Oof, fourteen? The Japanese really love their hammy one-on-one beat-em-ups.

And KoF isn't exactly designed for the gamer who's a little sniffy about Anime in all its giggly doe-eyed nonsensically dressed forms. All the usual tropes are wheeled out in an impressive character roster of 50. Scantily clad fan-wavers, impossibly buff monstrosities and surprisingly agile elderly battlers... it's Japanese animation writ large.

Of course, each has his/her/its signature move, terrifying weakness and goofy subtitled chatter. The King of Fighters novice (good luck...) will have to plough through the fight tutorial as button-mashing will only get you through the first couple of rounds.

It's big, dumb fun, with some pretty tight fight mechanics and a lag-less (in my experience, anyway) online matchmaking scuffles. Sure it's not the prettiest but the simplistic backgrounds and rough-as-guts models conjure the welcome stench of a musty arcade carpet.

Unpolished guilty pleasures lie within.