Yeah, That Combos! - In King of Fighters XIII the mainstays for KoF games are all present. The ability to run and hyper-hop/small jump remain intact. What differentiates this version is the Drive Cancel system along with HD mode. The Drive Cancel system allows the player to cancel a special move into a different special move at the cost of a single green bar. HD mode improves on this by being able to cancel into specials repeatedly at the cost of two green bars for a given duration. This leads to a very creative combo system that can be both stylish and extremely rewarding given the amount of execution required to pull it off. While being known for requiring an offensive style of gameplay, there are an adequate amount of options available for defense. Players are allowed to use a “blow back” move to get the opponent off of them, or use a roll during block stun to evade or punish an unsafe move. Both options require 1 meter to use.

Teach Me, Master - Thankfully, SNK took notes from KoF XII's drawbacks. To go along with the new combo system, SNK has included a mission mode which includes 10 trials for each character. The first few are relatively simple and give the player an idea of how the juggle system works and what each character can do, while the last couple of trials require an extremely high level of execution to pull off. This helps give a level of challenge which, in my opinion, exceeds the difficulty of Super Street Fighter IV AE. Also, in case you are having difficulty with the concept of how the combo is done, there is a demo of each trial to show you how it should be pulled off, which is very helpful and appreciated!

...That's a Guy? - Story isn't too considered too important in fighting games but is still a valuable component when executed correctly. While playing through story mode, each character will converse with their opponent, as opposed using the same old "fighting stance" entrance. Story mode also contains cutscenes that progress the story along. Finishing the story mode will rewards you wth an ending that range from sad to hilarious but all excellent. The endings alone made me feel satisfied with the purchase. Capcom hasn't advanced their story much in Street Fighter, so it was welcome to see the story move along with KoF XIII. 

ROYAL PAIN

Who Turned On the Lag Switch? - King of Fighters games have never had good netcode, and its a pattern that is unfortunately continued with XIII. You can enter a match that shows as 4 bar code, only to see it downgrade when the game starts to 3 bars and degrade even further. Atlus and SNK have stated that they are working on patching the net code and rumors report that it is rolling out in UK/Europe. UPDATE: The net code patch has been released for PSN users, still too early to tell if its a significant improvement but at least there are more match preferences available.

You Want Me to Pay for That? - Having additional characters available after release is an exciting concept. Where it gets murky is when you have to pay for that content. Things get awkward when its an alternate version of a character already in the game. Right now the downloadable content features NESTS Kyo, Flame Iori, and Mr. Karate. They are different enough to warrant a slot, but if you're paying for an additional character it'd be preferable to be an entirely new character, or at least someone not already in the cast. 

I know Mortal Kombat recently won the OG Award for the best fighting game of 2011, but I'm going to have to side with King of Fighters XIIIon this one. It does a lot of things right, and is just a blast to play. Casual gamers might be turned off by the learning curve, but I believe that if they stick through it and learn the system they'll be pleasantly surprised with this deep and very fun game.