I took to the ‘Net earlier today with the online mode for The King of Fighters XII, but instead of squaring off with international players, I had several matches with some local players. Boy, what a difference it made with a practically lag free experience and I pretty much got schooled by them.
It’s safe to say that KOF XII’s online mode (when it works) conveys the same feeling as playing against someone seated next to you, although some of my friends would beg to differ (they subscribe to the adage that fighting games should be played offline, so even if you lose, you can always get physical with the other person).
On the other hand, I found the Friend Match mechanism to be a little bit clumsy. The lack of a lobby to view friends who are playing the game is pretty mind-boggling and instead you have to resort to messaging players with invites, and hope they accept. It’s full holes, this Friend Mode.
So,having said all that, is online multiplayer the reason for you to check out KOF XII, other than the fact it is the latest game in the franchise?
Maybe, especially when you have a group of like-minded friends who are into KOF and living in the same geographical area (state or otherwise in the case of Singapore, country) but then again, your mileage may vary if they are using different ISPs.
Let’s hope there’ll be further improvements to the netcode because at the time of writting, international matches are still off the mark. For the original Nine Over Ten 9/10 review of the game, click here.
