The new King of Fighters is the type of thing I can REALLY get behind; it's one of those games that makes me feel like it is being designed specifically for me. Talking about games like this is the reason I wanted to start blogging in the first place.
For those of you who have not been keeping up with this title, the twelfth installment in the KOF franchise is getting quite a bit of international buzz; rightfully so, I must say. The Graphics are traditional, hand drawn 2D sprites, but get this: it's in HD! Each frame is probably around 500-600 pixels tall and each character has upwards of 600 frames. Try and imagine, for any of you who have done any digital illustration, the insane amount of time and effort this project would take. If you are having trouble wrapping your head around it, SNK themselves have stated that the sprite art for one character alone takes an artist up to seventeen months!!!
It's not the fact that it is a 2D HD game alone that makes me so excited. The animation (judging from the available video) is silky smooth; smooth polished animation for any game is an accomplishment but smooth and polished animation in 720p is unheard of. On top of that, the design and art is also top notch old-school SNK. Back in the Neo-Geo days, SNK was the only company that could keep up with Capcom as far as fighting game animation and sprite work. I thought they had lost that magic, but wow was I wrong. It's funny that it took a SNK-fan-boy-turned lead-designer to make it happen.
First let's look at a video that some of you have seen I am sure, it's the KOF XII trailer. A pretty good video to star off with if you haven't seen anything from the game.
Like I said, that is a great pop-off for someone who hasn't been following this title, however this next video really lets you see how incredible this game is going to look:
(Please be patient: high quality video)
To be completely honest with you, I never was a huge KOF guy. I have most of the essential KOF titles for my Neo cabinet but they don't get a ton of play. This new installement however, is probably going to change all of that. SNK is back baby.
KOF XII hits Japanese arcades in April, PS3 and Xbox 360 later this year.
For those of you who have not been keeping up with this title, the twelfth installment in the KOF franchise is getting quite a bit of international buzz; rightfully so, I must say. The Graphics are traditional, hand drawn 2D sprites, but get this: it's in HD! Each frame is probably around 500-600 pixels tall and each character has upwards of 600 frames. Try and imagine, for any of you who have done any digital illustration, the insane amount of time and effort this project would take. If you are having trouble wrapping your head around it, SNK themselves have stated that the sprite art for one character alone takes an artist up to seventeen months!!!
It's not the fact that it is a 2D HD game alone that makes me so excited. The animation (judging from the available video) is silky smooth; smooth polished animation for any game is an accomplishment but smooth and polished animation in 720p is unheard of. On top of that, the design and art is also top notch old-school SNK. Back in the Neo-Geo days, SNK was the only company that could keep up with Capcom as far as fighting game animation and sprite work. I thought they had lost that magic, but wow was I wrong. It's funny that it took a SNK-fan-boy-turned lead-designer to make it happen.
First let's look at a video that some of you have seen I am sure, it's the KOF XII trailer. A pretty good video to star off with if you haven't seen anything from the game.
Like I said, that is a great pop-off for someone who hasn't been following this title, however this next video really lets you see how incredible this game is going to look:
(Please be patient: high quality video)
To be completely honest with you, I never was a huge KOF guy. I have most of the essential KOF titles for my Neo cabinet but they don't get a ton of play. This new installement however, is probably going to change all of that. SNK is back baby.
KOF XII hits Japanese arcades in April, PS3 and Xbox 360 later this year.
This sounds so awesome
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