The King of Fighters ALLSTAR - Putting a Mobile Spin to the Classic

(Image: Netmarble / SNK Wikia)

Internationally, SNK has taken spotlight once more in the fighting game industry as of late, especially years after The King of Fighters XIV released years ago. Joining Super Smash Bros. Ultimate through Fatal Fury's Terry Bogard for this November has been something special for the long-running Japanese video game company known for top notch fighting game franchises, but it didn't stop there as The King of Fighters goes mobile with a new spin on the classic, finally released internationally this October. The game has been released in Japan for quite some time, but October 21st was the day the The King of Fighters ALLSTAR takes the global stage, something I'm sure many people would want to play.

The thing about KOF AS is that I have never ever been hyped as much for a game to the point that I spent a lot more time to it than normal since discovering Turbo Sliders a decade and years ago, even as someone who's just months in the KOF fandom despite going through the means of series' soundtracks instead of one of the games (I'm not a good fighting game player, really). Looking at the gameplay before the release, the game looks fun, and with my new (better) phone prepared for the fight, I know it was time to add another game to a library, breaking my mobile gaming pattern beyond Real Racing 3, Motorsport Manager series, and Grand Prix Story 2.

The thing is that I just took a dive to the KOF world about two months ago when I tried to discover a techno-rock music I heard a long time ago, which revealed to be KD-0079, the Hero team theme from the '99 installment. The fact that I discovered how the rest of the installments' musics fared, played them on infinite loop (thanks to a music player plugin), and learned the lore despite haven't being able to play the game, quickly turned me into a KOF stan.

THE GAME

Our favorite flame wielder in action, with a KOF Easter Egg.

The King of Fighters ALLSTAR can be described as a side-scrolling beat 'em up with RPG elements and, of course, Gacha. Initially released in Japan on July 26 last year, the game saw international release starting from South Korea after a high demand on May 9, 2019, with test events and special promotions for the game done since the end of 2018. Global release was announced in September of which the release was set on October 21, 2019, with pre-registrations available to attract international players. Those pre-registered would receive cool in-game rewards upon release depending on how many pre-registrations there were, with the ultimate prize being the 5-star Fighter Selector, a chance to select one favorite fighter of the highest tier normally obtainable through Gacha.

The game is developed by Netmarble, a renowned South Korean mobile gaming company known for popular releases like LINE's Get Rich, SD Gundam Capsule Fighter, and BTS World, together with SNK. As you'd expect, the game is based on the legendary fighting game classic series The King of Fighters which has been around since 1994, pitting fighters from SNK's fighting franchises Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury with some of the non-fighting titles like Ikari Warriors and Psycho Soldiers, with subsequent installments saw expansions of the roster even beyond the mentioned franchises. The game is advertised to feature fighters from '94 all the way to XIV, of which the global version currently has fighters from '94 through '99, with more being added soon, in addition to the game-exclusive ALLSTAR versions of the series' fighters.

The controls for this game are touch-based, using the virtual analog button on the left side of the screen for the controls. On the right side are various buttons to call basic actions such as dodging, defending, and attacking. Two active skills are available by default and can be activated anytime with set cooldown depending on the fighter, with one additional skill available upon higher level, along with one Finisher skill which takes up three Power Gauges (on the bottom center of the interface, below the Health Point). Another Finisher skill requires a special fighter-specific card which will be explained later, and consumes five Power Gauges. Like in The King of Fighters games, up to three fighters can be deployed for a battle, with two can be switchable upon touching a specified fighter amidst battle, and Strikers (who would lend a single attack to help you out) can be assigned to each active fighter as well. You can even assign a Supporter as well, selecting one of other players' fighters to help your team during the battle (and gain a special effect for your team), but unlike Strikers who can be called again after a cooldown you can only call the Supporter once.

Beyond the fights are the ability to level up and enhance your fighters. From leveling up to acquiring new abilities and specials, and equipping special cards. Level ups and enhancements to improve Character Points are possible through use of capsules, while acquiring new abilities, gaining another skill and a finisher are also possible through Fighter Core of which the upgrades follow a set path within a diagram. Reached limit? There's the Limit Break option which gains additional level caps through set materials, and not to mention evolving your fighters to higher star level is possible through Evolve menu, of which you need required materials as well. Finally, you can equip a Battle Card to strengthen your fighter further, ranging from a character-specific finisher card to Option and Set cards which grant additional stats boost and effects, and these cards can be leveled up and evolved as well to give your equipped card(s) an edge. In addition, Element system is used as well which would affect damage dealt to opponents; red element is strong against green but weak against blue, while yellow is weak to green and strong against purple who is also strong against blue.

