The King of Fighters 15is doing well in reviews. It is consistent with the last game,The King of Fighters 14, which came out in 2016. Getting similar review scores to a previous game is fine, but that is presumably not what any company wants to see with their next iteration of a franchise. Sequels should push a series forward.
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If they don’t do that then that series may start to stagnate. That said, fans should know thatThe King of Fighters 15does not represent that point in SNK’s series. However, some things that were off about the 2016 game still aren’t fixed in this sequel six years later. Hopefully, these ideas can be corrected through patches.
6Add Tag Team
The King of Fighters 15features stock battles with each team choosing three fighters. As soon as one fighter falls, the match will restart with full health going to the victor and the other side getting in a new combatant. This makes the idea of team battles feel less dynamic.
Some playersmay prefer gameslikeMarvel vs Capcomthat feature tag-team combat. In that series, characters can be swapped out whenever. Characters can also be committed to assist moves. Putting tag team matches intoThe King of Fighters 15via a patch seems impossible. This might be more of a wish for a sequel or a full-blown expansion. Either way, tag teams would be great to see again.
5Add More Odd Characters
The roster has a generous amount of fighters, with 39 characters being included. There are some new characters like Isla and Dolores but the majority return from past iterations of the series. The one downside to this roster is the lack of weird characters. For instance, Meitenkun is an oddball fighter who uses some form of sleeping martial arts. There is also Dinosaur who is a wrestler disguised as a dinosaurin the story.
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SNK has already announced plans for future DLC with more characters, and the first wave looks good but mild. Hopefully, the next DLC will be wilder. Add in some chibi modelsfrom older gameslikeMetal Slug. Seeing Marco or Fio from that series take on more serious fighters like Terry Bogard would be hilarious. Along with fighters,The King of Fighters 15could use more stages.
4Add Photo Mode
Most AAA action games have photo modes in them. Fighting games lack this feature more commonly though.Super Smash Bros.is theone big seriesthat comes to mind. Photo modes are a fun way for companies to give players an incentive to share their experiences online. A good screenshot sent out to Twitter or Instagram could blow up the internet.
One never knows until they try. This could help get companies free publicity, even if it might not be the main reason photo modes are included in games. Nevertheless,The King of Fighters 15does not have a photo mode, and it should.
3Tweaks To Tutorials
There are two ways to train inThe King of Fighters 15. First, there is a tutorial mode. If players jump into it, the game will go through step-by-step instructions on how to execute basic moves from light punches to strong kicks. There is no way for the game to teach individual fighters their special moves though. Players can’t even choose who they play as or who they fight against.
Training mode features more customizable options. Players can choose to have opponents fight back or stay still. They can even choose whether they stand or crouch. The options are more robust but there is not a step-by-step method in this mode either. It would be nice if these two modes could be combined and also fleshed out in a patch.
2Add English Audio
The King of Fighters 15predominantly features Japanese audio. This is true for matches andthe story mode, although some fighters do speak English to match their native origins in the lore. It can be quite jarring since 95% of the cast do speak in Japanese only.
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It would be nice to see the game receive a full dub in a future patch. Some players may be even willing to pay for this feature as DLC, although getting it for free would be a nice gesture from the developer. Thesubs vs dubsdebate will always be around.
1A More Involved Story Mode
Adding in English audio would be great but more so than that,the story coulduse an overhaul. There are 39 characters in the game divided up into thirteen teams. The story mode only features two of those teams. It doesn’t matter which characters players choose to fight, the story will always be the same. Characters chosen may say something different before a match and there are character-specific endings.
These endings are no more than a static image or two with a few words. Overall,The King of Fighters 15’s story mode feels like its budget was cut. Since the story has two teams featured now, there should be at least five more scenarios added into future updates or DLC packs. That will leave one team of the thirteen out, but that is better than leaving out eleven.
The King of Fighters 15was released on August 05, 2025 and is available onPC,PS4,PS5,Xbox One, andXbox Series X.
