The King of Fighters XI
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| The King of Fighters XI | |
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| Developer(s) | SNK Playmore |
| Publisher(s) | Sega (AW) / SNK Playmore (PS2) |
| Release date(s) | AW: October 26, 2005 |
| Genre(s) | Versus fighting |
| Mode(s) | Team Battle, One-On-One; Up to 2 players simultaneously |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, PlayStation 2 |
| Input | 8-way Joystick, 5 Buttons |
| Arcade cabinet | Upright |
| Arcade system(s) | Atomiswave |
The King of Fighters XI (KOF XI) is the latest installment of the King of Fighters series. The numerical distinction for the series now is based primarily on SNK Playmore wanting to avoid being locked into a rigorous yearly schedule of releases.
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[edit] Storyline
Mukai, a member of a mysterious group, stole the Orochi seal. Taking advantage of all the confusion caused by it, Ash stole the Yata Mirror (protected by Chizuru Kagura). Everybody assumed Chizuru’s defeat, and that’s how, in between everything, he pulled the curtains down on the last King of Fighters. Time passes and everything seems to be okay in the world. However, and quite predictably, there will be a KOF Tournament. In the advent of the new tournament, new faces are handed invitations, while old faces, such as Eiji Kisaragi, return to the ring. Among the new KoF participants are Oswald, Duck King - a South Town veteran fighter himself, Momoko, and Elisabeth. All these fighters will find themselves in a tournament full of mysteries and secrets started by motives that they’d ignored. Behind this healthy competitive tournament hides a hidden force called "People from the Past" that has a lot of mixed objectives.
[edit] Game mechanics
Aside from the already known gameplay maneuvers that add much depth to the gameplay, Runs, Rolls, Short Jumps, Guard Cancel CDs and Rolls, Empty Cancels, and the returning Quick Emergency Roll, the four largest innovations KOF XI brings to the franchise are the Quick Shift, the Saving Shift, the Skill Bar and the Dream Cancels.
The Skill Stocks significantly complicate the gameplay of KOF. The Power Stocks that existed previously are still present, and are filled in the usual fashion. However, there are now Skill Stocks as well, which gradually build up over time. Each team begins a match holding the maximum of two Skill Stocks. Offensive maneuvers, such as Desperation Moves, Guard Cancels, and Tag Attacks, continue to use Power Stocks. However, more defensive or tactical maneuvers, such as Guard Evasion, Saving Shift, and Quick Shift, use Skill Stocks.
KOF XI utilizes the Tactical Shift System from KOF 2003, but makes very important changes. The Quick Shift allows you to change into another character in the middle of any combo, prolonguing it, or in the middle of any attack, no matter if it was blocked or not, canceling the frames of animation of the attack, if it's needed. The Saving Shift allows the player to take out a character when he is being hit as soon as he is hit, or in any moment, at the cost of both skill bars. This effectively cuts many combos that otherwise would do a lot of damage, eliminates the possibility of infinites by repeating chains of attacks on the ground (excluding aerial juggles) and brings an element of balance to the game. While it is possible to escape from any combination of attacks on the ground, it is not possible to use Saving Shift to get out from a Desperation or Leader Desperation move.
The last new feature of KOF XI is the Dream Cancel. Like the Super Cancel that first appeared in KOF '99, Dream Cancel allows players to use stocks to interrupt a move in the midst of its execution with a more powerful move, allowing devastating combos. However, the Dream Cancel is more deadly than ever, allowing a DM to be canceled into an LDM, at the expensive price of two Power Stocks and one Skill Stocks.
Should the timer run down in a match, the winner is no longer decided based upon who has the most life remaining. Instead, the judgment bar, a new bar of circular shape composed of two colors, each one representing one player (red or blue, which are the colors displayed in the portraits of the characters of each side) acts as a quantifier of the skill of each player. Whichever player has the judgment bar towards his side will be the victor if none of the teams win defeating all three characters from the opposite team; rarely, if the bar is exactly in the center, the match will end in a draw and both sides will lose. The bar is affected by each attack that the players get in, combos affect progressively more, and when a character of the opposing team is defeated, the bar suffers a big change against that player. This makes taking care of keeping one's characters alive pretty important, giving strategy to the tags system.
[edit] Characters
The character roster has received a major shake-up. For the first time ever, recurring characters , Leona Heidern, Joe Higashi, Mai Shiranui & Robert Garcia in the arcade version) have been dropped from the roster.
On the other hand, the ninja Eiji Kisaragi returns; though a secret striker in KOF 2000, he has not been a playable character since KOF 95, the ever popular Duck King makes his first real appearance in the series, and Bonne Jenet crosses over from Garou: Mark of the Wolves.
Three characters are original to The King of Fighters XI: Oswald, Elisabeth Blanctorche, and Momoko. Elisabeth is the heir of a noble French family, Oswald is a fighter from Ireland who utilizes cards as his weapons. Momoko is a young capoeira fighter from Japan accompanying Athena Asamiya and Sie Kensou on the Neo-Psycho Soldier team. There are also several cameo appearances from characters in endings that haven't been and will be in the next game.
[edit] Teams
- Ash Team
- Rival Team
- Fatal Fury Team
- Terry Bogard(in his Wild Wolf outfit)
- Kim Kaphwan
- Duck King
- Art of Fighting Team
- Ikari Warriors Team
- Neo-Psycho Soldiers Team
- Agent Team
- Anti-Kyokugenryu Team
- Garou: Mark of the Wolves Team
- K' Team
- Kusanagi and Yagami Team
[edit] Bosses
- Adelheid Bernstein: The Bad Ending Boss from KOF 2003 and the 1st Mid-Boss in the Game.
- Gai Tendo: The Main Hero from Buriki-One and the 2nd Mid-Boss in the Game.
- Sho Hayate: The Main Hero from Savage Reign and the 3rd Mid-Boss in the Game.
- Jazu: The Final Boss from Kizuna Encounter, where he was called "Jyazu," and the 4th Mid-Boss in the Game.
- Silver: The Final Boss from Buriki-One, in which his name was sometimes spelled as "Silber", and the final Mid-Boss in the Game.
- Shion: The Sub-Boss of the game and an assistant of Magaki; skilled in the use of martial arts and weapons, particularly a long spear and Flying Dart.
- Magaki: The Final Boss of the game and A Herald of Orochi; uses powerful energy attacks.
[edit] PlayStation 2 exclusive characters
These characters are only available on the PlayStation 2 version of the game.
- Mai Shiranui
- Mr. Big (Art of Fighting)
- Geese Howard
- Tung Fu Rue
- Robert Garcia
- Hotaru Futaba (Garou Mark of the Wolves)
- EX Kyo Kusanagi
[edit] External links
- The King of Fighters XI at the official Japanese website of SNK Playmore
- The King of Fighters XI Official English Website of Ignition Entertainment.
