SNK revealed Vanessa is back inThe King of Fighters XVwith a new trailer. The first female boxer of the series and iconic fighting mom is joining theKOF XVtournament with what seems to be some new lore in store.
As always, this isKOF 15trailers we’re talking about. Made for our Twitter era of hype and constant shattered expectations, in terms of how far human stupidity can go especially. The actual gameplay shown is cut and incredibly short, we don’t see that much combos. And we still have no actual explanations of the new mechanics. With that said, the stage looks neat, Vanessa looks gorgeous, and the animations are fine.
The King of Fighters XV- Vanessa trailer
Surprisingly, Vanessa forms Team Secret Agent with Luong and Blue Mary, whose trailers are included below. We did learn that Luong works for a secret organization inKOF 14, which was her first appearance, but we didn’t learn much more there or inSNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy.
SNKofficially revealedthe following intros for the trio:
Vanessa lives a double life between being a housewife and a mercenary agent. She is highly skilled in boxing and is able to KO her opponents with ease. Her husband and kid donât know anything about her secret activities.
Blue Mary currently works as a freelance special agent. Born from a long line of famous fighters, Blue Mary excels in all fighting styles, and more particularly, in Sambo Commando, a martial art that uses striking and grappling techniques. Blue Mary has a strong bond with Terry Bogard.
Luong is a femme fatale type fighter with mysterious motives. She can and will lacerate her enemies like a whip with her long legs and her arranged tae kwon do kicking techniques. This KOF, sheâs seemingly working in opposition to her lover Gang-il and his disciple Kim, but perhaps all is not how it seemsâ¦
SNK has always been leagues ahead when it comes towriting charismatic and remarkable characters. The stories found inFatal Fury, Art of Fighting, Samurai Shodown, The Last Blade, and especiallyKOFhave always been some of the coolest stuff. I’m hype just for the story alone.
Add to the mix some Orochi Saga feel with the comeback of Chris Yashiro Shermie, and you get hordes of excited SNK boomers from Europe to South America. And I’m first in line. Fighting games are looking pretty good these days with this andMelty Bloodcoming up too.
KOF 15delayed
In case you’ve forgotten, SNK has delayedKOF XVfrom 2021 to early 2022, citing more complications due to the pandemic’s situation in Japan.The King Of Fighters XVwasfirst announcedin December 2018, for a 2020 release. It was then officially revealed in January 2021 after a delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In late 2020, SNK alsohad 33% of its shares bought by MiSK,the non-profit foundation of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, which is now the largest shareholder. Moreover, its ultimately planning to own 51% of the shares. This changes nothing for the games themselves. I definitely didn’t expect any changes to SNK IPs (censorship) as it would defeat the point of why MBS bought SNK in the first place: to look cool. With that said, this change of ownership is definitely a big bummer in my book.
