Speaking of SNK, despite its long history of upheaval, it is an indelible spectacle in the gaming memories of china's older generation of players. Looking back at the past when the arcade boom swept the streets, the series such as "Metal Slug", "Legend of the Hungry Wolf", and "Samurai Shodown" created by this company may be the game enlightenment of a whole generation of people.
Among these IPs, the name of "King of Fighters" is undoubtedly the loudest. Until now, when you mention a fighting game to someone, the first name that comes up in his mind is most likely "King of Fighters 97".
"King of Fighters" itself is also a brand with ups and downs, and the development process has fluctuated greatly. What people did not expect is that under many coincidences, it still maintains its tenacious vitality to this day. Just a few days ago, the latest game "King of Fighters 15" was officially launched, which instantly attracted the attention of a large number of FTG players.
However, the first price of this game is not cheap, even the Steam version costs more than 300 yuan. For those of you who are interested, is it worth the first time to pay for it?
A classic return with a thousand emotions
Although the initial version of King of Fighters 15 only has 39 characters to choose from, the lineup is not very rich. But a few of them are a long-lost reunion for the older generation of King of Fighters.
The first is the core figure of the "Great Snake Chapter" in the early years, the "Great Snake Team". In the "King of Fighters 97", "King of Fighters 98" and "King of Fighters 2002", the three hipsters and strong fierce men of the Seven Shackles Society, Charme and Chris, can be described as countless fans, and the selection rate remains high. As the "Snake Team" that appeared as a middle boss and could be used in later works, the fighting style was completely changed. This dual-form character design, for the players of that era, the impact is not small.
In the exact twenty years since King of Fighters 2002, the Great Snakes have never appeared in the King of Fighters game again. They reappeared in "King of Fighters 15" this time, which really made many old fans cry.
However, the current version of the game does not support the use of "Snake Team". According to gossip, the "Snake Team" will be launched in the form of a paid DLC in future updates, which is a bit of a pity.
Similar to the situation of the Great Snake Team, she is the only female Kagura Chizuru in the "Three Artifacts Team". As a popular Chizuru in the Chinese player community, chizuru has disappeared for more than a decade since "King of Fighters 2003". This time, you will be able to use its gorgeous phantom tactics to toy with your opponent in the palm of your hand.
As for the slightly later King of Fighters players, King of Fighters 15 also contains something that excites them: Ashul Clemenson is back. The four protagonists of the series compete on the same stage (Kyo Kusanagi, K', Ashu, and Instant), which can be said to be an unprecedented grand event.
As the protagonist of the third chapter of the main line of "King of Fighters", "Far Away", Ashur's experience is portrayed as the most tortuous and complex, and at the end of "King of Fighters 13", he exited the scene in a self-sacrificing way, which once became a topic. In addition, Ashur is a rare purely charged character in the "King of Fighters" series, and the control feel is very different from other characters, which is quite interesting to play.
The last thing I would like to mention is K9999, which once appeared briefly in the Sound Nest chapter. Because SNK was highly similar to Tetsuo Shima, an important character in Katsuyo Otomo's famous anime Akira, when SNK designed this character, the company suffered a copyright lawsuit, so that it was hidden in the snow, and it never appeared in subsequent works. In the later enhanced version of the game "King of Fighters 2002 UM", the original K9999 position was simply replaced by a newcomer nameless whose appearance was completely remade.
However, when "King of Fighters 15" was promoted, the "new person" named Curron was officially announced. Although the appearance has changed greatly, players have found that all of his moves are almost identical to K9999's, and speculate that he may be a character replica like Nameless.
The good news is that in the game's plot ending, the official official confirmation of this character is K9999 himself. And his relationship with Angel seems to have a good result (even a good change in personality), but it is the heart of the players who were difficult to reconcile for this pair.
Fully optimized and easy to learn fighting system
In addition to the long-standing inherent operational commands of the series such as light and heavy punch four-button attack, CD super heavy strike, dodge, and heavy attack throw, many of the combat system settings of "King of Fighters 15" are born from the previous game "King of Fighters 14".
