Platform(s): PS4 (version reviewed), PS5, PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series
Genre: 2D fighting game with 3v3 and legacy mechanics

If anything, SNK clearly knows its audience and niche.

Rather than making a mass appeal 2D fighting game from scratch, the company sticks to what it knows best and just pile it on for its loyal fanbase and top players. The King of Fighters XV is no exception: its 2D 3-versus-3 team-based fighting game pits a plethora of 39 fighters with various fighting styles (rushdown, shotos, grapplers, and so forth) in a pretty fast-paced and technical combat system. Fighters duke it out with normal attacks, specials, and super moves called Desperation Moves (DM), but they can also do regular jumps, short hops, evasion moves (the dodge rolls), and blowback heavy attacks (one with and without armour). And you can also go in a powered-up state that lets you continue combos, as well as chain DMs with one another if you have the resources to do so; this is common if you’re down to your last person in the team and thus get extra resources.

If this all sounds fine and dandy to you and are incredibly competitive in the fighting game scene, then congratulations: KOF XV is an instant-purchase. We’ll touch on that in a bit, because that’s just one good half of the game. The other half when doing reviews and recommendations is answering the other question: is this a fighting game that entry-level folks can jump in and have fun with for the long term?

No. No, it isn’t.

Royally Out Of Touch?

Unlike Guilty Gear Strive, Mortal Kombat 11, and all five seasons of Street Fighter 5, there isn’t much single-player fun and mechanics-learning to be had save for unlocking story mode cutscenes which are just static images with voice-overs and the occasional animated cutscene when you’ve picked the lead character’s teams on the box art. Even then, only serious KOF lore hounds are only going to care about these as well as the music jukebox.

The Mission Mode, which is the standard option where you have a bunch of combos that are usually practical for the character you selected, and the tutorial are well-intentioned, but there’s a good number of legacy KOF mechanics and nuances that are present in part 15 that aren’t fully explained or touched upon here. If anything, this is a missed opportunity for SNK to teach newbies what makes a KOF game a different breed from other fighting games. Players shouldn’t have to rely on fighting game community-centric Twitter posts and YouTube videos for this sort of knowledge that should have been taught in-game.

Even when compared to past KOF ports and other SNK titles, KOF XV’s options and bonus content is sorely lacking. I do miss KOF’s Survival Modes and Endless Modes, as well as opportunities to include a combo recipe-type option ala Guilty Gear Strive. Perhaps DLC in the future can alleviate that, but it doesn’t change the fact that SNK, a company that has made fighting games for a long while, do not seem to learn from others who offer a more substantial content-filled product. Speaking of which, it’s also a bit criminal to have a number of empty slots of DLC up there, unintentionally telling players that this KOF game may be incomplete.

It sounds like I’m slagging the game off and hating it from the get-go. Truth be told, I dig the current roster and character choices: I have my fallbacks Athena and Joe, while I dig the moves and stylings of newcomers Isla (and her hand apparition Amanda) and Dolores, who is perhaps one of the few grappler-style characters with some zoning capabilities. I also dig KOF XIV’s King of Dinosaurs who may have received quite a buff thanks to his many armoured moves and damage buff.

I even appreciate the fact that SNK put in its own Akira tribute once again with Krohnen; he’s going to be seeing quite a bit of play with his kit. The old cast even has some controls and inputs changed, mostly for the better. It’s nice to have motion inputs for Clark’s special punches instead of charging it or mashing buttons.

These kinds of titles live and die by their roster. KOF XV has the best one yet thanks to its diversity and quantity.

King Me

Long story short: did I enjoy my time with The King of Fighters XV? Yes, I did, but only because I’ve been following the series’ lore, characters, and fighting gameplay since the late 90s. KOF XV is what you want from a series that’s getting a second wind in a post-pandemic fighting game world: mandatory rollback netcode, great online fighting, a good roster that caters to old-school fans and a few new characters that add a bit more flavour, and all-around breakneck speed and depth.

Unfortunately, everyone else who just like to mash buttons and play fighting games for fun will not find much to enjoy here in the long term. It’s not the friendliest entry point for newbies because of its lack of in-game tutorials and how-tos, and it’s missing a key number of single-player options and game modes from past KOF (and SNK) entries to ease players in. You can blame the game’s legacy for this 15th entry to be what it is right now, though on the flip side, pandering to rose-tinted nostalgia glasses is also its strength.

I’m leaning towards the latter, and it’s been 5 years or so since we had a new serious KOF entry and a bunch more DLC coming in, so I’ll cut it a little slack. Having a proverbial king making a return mostly unchanged is definitely better than no king at all.

Pros

• Great fighting game roster with tons of intricate combinations.
• Solid fighting game mechanics.
• Good online play.
• Fanservice and nostalgia-pandering aplenty.

Cons

• Not the best fighting game for beginners & casual players.
• Lacks substantial single-player content and onboarding processes.

Final Score: 70/100