King of Fighters 14 Review (PS4)

It's a the ultimate test of strength, teamwork, and patience.  The King Of Fighters is back and sort of better than ever (emphasis on 'sort of').  Well, let's get into it.

King Of Fighter 14 is a 2D fighter akin to the likes of Street Fighter and Killer Instinct.  The thing that sets this series apart from your typical 2D fighter is team play.  You pick not one, not two, but three characters and trot them out against other three-character teams, beating the crap out of them until you meet the final boss and beat the crap out of him.

Speaking of characters, there are a LOT of them.  Fifty plus, including unlockable bosses and DLC (Yay, Whip is back).  They may be divide into preset teams, but you can select any three characters you want.  You have longtime favorites, as well as new characters, and with so many, you'll find at least five characters to like.  They did leave out some favorites, but that to be expected (maybe they'll be added as DLC).  Some characters have rivals that may activate a cutscene before they fight, so keep an eye out for that.

As you can see, the cast can get pretty wild.

As you can see, Mai has some stiff competition for the title of hottest woman in this game.

Graphics are a mixed bag.  The in-game graphics are good, but some of the profile pictures look like trash (looking at you, Nakoruru).  Also, while the in-game graphics are good, some characters (like Yuri) just like weird.  Kyo still looks badass, Mai still looks hot, and Iori still looks like a guy you don't want to meet in a dark alley.  In other words, the graphics work as a whole.

Two badasses looking like badasses.

The music is pretty good.  In particular, the Team Ikari theme will have you rocking your head for the whole fight.  There's some playlist-worthy stuff here.

As for gameplay, this is one of the easier entries in the series.  SNK games are known for being balls hard, capped off with the cheapest bosses in videogame history (that may not be an exaggeration).  This one dials down the challenge quite a bit.  It usually takes fifty tries to beat the final boss in an SNK game.  This boss can be beaten of the first try, which is almost blasphemy for games like this.  It's good if you like have all of you hair when you beat the game, but it sucks if you like frustration and BS.  He's still tough and cheap, but well-planned and aggressive attacks will rape him.  Crank up that difficulty if you want that old-school SNK challenge.

This big guy may not be too tough, but he still has plenty of cheapness in his arsenal.

Outside of the main story, you can tackle Mission Mode, which will enable to play character Trials, Time Trials, and Survival Mode.  As you can see, you get all the necessities right out the gate (isn't that right, Street Fighter 5).  You can also listen to music and characters voices, as well as view pictures of the characters.  One thing that would have made the game even better would have been a Mission Mode with lots of cool stuff to do, like KOF 2006.  Oh well, you can't have everything.

Some character trials are tough, but practice makes perfect.

So, there you have it.  King Of Fighters 14 is a pretty good game.  It has some flaws, such as a derpy AI, but nothing game-breaking.  It would have been nice if Mission Mode actually had missions like KOF 2006, but you'll live without them.  On the good side, the game has solid graphics, good music, lots of characters, and Mai Shiranui.  What more do you need?  Check this one out.