King of Fighters XIV Steam Version First Play - Free Weekend

Like Street Fighter V, King of Fighters XIV was free as part of the Free Weekend campaign. However, the time trial was shorter than the one for Street Fighter V whose special reason has something to do with the upcoming Capcom Pro Tour of this year.
Experience-wise, I encountered some choppiness for some of the stages but the game still performed smoothly on my computer as if the game takes lesser resources than Street Fighter V or something. One confusing thing is the usage of traditional UI interactivity with the keyboard but it should take you time to get used to when compared to other fighting games on PC. The game's intro is like a mixture of 30FPS and 60FPS stuffs or something but I could be wrong. The opponent before Verse was like manageable but Verse was one challenging opponent for me and I'm still not good at the fighting game genre. The complex commands are difficult to pull off and this difficulty is going to be the same for other King of Fighters games.
If there are flaws or whatnot, it's something about the way things are rendered graphically due to inferior quality prior to the patch and the Arcade and Steam versions were based on the later update of the console version.
Other than the flaws, this was already a better game than Street Fighter V when it first came out and as time went on, Street Fighter V Arcade Edition was released with sufficient amount of characters and the inclusion of the Arcade Mode which is one of the core features of the fighting games ever since the past times. At the Game Awards of 2016, King of Fighters XIV was nominated for the "Best Fighting Game" award but lost to Street Fighter V. How could an incomplete and mediocre game like Street Fighter V win such an award like that at the time like it's beyond me? Even Pokemon Go was incomplete at the time but then again, it had more features than its initial launch. To defend Street Fighter V's incomplete-ness was like not to care for the main core features of the product that were absent.

King of Fighters All Stars for mobile

Turns out that the game was released in Japan only as of this time and I have a feeling that it will be compatible with later IOS & Android devices as it uses 3D graphics. The character cast ranges from KOF 94 to KOF XIII. Some of the recognized tracks from previous KOF games are rearranged for this game and they are quite good. Needless to say, the gameplay is so much of the same as KOF 97 OL which I found it to be mediocre in my opinion so I'm not sure if KOF All Stars is a better game or not.
You do get to draw character cards and battle cards for gameplay use and there are tons of characters to choose from. The game has some of the new original characters who are unplayable. The one who's seen in most parts of the game is Noah. She may be nerdy in my opinion like she knows things about KOF tournament although there will be issues for proper decent communications between her and various KOF characters like you shouldn't dare to mess with them or they'll do something to you for getting in their way or some sort. I guess that she may be a manager, announcer, reporter or tournament host in this game but like KOF games, things are not going to end smoothly and the winners will have to deal with the evil opponents. Plus, the game has its own original boss characters to deal with.
One cool promotion, Athena, from the KOF series, had a role of Virtual YouTuber. A Virtual YouTuber is different than the standard YouTuber and it has been a hit since last year. Things to criticize about Virtual Youtubers:

1. Interactivity with invisible objects.
2. Not all VTubers have proper backgrounds.
3. Model clipping issues - A flaw that looks impossible to fix.
4. Certain kinds of contents are interesting while the others aren't. It may be true for other YouTubers' channels, virtual or not.

King of Fighters 97 Global Match

There's probably not much to say about King of Fighters 97 Global Match on Playstation 4, Vita and Steam as it's essentially a re-release with online match support. It may be the same for other classic SNK games released on modern gaming platforms with wallpapers and stuffs instead of the interface you know of from Hamster Arcade Archives.
I don't know who actually ported King of Fighters 97 to those platforms mentioned above but there is one particular fact I know of. The game is so much popular in China and we already know that SNK as you know it was acquired by the Chinese company so expect the King of Fighters franchise to grow even bigger than ever like it already did with comics, short-animations based on KOF Maximum Impact series as well as the 3D animation produced by a Chinese company which you can watch on SNK's official YouTube channel.
Also, don't expect something new for King of Fighters 97 Global Match like arranged music, redone graphics, etc. Although it has the new subtitle, it is not a remake like KOF 94 is remade on Playstation 2 as King of Fighters 94 Rebout. There may be a beat-em-up game on mobile named King of Fighters 97 OL but keep in mind that it is a spinoff, not a remake. It may be the same for King of Fighters 98UM OL but that's a tale for another time.
There may be Gallery Mode where you can view high resolution artworks as well as other game modes in addition to the Arcade Mode.

