KOF XII Cover Art (Xbox 360)

Found this cover art for the Xbox 360 version for The King of Fighters XII from Amazon. Wonder if this will be the confirmed cover art?

KOF XII’s Official Website & New Gameplay Systems

The King of Fighters XII’s Official Website (now only in Japanese) can be found here.

Besides confirming the 20 characters (mentioned on our previous post), there are also details on three new features in gameplay system, which includes the Critical Counter, Double Crush and Guard Attack systems.

I can’t read Japanese so could only roughly guess how the systems work.

For Critical Counter, this was already mentioned in our previous post.

For Double Crush, when both players execute their strong attacks, special moves or DMs on each other at the same time, this may occur, stunning both players but still allow for possible counter attacks.

As for Guard Attack, it’s possible for the player to perform an attacking move immediately after he has blocked an incoming attack.

I’ll need someone who can read Japanese to help me on the exact details…

KOF XII’s List of Characters

Another King of Fighters XII trailer had been shown at Tokyo Game Show 2008, revealing some of the characters that will be appearing in the game:

Here is the list of 20 characters (click for their official artwork, if available):

1. Andy Bogard
2. Ash Crimson
3. Athena Asamiya
4. Benimaru Nikaido
5. Clark Steel
6. Chin Gentsai
7. DuoLon
8. Goro Daimon
9. Iori Yagami
10. Joe Higashi
11. Kim Kaphwan
12. Kyo Kusanagi
13. Leona Heidern
14. Raiden
15. Ralf Jones
16. Robert Garcia
17. Ryo Sakazaki
18. Shen Woo
19. Sie Kensou
20. Terry Bogard

Rumours: Judging from this list of characters, it is unlikely that there will be default teams to choose from. Also, do not be surprised if there are no hidden characters at all and that these 20 characters are the ENTIRE list of playable characters, as SNK is keeping things small and simple this time, focusing on quality instead of quantity. This is understandable since redrawing one character by hand is taking them more than a year.

Also, no storyline has been revealed so KOF XII might not be based on any storyline and thus could have no special endings, which is not unexpected since there could not have any default teams in the first place.

KOF XII Gameplay Video from TGS 2008

A King of Fighters XII gameplay video in high quality, taken at the Tokyo Game Shown 2008:

From the video, we can see KOF XII no longer has SDMs (Super Desperation Moves) as the characters’ health bars no longer flash when nearing death. Also, there is no ‘transitions’ (e.g. flashing lights) when performing DMs (Desperation Moves), thus making DMs integrated into the gameplay like any other moves.