The King of Fighters AFK promises us two things we love: a mobile RPG and the characters from The King of Fighters

Fighting games and mobile devices don’t get along too well. With the proliferation of controllers and other peripherals that make playing on your mobile no different from doing it on consoles, this might be different, but that’s not what happens with the average player. Most people still play without any added devices. That’s why fighting games on mobile never really take off, and their developers look for alternative ways to approach such an enticing market.

This has been the case with SNK. Aware that The King of Fighters is too complex for the possible controls on a mobile, they have decided to create a mobile game that works better with the idiosyncrasies of the same. Something that has led them to make The King of Fighters AFK. A very interesting twist not only to the KOF formula but also to RPGs.

Announced during the last Tokyo Game Show and developed by Netmarble, The King of Fighters AFK is an RPG that, as its name suggests, does not require you to be playing for your characters to continue leveling up. Even while you are not playing, the characters you have active will continue to accumulate experience, making the mere passage of time cause your characters to become stronger over time. However, that will not be enough to win.

With a pixel-art aesthetic inspired by The King of Fighters R-2 and Neo Geo Pocket Colour games in general, this is a game that revolves around 5 vs. 5 battles and deck building. So, even if your characters improve without you having to interact with them, you will still need to know how to play to make the most of those juicy levels you’ve achieved while doing other things.

Registration for The King of Fighters AFK is now available on both Android via Google Play and iOS through the App Store. If you register now, you will also receive 3,000 summoning opportunities, offering you a generous amount of gacha spins that will make it much more likely for you to get the powerful character you so desire. Or the character you’ve been playing for so many years that cannot be missing from your squad.