Investigating King of Fighters

[Discoalucard]

So I want to maybe start an article about King of Fighters. Something that catalogued all of the characters and really went into depth on the evolution of the art/music/gameplay would be really interesting. However, I'm only more familiar with the recent entries, so I'm trying to gather together facts about all of them. Here's what I'm familiar with:

KoF 94 - The initial game, meant to be a crossover between Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting. Restricted to picking a set team of three characters as opposed to picking individually, which is kind of crap. Introduced Kyo Kusanagi, the hero of the series, as well as the shameful Sports team, which were (mostly) never heard from again.

KoF 95 - Lifted the restrictions to let you make your own team. Generally regarded as the first "good" King of Fighters and mostly known for being the only installment with Eiji, at least until XI rolled around. I'm pretty sure this is where Iori first appeared, and introduced th Orochi storyline.

KoF 96 - Boss team! Introduced Leona too, as broken as she was.

KoF 97 - Focused on the Orochi team. Has very little music which kinda sucks. Brought back more old characters like Billy Kane, Blue Mary and Yamazaki.

KoF 98 - A Dream Match with nearly all of the characters from the old games, minus bosses. Generally regarded as one of the best.

KoF 99 - Focuses on the NESTs storyline. The new Hero is K', along with some other folks like Vanessa and Seth. Introduces the striker system. I always felt the graphical and music style was a bit darker than all of the others.

KoF 2000 - Expands more on the strikers, mostly, with a ton of cameos. Adds Kula as the "anti-K'".

KoF 2001 - Retools the strikers again and also introduces a ratio system a la Capcom Vs SNK 2. Known for having terrible graphics, artwork, and music. I think this is the first Eolith developed KoF which accounts for it's quality. New characters are also kinda weird/lame. (I think these were May Lee, Foxy, K9999 and Angel.)

KoF 2002 - Another Dream Match, this time assembling characters old and new, although it's still far from comprehensive. Still has crappy music, although it's a step up from 01.

KoF 2003 - Introduces tag battles, which is awesome. Also starts a whole new storyline, as well as the new "hero" Ash. Starts weaving more Mark of the Wolves characters into the game with Tizoc and Gato.

KoF Neowave - "Transition" game for the Atomiswave that is pretty much just 98/02 again. Still crappy music, but does have Young Geese, his only appearance outside of AoF2.

KoF XI - Continues the tag system and storyline from 2003. Even more Garou characters (B. Jenet, Hotaru in the PS2 versions) but removes some series faves like Joe, Leona and Mai (who is back in the PS2 versions). Regarded by many so far as one of the best as well.

There's also two Neo Geo Pocket Color games, at least one Gameboy game, that Quiz Fighters (??), the strange life sim/RPG King of Fighters Kyo, the two 3D Maximum Impact games and...I'm sure there are others.

Now, other things that need fleshing out - what are the "system" differences between the games? Like I know KoF 98 has two different power charging systems, taken from older games, but which ones? Also, which bosses go to which games? (Goenitz = 96, Krizalid = 99, Zero = 00, Igniz = 01, I get shaky from there)

[MRSKELETON]

www.emusaylum.com

Download them there i guess is all i can say

[Discoalucard]

Oh I have them all in some form or another, I'm just hoping people could fill in the blanks where I'm missing stuff.

[Neo Rasa]

KoF 94 - Also introduced Rugal Bernstein, Choi Bounge and Change Koehan. Heidern appears here first as well (though there's a guy that looks just like him giving you your orders between each mission in Chopper I, and old SNK shmup, this eyepatched fellow is also seen in the intro for the NES version of Ikari Warriors III: The Rescue).

KoF 95 - Yup, Iori first appears here on the Geese team. I believe in the storylines Geese is invited to every KoF until Real Bout 2 happens, he just only bothers to participate himself instead of fielding cronies in '96 because he wanted the Orochi power. Of course when you beat the game he dismisses it as "nothing worth writing home about after all." because he's that awesome.


KoF 96 - Correct about Leona, interestingly she was originally designed to be on the Psycho Soldiers team and replace Chin Gentsai, though Gentsai gained enough popularity over Heidern that they made her an Ikari Warrior instead for '96. '96 also has the first appearance of Chizuru Kagura and Goenitz. Vice and Mature also make their first playable appearances here. Mature first appears in KoF'94 in cutscenes, and Vice in '95. Both are Orochi descended characters sent to work for/keep an eye over Rugal by Goenitz.


