AtomicGamer writes: "King of Fighters XII is just not ambitious enough of a project. If this were a highly successful series with millions of sales, maybe SNK could get away with this middling revival of classic action. But a lot of the love of the classic games has been squandered in this half-hearted attempt to fix what, for the most part, wasn't broken. I do hope that this isn't the end for King of Fighters and that SNK goes back to the drawing board to deliver the best game in the series yet".