Keep in mind that the characters have distinct versions based on different games, with different types, elements, appearances, and tiers, for instance Kyo Kusanagi who has five different versions based on his original game appearances with different strength levels. Other than that, you can pair up specific characters for your team for an extra effect, plus don't forget specific Strikers for respective characters as well for more extra effect; choosing '96 Benimaru Nikaido or '96 Goro Daimon as '96 Kyo's Striker for example grants you extra 10% Power and 5% HP during the game. These fighter-striker links are usually based on period-specific original (i.e., Fatal Fury Team, Art of Fighting Team) and custom edit teams (i.e., Three Sacred Treasures Team). Some are even based on special relations as well, like '96 and '98 versions of Kyo Kusanagi and '96 and '97 versions of Athena Asamiya, or '96 Mature and '94 Rugal Bernstein (as Mature was Rugal's secretary in the lore).

As expected from Gacha-based games, you can gain new fighters, cards, and other items through Summon menu. Gather enough Rubies for Summons, you can roll these to obtain new stuffs which can benefit your fighters, maybe expanding your fighter collection as well. Roll enough Summons, and you can have a chance for Selectors which allows you to pick any 5-star fighter or card from an array of choices available. Step-Up Summons are half the price of normal Summons, but grants you a Selector item in every third Step for a price of 1000 Rubies, and these are somewhat thematic (although there are other normal Summons with themes as well). Rewards-wise, the game would also reward you for completing specific missions and logging in daily, with useful prizes you can acquire to progress further in the game. More items can even be acquired by playing in Quests and Dungeons, of which these can reward you items useful to enhance your fighters to attain higher performance rating.

Does this count as a Fourth Wall break?

The storyline follows the installments of The King of Fighters series, from '94 through '98, with more being added soon, but with the game's own twist; you are someone with absolutely no memory of your past, not knowing what's happening around you, even after stumbling upon the world of KOF. A group of people called Tuners (no, not those tuners) comprising of the free-spirited artist Kaya (voiced by Ayane Sakura), the brainy planner Ryugo (voiced by Tomokazu Sugita), and the lead Tuner with sleep deprivation Ein the debugger (voiced by Saori Hayami) has a goal of creating a world free of bugs, but for some reason they go after you and treat you as somekind of an experiment (more precisely, a bug), to an extent that they made random mooks ambush you for a variety of reasons each chapter. Beside you is your partner Noah (voiced by Kana Hanazawa), who acts as your companion throughout your journey and gives out a knowledge on who you would be up against in every match during the tournaments. As you progress through stages, the storyline between the Tuners shall unfold as with each tournament's run, be it fighting against idols Athena Asamiya or Mai Shiranui, getting involved in the feud between Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami, a feud even deeper than Ryan Murphy's FEUD: Bette and Joan, or dealing with the Orochi, just like in the original games, only with a spin.

After a Tutorial stage which would see you messing around in Blacknoah, the location of the '94's Final Boss stage, you'll get to choose one of the three starters, all three being the main characters of their respective fighting game series (and the series' teams as well). Kyo Kusanagi is the series' main character and leader of Team Japan who burns to fight and is an Attack-type fighter, Terry Bogard from Fatal Fury Team is a fatally-furious Balance-type character with good ranged attacks and "come on"s, and last but not least Ryo Sakazaki from Art of Fighting Team who is a Defense-type character with an urge to use his special techniques against a barrage of armed forces. After that, you're on your own and your journey begins from here.

There are many types of events you can play beside from the Story Mode, of which they'll be unlocked once you progressed enough. Dungeons for coins, battle cards, and enhancements for both fighters and cards are available aside from the additional event quests, while Epic Quests comprise of some of the challenging quests yet in the game. PvP multiplayer modes are also available, ranging from the Arena which replicates the original King of Fighters experience, League with ability to switch your fighter and use your Strikers during the match, and friendly matches, plus the real-time Tournament. Last but not least, Time Attack mode is available for those who itch for a challenge to complete a stage as fast as possible.

PERSONAL THOUGHTS

Nice combo.

KOF AS exactly fulfills expectations as to what you'd expect from a King of Fighters game, paired with cel-shaded graphics probably more cel-shaded than XIV is. Netmarble basically gives KOF a beat 'em up soul with familiar elements to the game, be it in the form of stages or stories, to craft a masterpiece that can be enjoyable for both KOF fans and non-fans alike.

