King of Fighters XII coming 360 and PS3 in July

Ignition Entertainment have announced they will ne bringing the SNK Playmore developed King of Fighters XII to both Xbox 360 and PS3 in July 2009. The game will boast newly hand-drawn characters and backgrounds, abandoning the much vaunted sprites of the older games in the move to high resolution. The 3-on-3 fighting system will not change though, as the series gets ready to celebrate it 15th anniversary

“Our development slogan for KOFXII is ‘KOF Re-Birth’ and we’ve aimed to create an entirely new King of Fighters game. To make this a truly unique fighting game, we’ve revolutionized the graphics by creating state of the art visuals – and made no compromises in that process whatsoever,” said Masaaki Kukino, SNK Playmore.

“I couldn’t think of a more appropriate way to commemorate The King of Fighter’s 15-Year Anniversary than with a gorgeously animated, high-definition installment that updates the KOF legacy for a new generation.” comments Shane Bettenhausen, the new Business Development Director of Ignition Entertainment. “While other fighting games have abandoned the time-consuming process of creating beautiful 2D art, KOFXII fully embraces the refined aesthetic beauty that only human hands can produce.”