Sony announces 'King of Fighters 14' for the PlayStation 4 during Tokyo Game Show

KOF 14 — Iori takes down Kyo in "King of Fighters 14." http://www.eventhubs.com/

During the recent Tokyo Game Show, or TGS event, Sony announced that “King of Fighters 14” from SNK Playmore would be coming to the PlayStation 4 in 2016, though no precise release date was given. This will be the fighting game’s first appearance in a current-gen console, since the 12th and 13th instalment came out on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

In an interesting move, “King of Fighters 14” will be built with a 3D game engine instead of the 2D one that fans have gotten used to. This isn’t the first time the series has used 3D graphics, as pointed out by GameSpot, but this will be the first game of the series that will be in a current-gen console. It will be interesting to see how fans react to the new graphics engine.

The last “King of Fighters” game with 3D graphics was 2005’s “King of Fighters: Maximum Impact” for PlayStation 2. The game received average scores, with its biggest weakness being its voice acting. Still, it was popular enough to get an enhanced version for the original Xbox in 2007, which was also re-released for the PS2.

A short trailer of the game was also shown in the TGS event, which showcased the character models and fighting moves of Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami, who have been staples of the series for quite some time. The new 3D character models are interesting, though Event Hubs stated that this probably isn’t the final product yet and the actual models could look different as development of the game continues.

While Sony announced the game for the show, it was unclear if the SNK fighting game would be a PlayStation 4 exclusive or not. It’s possible that the game could come to the PS4 first and get ported to the Xbox One after a period of time.

The same thing happened during the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, in Los Angeles, when Square Enix announced the “Final Fantasy 7” remake. It was later revealed that it would come to Xbox One sometime after its arrival to Sony’s console.

Fans of the series can expect more details about “King of Fighters 14” soon. The size of the game’s roster hasn’t been mentioned yet, but it will be fun to see who makes the cut for next year’s game.