97 special team has one of the best endings IMO. learning yama is an orochi, mary being duped by the geese eater again, billy doing geeses dirty drawers, i mean business. and yamazkai going to collect his pay was nice man. its like a team that shouldnt have existed in the first place (yeah i know how they where chosen.)
You could say that. But unless the console KoFXII is released within 8 months after the arcade version drops and adds another 8 characters, like SFIV may potentially do, it’ll be a much longer wait for the real game to come out. 
ramberk:
Who’s hating? I know why they’re doing what they’re doing, I just find it unfortunate. It’s like they’re apologising before hand: “Don’t worry, the real game is coming! In the mean time, please enjoy this stripped-down pseudo dream match!”.
I suppose I also find it odd that they’re saying this publicly some six months before the game is supposed to come out.
I see your point of view and I can see how you would take SNK’s statements about XII as “apologetic”. I read their comments to mean something more like them saying: “this game took a long time to put together and what you are getting next year is a complete game that is smaller then the typical KOF but not any less special. It takes a long time to make HD artwork. We put our heart and soul into this game. Please be patient with us.”
I don’t buy the whole “heart and soul” argument. SNK know they’re playing toward a niche, so they know they don’t have to go all out.
I would say its the complete opposite when you are making a “niche” product. The reason KOF has a cult following is because of all the small details SNK puts in their games. The special character intros, the subtle hints and clues in the dialogue, backgrounds, etc. If you make a “heartless” sequel just for the sake of making money, you’ll lose your hardcore fans (your only fans).
That shit’s kinda par for the course at this point. What current fighting game DOESN’T have character specific intros?
Sf4…
Wow, no wonder they had to hire animators fresh off the streets…
So basically they’re taking the same philosophy with the roster as they did in KOF MI which I guess is appropriate considering KOF XII and KOF MI have a lot of things in common:
–Both fresh starts to the series
–Both have characters made completely from scratch
–Both have 20 characters
–No official teams
–Story means jack shit
With no teams neccessary, now I’m worried if Clark is really going to be in or not.
Wait until we get the console version.
then…
THEN you can complain about SF4 not having specialized character intros.
Because it matters so goddamn much.
Lets take a breath mofos, ultimately we play KOF for the thrill of competition. Not for story, endings, fashion, colors, stages or quotes. I’m sure most of you play, like myself, for the chance to crush your opponent. The rush you get when you shut down mofos and leave them complaining and threatning to beat you in a REAL fight. 
You realize you just excluded 99 percent of all KOF fans, right?
It’s actually not HD, just high resolution.
LOL man, they had to hire extra artists for months to do what they did so far. I don’t think they are being particularly lazy this time. They are putting a lot of money in a genre no one cares about, they are betting a lot in this. That’s much more than what we usually get these times from bigger companies.
I don’t think you even realize it, but this is an hilariously senseless retort.
I’m actually suprised on that SNKP was that fearless to start a huge project like this.
Oh, they’re definitely not being lazy or scared. This game is a crazy undertaking…
I think they’re just pulling a SF3:NG…where this stuff is just very, VERY time consuming to do, and do well. So, rather than wait ANOTHER couple of years to give us fans a super stacked game, they decided to give us something to play next year that’s not quite as stacked with extras as they’d eventually like.
Heck, SF3:NG only had 11 playable characters at first…KOFXII already has 20.
Though, NG had endings…and character specific win quotes…and awesome post match artwork…
So, if SNK doesn’t have time to deliver all the big stuff like more characters and super moves, then just be sure to add the little stuff. Those “details”, as Ramberk put it…
This.
They can always go the SFIV route and gradually upgrade it instead of doing new games every time they want to change / add something.