Another neat detail in the game is the fact that you can freely fight while waiting for all of the assets being downloaded. Downloading all the main assets minutes after installing the game actually helped me to play through without additional downloads, but the above feature is something of a surprise since usually you'd just wait in idle during asset downloads. This feature should help you familiarize yourself further with the game's gameplay and controls, perhaps initiating Kyo Kusanagi musing hours as well before picking your starters. Incidentally, he was indeed my starter.

As far as music goes, the selection of soundtrack can be something of a juxtaposition; most of the soundtracks used come from The King of Fighters XIII, while the majority of the in-game content come from the Orochi arc of the original series. While XIII does deliver some of the best soundtracks, hearing them as the theme for the Orochi arc fighters (and four from the NESTS arc) might not be something I can desire of, especially given some of the themes (most boss characters and the American Sports Team) are original arrangements. Though not all XIII's soundtracks are bad juxtapositions as Iori Yagami's "Stormy Saxophone 2" (despite being shortened somehow) and Takuma Sakazaki's "The Tengu Show" (which is also his theme in the original Art of Fighting) definitely fit the role. Bear in mind that you may notice that the dungeons have either Ash Team's or Elisabeth Blanctorche Team's theme, also from XIII as well. Interestingly, the theme for K' team characters originate from XI I noticed.

Personally, all versions of Kyo Kusanagi could have an original arrange of "Esaka?" instead of XIII's "Goodbye Esaka", because you can't miss out a theme well-suited for the series' main hero in the Orochi arc, and the rest of the main heroes would have original arrangements of their respective original themes in the series. Honestly, I would love some spins of the classics like Fatal Fury Team's "Kurikinton", Art of Fighting Team's "ART OF FIGHT", the '99 Hero Team's "KD-0079", and between Ikari Team's "Jungle Bouncer", "Desert Requiem", and "Rumbling in the City" (among others), because hearing some of the original arrangements from the game shows that the sound department does have a potential, precisely a big one: Rugal's themes are quite a piece, with the first one being a dramatic masterpiece and the second one being a bopping mash-up of his '95 and '98 versions. Goenitz's theme "Trash Head" gets a modern makeover despite lacking the oomph in the original and even Orochi's theme turns "Origin of the Mind" into a rock-filled orchestral epic, plus you can't Ryuji Yamazaki's "C62 ~Shirokuni~", and Mr. Big's "Dust Man", of which the Art of Fighting series's badass boss character's theme is given an R&B style to complement the original guitar arrangements. Don't forget New Face Team fighters have the re-arranged "Bloody" and the '98 Kim Kaphwan has "Seoul Town", also re-arranged for the game.

My current collection as of now.

Another thing to note about this game is the fact that it is intensive on stable internet connection, therefore requiring you to stay online. Sometimes when things get rough and your connection isn't as stable as you'd usually do, the game may ask you to return to the title menu. This is something I'd want to emphasize considering I've seen some players saying that their connections not being stable despite retries in connecting. On a brighter side, however, playing Story Chapters, Event Quests, and Dungeons don't take up much of your data, provided that you've downloaded all of the assets, so if you want to save up your data subscription you can distract yourself farming with this game.

And as I said, the game is absolutely rewarding af. Helped with Daily Missions, Welcome Festival, Roulette Event, and Growth Missions, plus the Step-Up Summon, acquiring new fighters and new stuffs have never been this fast before. Since installing the game almost a week ago, I have collected about 60 fighters and tons of items for enhancements, plus managed to complete the game's first story although I had to sacrifice my sleep time for that since Rugal is exactly who he is just like in his original game; being an SNK Boss. Clearing the final stage of the '94 story with less than 25 hits wasn't an easy job, especially with Rugal's barrage of attacks. It wasn't until the right use of strategy would give me a total completion for the story, combining the use of Supporter and timing of the attacks and knowing when the opponent would attack. This approach has seen more variations for other bosses, especially Orochi, whose barrage of attacks made things go for a challenging turn. Nevertheless, I've managed to reach the '98 story, going halfway from completion at the time of this post. In addition, I've managed to complete King's Quest as well, with all that matters is the points to win the final reward.

IN CONCLUSION

The King of Fighters ALLSTAR gives The King of Fighters series a new breath, combining fighting, beat 'em up, and RPG elements into one. Netmarble successfully made the game a love letter to the series, both for faithful KOF fans and new fans alike, and to have it finally released globally is a perfect cherry topping as so many people have longed to play the game since the original Japanese release. Despite being online-intensive and hit-and-miss soundtrack selections for some characters, the addictive gameplay leaves something to be desired, not to mention the rewards factor and the abundance of events where you can obtain a barrage of cool items, something you'd expect from a mobile game with Gacha elements.

The King of Fighters ALLSTAR is available on both Android and iOS smartphones with In-App Purchases available.

~[R]