighters? Are they all available from the start, or are some of them unlockable? Thoughts and help appreciated :)
 

SilverWah

CVS2 best game period.
Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2016
Messages
210
Trophies
0
Age
26
Location
Wah City
XP
1,808
Country
Netherlands
Hi guys. I am thinking about getting this game, but I have a quick question before proceeding. I read in the Review that there are 58 Characters/Fighters? Are they all available from the start, or are some of them unlockable? Thoughts and help appreciated :)
You should be good with the Ultimate Edition. Find people around your area and just play and learn the game!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Silent_Gunner

Chary

Never sleeps
OP
Chief Editor
Joined
Oct 2, 2012
Messages
12,334
Trophies
4
Age
27
Website
opencritic.com
XP
128,056
Country
United States
Hi guys. I am thinking about getting this game, but I have a quick question before proceeding. I read in the Review that there are 58 Characters/Fighters? Are they all available from the start, or are some of them unlockable? Thoughts and help appreciated :)
Hey there, the second set of screenshots shows the roster from the start of the game. The Ultimate Edition comes with everyone unlocked :)
 

SilverWah

CVS2 best game period.
Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2016
Messages
210
Trophies
0
Age
26
Location
Wah City
XP
1,808
Country
Netherlands
Yo fighting game content on here?
Let's go.
Who here actually plays fighting games competitive here? I sure as hell do.
My main games are CVS2 and GGXX AC+R. Mostly online until I'm able to host my own local this year.
 

Skeet1983

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2012
Messages
3,586
Trophies
1
Age
41
Location
Somewhere, out there...
XP
3,177
Country
United States
Hey there, the second set of screenshots shows the roster from the start of the game. The Ultimate Edition comes with everyone unlocked :)

Thanks for the info! Um, do you know how much storage the game takes on PS4/PS5? I am wanting to get the game, but am nearing my monthly data limit for ISP. Further thoughts and help appreciated :)
 

Chary

Never sleeps
OP
Chief Editor
Joined
Oct 2, 2012
Messages
12,334
Trophies
4
Age
27
Website
opencritic.com
XP
128,056
Country
United States
Thanks for the info! Um, do you know how much storage the game takes on PS4/PS5? I am wanting to get the game, but am nearing my monthly data limit for ISP. Further thoughts and help appreciated :)
23.28GB currently, on my PS5, not including the PS4 bonus download themes.
 

raxadian

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2018
Messages
4,286
Trophies
1
Age
41
XP
4,460
Country
Argentina
I have played a few King of Fighters games they are okay but... is hard to explain, lets just say they have nothing to make me want to go back.
 

eyeliner

Has an itch needing to be scratched.
Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2006
Messages
2,879
Trophies
2
Age
44
XP
5,468
Country
Portugal
The sprite artwork was one of the main contributors for the almost demise of the saga. It's fairly common knowledge how hard the team was struggling in the latter pixelart games and the huge number of characters.
XII looks great, because they rendered the characters and then made sprites out of the models.

Unfortunately, they went with a weird aesthetic that creates a divide between characters and backdrops. But the gameplay is good, at least.
 

BLsquared

Game Programmer
Member
Joined
Nov 25, 2012
Messages
333
Trophies
1
Location
The United States of America
XP
1,516
Country
United States
I'm not a pro fighter either, but I like to pick them up from time to time to mix up playing Smash with my friend. I picked up KoF 13 (the last 2D one) on a whim (and a Steam sale), and man I think KoF might be my favorite style of traditional fighter now. I'm not good at combos, but I love how smooth and natural the moves feel for each character. If XIV is anything like that, I'll have to try it out.
As a few have already mentioned, I agree that SNK's 2D animation was great, and I kinda miss it. But I'm a sucker for smooth 2D animation, just my thing.

While doing some research on the series, I found the Neo Geo version of Match of the Millennium. Man that was fun! I didn't think it could get even more condensed to 2 buttons so well. Go check those ones out at some point, @Chary , as previously mentioned. They're just fun. Thanks for the review!
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
    LeoTCK @ LeoTCK: hmm