[PS4] The King of Fighters XIV ROM Download

The King of Fighters XIV ROM Description

The King of Fighters 14 was out on the PS4 and it’s the newest installment in the fighting game series since The King of Fighters 13 came out back in 2010. This new PS4 exclusive changes up the series and modernizes parts of the gameplay and the art style.

Graphics

For example, the King of Fighters series has been made primarily with 2D sprites but with the few exceptions here and there. With King of Fighters 14, SNK really wanted to modernize the art style for current generation consoles and so the game has been made in complete 3D while still maintaining the 2D gameplay, very similar to the recent revisions of the Street Fighter series.

The visuals look alright but it’s definitely not the best-looking fighter I’ve seen on the PS4. I have to say though, I do miss the vibrant animated backgrounds of King of Fighters 13, those are pretty awesome.

Gameplay

The basics of King of Fighters are still present in KOF 14 but a new max mode addition has replaced the hyperdrive feature from KOF 13. When max mode is activated, the player gets a short amount of time to perform an unlimited amount of EX moves. It’s a great new fighting game mechanic for those sticky situations when you need a miracle of hope at the last second.

In general, a lot of the gameplay changes in KOF 14 seem to be more reminiscent of KOF 98 and other classic arcade games from SNK, whereas previous games had two different types of special moves, KOF 14 actually has three types of special moves. The two returning special moves are special moves and super special moves, and then the new specials are called Climax Super Specials. You can perform these with a simple double-quarter-circle button combo.

The new game is pretty approachable to newcomers of the series as well as newcomers to the fighting game genre. There’s now an auto combo feature called Rush Mode and it’s similar to the auto combo in Persona 4 Arena and Persona 4 Ultimax, where if you have enough power you can perform a special attack automatically at the end of a basic combo.

Now there’s a total of 48 playable characters and all of them are available at the start of the game. The cast is large as ever so you’re bound to find someone that you like to play as. You can also unlock two additional boss characters just by completing the game’s story mode and although it’s not confirmed just yet, you can probably expect some DLC characters to get released sometime in the future as well.

Modes

As far as the story goes, KOF 14’s story is as deep as any other fighting game story, meaning it’s really bland as hell. A man named Antonov wins the rights of the King of Fighters tournament and he hosts his own tournament for the sake of making money. The premise is pretty basic stuff but that’s not the reason you’re interested in this game in the first place right?

Outside of the story mode you have your mission mode which consists of a trial mode, time attack, and survival. Trial mode has you complete a set of challenges for each of the available characters. Time attack is a 1v1 matchup against a computer AI while trying to finish with the best time. Lastly, survival mode as it sounds is a survival mode that has you fighting against computer AI until you just can’t anymore.

Personally it’s my favorite out of all the mission modes and it’s the one that took up a great amount of time when I was playing the game. Playing through the story mode and the mission mode can also unlock some extra bonus content. For example, every time you accomplish a few accomplishments you’ll earn the gallery bonuses like concept art, movies, and sound effects for your characters.

Online Multiplayer

Now one of the biggest flaws that launch King of Fighters 13 was the online multiplayer – it was really bad. The netplay was off, there were framerate issues, and just trying to get a solid match was difficult. Sure things eventually got better slightly with some patches but those took a while to come out. I’m happy to say that KOF 14 seems to have those problems fixed now.

I’ve had the game for about a week and a half now and I’ve tested a few online matches with other fellow reviewers and the netplay seems pretty good. I didn’t experience any lag on my end and matches generally had a good input response time. The one issue I did have sometimes was just trying to find a match, although that is most likely because the number of people to actually have this game right now is so limited.

When you’re online you can play ranked matches for competitive play or free matches that just randomly puts you against another player. You also have online training available in case you and an out of town friend want to train together online. After an online match you can even share your match and watch other people who share their matches in online replay.

There’s also a Live tab that lets you connect to the PlayStation Live service to watch KOF 14 specific live streams all within the game.

Conclusion

The King of Fighters 14 is an improvement upon what King of Fighters 13 was and fixes all the flaws that that game had. In a way it also tries to modernize the game while having more references to older classic games like KOF 98.

If you have a PS4 and you’re looking to pick up a new fighter then you might want to check out KOF 14. There’s even a demo available right now on the PSN if you want to try it out. If you picked up KOF 13 last generation, felt a little burned by the online flaws of the game, you’ll be happy to hear that most of those are fixed in KOF 14.

Personally as someone that doesn’t really consider themselves a competitive fighting gamer, and one that likes to pick up and play every once in a while, I enjoy KOF 14. It was something that was easy for me to pick up and play and it’s also something that’s fun for competitive players as well.