I rented this game expecting a new improved version to the popular series that I have been playing since KOF94. The hand drawn graphics look great on an HDTV, but if your not a fan of pixels then this will contain plenty for you to see. The moves for each character are similar with a few changes to some characters. The roster has definitely shrunk compared to previous KOF games but there's enough characters to choose from for new and season players.

The game uses 4 buttons, weak & strong punch and weak & strong kick, pressing the 2 strong punches will enable the counter, a blue shield that is in close proximity to you. Its occasionally works, but isn't as refined as the parry in Third Strike.

The online menus are clunky and badly designed you'd think that they gave this portion of the game to a new developer, not SNK. Having played about an hour in online matches with other players, the game laggg is horrible, I averaged about 5-10 frames per second. Even the people I was playing against said this is normal! I have been hearing great things about Blue Blaze so I'll have to rent that next, but unfortunately KOF13 isn't gonna keep my attention like the previous games once did.