The King of Fighters XI
| The King of Fighters XI | |
|---|---|
Arcade flyer for The King of Fighters XI
|
|
| Developer(s) |
SNK Playmore G1M2 (PS2) |
| Publisher(s) | Sega (AW) / SNK Playmore (PS2) |
| Producer(s) | Eikichi Kawasaki (executive) |
| Artist(s) | Falcoon (Tatsuhiko Kanaoka) |
| Series | The King of Fighters |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Network |
| Release date(s) | |
| Genre(s) | Fighting |
| Mode(s) | Up to two players simultaneously |
| Cabinet | Upright |
| Arcade system | Atomiswave |
| Aggregate score | |
|---|---|
| Aggregator | Score |
| Metacritic | 75% |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| Eurogamer | 8/10 |
| Famitsu | 28/40 |
| GameSpot | 8.0/10 |
| IGN | 8.0/10 |
The King of Fighters XI is a 2D fighting game produced by SNK Playmore originally released in 2005 as a coin-operated arcade game for the Atomiswave platform. It is the eleventh official installment in The King of Fighters series following The King of Fighters 2003, although The King of Fighters Neowave was previously released for the same platform. A home version for the PlayStation 2 was released in Japan in 2006, followed by releases in the PAL region and North America in 2007, to positive critical reception.
The four largest innovations The King of Fighters XI brings to the franchise are the Quick Shift, the Saving Shift, the Skill Bar and the Dream Cancels. The Power Stocks that existed previously are still present, and are filled in the usual fashion. Nevertheless, there are now Skill Stocks as well, which gradually build up over time. Each team begins a match holding the maximum of two Skill Stocks. Offensive maneuvers, such as Desperation Moves, Guard Cancels, and Tag Attacks, continue to use Power Stocks. However, more defensive or tactical maneuvers, such as Guard Evasion, Saving Shift, and Quick Shift, use Skill Stocks.
The King of Fighters XI utilizes the Tactical Shift System from The King of Fighters 2003. The Quick Shift allows to change into another character in the middle of any combo, prolonging it, or in the middle of any attack, canceling the frames of animation of the attack, if it's needed. The Saving Shift allows to take out a character when he is being hit as soon as he is hit, at the cost of both skill bars. The last new feature of The King of Fighters XI is the Dream Cancel. Like the Super Cancel that first appeared in The King of Fighters '99, Dream Cancel allows players to use stocks to interrupt a move in the midst of its execution with a more powerful move, allowing devastating combos.
Should the timer run down in a match, the winner is no longer decided based upon who has the most life remaining. Instead, the judgment bar, a new bar of circular shape composed of two colors, each one representing one player acts as a quantifier of the skill of each player. Whichever player has the judgment bar towards his or her side will be the victor if none of the teams win defeating all three characters from the opposite team; rarely, if the bar is exactly in the center, the match will end in a draw and both sides will lose. The bar is affected by each attack that the players get in, combos affect progressively more, and when a character of the opposing team is defeated, the bar suffers a big change against that player.
...
Wikipedia