At a time when all classic fighting games made the leap from sprites to 3D, SNK bet heavily on traditional animation . And in the process, he gifted arcade fans with a great game that can only be classified as a moving work of art : The King of Fighters XIII. With its own flaws, of course, but capable of making you fall in love with its more subtle details and explosions. To impose itself on any previous delivery in the playable.
In many respects, the 13th installment of SNK’s great fighting saga was also a redemption against a The King of Fighters XII strong in key aspects but light in content: SNK relaunched its star saga without a story mode, without a final boss , with a very fair panel of fighters, with few scenarios and very notorious absences like Mai Shiranui. Possibly the most iconic fighter in the Osaka company.
Errors and missed opportunities to show off that SNK solved only a year later: The King of Fighters XIII (KOF13) recovers all the best of the 2009 fighting tournament, filled it with content and extras in its recreational edition and reached excellence in its home adaptations. Returning to raise the saga to the status it had since its inception and, at the same time, being totally faithful to its own acronym.
Making the inevitable collision between Kyo and Iori, The King of Fighters ‘ top standard bearers, exciting again.
And yet The King of Fighters XIII marked the end of an era. On the one hand, because in the plot it was the epic conclusion of the Ash Crimson saga , the third major story arc of the series. On the other, because SNK itself will begin a new period of total restructuring that will leave the fans of its star saga without news – although with a rich playable legacy – for six long years.
The King of Fighters XIII was a double goodbye in which SNK, consciously or not, put all the meat on the spit. Forming part of the resurgence of the great fighting games of the late 2000s along with Street Fighter IV, his greatest rival on the part of Capcom. And, at the same time, dedicating itself to what is truly important: the gaming experience.
Because it is beyond doubt that KOF 13 is one of SNK’s best fighting games , which is no small feat. A timeless classic? Eleven years after its arcade debut, the game is beautifully preserved. Even in new generation systems thanks to backward compatibility.
The King of Fighters XIII ten years later: from Xbox 360 to Xbox Series X
Perhaps KOF 12 was a Dream Match , an installment outside the plot continuity of The King of Fighters saga, but it was a real leap in terms of quality and ambition: SNK discarded all original character sprites, settings and effects to develop new ones. fighters from scratch and in an artisanal way . As a result, on an artistic level, that delivery was spectacular.
We were used to the Osaka people launching arcade fighting with huge and detailed fighters, but the finishes and fluidity with which Kyo, Terry or Athena moved were far beyond anything seen in any other classic fighting game. And not only that, each character’s redesign radiated stage presence and character in their movements.
Logically, that The King of Fighters XII – and KOF 13 – did not use models of three-dimensional fighters implied the absence of alternative costumes. However, SNK managed to create color palettes and editors that achieved an unusual effect: the wrestlers appeared to be wearing different clothes.
However, not everything is praise for KOF 12 : polished in the playable and brutal in presentation, that delivery lacked background and was too fair in terms of content. Luckily, The King of Fighters XIII put on the table everything that the fan of the saga missed in the previous installment, and added much more to the whole.
Starting off, KOF 13 offers two ways to approach its plot:
- The traditional Arcade mode , which offers a succession of team battles that gradually lead to an epic showdown.
- And the story mode , a very interesting variant in which we can choose the setting and equipment while we discover the true nature and the inevitable destiny of Ash Crimson, the central character of this stage of the SNK saga.
Of course, the integration of a system of progress and challenges , even within the arcade, made the replayability itself increase generously: the return of the traditional teams and the two ways of getting involved in the story led to unlockable, collectible endings and some exquisite illustrations.
Not to mention that, with enough skill, in the domestic versions we can unlock two extra fighters.
And in the playable? Well, this is where SNK really stood out with KOF 13. The climax of the Ash saga was a return to the classic feel of the early installments, but retained the superb technical character of the show’s turn-of-the-millennium stage. .
Rolling, running, moving, or using any of the three types of jumping still feels intuitive, of course. But the way you take advantage of the power bars makes all the difference. Giving rise to spectacular combos, devastating finishers and effects capable of filling the screen and, executed at the key moment, making us let go of control.
