Steeped with a legacy that rivals the Street Fighter franchise, King of Fighters XII seems to be an exercise in nostalgia more than anything else.

Firstly, each and every frame of this 2-D beat ‘em up is hand-drawn, giving it a very retro feel that puts you back in the days of 16-bit consoles. While it serves the purpose, it seems a tad off because all these lovely illustrations are treated to look like sprites that give the game and its characters a very pixellated feel. Secondly, the content seems to have been rehashed from the arcade version. While there are two characters exclusive to the console version, King of Fighters XII severely lacks in the way of gameplay modes, storyline (which just a bunch of very oddly voiced, almost

Engrish news reports), stages (with only 5 to speak of) and yes, pathetic loading times even after installing the game on the PS3 hard drive.And while we’re on the topic of it’s failings we’ve got a roster of characters that’s filled to the brim with every possible beat ‘em up genre stereotype and controls that are more suited for a tank simulation title than a brawler.

With notoriously low replay value, threadbare options and prehistoric gameplay, pick this up only if you’re a die hard fan of the franchise, the saner bunch of you can safely avoid this.