Ahead of the Game - The King of Fighters AFK is effortless feel-good fighting fix in chibi form

• Bountiful rewards and quick progression
• Collect KOF heroes and clear many, many stages
• Plenty of summons to build your squad

Hello and welcome to Ahead of the Game, a series where we tell you all about an upcoming game that, despite not being out yet, is available for you to play at the time of publishing. Through this series, you can grab a chance to play games well ahead of their release date, be that through Soft Launch, Open Beta, Demos, or more.

Ah, the glory of regional launches. By virtue of location alone, I've somehow gotten my clammy hands on The King of Fighters AFK, which is now in Early Access in my region. 

While Netmarble's pixel-art idle RPG isn't a beat-em-up or a fighting game this time around, it certainly carries over that arcade spirit with its visuals and oh-so-lovely sounds.

As you can expect from the title alone, this rowdy romp will have you collecting your favourite KOF characters but in chibi form, and with lots and lots (and lots) of summons to boot.

Yes, it's still all about the luck of the draw here when it comes to the gacha, but it's not as unforgiving as your standard gacha fare, as you can keep summoning continuously thanks to the generous rewards and currencies the RPG chucks at you at every turn.

And because it's an idle game, you can expect a massive load of goodies and rewards as you progress, with cool equipment you can use to buff up your squad and bountiful EXP potions you'll need to take down those street thugs like a boss.

There's easy progression, raid dungeons for resources, one-tap level-ups, and automated toggles for clearing boss fights to move on to the next stage.

It all plays very similarly to Summoners War: Rush (I'm working on a review for that one, so if you're curious, do consider checking that out too once it's done!), but what stood out to me most as I hopped from one location to the next in the campaign mode is actually the story. 

Apparently, you play as an unwitting arcade player who somehow gets a mysterious invitation, and now you can help your KOF characters with their quest to win the tournament in a hilarious, almost fourth-wall-breaking way. And if I'm going to be playing just another idle game out there, I'd rather it have a pretty entertaining story I can bite into while I'm at it.

So, how do you play The King of Fighters AFK?

In the meantime, you can pre-register on the official website to get first dibs on the launch, which likely won't be long now!

Download now!

King of Fighters AFK