King of Fighters XIV’s netcode has some issues, and a fix is on the way

Strangely enough party mode is smooth

As I discussed in the review, I had the opportunity to test out select matches online before The King of Fighters XIV‘s release, but not enough to get a clear picture of the state of the netcode. Well, it launched yesterday, and I have some observations to report.

Overall, I’m finding it to be more stable than XIII, but I’m getting some lag in both ranked and unranked play every few matches or so. It’s not egregious in most cases, but even within the same region I’ve noticed some slowdown. Many of you out there have reported the same, but there’s one surprising anomaly — party play.

That specific mode (that supports more players) seems to be running smoothly, so try that out if your connection is having issues. According to SNK’s Yasuyuki Oda the other gametypes are supposed to be just as smooth, and a fix is slated for next week. So far this is a far better response than what XIII ended up with, and with a rock solid foundation, SNK can only go up from here.

Let’s see if it catches on with the pro crowd and takes the main stage at EVO next year. In the meantime, I’ve been in the lab with Kim, Terry, and Joe.