all characters for the arcade version of kof 12 has bin released today, including the game systems, such as the combo meter, super gauge, etc. u can check them out in the official website.

game.snkplaymore.co.jp/official/kof-xii/

the characters are ash, duo lon, shen, kyo, benimaru, daimon, iori, athena, kensou, chin, terry, andy, joe, kim, raiden, ryo, robert, ralf, clark, leona.

before anyone starts freaking out that their favorite characters are being excluded, note that this is only the default lineup for the arcade version, much like sf4's arcade roster of the 12 street fighter 2 turbo characters + el fuerte, c, viper, abel, and rufus. this means this roster doesnt include secret characters (if any), boss characters (if any), and console exclusive characters (if any).

:O:O :( No! No!

WTF?!? No K'! No Blue Mary! Wat kinda jank is this?!~

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO what have they done to my beautiful game

Okay... so the included Robert in the trailer video...?

Man, roster sucks for the arcade. GOOD THING ARCADES ARE COMPLETELY DEAD IN THIS AREA.

Also, broken link is... well you know the drill.

Homme Chapeau said:

yeah, robert was supposed to be on my initial post list of characters but by the time the page refreshed it was already too late to edit it, 5 min imo is way too short.

and link shouldnt be broken, its either updating or taking a rilly long time to load, theres alot of hi-res picture files that slow the site down.

Having difficulty determining teams, honestly.

Kyo/Beni/Goro -> Given

Terry/Andy/Joe -> Given

Athena/Kensou/Chin -> Given

Leona/Ralf/Clark -> Given

Ash/Duo/Shen -> Given...? (Wasn't Duo AGAINST Ash in XI oh why am I wondering?)

That's 15 out of 20 characters.

Leaving us with a team of...

Kim/Raiden/Iori. What the hell SNKP?

And Ryo/Robert alone. Again what the hell SNKP?

kpdragon said:

Really, that list doesn't sound so bad for an intentionally more limited roster, except for one thing...

Wouldn't that make this the first KoF EVER to not have Yuri in its roster? If she doesn't show in the unlockables or X-360 version, I'ma have to raise the pitchforks and torches. This is not to mention that they NEED Yuri in there as a counter to the prominence of Dan in Street Fighter 4.

Homme Chapeau said:

Well i think yuri or mr karate will be on the ryo/robert team

as for kin on the raiden iori team.... maybe iori is on the side of justice this time in defeating ash, And kim loves the justice.

Perhaps 4 man teams this time, had that been ruled out yet as it has happened before. Kim would go with terry, and Iori probably with kyo, I just don't know who would join the ikari team. (It's also interesting that oswald isn't in this, but shen woo is, so did shen woo kill oswald in self defence in the end of XI?)

Homme Chapeau said:

actually, believe it or not, it seems that there are no pre-set teams in kof 12, according to an interview by snk

Rumors/Details so far: No story mode, so no special endings... Because they're concentrating on balance, gameplay depth, and the graphics. There will be at least 4 alternate colors per character, and 2 BGMs per stage... There will be no SDMs, which DMs being the most powerful attacks you have... They decided to keep the character count small since with large rosters you end up with a lot of characters not being used... There will be no "default teams," just 20 edit characters to create a team of 3, and no "EX" characters... Several characters have all new costumes and will most likely have a handful of new moves.

Polygon said:

correct, this is the first kof without yuri, which saddens me alot. but again, this roster is only the default arcade roster without secret, boss, and console exclusive characters that may be added later. snk had already started taking characters like mai out of their rosters and included them later in the console versions due to public response. i suppose they felt like they needed to release at least the arcade version asap if theyre to compete with sf4, while still taking the time to develop the rest of the game. remember everything is all 100% hand drawn, no cel shading, with each character having 400-600 frames of animation and an average of 30 frames for any move/attack. 10 ppl r involved in creating any given character, with one person taking 16-17 months to completely draw one character, so its very time consuming.

kpdragon said:

If they make 13 being the last one, I wouldn't mind that 12 is a dream match.

