The King of Fighters XIV is by far the best KOF to date, and also trumps those other recent big releases by a huge margin. If you are a fighting game fan in general, you owe it to yourself to own this beauty! The game play, characters and even the story line have been ramped up to perfection. I cannot recommend this one enough. Forget the other guys, THIS is the perfect fighting game for the PS4!

Though its visuals still betray the legacy of SNK’s rich and gorgeous 2D sprite work, The King of Fighters XIV revives the glory of the franchise where it counts most: gameplay and core mechanics. This will hopefully be the first step in a better future for the series, but even this unpolished first entry is worth the time for longtime fans and newcomers alike.

While these complaints are not enough to cripple the game, it’s a shame that SNK has done such a tremendous job with most of the things that matter, only to stumble on certain design issues. Minor missteps aside, It’s pretty brilliant, and it’s safe to say that the series has made the leap to 3D surprisingly well despite still needing some polish, and maybe a bit of a facelift as well.

King of Fighters XIV falls somewhere between XII and XIII. It's not exactly bare-bones and the roster is mighty, but the gaudy presentation and by-the-book story is distracting, and takes away a lot of the uniqueness of the series.

The King of Fighters is back to claim its place as one of the most beloved fighting series of all time. Sadly though, it keeps using the same formula without even trying to innovate the core mechanics of the franchise which will only bring back the veteran enthusiasts instead of appealing to new generations. Quantity is not the same as quality and having a lot of characters on the roster won't make up for issues like a bad netcode or horrible 3D graphics.

Aside from some faulty matchmaking, the package is a fighting game worth playing. It looks good enough and runs smoothly, and even when lagging, the online play is nice and clean.

While there are some concessions in place for the mere mortals among us, there aren't quite enough. [Nov 2016, p.116]