Quick Look: The King of Fighters XIII

So glad that this is in 720p on Youtube, I think it's important for all viewers to see the GB videos properly.

I appreciate that Jeff's title is "Toilet break!"

Looks really fun, but i wasnt blown away by the music sadly...

OH MAN. What is up with that stage background?! Is that really the way they wanted to portray polynesian people? My Samoan friends would chuck a fit if they saw this!

@doomocrat said:

There's nothing I love more than a good KOF game, and this is the first honestly good one that isn't a rerelease in nine years. If you're looking for a fighter and don't want to give Capcom sequel cash for whatever reason, get this one! GET SERIOUS!

Here. What this dude says.

Thanks for the 720p! Too bad I stopped caring about King of Fighters after 2002 or something. SNK vs Capcom 2 was great though. Still have it for my Dreamcast.

This game is absofuckinglutely amazing! The best KoF game in nearly a decade. Completely makes up for the beta test that was the atrocious XII.

@ZeroCrescent:

Lighten up dude! This' KOF, enjoy it!

720p looks great!

Finally 720p. Caught up with every website that offers videos. Congrats.

HE'S PLAYING THE GAME WRONG, JESUS FUCKING CHRIST

@Woodles: You should pick this up on sale, because it's the best one since 2002.

Good to see KoF getting coverage. I can't wait to pick this up.

I think it is worth mentioning that the online fight at the end was showing up as a "one-bar" red connection. Any fighting game on a poor connection is awful. I would not be too quick to declare the online part of this game as unplayable just yet.

Not that the guys did anything of the sort of course. But Jeff's frustration with it was palpable. And frankly, understandably so given the mess that was KOF12. But still, I am going to see what the community reaction in the US is like over the next few days and let that influence my buying decision come Friday.

That background is pretty goddamn racist.

TNT please

Not a fan of Takuma's character design here at all. He used to be one of the more badass characters in the KOF series, but here he looks like a fat jobber that's about to get choked out by Royce Gracie at UFC 1.

This looks cool but I couldn't be less excited for a fighting game right now.

Good to see they didn't skimp on the modes or characters this time. 12 really disappointed me in that area. Now, if SNK wants to, ahem, CMON, GET SERIOUS! about having a competitive fighting game, they need some good netcode. I wish they could just steal the BlazBlue netcode, honestly.

So do you guys not charge from HD video anymore?

I am not going to lie, I am kind of excited to maybe play this game, but after Super Street Fighter IV happened, I kind of just bowed out of the fighting ring again... I mean 60 bucks seems kind of expensive for fighter after fighter, and then another 40 or 50 bucks to re-up on the "super" edition...

@doomocrat: @ZeroCrescent

Say what? It's no fluke. This is why I'm here every year!

A Terry Bogard sighting?

ARE YOU OKAY? BUSTAAA WOLF!

C'mon, c'mon!

Hurricane Joe!! He's on point in my team.

Man. That's a BlazBlue looking UI.

I found funny that Ryan didn't notice that the weird smoke effect lady is actually a man.

That is some pure honest fighting.

@Timing said:

Hey cool it's in HD for some reason.

All videos for non-subs are HD now :D YAY FOR DAVE.

ive been watching iplaywinners stream of kof13 near enough every sunday, if any of you want to check out some kinda high level play check out iplaywinners youtube channel

I honestly think this is Atlus bringing out KOF is to practice for Persona 4 next yr.

I must say, this looks like a pretty well thought out and complete package as a product and an impressive looking fighting game. In regards to stuff like story mode, whether good or bad in narrative I am actually glad that they included a somewhat fleshed out one.

On a side note, while I dislike the newer character designs in this game, I kind of dig the soft looking art style the cutscenes use.

Love the KING OF FIGHTERS IN UK stage, especially the signs and policemen but that intro convo crap is a terrible idea. Slows the game down and everyone loved the individual QUICK animated intros in '98 Slugfest et al. They really should have saved it for a attract mode or something.

Also, I wouldn't say the designs are deliberately trying to be offensive or telling. Japan tends to have an innocent, playful nature when it comes to these things. They take what they see from plenty of sources and throw it all together to make some very nice graphics. I mean loads of games have a jungle scene and tribal natives are a common theme in such settings; also with a character dressing up as a Napoleon general or whatever but being female in heels- it makes no sense but damn does she look great like that. If the Japanese ever come across as racist then it's rarely deliberately; Lord knows we give them as good back with equal tongue in cheek. I love the London stage and while I can see the stereotypes as a Brit I can tell they've made more of an effort than that; the police do wear those reflective vests with the helmets during certain mass-attendance events and our signs look like that, it's just a shame they don't have thumbs ups on them!

720p
 
DAMN STRAIGHT!

720p!

I am a king of fighters fan. I remember I was young going to arcades in asia and playing this game at times.

Later I got it for my gameboys and etc. Sure it might be "similar" to Street fighter and all that, but this game has more style.

And you really feel sleek when your pulling out the moves.

I like the characters more then street fighter.

------

but they really need to 3d it up a bit and maybe take a more realer approach to the combat and ai. Kinda like a ea mma/boxing game, but with all the japanese styles intact.

@UltimAXE said:

Custom colors? Time to de-pants Yuri again.

Edit: Okay, maybe not this time. She looks like she's 12.

Hey I don't know about you but if my fighting game doesn't have extremely bad racism and lolis with no pants I'm not buying it.

Yeah. Fighting games. Still no interest in them.

I want this.

K' is in this game. SOLD.

I like fighting games that have common names for their contenders. SF and MK seemed to always make their ridiculous enough that you went "Oh, that's a fighting game character." KoF on the other hand has such characters as Joe and Robert and Terry, and will refer to them as such. Maybe it's just me, but it just still seems odd, in a way that I can appreciate.

Is there a Mai, uh...moving around...a lot..in the quick look?

Those buses are PACKED.

I like fighting games that have common names for their contenders. SF and MK seemed to always make their ridiculous enough that you went "Oh, that's a fighting game character." KoF on the other hand has such characters as Joe and Robert and Terry, and will refer to them as such. Maybe it's just me, but it just still seems odd, in a way that I can appreciate.

@SatelliteOfLove said:

@xxizzypop said:

I like fighting games that have common names for their contenders. SF and MK seemed to always make their ridiculous enough that you went "Oh, that's a fighting game character." KoF on the other hand has such characters as Joe and Robert and Terry, and will refer to them as such. Maybe it's just me, but it just still seems odd, in a way that I can appreciate.

Dhalsim is a perfectly crumluent Indian name.

Correction -- Generic whitebread names in fighting games make me giggle. Dhalsim is not a name I come across in my everyday life. I work with at least one person with each of the other names, however.

ugh -- this game looks janks....

The art in this game is great. The second London backdrop is almost like a Professor Layton version of London.

It's sounding like the review for this game (if it gets one) is going to be a throwaway if they're complaining about the story mode in a fighting game.

I'm really sick of these sites reviewing fighting games because they're not written by people who know about the genre. Or if they do, they write them for people who don't play fighting games and base everything they write on that fact.

@zaglis said:

720p DAMN STRAIGHT!

Yup. Sweet release! Finally 720...

On the issue of the "racist" backgrounds...

Have you guys SEEN the Japan stage (the devs are japanese)? Dozens of massive, ugly, fat sumos going nuts. Lots of ugly, fat dudes in China and France's backgrounds, too. So, no, it's not just the brazilian indian dudes in the Brazil background.

1. Man that is some HD.
2. Jeff knows his fighting games.
3. I could watch Jeff play / talk about fighting games for hours.