The end of July is going to be a good time for fans of 2D fighters: the genre has seen a resurgence in popularity over the past couple of months, and SNK’sKing of Fighters XIIis only one of many high-profile releases this summer.
According toKOF12‘s Twitter feed,Ignition Entertainmentwill be bringing the brawler over to the States on July 28,one daybefore Capcom’sMarvel vs. Capcom 2hits XBLA and PSN. And how’s this for weird: We’re gettingKing of Fighters XIItwo days before Japanese audiences, which probably means the world is about to explode.
Since there’s only so much you can really say about release dates,here’s a fun fact: The artwork forKing of Fighters XIIwas all hand-drawn and each character took 18 man-months to create. The team faked the lighting by using different sprites, depending on where characters were on the screen. Another fun fact? The PS3 version of the gamewill support clans.
And, hey, to make this post worth your while, I embedded two gameplay montages that Ignition PR were kind enough to send over. The e-mail mentioned that they featured “devastating Sousai (deadlock) counters, critical counter attacks and guard attacks,” but I don’t know enough about the series to be able to find those in these videos. I like the art and explosion effects, and I like making people beat each other up, but I know that I will never, ever be anything more than a below-average fighter.
