Well, I went to the local arcade yesterday to play some Samurai Spirits Tenka, and was pleasantly surprised to find that they now have a KOF XI machine as well.
Much like how KOF '97 improved on KOF '96's new game play additions and KOF 2000 improved on KOF '99, KOF XI takes the basic game play system from KOF 2003 and refines it, adding some new techniques in the process. The team-switching is now more like the Marvel Vs. games or SNK's own NGBC in that you no longer need to wait for a tag meter to be filled up to switch fighters; you can now change fighters at any time during the matches, although there is a brief animation of your current character stopping to call out the next character before the tag is made, making you vulnerable to attacks, and if you're hit, the switch will be cancelled.
You can also switch in characters during combos or supers to continue doing damage similar to last year's game, which will clearly become the deciding factor in who wins and who the best chararacters are later on.
The character roster is great this year, and has finally been shaken up. KOF veteran characters like Choi, Chang, Chin, Joe, Robert, Leona, Takuma, Andy, and Mai are gone, as are Jhun Hoon, Billy Kane, Hinako, and Ryuji Yamazaki.
In their place, Kasumi Todoh, B. Jenet, Duck King, Eiji Kisaragi, Sie Kensou, and three new characters have been added. A number of characters have also gotten redrawn or altered sprites (Kensou looks much better now), as well as some new attacks. Since some of the more notoriously-outdated sprites like Chang and Mai are gone, the look of the game isn't quite as dated anymore, especially with the characters blending in so well against the game's high res backgrounds. There are still some characters in need of new looks, like Blue Mary and Iori, however.
Of the new additions, I only found myself not particularly impressed with Momoko, the Capoierra girl. Not only does her sprite art look bad and not fit in with the rest of the characters, but she didn't seem that fun to use. Oswald (he's the guy in the suit with the red glasses) and Elisabeth (she uses a riding crop as a weapon) are both awesome new characters and seemed to be very powerful; wouldn't be surprised if they end up being among the top tier characters. Duck King and Eiji are AWESOME, as is Kensou.
The only NPCs (some of which I'm sure will be unlocked later) I fought against were Adel (mid boss), the Chinese kempo character (Shion?), who had some very cool attacks and animations; she actually uses both hand techniques and has various weapons thrown to her to use during the match, and the final (?) boss, who killed me very quickly in typical cheap SNK-boss fashion, and is quite easily the worst/stupidest character design in any KOF game.
It was hard to hear the music, but it sounded far better than the previous KOF games since 2000. Very catchy tunes and lots of bass from what I could hear.
Overall I came away very impressed with KOF XI and will definitely be spending a lot of time at the arcades playing it. While I like what they did with the roster (although I'd like to see Mai come back...maybe in the home version?), I still like the roster in Neo-Geo Battle Colliseum much better. KOF XI felt like a tighter game and I prefer its game play to NGBC's, however.