King of Fighters XII Online Patches Coming

MatureOK, today is the official full street date for King of Fighters XII. And apparently that means it's patch time as Ignition and SNK Playmore are attempting to fix the game's online on both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It seems like some updates have already been released--I know the 360 version "title updated" when I fired it up this morning, anyway. But even with patches out in the wild, Ignition's making it sound like there's still plenty of work to be done.

Take, for example, this note posted on the game's official Facebook page:

Dear KOF XII Fans,

The support and excitement generated by the fans so far for THE KING OF FIGHTERS XII is amazing and incredibly appreciated. We are so happy to finally have it available. Even after the game was finished, additional steps were taken to help improve the player experience and an update was released for both the Xbox 360 and PS3.

However, Ignition Entertainment is not at all happy with the online performance or with some of the functional issues that the fans have raised even after the release of these updates. We want to ensure the community that we are not taking this lightly and are having meetings in person with members of SNK PLAYMORE even at this very moment. Please continue your constructive feedback because we are listening and will do everything we can to have SNK PLAYMORE address these issues as soon as possible.

The King of Fighters series has always had some of the very best and supportive fans and we want to do what we can to help ensure they are treated right. We will continue to keep you updated on progress with SNK PLAYMORE and we thank you again for the continued support.

Ignition is right to be "not at all happy with the online performance.". Both versions of the game seem to be pretty jacked, and I've had way more bad matches than good ones so far. In fact, I just got dropped from a fight on 360 and dumped back into an arcade mode room with no cursor and no other players in it. I can't fight, and without a selection cursor, I can't actually back out of the room, either. So... it's basically locked up.

I'm in the middle of working on a review for both versions of the game, but right now, between the game's busted up online and its anemic single-player offering, the only way I could even begin to recommend it to people is if you're looking to play a lot of local multiplayer. Even then, I'm not sure this is the game I'd recommend for that, either... but I'll save that for the review, I guess.