For example, the core system "Hardcore Mode". Whether in the normal state or in the attack sequence, the player can consume two energy slots to start. The former can increase the character's attack power and defense disintegration ability, and the latter can be substituted for continuous articulation to complete a special continuous skill combination.
No matter which kind of hardcore mode, you can use the temporary limit slot to use the enhanced EX must kill and various super kills, which greatly enriches the continuous pattern and gorgeousness. Open the extreme mode in the case of sufficient energy, even if a simple heavy attack jumps into the starting hand, you can complete the ultimate Dalian section of super kill, extreme super kill plus apex super kill, and directly knock out a whole tube of physical strength.
Like King of Fighters 14, whether Extreme Mode can be used properly is a watershed between ordinary players and masters. I was not familiar with it in the early days of the battle, and I made frequent mistakes. I am afraid that only after a long period of practice and the formation of muscle memory can it be applied freely.
In addition, the EX kills that were restricted to extreme mode can now be used directly at half a block of energy, making tactics more flexible and changeable.
For the operation of the hard hand, you can consider relying on the light fist to launch the Rush attack, which will automatically complete a small burst. Depending on the fourth key, you can also freely choose to substitute a must kill or three super kills at the end.
Smooth network battles with weak single player elements
In terms of network battles, King of Fighters 15 uses the popular rollback code, which brings a good online experience. Based on actual testing, whether it's a randomly matched dan battle or a limited battle by building a room. As long as its own network environment is not particularly bad, the fight is relatively smooth and satisfactory enough.
However, for mild users who are not good at "fighting with people", the playing elements in the stand-alone state can be described as few.
Nowadays, the decline of fighting types is an indisputable fact. In order to expand the user base and attract more players outside the circle into the pit, manufacturers often make more tricks in single-player gameplay. For example, ASW's "Tools of Evil" and "Wings Apocalypse" come with extremely heavy plot modes, and it will take hours just to watch the story. "Blue Fantasy Versus" adds RPG gameplay with cultivation elements, and it is also quite flavorful to play.
However, SNK does not seem to have a clue in this regard. King of Fighters 15 adheres to the consistent style of the series, with a lack of single-player content that does not look like a game of the modern era.
If you feel sorry for your technology and don't want to be masochistic in online battles, the game gives you only the most basic VS mode, simply challenging AI opponents. As for the common patterns of FTG such as time challenges, none of them are available here. The only thing that can make people repeat the brush is the story mode that has remained unchanged for thousands of years.
The story mode of "King of Fighters 15" is no different from before, the player chooses three players to fight, challenge the computer team all the way, and finally hit the boss and the big boss according to the convention, interspersed with some calculus cutscenes. After the end of the matter, there will be a similar dynamic PPT ending, and even the voice is not fully included, which is very perfunctory.
Depending on the character chosen by the player, the ending plot will change. In addition to the combination of fixed teams, special character pairings are selected, which can also trigger several hidden endings.
For example, if you choose the three old protagonists Kyo Kusanagi, K', and Ashu to pass the story mode, you can see the funny scenes of the three people imitating each other's signature actions.
These contents have a certain appeal for players familiar with the story line of the series, but instead of boring brushing for the slide ending, it is more efficient to watch it directly on the video website. If you don't care much about the plot of "The King of Fighters", you can't even talk about chicken ribs.
summary
Based on the above factors, purely from the perspective of fighting games, the quality of "King of Fighters 15" is excellent, and it can even be said that it is a feast specially prepared for fighting users who like fast-paced offensive and defensive conversion and high firepower output. As a veteran player of the series, buying a game just for the return of characters such as Kagura and the Great Snake Team can also be regarded as a ticket price.
However, if you're really not good at online combat and don't have enough time to practice boringly, you may soon get tired of playing under the single-player. Waiting for the "full version" of the future DLC to be completed may be a more rational choice.