That’s one of the first thing i learned when practicing in the field of pixel art. Bigger the better ! And talking about big, damn those King of fighters XII’s sprites are amazing.

I expected a lot from the 1st announcement of King of Fighters XII.  And as a 2D game artist myself to have SNK Playmore going for a “full” 2D fighting game nowadays was a surprise. Pretty risky move, you need a lot of time to animate frame by frame, so imagine how time consuming it can be with HD sprites pretty much handmade (they used 3D models to have a smooth animation then exported all the frames to be drawn pixel by pixel). That was a deliberate choice by SNKP because Street Fighter IV was on it’s way, full cartoonish 3D. And i gotta say, i was not happy about it. Those 1st screenshots were so ugly and so polygoned, i mean, i worship Street Fighter III 3rd Strike gamesystem, musics and arts, so yeah i was kinda disappointed.

Basically i was closely tracking KOFXII and denied any SFIV news, until i had the opportunity to play Capcom latest installment during a trip to NYC. Thanks to Chinatown Fair Arcade.

1 player panel, 2 versus setups, check the players list on sticky notes, no more quarters lines :(

The best $1 i ever spent, my stun gauge was full, flashy eyes just like an ultra finish. The game was good, really good and i had to admit it.
Even at that time (sept08) Sagat was a pain in the ass, we were all noobs who couldn’t pull any “saving dash cancels”, but a single “forward roundhouse to ultra” leaded to many shouts and whines around the cabinets.
I started to fear that KOFXII, how graphically appealing it was, couldn’t catch up to his rival. Sadly it was true, the game was rushed, rough and simply didn’t feel right.

However i still admire the work, dedication and guts that SNKP put into the game. Sometimes you just can’t make up your mind, that’s why i tried to draw this KOFXII style Sagat.

ps: i used Goro Daimon sprite as size reference, big! i told ya :]

on Sunday, December 20th, 2009 at 6:40 PM - filed under Pixel, Video Games. Both comments and pings are currently closed.