Doodle - KOF XI Athena Asamiya (Patreon)

 In the late 2004/early 2005, owners of arcade places realized that it was way cheaper having TVs with some consoles rather than huge machines with single games, so the arcades era was oficially over. During this time I was a huge fan of PS2 because it had the best exclusives, and the best part was that all the PS2 could read pirate games so it was cheaper to get the games I wanted (I regret nothing... besides, nowadays I only buy original games... not that I have other choice ^^; ).

During that era I finally bought my long waited KOF 2000, still I couldn't play it in my house 'cause I didn't have a PS2 back then. But I also discovered some new The King of Fighters games: KOF Neowave which was "meh" and KOF: Maximum Impact, which, you know... existed, and later that year, the one that surprised me the most: KOF XI.

What can I say about KOF XI? Well, it was the final main KOF using the classic sprites, and what a way tho go.  I think that the classic sprites reached the perfection here. Characters such as Oswald, Momoko and Shion had beautiful animations. The presentation was pretty good too, I loved the art style, the gameplay was as good as KOF 2003. B. Jenet and Hotaru Futaba, my MVP from Garou were in here as well! Tons of hidden content such as galleries and characters, and probably the best episode in the "Ash Saga". Yeah, my friends, KOF XI is in my Top 3 The King of Fighters games... *sigh* I wish there was a port of this game for PS4 :(

This game could have been my new favorite in the franchise, but 3 details "ruined" that honor:

3. The soundtrack was forgettable.
2. The Final Boss: Magaki was one of the cheapest, most annoying and ridiculously unfair final bosses in the entire franchise! You think Rugal and Igniz were cheap? Try to say the same when you have the screen full of projectiles comming from all directions!! SO F*CKING UNFAIR!!
1. And the last, and let's be honest less, important reason: I HATED Athena's new costume. I mean, a school? uniform?! How lazy is that?! Also, by this point Athena should be in her late 20s, how in the name of god is she using a school uniform?! and the worst thing is that after this game school uniforms are the only costumes Athena uses! I hate that!!

But yeah, besides that, KOF XI was the percfect farewell to the classic KOFs. After that there was some new revisions, KOF: Maximum Impact 2, and, finally, in 2009: KOF XII... ohhhhh boy, KOF XII. I'll talk about it later.

^^ Hope you like it.