King Of Fighters-i [iPod Touch] - A Quick Look

Just finished playing KOF-i for about an hour so just going to post up my intial impressions of it.

First of all when you turn on the game you are treated to the same opening from the arcade version of the game, and then treated to a short tutorial showing you how to play the game with Nakoruru being your tutor.

I'm not sure if it was intentional but if you've ever played the GameBoy version of KOF95 you can pick Nakoruru in that, so i thought this might have been a nod to that since that was the first portable KOF game.

Controls as you can imagine on a touch-screen are a bit fiddly,  it does make playing the game difficult but it's still possible to have a bit of fun with the game. 

I ended up playing through the game by using the simple mode inputs (combinations like f+S =fireball),

You can also tap the super gauge or character portrait to activate simple DMs and NeoMax respectively.

Also it doesn't seem like you can have more than one punch or kick, and i didn't quite figure out how you switched between the two...

In terms of content it seems there is quite alot of it for an iPhone game, you can save replays after every match (up to 30 slots) which you can view at any time later.

When you play through the game in arcade mode each of the characters have dialogue with each other like the arcade version, Target Action is also in this game, when you complete the game you are presented with a 'Congratulations' image. 

There seems to be some kind of Facebook and Twitter integration but i haven't quite figured out how to do this properly yet or what it posts.

Also something i quite like is that they have included the English versions of the story of the game, i believe these were originally on the Japanese official KOFXIII site. 

There's also a Gallery and Trading Cards, the latter which you purchase through the 'Rose Shop' with points you win after every match. You can also purchase additional character colours in this same way.

After playing through the game once i decided to give Billy Kane a bit of a test, who i believe potentially may end up being one of the good characters in KOFXIII.

His hcf+P move is fast and doesn't seem to have much recovery, he has a good poke/pressure move like in 02 with his f+A, and he seems to have his standard combos like dwn+B -> dp+K -> qcb+P.

I did think his standing animation (or lack of animation) looked a bit funny though.

I've filmed a few videos so you can have a little idea of how he plays:







Overall so far the game seems quite fun, though as i mentioned controls are fiddly so it's not perfect, but i personally believe it is worth getting if you are a fan of KOF.

The price is quite high for an iPhone game at £4.99, but judging by the amount of content i believe the price tag is pretty justified. The only thing i did wish was that they released it on a format with a physical d-pad like the 3DS or PSP.

I'm glad they released this game though, as i mentioned in the post i made yesterday about the KOF Volleyball game i hope they will continue to release more mobile games we can play in the West.

This has gotten me a bit more hyped for the console release, just 3 and a half months left to go! \o/