Got it yesterday and played it for a bit and was very disappointed. A half ass roster of characters. Mai is not even in it. Arcade mode is more like Time Attack. There isn't a story to it. There is no big boss at the end WTF!!! At least Rugal or Geese. Most characters have one desperation move/super combo. The new critical counter is useless, that's what I think. Everybody is missing a move from his/her orginal move list, like Terry's Power Dunk. They only thing I'm satisfied with is Robert, he went back to his original moves set. Oh yeah, the graphics is top notch but the game still bombed. KOF XII was not worth my 64 bucks and change. SF4 wins it for me.

Sorry to hear that. I was kind of expecting more from it. No boss? What the hell? Also, what's this Critical Counter feature about and what makes it useless?

In somewhat-related "news", I was personally blown away by what Falcoon and co. did with Maximum Impact 2, considering that it's in full 3D - the first game was a letdown in many areas, but damn, the sequel made up for it in spades, IMO.

Critical Counter - with every hit you take or give a meter fills up kinda like in SFIV with the revenge meter(the flaming meter) but it's green. When it fills up, you have a chance to counter an attack with Heavy Punch or Heavy Kick only one or the other depending on the character. When you land a hit, it opens the opponent up for a combo attack. More like a custom combo attack but limited. You can get in a few regualr hits like LP,LK,HP,HK and special move or a combination of other inputs, your choice. The thing is, when your meter fills up, you have to counter right away as the meter depletes with time until it is empty.

Like I said, no final boss, no clones, no hidden characters, no survival mode, no locked characters. Nothing special about this game. It did come with a wall paper theme for the PS3 only 2 i've seen, still isn't special.

yeah I got it for the 360. dare I say horrible. this should have been an XBLA game selling for 10 bucks. only 5 stages, smallish roster. for 10 or 15 bucks I could see this being fine. but as a full retail disc it is a rip off.

meh, still have SFIV and MVC2 comes out this week. some like BlazBlue. so its still a steller time for 2d fighters.

Really, really weak. How can they possibly release a game that has no extra features whatsoever? I mean unlockables constitute replay value. Hidden features constitute replay value. Sure, it's looks great, but if everything you see in the game from the get-go is all you are going to get, what's the point?

I still can't wrap my mind around why they didn't include a last boss. It's like SNK Playmore never intended this game to be played solo. Is there even a storyline? As if all of their effort went into designing characters and stages.

The final nail in the coffin: FIVE STAGES? Just five?

Actually, six stages but one of the stages have a day/night variation. The variation is huge though.

In actual, I really like the new Critical COunter system. it is not easy to abuse but once you have it connected, you can execute any combos that you like within the time limit. The option are quite plentiful. For example, let say I connect CC using Andy on an opponent. Then I can just smash A,B,C,D,A,B,C,D, end with dp+P or whatever, or I can just do a more interesting combo of C,f+A,hcf+B, braking, hcf+B, braking, dp+A, and end with qcb,hcf+B.

But yeah, the lack of features is saddening. If online is OK, then i wouldn't mind much, but online is horrendous at the moment. Still hoping they can patch this up. In the meantime, i will work on the new Iori which kick ass so much

another name for CC is CUSTOM COMBO after CRIT COUNTER!

Although, anyone expecting a lot more out of KOF12 such as a story (to which they said there was no story even before the game was released) and less characters (they did say not everyone would make it), as this is more or less a test run for KOF13. Or when they decide to continue the Ash saga. Once again, anyone expecting a lot out of 12 will be disappointed, other than the fact it's been brought back to the classic 3 on 3 style (to which everyone loves), and they spiced up the gameplay (Critical Counter system, also everyone loves). Also, it's a KOF game, so it pretty much only covers the niche players.