It was only a matter of time, but the wait for fan-favorite Mai Shiranui to be revealed in King of Fighters XIV is finally over.
A series staple from inception, Mai is a sexy ninja who uses her body and scant apparel to distract her opponents while she employs her ninjutsu and pyrokinesis to overwhelm her opponents with speed and acrobatics.
In this week’s KOF character trailer, Mai faces off against series newcomer Banderas Hattori, who wants to take Mai as his mentor.
In that, this trailer is the first to actually show some kind of meaningful exchange between the characters it shows off; however, with a criminally short run time of 46 seconds (including two splash screens), not much else has time to flesh itself out.
From what little is shown, Mai seems to retain the somewhat tricky and acrobatic style she had in KOF XIII with her trademark elbow dash and flourishing fire-based attacks.
On the other hand, Banderas, being a new character, gave at least some fresh information. Though there is little to go on due to the short runtime of the trailer, Banderas seems to be a speed-based fighter with an emphasis on acrobatics and trickery. On paper, the style seems a bit generic for a ninja character, but he does seem stylish in both his movements and appearance.
There are still several characters that SNK has yet to reveal for KOF XIV, so here’s hoping for more interesting newcomers and more interaction in trailers to go with them.
King of Fighters XIV is a PS4 exclusive title developed by SNK Playmore and published by Atlus in the Americas – it is set to be released within the year.