Of course, SNK was aware and took note of everything that was missing in the previous edition, and not only recovered the fan favorites (starting with Mai Shiranui herself ) but also introduced new final bosses capable of leading to the Limit the button crushers and challenge veterans and those who defend themselves with the controls.
Giving both, as is tradition in the saga and the recreational ones of the house, the opportunity to request revenge with advantages : starting with our power bar to the maximum or reducing the opponent’s health bar to a quarter. Which – let it be said – is not a guarantee of victory either.
The SNK milestone as a whole is due to the superb use of the Taito Type X2 arcade system. And although, like the previous installment, it debuted in the arcade rooms, KOF 13 also knew how to shine with its own light in its console versions. Taking advantage of the online services of PS3 and Xbox 360 in the process.
Ten years later, and after several online games, The King of Fighters XIII still feels just as good as it did on launch day.
And if it was already a delight to unleash the brutal NEOMAX attacks with the Xbox 360 controller, the Xbox Series X crosshead suits the whole thing even better. Making chaining blows and sentencing with Super Attacks better , if possible, and giving new excuses to go out and play the statistics online.
SNK’s visual and playable ceiling still feels great ten years later
The King of Fighters XIII is not the last installment of the saga: in 2016 SNK took its fighters to PS4 -and later PC- through 3D models that, definitely, were not up to the standards seen in Street Fighter V or Tekken 7. Of course, its game mechanics and the fact of offering more than 50 launch fighters balanced the balance.
Still, comparisons between the last two installments of The King of Fighters are inevitable. And the most interesting thing is that in many respects – and despite including many fewer fighters – KOF 13 comes out exactly the winner. If both games are three versus three matches, what does the 2010 game do better?
From the outset, we find a SNK that not only is crowned in the artistic, but also pays total worship to detail . Not only did it introduce tons of new animated settings with special pampering, but each one overflowed with tributes to its own legacy. Consecrating the premise that KOF 13 is art in motion.
And despite the fact that the Spanish localization of the dialogues is far from being perfect , both the interludes and the dialogues between each and every one of the fighters are a true gift for the player and the one who ever went through the saga. Emphasizing in each encounter that it is not about two dolls with special abilities, but characters with a background.
To the above, we must add that The King of Fighters XIII is one of the maximum references when it comes to introducing any player to the fighting genre: beyond the basic tutorials, which preside over the main menu, we find a missions mode that, beyond being challenging, becomes a true academy for those who want to delve into the game mechanics.
On the one hand, for offering always grateful alternatives for Time Attack and Survival. But also, by the way of introducing a sub-mode of missions dependent on the character with which to access the full potential of each fighter. Being – by far – the most spectacular and creative delivery at the level of combos and definitive attacks.
In fairness, the online experience of The King of Fighters was always one of its weaknesses compared to the rest of the sagas. And the truth is that SNK also knew how to do the tasks in this installment: in addition to the ranked and player games (with our own rules) we can easily match up. And that in 2020 it will be relatively easy to find a game on Xbox is a milestone.
Despite the fact that from time to time there is a pull, it must be recognized that SNK was successful as few times in relation to its online experience. Making the set have a special appeal in its day in terms of its competitive nuance and, at the same time, knowing how to retain that same milestone so many years later.
The best installment of The King of Fighters? In all fairness, the SNK saga has gone through various stages that make it difficult to compare them between them. Some of them were spectacular, like that Dream Match from KOF ’98 . While in others it was especially palpable that those from Osaka were not going through their best moment as a company.
And despite everything, The King of Fighters XII not only establishes itself as one of the best installments of SNK’s star license, but it is preferably positioned among the legacy of more than 40 years of the Japanese company. Those references of the arcades that made entire generations dream of having a Neo Geo.
What we are clear about is that the success of the next The King of Fighters will not depend so much on its number of available fighters or its way of offering photorealistic finishes, but on how it recovers everything that made the SNK saga continue to be today. one of the main references of fighting games. Sensations that are very present in KOF 13.
