An excellent mobile brawler, with RPG elements | Full Review - The King of Fighters ALLSTAR

The King of Fighters All Star is an online RPG brawler that brings together characters from the popular fighting game franchise The King of Fighters. If you’re still expecting a 1v1 competitive fighting game like the original game series, this is far from it. However, this is still a cool game worth looking into.

🟩Pros

+Fun beat’ em up gameplay

+Engaging campaign and team-building mechanics

+Smooth 2.5D HD graphics

+Many playable characters from across the King of Fighters series.

🟥Cons

-Performance issues

-Not the traditional fighting game format like the original series.

The King of Fighters ALLSTAR, or KOF ALLSTAR, is a mobile beat ‘em up game mixed with RPG and gacha elements. It borrows from the 20-30 years of King of Fighters history and characters, combining them together to create an Ultimate King of Fighters game tailor-made for mobile devices. It was also officially released for PC last year as an emulated-port.

An adaptation of The King of Fighters series

The game's story follows a group of fighters who are brought together to compete in a tournament known as the King of Fighters. Along the way, they must battle a variety of opponents, most are basic henchmen, others are KOF characters with their own unique abilities and fighting styles as well.

The game's narrative format is told through a series of 2D cutscenes and skippable dialogue in-between missions, which help to flesh out the characters and provide context for their motivations.

The missions themselves are saga’s adapted from the classic games and contain different chapters with missions. The initial saga, the Orochi Saga, is composed of eight chapters and the first half is beatable in a single seating. However, the difficulty spikes up halfway through it and you’d have to do a bit of grinding before you can progress further.

There are also other adapted sagas to complete and replayable activities to do, like PVP mode and Dungeon modes which offer infinite replayability, as long as you have the time-currency needed. More updates are on the way, including further saga adaptations, as this is a live service game.

Gameplay Analysis

The gameplay in The King of Fighters ALLSTAR is a mix of beat’ em up and a bit of tactics/strategy. Players must build a team of up to three main fighters, supported by three more as “strikers” and use them to battle against enemies or other teams.  Pairing characters with specific strikers will provide additional bonuses, depending on their relationships in the lore.

The battles take place in real-time in a side-scrolling manner, and players must use a variety of attacks and combos to defeat their opponents. Each fighter has their own set of skills and abilities in a MOBA-like fashion and controls, which can be upgraded as the player progresses through the game.

The combat is simply addicting and made relatively easy to control. One button to attack, another to dodge, and another to block. Then the rest are entirely the abilities that the characters have. Combos and hits are satisfying to perform, especially when the enemies are constantly bouncing around the maps. When the enemies are on a higher level, it is also a fairly challenging game that will require more use of defensive maneuvers.

At first, you start with just one fighter, then the more you play, the more you unlock character cards, which you can now equip as fighters. When using multiple fighters, you can seamlessly switch between them as long as the cooldown is up. You can also assign a “striker” fighter for each fighter that you can all in to do occasional support attacks alongside the player.

When using multiple fighters, you can seamlessly switch between them as long as the cooldown is up. You can also assign a “striker” fighter for each fighter that you can all in to do occasional support attacks alongside the player.

The King of Fighters ALLSTAR has amazing 2.5D HD graphics. The game's visuals are stunning, with detailed character models and fluid animations that bring the fighters to life, both in the 2D art and in the 3D cell-shaded in-game graphics. The backgrounds are also well-designed, with a variety of locations that range from various city streets to ancient ruins.

The music is catchy and upbeat, with a variety of tracks that match the different moods and settings of the game. The sound effects are also well-done, with satisfying impact sounds for each attack and combo perfectly matching the well-animated fight moves.

The Progression

In terms of its RPG mechanics, The King of Fighters ALLSTAR does a good job of balancing character progression with challenge, and the gacha elements more or less just supplement the system, not completely take over it. Players can earn experience points and level up the fighters in-use, which increases their stats and unlocks new abilities. However, the game's difficulty also scales with the player's progress, so battles never feel too easy or too difficult.

The game's monetization model is a mix of free-to-play and pay-to-win. Players can earn in-game currency by completing missions and quests, which can be used to purchase new fighters and upgrade their skills.

However, the game also offers a variety of microtransactions, such as premium currency and loot boxes, which can give players an advantage in battle and speed up progression. While these transactions are not necessary to enjoy the game, they do give paying players a significant advantage over those who choose not to spend money.

Technical Analysis

I tested it with a Razer Kishi game controller, and it has rudimentary support for it. Every basic button and control works, however don’t expect heavy customization as you cannot rebind the controls nor change anything controller related in the game.

As for the performance, KOF ALLSTAR did not perform well during my testing on a Samsung S9+, with constant lags and stutters during gameplay, as well as minor online connection issues. I also encountered a game-breaking bug that froze my progression for a while, not allowing me to proceed further in the menu.

Conclusion:

Despite the bugs and performance issues, KOF ALLSTAR is an excellent mobile game that offers a fun and engaging brawler experience. Mixing it with RPG elements, along with its stunning 2.5D visuals and presentation, make it a good mobile game recommendation to anyone who enjoys fighting or beat'em up games.