The King of Fighters XIV

Well, it was really impressive to the fans of the genre when it was released with sufficient content to fill the goddamn Blu-Ray disc with the sufficient amount of playable characters, an Arcade Mode which is more or less the Story Mode along with other modes that increase the replay value.
Unfortunately, there may be flaws as well. The 3D background graphics are probably fine as well but the effects don't seem to cause the surrounding glow effects. Also, the character models are step backwards so to speak although the Ver 1.10 patch improves the shading with self-shadow effect. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be the same for the effects as they still don't cause surrounding glow effects. Even worse is that the effects are becoming a little bit blurry or something.
Plus, there may be an arcade version on the way coming in this year for Nesica X Live 2 which is the successor to the original for the Taito Type X2. The upcoming Nesica X Live 2 service runs on Taito Type X3 but unlike the original Nesica X Live, this one doesn't need connection to the local servers. Instead, the client machine gets a different setup for a different game. Plus, the Nesica X Live 2 service gets online match support for fighting games and its games will be running in 1080p. As The King of Fighters XIV uses Unreal Engine 4, obviously, a more powerful machine is required to meet the system requirements of that engine. Basically, a Core i5 along with 8GB RAM should be enough but the thing is, we NEED to know what the on-screen system specs are when booting up a Taito Type X3 game. On Type X2, you can see the graphics card model along with the amount of RAM but somewhere on the machine, you can see a sticker of the actual system specs. On Type X3 however, you can see the on-screen system specs whenever the game starts after going into desktop mode.
In the meantime, people can enjoy playing KOF XIV on Playstation 4 and it looks like SNK had done the right thing with it unlike Street Fighter V whose initial launch was missing tons of core stuffs and it already attracted disappointed fans along with those whiny gamers who don't care about those core stuffs like the Arcade Mode, Single Player Campaign Mode, etc. You've better jolly well be glad that King of Fighters XIV has Arcade Mode which is called the Story Mode. There isn't so much story contents going on in Story Mode like it may as well become an Arcade Mode which it already does to please the fans. The arcade version's existence is due to the success of the game on the console. So, let the Steam version exist one day based on the arcade version just like King of Fighters XIII Steam version and other Nesica X Live games posted to Steam.