Still, losing my Shingo mainstay will hurt me. I can fall back on Kim/Clark but that last one... eh... Joe? Raiden?

kpdragon said:

I noticed you left Robert out of your list, even though he is in the picture of 20 characters, right before Ryo. And it would seem that K' will still be in the game, maybe just not playable. If you look at the KoF XII logo, he is to the right of it.

Thats not K'. As much as id love it to be its actually Shen Woo (u can tell from the jacket)

Link said:

You can tell from some of the pixels and having seen many K's in your time?

K'!!!!!!!!!! Wherefore art thou K'??!!! With your white hair and NORMAL COLOURED FIRE... (Purple, Iori? Really?) Your odd taste in biker gear and your really crappy attitude....

Actually, K' is a bit of jerk, isn't he? Why do I miss him? :|

Link said:

That sux... K' > Shen Woo

Even with K' gone though, I am happy with the roster, my favorite character is back, "Boss Killer" Joe Higashi. I was bummed he wasn't in 11. I look forward to playing with the new Iori.

Game Information

SNK-Playmore announced this year a new game for its popular fighting franchise, The King of Fighters XII, is currently in development, currently scheduled for release in Japanese arcades sometime in April 2009.

The development of the game has also moved the franchise from the original Neo-Geo arcade hardware on to a more recent arcade board developed by Taito, the Taito X2 - a Microsoft Windows XP embedded hardware, with specs exceeding those of Taito's former X and X boards. By modeling each character in 3D renderings and using those as a reference to draw the game's art, this has enabled SNK-Playmore to replace all previous graphical assets of the characters with high resolution hand-drawn sprites. The game is not cell-shaded and it maintains its trademark 2D gameplay.

Gameplay Overview

Launching in 1994 with The King of Fighters '94 on SNK's Neo-Geo Multiple Video System (MVS) arcade format, the series kicked off the trend of team-based fighting games. The series brought in popular characters from its other fighting game franchises such as Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting and mixed them with new, original characters. The King of Fighters brand of games, while played in teams of three, always features only one-on-one matches, akin to many arcade fighting games of the '90s. Each character has an assortment of kicks and punches along with throws and special moves as players attempt to deplete the opponent's health to empty. As opposed to having best-of rounds, once a player is defeated, they are taken out of the battle and victory is decided when a team's characters have been completely defeated.

While the original entry did not allow "tagging" and stuck characters in predetermined teams, King of Fighters XII, similar to a number of its recent predecesors, will allow real-time teammate swapping and allows players to assemble teams of three from (as of Dec. 1, 2008) 20 characters. SNK-Playmore recently launched a full promotional Web site for the game's upcoming Japanese release and while no story lines are detailed, the site describes three new game play mechanics, which are being introduced into King of Fighters XII:

Critical Counter
If players land a close strong punch as a counter, the player enters into a critical counter. At this point, the camera zooms in on the players and the offensive player will have a small time window to link further attacks. A dark green hit effect will signal when the time window has expired and the player can finish out the critical counter with a special technique. The moment the critical counter triggers, players can also execute a "super victory" technique, which will cause a different animation effect from ordinary moves.

"Killing Matches"
If two characters simultaneous engage with a strong attack, the characters will collide with a red spark effect. From here, the players have a few options - by doing nothing, the character will automatically backstep away from the opponent. However, players can also cancel the backstep with an input to launch an attack, throw out a jumping attack or use a projectile.

Guard Attack
Players are also able to use the "blow away" attacks out of a defensive position, much like in Evoga's Rage of the Dragons for the Neo-Geo. The blue block spark will ripple and the character will execute an immediate knock-down attack that puts the opponent a full screen away. If the input is sucessful, the guard attack pushes through without the opponent being able to defend it.

