 The first day of location test is over for King Of Fighters XI and everyone has something to say about it, from MMC to NeoArcadia to S.-C.com to the IC forums - so here's a short(?) summary.
The game runs on AtomisWave but the graphics aren't much more impressive than those of KOF NeoWave, although the new characters are for the most part very well animated. Backgrounds and overall presentation divide people. The tournament's rules are KOF'03-like, and the gameplay only differs through minor adjunctions listed below. The biggest upset comes from the roster, as not a single team hasn't been changed - sometimes in dramatic proportions. Leona, Mai, Joe, Robert, Chang, Daimon, Jhun, Billy, Yamazaki, Chizuru and Hinako are out. Duck, B.Jenet, Kensou, Kula, Vanessa, Ramon, Kasumi and Eiji are in, as well as original characters Elisabeth, Momoko and Oswald.
The full roster is :
Ash /Oswald / Shen-Wu
K' / Kula / Maxima
Terry / Kim / Duck
B.Jenet / Gato / Griffon
Kyo / Iori / Shingo
Vanessa / Mary / Ramon
Ralf / Clark / Whip
Ryo / Yuri / King
Marin / Kasumi / Eiji
Elisabeth / Duolong / Benimaru
Athena / Kensou / Momoko
Athena is wearing a schoolgirl uniform. Kyo has his fireball back. Oswald is a fan favorite and reminds people of Groove on Fight's Bristol Weller - a nicely dressed mature man fighting with cards. Elisabeth appears to be less popular and reminds people of Kagura Mei from the Gyakuten saiban series, which means she gets to use a sort of whip to fight, although the (conveniently named) female whip-user Whip is also in the game. They only need to bring back Lenny Creston (from the Ryuukonoken/AOF series) to have a whole SNK whippin' ladies team next year. Momoko was disabled from character selection for the time being, and so were a bunch of other characters such as Duck and Eiji... as well as Iori, which some people see as a positive sign that he'll finally get some new outfit. Adel also comes back, as a mid-boss. The last boss is a female, which is a growing trend among AtomisWave games lately. She uses weapons sush as a spear, and has long hair.
Here are the original gameplay features, directly copy-pasted from Prof over at MMCafé.
Judgement System: The usual timer on the top of the screen keeps tilting towards (what the game judges as) the player that's fighting more skillfully during the match. If the match ends with a time over, the person that the timer is tilted towards will win. It's not decision by remaining life any more.
Skill Meter: Right above the usual power meter, there's an additional new bar called the "skill meter". It's used to pull off a number of systems, as decribed below. The skill meter builds up on its own as time passes by. you can stock up to 2 skill meters. Your match starts out with the 2 skill stocks full.
Button E: Thrust (good old CD) attack (also apparently used for some specials - Chaz)
A+C / B+D : Partner Change
A+C / B+D during an attack: Quick Shift (Changes to partner, requires 1 Skill stock)
A+C / B+D while getting attacked: Saving Shift (Changes to partner, requires 2 Skill stocks)
Guard Cancel Evacuation: A+B during guard (requires 1 skill stock)
Guard Cancel Thrust: E during guard (requires 1 Power stock)
Leader Super: Requires 2 Power Stock
Super Cancel (cancel special attack into super attack): Requires 1 Skill + 1 Power Stock
Dream Cancel (cancel from super attack into leader attack): Requires 1 Skill + 2 Power Stock
Someone also noted that the game crashed once, and when the game rebooted, the first logo was "Sega". More info by tomorrow and the second day of loketest.
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