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‘King Of Fighters XIV’ Will Have A Playable Demo On July 19, SNK Playmore Announces

By Bryan Star
Published on: 14:09 PST, Jul 17, 2016

Developer SNK Playmore has announced that a playable demo for King of Fighters XIV will be available on July 19.

Fans of the old school fighting game series have been following the game for months, and it appears that King of Fighters will be making a triumphant return to consoles and arcades. SNK took to social media to announce that the highly anticipated King of Fighters XIV demo will be available for all to download, and there’s going to be additional content available to those who download it.

An interview by Shoryuken was conducted in January with Yasuyuki Oda, game director of King of Fighters XIV. In the interview, he discusses the direction that SNK has taken with their latest installment in the series. The preview of King of Fighters XIV was originally received with mixed feedback, as the graphics were criticized as being on par with those of the PlayStation 2. Months after, however, the game has since been updated and regained momentum as players get their hands on its builds through tournament venues.

Seven characters will be available in the demo of King of Fighters XIV: Kyo Kusanagi, Mai Shiranui, Iori Yagami, Sylvie Paula Paula, King of Dinosaurs, Shun’ei, and Nelson. There appear to be 50 characters altogether, making this selection a welcome amount of action for players to interact with. Additionally, there will be local versus play. If you’re interested in taking your skills online, King of Fighters XIV will have an online functionality for players to slug it out with other competitors.

When asked about the current roster in King of Fighters XIV, Oda had this to say.

“We really have to consider the roster as a whole. We can’t just do a King of Fighters with entirely new characters – we have to strike a balance between the new and the familiar. We also have to consider that, like you mentioned earlier, the series is popular globally, and every place where King of Fighters is played has its local favorites and such.”

Oda continued, revealing that the number of characters that would be in King of Fighters XIV had been decided early in the game’s development.

“For King of Fighters XIV, we actually decided on the number of characters early on in the game’s development. We then set about filling the roster, breaking things down in terms of geographical regions, popularity, and so forth. We also need to balance the roster from a visual standpoint – we can’t just have all women or all young men, for example.”

From the sounds of it, fans new and old will get to see their cherished characters in action. New characters will also appear among the old, bringing new life to a classic that has been around for years. If you’re looking to pick up the demo of King of Fighters XIV, there’s an additional gift that comes with the download. According to Gematsu, the King of Fighters XIV demo will also come with a free dynamic theme. This allows players to customize their PlayStation 4, providing a unique visual to the main menu.

Ultimately, King of Fighters XIV has received positive reception. This is a contrast to the previous King of Fighters XIII, which received far less in terms of positive reception and excitement. While Street Fighter V and various other fighting games are running strong, classic fighting game enthusiasts can rest assured that the King of Fighters series will enjoy SNK Playmore’s latest.

What are your thoughts on King of Fighters XIV so far? Have you had a chance to play the current build? Let us know your experience in the comment section below.

[Image Via SNK Playmore]

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