Characters

As of Dec. 1, 2008, the official character roster is:
Ash Crimson
Duo Lon
Shen Woo
Kyo Kusanagi
Benimaru Nikaido
Goro Daimon
Iori Yagami
Athena Asamiya
Sie Kensou
Chin Gentsai
Terry Bogard
Andy Bogard
Joe Higashi
Kim
Raiden
Ryo Sakazaki
Robert Garcia
Ralf Jones
Clark Still
Leona Heidern

Development

It has been confirmed by the developer that The King of Fighters XII will initially launch into Japanese arcades in April 2009, with Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 home versions to follow. Ignition Entertainment will bring the game to North America and Europe some time in 2009.

video of critical counter combo/super examples (click the watch in high quality link if video isnt working, which u prolly will be doing anyway)

I have to say it looks good and the roster might change in the future. Hey at least they have Shen.

a small roster don't you think? i hope the have console exclusives.

Lord Hamara said:

I doubt the roster will change in the future, and WHY SHEN!?

The list has some of my favorites missing. Well, here's to hope their in XIII. The biggest surprise on that list was Raiden. Shen is there because he's always been the second character in this saga's Hero team: I was hoping for Oswald though. I have to relearn Kyo because his punches are gone. I do like Iori's new moves with the cutting powers sense he can't BBQ.

Also, Lenoa and Kensou's new duds are Win.

Viewtiful_Joe said:

Purple happens to be the best colour around. Especially on fire, it just looks nice. >_>

Gotta admit the game looks awesome, BUT NO K'?

He is really missing in the UFS by the way, but I find him one of the coolest characters ever in any fighting game, closely followed by Gato (also missing in KOF XII when he was in XI).

Iori looks more emo than ever, not that vampiric now. Terry seems to have been going to the gym or getting some pills recenty but look good.

I'd preffer Takuma/Mr. Karate rather than Robert (hate him) ans Oswald kicked too much ass not to be in the XII =(

Hope there'll be some nice and sharp console exclusive (please, please, please...)

I just watched a few matches of this game on youtube, and I was very disappointed with some aspects and very thrilled with others. For one thing the critical counter is awsome and most of the new art is pretty rad, and the fighting system is still pretty much the same. My problem is with the new super bars which only go up to one gauge instead of three, the lack of at least a decent story line and finally Iori, he looks even more emo/gay and to top that off since his powers are gone they gave him rainbow fists, he shoots f***in rainbows instead of flames now how gay is that? Have they changed this game to "Battle of the metro sexuals"?

You guys complain too much.

What was the biggest complaint with KOF XI? That they reused the sprites, that they still have low-res sprites, that animation isn't fluid enough.

No one complained that characters like Momoko serve no purpose toward the story line whatsoever. Now they're giving you ONLY the characters who serve some purpose in the story lines. NOTHING ELSE. They also redrew the sprites and added some gameplay mechanics, and animation is as fluid, if not more, as any Guilty Gear in recent memory.

Yet no. Where is K'? Where is Yuri? Where is SHINGO? Honestly, SHINGO? He serves no purpose story wise. He is of no use. K's character should've died with the NESTS saga, because he serves no purpose otherwise. Yuri, while it is disappointing that she (nor King, nor Mai) is in the game, The Gorgeous Team didn't do anything for the storyline. Nothing other than be hot and/or cute.

Raiden................................................ is the most confusing choice ever. But like Tag said, SNK likes their crossovers.

Timeline-wise, they are trying to get each of the characters to go BACK into their game's story arcs. Athena and Kensou are dressed like they were in the old Psycho Soldier game, Ralf and Clark look as diesel as they did in the original Ikari Warriors game, Ryo and Robert have the exact outfits (and move set) as their first Art of Fighting game (I know, story-wise AoF should've happened before KOF anyways but hey, I don't make these things up).

Now the only question is what the heck Ash wants to do with the Sacred Treasures, and why he keeps stealing them. Although I'm 100% sure he simply wants to seal Orochi himself, and will most likely die in the process. Hence why he's part of the Hero team, why Elisabeth asked him if he contacted them (the holders of the treasures, presumably to alert them of another coming of Orochi), and why he didn't care to.

So to do that, he needs the Yasakani no Magatama to be able to hold Orochi in place, the Kusanagi dagger to deal the final blow and the Yata mirror to seal him again. Either that or maybe Shen Woo will help him do it.