Instant Ramen

The latest installment of The King of Fighters series by SNK Playmore, KOF XII. was released this April 10th in Japan for Taito Type X2 type Arcades, and features 2D high-res dot (sprite) art like never seen before! The game is available only for arcades as of now but will be released for XBox 360 and PlayStation 3 on July.

Every single character animation and background was drawn by hand using pixel art (read about how video game sprite are done) — no CG’s or renders or any other cheap tactic =)

The game has been highly anticipated in Japan — above picture is the Tokyo Game Show 2008 King of Fighters XII booth. Take a look at the video to see why (watch in HD!):

Apparently, the game’s system will be completely different from the other KOF’s, which is good news for non-KOF players like me (I’m much more of a Street Fighter player).

Kyo Kusanagi looking good. The other guy is Ash Crinsom. Unfortunately K’ will not appear in this KOF (which is the KOF with less characters, twenty!).

Riyo Sakasaki and Terry Bogard are in! Take a look at the sprite detail and size, future generations will remember this game as the epitome of 2D sprite art.

One of my favorite revamped characters is Leona — I’ve seen her moving and she looks great. I didn’t like her old guerilla cosplay ^^;

Asamiya Athena is my strong character in KOF and fortunately she’s here too, and looking sexy! I can’t wait to play this! (Would probably had to make a long line though…)

One of the last characters they announced was the (in)famous Joe Higashi, one of my favorite characters from Fatal Fury.

And of course, Clark and Ralph cannot be left aside in the series.

I’m not a big fan of Street Fighter IV, I love SF III though, unfortunately, SF IV doesn’t have the most beautiful graphics, and the system was downgraded. I do hope that KOF turns the tables (it does have parries!). I’ll let you guys know when there is more information, for now, enjoy the screenshots!

Official KOF website here (English here).

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