It hits all the right notes with its pacing and mechanics, showcases a wide array of charming characters, and shines with presentation that evokes classic SNK. But if you'll pardon the pun, gameplay is king, and KOF 14 delivers some of the most refined one-on-one fighting around. Sure, there will be plenty of people who take one look at The King of Fighters 14 and dismiss it for its less-than-perfect visuals. A fantastic lobby system makes it easy to arrange (or spectate) friendly matches with strangers, while online warriors can enjoy the challenge of climbing up the Ranked ladder. The connection speed of both you and your opponent will always be the determining factor of whether or not you'll encounter lag, but the majority of my encounters were smooth, and even fights against people with a one-bar connection were merely sluggish rather than unplayable. And fortunately for them, KOF 14's online netcode felt rock-solid during all my matches. Meanwhile, experts will be enthralled by the depth of the combo system, where MAX cancels create absurd attack string opportunities for those with highly developed muscle memory, as well as the complex movement mechanics that can completely change your offense based on the angle and height of aggressive jumps.Īs with any fighting game, KOF 14 competition is best enjoyed via versus matches in person, but the majority of players will be sharpening their skills online.
That said, the animation-based timings for combos feel far more transparent than other contemporary fighters, which goes a long way towards learnability and makes KOF 14 feel more welcoming to players of any level.
KOF 13 OR 14 PATCH
KOF 14's four button layout feels great on an arcade stick or gamepad, though I highly recommend using a stick (PS3 or PS4, with a day one patch adding legacy controller support) due to the sometimes tricky motion inputs for certain specials and supers. Rush allows newcomers to pick up any character and do ok while still giving dedicated players the advantage, which feels like the perfect balance of accessibility. There's no need to be intimidated by the size of the roster, either: KOF 14 smartly implements a mechanic called Rush, which lets you bust out a short automatic combo by mashing Light Punch up close. It's by no means bad, just basic - especially compared to the branching single-player storyline in KOF 13. There are a handful of character-specific exchanges if the right fighters cross paths, and you're rewarded with slideshow endings (packed with SNK references) depending on the team you piloted to victory. The marquee solo mode is Story, but it's pretty much just a 10-stage Arcade Mode, peppered with a few generalized cutscenes starring the goofy antagonist Antonov (one of two unlockable characters). You can play as these largely lovable misfits in a variety of single-player modes, including standards like Time Attack and Survival, or sets of character-specific Trials which are far less intimidating than the finger-torturing combos of KOF 13's challenges. Things like lighting and shading have been completely redone to give everyone a softer, more lifelike appearance, and fancy visual effects perfectly mimic old moves that are fast enough to be a blur. And while the anime-style visuals won't appeal to the mainstream, I'm happy to say that they've been refined far beyond the plastic-looking, Barbie-doll-esque character models that were a major turn-off for many when the new graphics engine first debuted. The biggest change in KOF 14 is plain to see: the switch from KOF 13's gorgeous hand-drawn sprites to 3D renders fighting on a 2D plane. But two particularly crucial mechanics give KOF 14 its own identity: MAX Mode, which spends a bar of super to temporarily enable EX moves and extend combo strings, and Emergency Evasion, which lets any character quickly roll forward or back to bypass fireballs or escape the corner at the risk of being thrown. Capcom's meter management, strings of super attacks, and breakneck speed (to a lesser, more manageable degree). If you best understand the feel of a fighting game through Capcom's hits, KOF 14 is akin to Street Fighter's footsies, where spacing and knowing the range of your normals is crucial, mixed with Marvel vs.
This sequel stays true to the KOF formula: players assemble a team of three fighters to spar in a sequence of consecutive one-on-one duels, sans any tags or assists.