King of Fighters XIII Review: A Tough, Venerable 2D Fighter

Over the past 20-odd years, SNK has attracted a dedicated-yet niche audience for their 2D fighters. Always featuring solid, old school gameplay, they’ve always been challenging, but haven’t made a fantastic transition to current generation consoles.

Until now.

Unlike King of Fighters XII, the newest addition to the series is packed with several different options, simple, yet smooth online play and over 30 unique fighters to choose from.

After a few rounds, you’ll feel like a kid again, transported to the corner deli or the crusty laundry mat with the old “Fatal Fury” cabinet in the back.

Simply put, “King of Fighters XIII” is the closest thing to an old-school arcade fighting experience you can have on your 360.

Though it lacks the beauty of the “Blazblue” and “Guilty Gear” series and the overt sexiness of a Capcom 2D fighter, its retro difficulty and addictive nature make it not only the best game in the series, but a sleeper hit on the 360.

The war between Capcom and SNK has been over for quite some time obviously and rather than adapt and grow like Capcom, SNK still hasn’t changed. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing though. Their graphical presentation has been polished, but still remains the same. Their complex control schemes are still prevalent. Unlike the recent slew of Street Fighter titles, it takes time to fall in love with “King of Fighters XIII.” Each character is different enough that it’s a transition to learn their moves and their tendencies. The game’s difficulty also makes this adjustment a time-consuming one.

That’s something that young fighting fans may not want to deal with. They want to button mash and be able to perform similar button movement for all the characters they play with. That’s just not the case in this game. To them, “King of Fighters XIII” will almost feel like it’s from a completely different world. I
Although they share the same genre, the two titles are completely different from one another. If “Super Street Fighter IV” is Green Day, then “King of Fighters XIII” is The Bouncing Souls. One is mainstream and known around the world. The other is absolutely popular, but isn’t for everyone. Nonetheless, it can’t be denied its due. If the Street Fighter series never existed, this wouldn’t be a problem. Terry and Andy Bogard would have been pop culture icons and would have had their own crappy movie in the early ‘90s with Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren. But this isn’t the case. By straying away from mainstream conventions, “King of Fighters XIII” won’t cater to everyone, but to those who do “get” it, it’s a title they’ll remember for a long time.n a way, it is.

The main reason for that is the depth in the gameplay. There’s a lot to do in this game. Between the story and mission mode, you could find yourself spending at least a dozen hours playing through with all the characters and possible team combinations. Although the story itself is vanilla, this series was never about a narrative.

 The gameplay, fast, yet tactical is where most of the meat is and for good reason. After all of these years, it still works. Newbies to the series will have a hard time pulling off moves at first, as the movements need to be ultra precise, but veterans will fall in love with an old friend all over again.

This is a straight-ahead, rock solid, 2D fighter, with little bells and whistles. It works. There’s no Brazilian savages spewing electricity or hand-slapping Sumo wrestlers here. If that’s your cup of tea, you probably won’t enjoy this game. SNK has made this game for their dedicated-hardcore, the ones they know will appreciate the 2D sprites, 3D backgrounds and complex combos. They haven’t disappointed them at all.

Again, it’s just not a game for a casual fighting fan aficionado.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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