It’s a good week to be a fighting game fan. First, Arc System Works announced that its game XBlaze Code: Embryo will be ported to Steam, and now there’s a shiny new King of Fighters XIV trailer for fans to enjoy.
OK fine, here, you can watch it too:
As the name of the trailer implies, the big announcement to be made is the addition of a new fighter [potential king of?]. There’s…there’s really no way to get around saying this, so I’ll just out with it:
The new fighter is a dinosaur. Tail, teeth, little arms, the whole nine. Named King of Dinosaurs, he is the newest addition to the roster of nearly 50 playable characters boasted by developer SNK Playmore.
The developer also highlighted that King of Fighters XIV will preserve the traditional 2D perspective and will include 3-on-3 team battles. In addition, the game will also feature a new multiplayer mode, party battle, which can host up to six players in the same fight.
Interestingly, what the game won’t feature is an arcade release. The long-running series, which laid its roots back in 1994, has been an arcade mainstay. However, in an interview with Shoryuken, King of Fighters XIV director Yasuyuki Oda indicated that the changing nature of the market may be leading to a greater emphasis on console releases rather than arcade cabinets:
“Initially, there were some internal discussions about whether we should go forward with a home-focused or an arcade-focused King of Fighters XIV, but we feel our efforts are best spent focusing on PlayStation 4.”