[7] The King of Fighters XII received a lukewarm reception, with criticism given to elements such as its roster, gameplay and lack of single-player content.

The new "Guard Attack" feature allows a fighter to intercept and hit an incoming opponent's strike damage-free (even Desperation Moves can be repelled in this fashion).

[12] Due to half of the intended roster being scrapped from development, KOF XII does not feature any of the pre-defined teams traditionally featured in the series, despite presence of members from recurring teams such as the ones from the Orochi Saga, the scrapped characters would later make their way in the roster of KOF XIII.

[13] The home versions feature two additional characters: Mature, one of Iori Yagami's teammates from The King of Fighters '96, and Elisabeth Blanctorche, who starred in KOF XI as the leader of the Rivals Team.

[14] On February 14, 2008, the first gameplay footage was revealed, showcasing the new, much larger, higher-resolution sprites at the Arcade Operators Union Amusement Expo (AOU) 2008.

The SNK staff decided to create the new graphics during 2005 and 2006, and commented that they spent more than three times longer developing it than the previous game.

[3] Shane Bettenhausen, Director of Business Development with Ignition, commented that they made the release worldwide in order to commemorate The King of Fighter's 15th anniversary.

[16] The game underwent a complete graphical overhaul, confirmed by Nona, artist in charge of the art in The King of Fighters XI endings.

However, due to the difficulties that it took to make this new designs, there were only 20 playable characters for the arcade version, the lowest number ever in a game from the series.

In comparison to KOF XI, which used different artists for introductions, backgrounds, winning poses, etc., all of illustrations of this game will be made by Nona since the staff wanted to make the drawings more united.

[22][23] When the two surveys ended, Ignition started two new ones, in which people had to vote between the previous winners and the Japanese covers from the game for both consoles.

[35] On the other hand, in the Game Critics Awards from the E3 2009, KOF XII lost to Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars in the same category.

Like Clements, Li found the gameplay similar to previous titles from the series, but noted that SNK added new revisions which make the game to be "a new experience.

"[39] McKinley Noble from GamePro also liked the game's graphics, but most notably the background scenery of a European villa, which he noted to be a good example of the new design.

[42] However, he liked the cast of playable character as well as the addition of Elizabeth and Mature to the home versions due their new designs and fighting styles.

Graphics were commented to be initially good, but later criticized due how different some characters look in this game from previous KOF titles.

Although he also added that KOF XII "is a good enough start", he remarked that other fighting games such as Street Fighter IV or BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger were more entertaining.

[29][30] SNK Playmore developed the cellphone series KOFXII Tokusetsu Corner for Yahoo and imode networks on August 1, 2008.

[45] Months later, SNK published these novelizations in the official website from the game along with the addition of new ones based on Athena Asamiya, Shen Woo and Kim Kaphwan.