King of Fighters 97 OL

What the hell happened? It was looking like SNK Playmore went mobile starting last year or earlier after a serious struggle with Pachinko slot machine games in which not many of the gamers are interested in and I'm severely against gambling stuffs as they ruin your life that easily. Rhythm of Fighters was kind of strange although Metal Slug Defense was like popular to the developers that they kept it going until today with additional units, crossover characters and even crossover stages that lasted a while. Yes, that game surely looked like Battle Cats which was released three years earlier than it so the word, defense, is a misleading word to the gameplay when comparing it to Battle Cats. Unfortunately, the developers of Battle Cats didn't even mention the complete origins of Metal Slug units and instead, they mentioned by in-game text that those units came from Metal Slug Defense. There may be units exclusive to Metal Slug Defense of course but too much crossover can pretty much ruin the image of Metal Slug series. Then, there was Beast Busters featuring KOF which I already finished most of the areas like I eventually stopped playing it. Even worse is that this year, SNK Playmore is acquired by the Chinese company, Ledo Millenium, in which Ledo Interactive developed KOF 97 OL for IOS and Android.
At first, we thought that this was an HD remake but it's not. It's a beat-em-up spinoff game of King of Fighters 97 and fans of the franchise were really annoyed about this as if the franchise or perhaps SNK Playmore itself is on life support. Everything is redone in HD and the gameplay controls are way too simple for the genre. You just mash the specific buttons that represent the respective moves like normal move which does the comboing in normal way plus the special move, the special moves that once used, you have to wait until they're available again, the desperation move and so on. If you have played tons of beat-em-up games or fighting games, you will notice that some of the stuffs are missing in the gameplay. You can't jump, air-dash, ground-dash or even throw something. There may be ground-dash attacks but they originate from the original KOF games so that doesn't count as a normal ground-dash attack in terms of the beat-em-up genre. Unlike Phantom Breaker Battle Grounds, you can't even guard yourself against enemy attacks. Yes, even Phantom Breaker Battle Grounds is the spinoff of the fighting game using the same genre as KOF 97 OL. A KOF beat-em-up spinoff game will be a decent idea since you're fighting tons of baddies like a fighter alongside other KOF characters in your team with other teams awaiting you as your rival teams. Perhaps, a real 3-vs-3 may make sense in this one where all team members are fighting the rival ones at the same time unlike the KOF series where it's still a 1-on-1 match with the other team members watching it and one fighter down may mean other team member taking over.
There's also a warning message telling you that the enemies in that stage you've chosen are too strong that you may need to strengthen yourself if you want to get in but you do have the options on whether you have to strengthen first or enter the stage anyway. There are tons of items that can be used as well as the outfit parts that can be strengthened. Plus, strengthening yourself may cost in-game currency and unlocking other fighters may require collecting cards representing them. There are also assist fighters that will help you out for extra overall strength. Like Beast Busters featuring KOF, each stage is short and features a boss at the end where you have to tackle him/her within the time limit.
Lastly, the FMV intro and loading screens are way out of place as if the fans are like, "What the hell is this?", "What's up with the look of the characters? How could SNK Playmore ruin their image like that?", "Why is this going all 3D CGI like in KOF Maximum Impact?". In fact, there might be cosplayers involved in the promotion of this game. The cosplay itself is fine but having to promote this game with it poses the fans a couple of challenging questions.
The worse thing is that King of Fighters XIV is going all 3D graphics via Maximum Impact series and there is some assumption that it is using Unreal Engine 4 with realistic effects or some sort but from what I saw in the trailers, the overall graphics looked like they were done in Unreal Engine 3.x or something. I mean the flame effects are not quite realistic enough and the smoke effect is half-assed as well. And what's up with the look and outfits of the characters? WHY DID SNK PLAYMORE ASSIGN THIS TO SOME EXTERNAL COMPANY LIKE THAT? Going next-gen is supposedly a requirement but going 3D like in Street Fighter IV or Maximum Impact series is a major disapproval to the fans. Hell, even the FMV intro of KOF 97 OL is like graphically better but keep in mind that KOF XIV is still under development and I don't know if KOF 97 OL will be superseded or not by the time it comes out next year for Playstation 4.
In summary of unacceptable flaws of KOF 97 OL,

• Lack of standard abilities as required for a beat-em-up spinoff such as the lack of jumping, dashing and even throwing.
• The way the sound effects are executed is flawed.
• What's up with the loading screens and FMV intro?
• For the music, the way it loops is that it cuts off certain parts of each song or something. (Example: Psycho Solder's theme song has chrous and post-chorus cut completely)
• The stage uses the same background for every phase or something

Sure, there can be fighting game elements in today's beat-em-up games like special and super moves, guarding, surrounding shockwave that repels every surrounding enemy off as well as to summon your assistant to help you along to make things more epic in the next level so why not?

