Our latest look at the upcoming fighting game shows off the new trio of main heroes, including a kid with the power of sleep-fu!
Just the other day, SNK and Atlas released the demo of King of Fighters XIV. We’re just over a month away from its release and now we get the eleventh team profile. Oddly enough, they waited all this time to put a spotlight on Team China, which is supposed to be the "hero team" of the next several games.
Then again, it might have to do with Shun’Ei being one of the seven playable characters in the new demo. Strike while the iron's hot.
Team China is made up of Tung Fu Rue, Shun’Ei, and Meitenkun. You can see them pull off their big moves right here.
Tung Fu Rue was introduced in Fatal Fury: King of Fighters in 1991 as the old master character. He trained Geese Howard and Jeffrey Bogard back in the day, then helped train Terry Bogard on his quest for revenge. Tung Fu Rue’s appeared in various Fatal Fury games and was reintroduced for the SNK crossover fighter SNK Battle Coliseum. SNK later took those same new sprites and added him as an extra character in the home port of King of Fighters XI. That’s his lone appearance in the King of Fighters series outside of showing up in backgrounds.
Shun’Ei is the series’ new protagonist. As a child, his parents abandoned him due to his powers manifesting. Said powers allow him to control fire and ice in the form of giant hands. Tung Fu Rue took him in, raised him, and taught him how to control his powers.
Shun’Ei is incredibly fun and easy to play as in the demo and his design is very reminiscent of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.
Lastly, there’s Meitenkun. You always see young people in these stories being trained in kung fu or karate or what have you. But what happens when you want to train someone in drunken boxing and they’re too young to drink? Well, then you get Meitenkun. Instead of being drunk and using that to screw with your head, he’s just very, very sleepy. You got one guy using an actual wrecking ball as a weapon, then you have this dude with his pillow.
There are five teams left to be shown off. Here’s who else we have to look forward to:
Team Psycho Soldier: A drunken master and his two magical students. One of which is a pop star.
Team Another World: Three women from different SNK properties who don’t quite fit into the King of Fighters canon, but show up anyway.
Team Woman Fighters: As it sounds, a trio of women who fight (though I suppose it could also sound like a trio of people who fight women). Mainly for mainstays who don’t fit into any of the other teams. Also to include an overzealous Terry Bogard fangirl.
Team Ikari: Three heroic mercenaries, two of which coming from the old Ikari Warriorsseries.
Team K’: A team of escaped experiments who travel together after taking down the organization that created them.
King of Fighters XIV will be released for PlayStation 4 on August 23.
Gavin Jasper thinks it’s weird that Tung Fu Rue, Geese Howard, Terry Bogard, and Shun’Ei don’t exactly fight the same. Maybe Tung is just a life coach. Follow Gavin on Twitter!
