SNK’s The King of Fighters series entered a new era with 2016’s The King of Fighters XIV by introducing a new protagonist and featuring a cast full of fresh faces. Six years later, the second entry in the era dubbed the “Shun’ei Saga” has arrived as The King of Fighters XV continues China Team’s story and adds in a few mechanics that help the series find its modern-day identity.
The core gameplay builds upon XIV‘s solid foundation, including its controversial Rush Combos. While these simple and mashy low-damage attacks are often the ire of hardcore fighting game fans, they make the game far more accessible for newcomers and offer no real threat of an experienced player losing to a newbie. Beyond that, Max Mode is also back, although it now costs two bars of meter rather than one, and there’s even a Quick Max Mode that can be used to cancel additional moves instead of boosting super attacks. Another tweak from XIV is that EX special moves can be done at any time rather than just during Max Mode, although they now cost half a bar of meter to pull off.
These are all small yet meaningful changes that add more variety to matches and give high-level players more strategies to consider while fighting. While the tutorial should be a bit more in-depth and do a better job of explaining how to use these mechanics during matches (it just has you pull them off once and then read a brief explanation), most players should should be able to wrap their heads around these systems.
For the most part, KOF XV remains a very beginner-friendly fighting game. The aforementioned Rush Combos allow novices to pull off some flashy attacks, while the special move inputs are mostly quarter circles rather than something more convoluted. Executing a climax super special move requires the same motion for each character, so there’s a lot of basic mastery that goes a long way. The biggest gameplay addition from a depth standpoint are Shatter Strikes, a slick counter attack that costs a bar of meter that crumples and stuns the opponent and opens them up for a combo. This is a slick addition as it can punish overly aggressive players and change the tide of battle by acting as a devastating counter or getting the attacker to waste a bar on a blocked or whiffed Shatter Strike.
As these additions and twists demonstrate, SNK has fleshed out The King of Fighters‘ core gameplay quite well. This is also why it’s such a bummer that there just aren’t that many modes to experience different types of fights in. Sure, there’s the standard arcade mode with stories for each of the teams (and even some hidden combinations), but outside of that, the single-player offerings are extremely thin as there are training missions and… not much else. Something as simple as a one-on-one arcade bracket rather than the default three-on-three battles, or survival and time attack modes would’ve given some variety to offline training.
The online offerings fare quite a bit better, and I didn’t run into any issues with the netcode as matches ran smoothly. Ranked matches will allow for a rematch, and if you find an opponent you want to play more with, you can even create a room with them after the competitive set concludes, which is a helpful addition. There are a number of online match types, such as party matches that allow for six players to each control one fighter in a three-on-three battle and draft matches that add almost a MOBA-like element to picking your team based on the weakness of your opponent’s picks. The only real gripe is that a room’s match type can’t be changed without creating a new room, so there’s a lot of unnecessary re-inviting if you and a friend want to try out different match types.
Of course, a fighting game is nothing without its characters and thankfully that is a bright spot for The King of Fighters XV. While KOF XIV featured over a dozen new fighters that ranged from meaningful additions to truly forgettable ones, KOF XV only adds three combatants into the mix. While XIV‘s fresh-faced roster was quite the departure for the series, only having three original characters is a bit underwhelming at first glance. Thankfully, the three are a lot of fun and shows how the game is favoring quality over quantity, which allows for a roster with 39 meaningful characters (even if some fan-favorites such as Rock and Geese Howard are being kept for its season pass).
One character, Krohnen McDougall, is only sort of new as he’s very similar to K9999 from KOF 2001 and 2002. Clearly inspired by the manga Akira like K9999 was, McDougall is able to transform his polymorphic arm into claws, blades, and even a futuristic shotgun. This is a very solid addition to the roster as it fulfills the needs of a legally dubious fan-favorite returning and is incredibly fun to play.
The other two additions are both parts of the Rivals Team, which are antagonistic to new series protagonist Shun’ei. The leader of the group is Isla, a streetwear hypebeast that has telekinetic powers similar to Shun’ei and controls two purple hands to attack from range. Her attacks are as stylish as her fashion and her climax super special move has her using spray paint as an offensive weapon. With her unique aesthetic and attack animations, Isla is easily one of the best additions to the cast in the past decade.
Rounding out the newcomers is Delores, a priestess that is able to communicate with the earth itself. As such, Delores is extremely volatile when she can control range as she can attack from the other side of the screen by summoning some creepy-looking soil that even has eyes. It’s an interesting move set and showcases how SNK really nailed the design for all three newcomers.
The King of Fighters XV is another worthwhile entry in the fighting series, although its lack of single-player content and modes will keep more casual players from diving deep into its intricacies. However, those that have been waiting six years for a new KOF entry will find a lot to like with a great roster comprised of many fan-favorites and three great newcomers. SNK isn’t reinventing the genre or trying to compete feature-for-feature with a lot of its contemporaries, but the actual action stands up to scrutiny and can deliver quite the impressive knockout blow.
SCORE: 8/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 8 equates to “Great.” While there are a few minor issues, this score means that the game succeeds at its goal and leaves a memorable impact.