Beast Busters featuring KOF

Well, that may look like one of the recent SNK mobile platform exclusive releases besides Metal Slug Defense and Rhythm of Fighters. Unlike those two, this one's going closer to the arcade original. It's a railgun shooter on mobile devices just like the classic arcade original including the sequel that was released on the Hyper Neo Geo 64. The controls for railgun shooters on may be implemented in different ways like there can be standard railgun shooter controls in which you can control the crosshair but not anything else or there can be camera control with the crosshair being constant on the center on the screen.
There was Galaga 3D Impact or something on 3DS where you control the camera and ship's weapon simultaneously but the complicated things about that control was that you were moving the 3DS with you around the god-damn place you're in as if this is a bad idea in taking so much space in the room. Also, having to video capture or videotape that is a difficult thing.
Beast Busters on mobile devices surely makes use of the touch screen controls to do the controlling of the camera with everything else being constant. You use the left side of the screen to move around and the right side of the screen to shoot the enemies. I guess it's better that way in terms of controls because there's no gyroscoping whatsoever.
There may be flaws in this one from my gameplay experience. The firing speed is kind of slow which may seem to be unacceptable when it comes to arcade railgun shooters. You should be able to fire as fast as you can but I guess that you should be able to do that in consumer versions of those games. Another flaw is that there may be 3 missions or places with each mission divided into 10 areas. Won't that amount make the game quite short? And the worse thing is that each area is seriously short, sort of like the mission areas in Metal Slug Defense. Each area in Metal Slug Defense may be short but in the actual Metal Slug series, the length of each area in a mission may be different than that.
Eventually, Beast Busters featuring KOF may be more decent than Rhythm of Fighters and Metal Slug Defense due to matching the classic arcade original in terms of gameplay but having each area really short ruins the arcade experience.

Rhythm of Fighters

Sure are tons of rhythm games coming in this year and the ones we already anticipated are the Bemani series of games coming in this year including the new BeatStream which I might have ranted about it for being more unoriginal than BeatCraft Cyclon, Project Diva F 2nd as well as IA Colorful or something for PS Vita. A stranger game was probably Sailor Zombie AKB48 arcade game which has some rhythm elements in it and people don't seem to accept the concepts like that. Of course, speaking of something unacceptable, it seems that SNK Playmore is coming up with a bunch of spinoffs almost nobody cares for. This year, we get Rhythm of Fighters and Metal Slug Defense.
ROF is probably KOF with rhythm game and it looks like it's fighting + rhythm combined just like the other games that make use of this combination. However, I don't know how those other games work but this one doesn't seem to mix together. I mean you're not hitting your opponent to every beat or perhaps blocking your opponent's attack to the beat. Instead, the attack takes place after a set of notes but having special and desperation moves included as part of the genre combination may seem to be a problem as those moves take up tons of seconds and especially when you do multi-combo normal moves which cause the same problems as well and there's no way to cancel any of these moves should you make a mistake.
My thoughts of improvements may include:

• One Normal Note: A normal attack via one punch or one kick per note.
• One Normal Hold Note: A continuous normal attack. The attack is abrupted should you let go of the normal hold note.
• One Special Note: A special attack per special note. (Note: This requires some rests after this note.)
• Flick Note: Kind of useless to me as if it is complicated to have a normal attack and the corresponding direction at the same time. (Not an improvement)
• Desperation Move: Serious problem in combining these two genres as the desperation moves take up few to several seconds. (Not an improvement)

Also, the graphics are old-school for some reason as we understand that not all characters are playable in KOF XIII but there are some songs and backgrounds taken from KOF XIII and the Atomiswave era KOF games. Not to mention that there will be additional songs coming in.
Gameplay concept is by far the most difficult thing and especially for attempts to combine two genres at the same time which may pose the serious problem. Other problems include the use of old-school graphics instead of remaking them into the style of KOF XIII as well as the songs from various SNK Playmore Pachinko games which may seem like a strange move for me.
Rhythm of Fighters may seem to be okay overall and especially for Metal Slug Defense which is also okay to me as well. Perhaps, SNK Playmore should try to focus on the sequels to the main series instead of the strange-ass spin-offs. KOF Sky Stage was already mediocre enough to me due to completely unacceptable gameplay concept that makes ROF kind of decent.