The free-to-play mobile brawler The King of Fighters ALLSTAR will finally see a global release on October 22 for Android and iOS. Developer Netmarble has announced that anyone who's itching to play the game can pre-register now, either on Netmarble's official website and or in the Google Play store.
Presumably, pre-registration will eventually be available on the iOS App Store as well, but there's no official word on that.
The game, based on the popular SNK fighting franchise, has you collecting a team from the over 200+ character roster made up of the franchise's fighters from King of Fighters '94 through King of Fighters XIV. You use these characters to battle enemies, bosses, and other players' team using combos and special moves.
The game features both competitive multiplayer and a co-op mode, where Those who pre-register will receive different "Option Cards" depending on what phone they have. iOS players will recieve a Iori Yagami Option Card, whereas Android players will get an Option Card themed after Kyo Kusanagi.
If enough players register to reach pre-set milestones, the players will recieve the following rewards:
50,000 Pre-registrations: 1x Baseball Yuri Character
150,000 Pre-registrations: 100 Rubies and 10 Rare EXP Capsules
400,000 Pre-registrations: 1x Baseball Yuri Card
700,000 Pre-registrations: 400 Rubies and 10 Plus Capsule Boxes
1,000,000 Pre-registrations: 1x 5★ Fighter Selector
Some of those goals may seem high, but Netmarble has plenty of reason to believe that The King of Fighters ALLSTAR can reach them. The game has already been released in South Korea and Japan, where it gained 14 million players and climbed to the top of the charts in the Google Play and Apple App stores.
It seems clear that the game will rely heavily on Gacha mechanics, which can sometimes get in the way of a good game. However, early previews of the gameplay seem to indicate that it holds up well on a mobile phone in spite of the team-building moneymaking scheme that the game is joining in on. Hopefully, those without the money needed to unlock the best characters will still be able to enjoy the experience.