Word reaches us that the official King of Fighters XII website has gone live, and packs a few nice surprises.

As well as fighter profiles and the usual multimedia you’d expect from a game-site, Ignition have announced a ‘Fan Art Contest’.

This contest, which will run from May 12 to July 31, will reward the best user-created fan art with $1,000. Runner-ups will receive consoles, games, and limited-edition figurines. All of the submissions can be found on the Fan Art section of the official KOF site.

You can check out the existing entries and get details on how to submit your own in the Fan Art section of the site.

The website also features some nice wallpapers, screenshots and a section named ‘Bloodlines’, which gives you an animated timeline explaining the history of the KOF series.

Mind you, we’ve already done our bit to bring you up to speed before, haven’t we?

So how is King of Fighters XII shaping up for you, our dear reader? Let us know in the comments…