The King Of Fighters XV is the latest installment in the series with the first being released 28 years ago. Inheriting the series’ 3 on 3 team battle system, the game is a 2D fighter developed and published by SNK.

As someone new to the franchise and the fighter genre in general, I had very high expectations for the game. I heard great things about it and I was really interested to learn about the story and history that has been created over the past 28 years. This review is based on a little online multiplayer experience because I was only able to pair up with other reviewers so I had a hard time finding matches.

Story

The story is by far the weakest point, with no English voice acting and little actual story. All the fighters receive an invitation to The King of Fighters tournament, where you go and fight a few teams. After winning you are faced with a boss who is from another dimension for some reason, and afterward, you fight another boss who is also from another dimension. While this is happening the crowd watches like it's any other fight, I assume they know as much about the bosses as I do.

The story really didn't need to exist and I found myself feeling forced to finish it even though it was so short. I ended up replaying the story to try and understand what happened because there were practically no details and I thought I missed a huge portion somehow. Besides the bosses, it’s just a regular versus tournament match with its only purpose seeming to be to show off the bosses but without any buildup in the story for them. It all felt uninteresting and boring.

Gameplay

KOF XV shines in its gameplay, performing combos is satisfying and engaging. Each character has their own combo list which adds to the diversity and uniqueness of each character. The team-based 3v3 fighting is enjoyable. Although characters have a spam combo which ends up destroying the purpose of combos, and in a fighting game like this the ability to spam with no skill can be a death sentence for multiplayer.

The game feels good to play, combos are fast and flashy, and it all feels smooth. A lot of combos were silly to do, where most are half circles with the analog stick and then a kick or punch, but the select few that require you to do a full Z-motion with the analog stick are a lot harder than you would think and it felt very inconsistent.

The most interesting feature is the handicap. In story mode, if you lose you have the ability to weaken the enemy, with less health and giving yourself power levels at the start. In versus mode, you can put a handicap on yourself or your opponent to even the playing field. It’s very useful if you want to play with a friend but your skills are vastly superior or vice versa. This was common in old fighter games but it’s not as prominent anymore.

The story mode bosses had very unique combos, although they did seem to have a small list of them, with them repeating the same few moves the entire fight. They did feel unfair at times with their abilities that can cover the entire arena, but even so, they just weren’t strong enough and the fight was a breeze.

If online multiplayer isn’t what you want, then this game just isn’t for you. Besides the incredibly short story mode and basic versus mode, there really isn’t anything else. The game feels really bare and empty and really doesn’t do anything unique or special to separate it from other games in its genre.

That being said, its online multiplayer is great, with both ranked and casual modes and a rollback netcode to reduce lag and keep it smooth. As well as 39 characters to choose from at launch, with many more coming in the form of paid DLC. The game has a bright future with many updates to come.

Audio and Visuals

The game looks like a better version of its predecessor, The King Of Fighters XIV. I think the style fits well with the fighter genre. The characters are clearly from years of games, they're all over the place with their art from a rex man to an overly sexualized woman to a woman with some sort of magic hands. I couldn't really find the theme the game was going for, but it's not a complaint, being free from restrictions opens up infinite future character possibilities.

Replayability

Fans of the fighting genre who love online play will have their hands full with the massive cast of characters to master and a ranking system to become the best. That's most likely who they were targeting, an online community of fighters to battle each other, and if that’s the case they did great. That being said, there’s nothing for players who prefer a story or something to strive for offline.

What It Could Have Done Better

A real story mode would’ve made this game so much better for me, being able to learn the game while also learning about the lore that they presumably have been building since King Of Fighters 94’.

A better tutorial, or better yet, having the tutorial integrated into the story would have made learning the game actually pleasant. The tutorial mode alone was very plain, showing an image of one move that you repeat with no indication you even did it right. Once you’re bored you then have to go back and select the next one.

Verdict

The gameplay itself was fun and engaging and made me want to learn better, more advanced combos. But the lack of a story and competent tutorial stumped my progression as a new player to the KOF series and put me off from learning it. I could definitely see a strong ranked community being built in this game, but I believe there are better options out there.

The King Of Fighters XV will be released on February 17th on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and on PC via Steam and Epic Games Store.