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You might think that we’re a mite late in reviewing SNK’s fighter but what if we told you that’s actually the plan? With all of the DLC fighters out, now is actually the perfect time to be reviewing The King of Fighters XV. I mean how can you review a fighting game if the cast isn’t completed yet, right?!
See? We planned this review to arrive precisely at this moment, and that’s the story we’re all sticking with here at The Technovore.
So now, without further ado, here’s what I think of The King of Fighters XV!
What is The King of Fighters XV?
The King of Fighters XV is a 2D multiplayer fighting game developed and published by SNK. It’s available right now on the Playstation and Xbox consoles, as well as the PC. Crossplay is available for the game, which lets any version play with each other.
Our review copy was kindly provided by the kind folks from SNK! Thanks so much!
Having been playing the games since 1994 (when the first game in the series came out), I can honestly say that the King of Fighters series is pretty much the same now as it was back in 90s.
There hasn’t been many substantial tweaks to the gameplay…other than the roster changes.
That’s exactly how fans want it. After all, why mess with perfection?
Players still pick a team of three characters, then duke it out with another team. You can’t tag out in the middle of a match like in the VS series, but can choose the order of that your characters fight in.
Fights are fast and furious, though I feel there are way too many splash screens that get in the way of loading.
You literally have to wade through TWO different splash screens which show the same info as you wait.
I don’t know whether the various matchup screens are interfering with the load times, but SNK really needs to work on this. I remember a time when a KOF match loaded in less time than it took for you to pick your nose!
Even with an SSD, matches can take a minimum of 15 seconds to load. I started timing right after choosing the roster order and stopped when the stage intro started.
That’s quite a bit of a wait honestly.
There’s hope for improvements though. Considering that this is SNK’s first KOF title in Unreal Engine 4, the load times might be better in other games down the line as the development team adapts.
With 39 fighters included in the base game (not including Goenitz and Omega Rugal who came later for free), and 20 fighters as DLC, the game’s 61 playable characters is a pretty varied roster.
It’s nowhere near The King of Fighters 2002’s 66 character roster, but perhaps SNK will consider adding in a new Team or Character Pass to surpass that.
Even with 61 characters, a ton of the old school cast is missing.
No Saisyu Kusanagi, Mr Karate, Orochi, Krauser or the like. Hell, the whole American Sports team is missing. If SNK really wanted to, I bet The King of Fighters XV can hit 80 playable characters no problem.
Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for hidden fighters.
There’s no Riot of the Blood Iori or Leona, or even alternate versions of characters (like Kyo was infamous for having). Even beating the game doesn’t net you playable bosses, just new stages and music.
In this regard, The King of Fighters XV is a bit of a disappointment.
Thankfully, the game has tremendously improved in other areas.
The biggest change I’ve seen is in the Story mode. There are more cutscenes now to flesh out the plot, which is no longer just relegated to the sidelines like in the past.
Even better, endings are much, much longer now.
It’s hands-down one of the best things about The King of Fighters XV. Hell, there’s even a bonus ending that plays after the regular ending!
How can you beat that?
I’ve never seen any fighting game with character endings as elaborate or lengthy as the ones in the game…and I’ve played pretty much every fighter out there.
The game looks great too visually!
The jump to Unreal Engine 4 hasn’t done much harm to the character models, though the faces for some characters (like Heidern) could certainly be better. The colorful design for the characters are really cool and I really dig the newcomers. The animation’s top notch too, so there’s really nothing to complain from a visual standpoint, even if you’re a hardcore fan of the 2D sprites from the earlier games in the series.
The stages are a bit of a hit or miss, but the majority of them are cool, so I gave the game a pass in this regard too. Ironically, it’s here where I miss the 2D backgrounds from the old school games. I don’t know why, but I feel that they’re just more interesting and varied.
That doesn’t mean the stages in the game are bad, they’re just not as visually appealing to me as the 2D ones.
What’s a definite fail though is the game’s lack of a V-Sync option.
Seriously, what game doesn’t have v-sync in this day and age? This one apparently.
Due to that, I have massive screen tearing issues.
Considering the recommended specs, the game running on Direct X11 and that it’s on Unreal Engine 4, there’s no reason for a desktop with my specs (3080Ti, 64GB RAM, Ryzen 5900, Samsung 980 PRO) to even have screen tearing.
Yet I do.
I had screen tearing without Ray Tracing, I had screen tearing with Ray Tracing. I had screen tearing no matter what.
If you have a fast moving intro, the screen tearing’s there waiting right alongside it.
It’s disruptive, because the screen tearing happens in matches that are otherwise perfect. There’s zero slowdown and the controls are super responsive! The inclusion of V-Sync would’ve made the matches pure perfection!
Even the online fights (which are relatively lag free with a good connection) suffers from this. It doesn’t really affect matches per se but it’s supremely annoying when the screen tears while you’re having a heated fight.
I’d say I hope that SNK will fix this, but considering the game’s age and it’s still an issue, chances are it’ll never get a fix. A shame really because it mars an otherwise pristine visual presentation.
The Bottom Line.
The King of Fighters XV is an easy recommend. SNK has hit it out of the park yet again with another KOF entry. The game’s packed to its gills with characters, plays superbly and looks decent to boot!
There are minor blemishes in the lengthy loads and massive screen tearing, but those issues can be overlooked easily enough. That doesn’t mean we should accept them though, as I really hope SNK irons out those flaws by the next game (which should be FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves) comes along.
TLDR:
Great fighting game more than worthy of the King of Fighters name that’s almost perfect barring a few technical issues.
The Good:
- Decent roster, even without DLC.
- Story mode endings are lengthy.
- Great gameplay.
- Crossplay support is always awesome!
The Bad:
- Lengthy load times.
- Screen tearing issues with no v-sync option.
Salehuddin Husin, EIC
Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.
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