Final thoughts on the game
Ever since I bought KoF XII, I've ranted about loving the game. The only problem was the netcode. The patch was released last Monday and the results are nothing short of fantastic. I've spent many, many hours playing KoF this week in varying circumstances and find the online play to be pretty damned good. King of Fighters XII is the best fighter released this year. It's got better controls than SFIV and is more balanced. The online play is, for me, as good as BlazBlue and the game is far superior to BlazBlue. Combos are easier to perform in KoF than in SFIV but not as mash heavy as in BB. The gameplay is fast and favors offensive poking over defensive turtling and rewards aggression. The controls are smoother than any other fighter I've played and has rendered games like MvC2 unplayable. This is definitely my jam and rivals, if not surpasses, Garou: Mark of the Wolves as the best game SNK has made - and that's saying a lot.

If you like balanced fighters with a reasonably sized cast of unique fighters (22), you need this game. If you've liked SNK games in the past, this is an essential purchase. If you think Capcom is the leader in fighting games, check out KoF XII and learn what most of the world already knows. SNK: The future is now.

Finalizing my team
Joe and Kyo have been mainstays in my team since the first few days of playing it. My third alternated between Kim, Athena and Kensou. I like Kensou's speed but I don't fully understand his fighting style. His ability to force the match to speed up is great; it just doesn't gel with my style. Athena is also good at controlling the speed of a match but she slows it down. She's extremely effective but I find her boring to play. Kim was my initial third pick and then I drifted away as he's not as fast as Kensou or as easy to use as Athena.

Lately, I've been putting in a lot of time with Kirbilot and discussing aspects of the game as we learn it. Some of the knowledge he shared has helped me to learn some new stuff about Kim and convinced me to stick with Kim. I like how fast and deadly Kim's offense is and how he can turn a retreat into an assault in a second. Most characters cannot do this as effectively as Kim. Kyo is my balanced character; Joe is my hit and run annoyance guy; Kimis my lock you down in the corner and kick you in the face character. There's a balance there that I did not initially recognize.

Learning Kim
Considering how many fighters I've played, I haven't really mastered any. My reaction time is below average and my combo skills are barely there. I usually rely on mind games, mix ups and aggression, which works fairly well until you play a game with clash and critical combo systems. Kyo and Joe are tied as my best characters. I think I'm better with Joe but Kyo is more fun to play. Kim was the weakest link. So I hit the Practice mode pretty hard.

I spent a solid hour and a half practicing combos with Kim. I really like jump in C, crouching C canceled into CD. This does a nice amount of damage and pushes the opponent away. If this is done in the corner, the CD can be canceled into QCB + D for an extra 3 hits. This is a damaging combo and the timing is pretty easy. After mastering the timing, I practiced a few 3 or 4 hit high damage combos with Kyo and Joe. I was able to put my Kim combos into use in a game last night but the Joe combos were harder. I need to adjust the way I play Joe in order to maximize combo usage.

An ode to fighters
And that's why I love fighters. If you have the basic skills to play SF or KoF, you can have some fun playing with friends. You don't need more than that. However, there's a lot to learn, if you should decide to study the game. The systems in most fighters are well thought out and fun to master; this is more true in KoF XII than in any other fighter. Knowing how to use the clash really changes the flow of the game and gives an edge to those who've mastered it. Learning how to land critical combos really helps you know that you're not out yet. There's such intricate and elegant gameplay to be experienced.