Hey guys, remember me? Heh, cause I don't blame you if you don't.
How long has it been since I've gotten on DA? Maybe two and a half months? I'm greeted with 746 messages, and I'm thinking to myself how much you guys might have missed me. Turns out only 6 messages were feedback and everything else was devwatch. Well, at least everyone was busy doing cool artwork. Guess my afternoon is going to consist of writing this and adding 740 deviations to my faves. : P
This has all felt like a very long weekend for me frankly. I wish I could say I've done a lot since, but I really haven't. Heck, I'm actually a little bit ashamed of that. But hey, at least it saves me writing about it.

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Alright, let's get this out of the way because I'm sure it's on everyone's mind... The King of Fighters XIII... Oh boy, let me TRY and summarize here. Come the 22nd, my cousin who is a pretty big fan of the series got the game day one. He didn't hesitate to rub it in my face. I took a deep sigh and tried it out... We both sat in my room ready to start some versus. But before we started, he said I should probably tinker with the sound options. He knew what disaster of vocals might lied ahead. I tried to be optimistic and avoided doing that, knowing that I heard from someone saying they brushed up the voices a bit in the game - Oh, the fool I was. Not even after the first round of using Yuri I paused the game, went to options, and set the the voice volume to zero. What a godsend... If it weren't for that slider, I would have given up hope entirely right there.
Personal gripes settled and cooled - for the most part - I started reviewing the game in my mind.

The graphics first off, are just what I expected: Gorgeous 2D pixel art in HD. While the backgrounds are crisp, colorful and detailed, the character sprites seemed to have a permanent "soft" filter overlay on them. It blurs the character to make the sprite look softer. I personally hate this, and was disappointed that there was no option to turn it off. Oh well, it wouldn't have helped Nona's awful character redesigns either way. One other thing to mention is the game has color edit. Originally, I read from SNK themselves saying that they would no longer have RGB sliders, and instead replace it with a set of 25 color slots. Part of the reason they did this is to prevent mischievous players from creating any "nasty" edits. I actually gave SNK a round of applause for protecting their characters like that for a change... Haha, but no. As soon as I unlocked my first row of colors, they were all flesh colors. SNK, you f****** hypocrites. Expect to see naked Raidens and pantless karate fighters online... And artworks of them on DA...

On to sound: Here it really shines. The original soundtrack is good and catchy like what you would expect of a KOF game. My favorites being "Tame a bad boy" (Kim's team) and "Wild Street" (Fatal Fury Team). The game also comes with tracks from past KOFs if set to "Type B". Though they are not represented accurately for some reason. For example, facing Takuma will play "After a long Absence", which is Ryo, King, and Yuri's theme from XI. Or facing Billy will give you"Geese ni Katatori"... Yeah. The sound effects are nice and juicy; Hits & impacts really sound strong, fierce, and overall satisfying. And of course, if playing an AOF character you get the remastered "Poooooow". And the vocals? Awesome, cause they're not there for me.

And finally, the big one: Gameplay. While movement and flow is silky smooth, the mechanics of the game have changed for the worse. I'm talking about this game being very, VERY combo heavy. The game's combo trials makes SFIV's look like a joke. Even me, who has never relied on combos, am pulling off 50% combos with ease now. However, if you and your buddies try and refrain from using such cheap tactics, then the game is actually quite pleasant; reminiscing the classic KOF feel of rolling, hyper-hoping and DMs everywhere.  The most notable addition is the introduction of EX moves, which sound and play exactly like that of SF' III: An alternate version of your character's special moves; often faster, stronger, and - you guessed it - more juggable. Another inclusion is drive canceling. Basically allowing you to cancel any special into any other special, or even supers twice per full gauge. Also new are the Neomax moves. A super flashy move that saps up to 50% of health if landed, costing a reasonable price of 3 stocks. And lastly, for you online kids, the netcode I'm happy to say is decent. So get out there and show off your pervy, unoriginal palettes!

Other nit-knacks include a story mode - which should have just been called "Ash's story mode" - a gallery mode, survival, time trial mode, and the previously mentioned combo trials dubbed "Missions". Y'know, basic stuff.

Soooooo, what do I think of it?



As a fighting game, it's good and beefy. As a KOF game, it's meh.

How about you guys? Do you disagree or do you disagree?