KoF 97 - '97 has the Orochi versions of Leona and Iori, totally rad.


KoF 99 - Vanessa and Seth don't really appear until King of Fighters 2000. Their only appearance in '99 is as extra strikers in the non-Neo Geo ports. The style is a lot darker. It has the smallest roster of any KoF since '94 but the tradeoff is VERY good animation.


KoF 2000 - The animation quality is worse here, all the effort went towards Zero's awesome blade cape.


KoF 2001 - You're right about the new characters and this is the first KOF by Eolith. The animation on the new characters is actually quite good, but the backgrounds and music, arg.


KoF 2002 - This game has significantly good and fast gameplay compared to 2001. It's very awesome. The original versions lack Shingo and King, who were added in as unlockables in the Dreamcast/PS2 ports.

[Deleted]

Yay! KoF thread! I shall now list my most to least favored King of Fighters games, just because I've wanted to do so for a while now.

2003: The last game on the Neo Geo is also the best, in my opinion. For the first time since 96, it feels as if the series has really received a serious makeover. The graphics and gameplay just seem much cleaner that its predecessors, and FINALLY, I can tag in fighters a'la Marvel vs. Capcom! Not to mention that this is the greatest roster, in my opinion. Lessee... New Hero Team is weird at first, but turns out to be real awesome and powerful... Andy (whom I've grown to like lately but is my least favorite on the KoF team) has been eschewed for badass Tizoc... Choi (whom not many people really like) has been ditched for bitchin' Jhun... THE OUTLAWS TEAM. Best damn team ever, IMO. Some tout it to be "broken," mostly because of Duo Lon, but I don't really see how it's any less fair than the other games. What a way to go out on the good ol' NG!

2000: My second favorite for introducing several awesome characters (including hyper-sexy Vanessa and badass agent Seth), having great graphics and the best music in the series (tied with 99), and also improving the Striker system, which grew on me over time. It certainly feels like one of the most balanced KoF games, and as the last one made by the original SNK, it really delivered. I still don't quite get the Battle Ability point system, but oh well.

1998: Generally regarded by many to be the best in the series, I must say that it has an impressive roster and still clings on to that nostalgic feeling in the first four games. With colorful graphics and many tunes that we're all familiar with at this point, it was the last of the "old-school" games, and it really went out with an explosion with a bigass dream match to unite just about every character in the series! Well... except for the Boss Team, dangit. It may not have made any significant gameplay changes from 97, but I still think it rules nonetheless.

2002: I mostly give this one credit for having the largest freaking roster in the entire series (which totals to a staggering 49 on the console versions!) and improving on its predecessor in just about every way possible, proving that although the original SNK had disbanded, the KoF name lives on! They may not be the best graphics, and the original music is just okay, but at least the gameplay is as solid as ever. Plus, some of the Hyper Desperation Moves just look really cool.

1999: The series turns to a darker style in the Millenium Battle, and although some were a bit put off with the Striker system and the lack of characters compared to 98, at least it's a big change! The graphics are just incredible and the new style of music just KICKS ASS! 99 and 2000 have the best music in the series for my money. I didn't understand the Battle Ability system entirely (just seems a bit arbitrary to me), and I still don't, but points barely matter. I came to win, not to score!

1996: The series received a huge tooling in 96, and it finally felt like it could compete with Street Fighter. With many of the characters we all know and heart today, and with the stellar graphics and rocking music that are expected, blue skies were ahead of the series. Plus, I give it bonus points for having the BOSS TEAM of Geese, Krauser, and Mr. Big. Three total badasses (yes, I even like Krauser) teaming up for the sake of evilness! I would complain about the lack of Geese, but since he's been making appearances as a hidden character lately, I've shut my yap.

1997: The gameplay was improving steadily (what with the ability to choose from the classic 'Extra' style or the modern 'Advanced' style) and the graphics were still awesome. But I really like the music in this series, and the fact that only a few characters had their themes and the rest was left to ambience... well, it sounds cool sometimes, but I prefer to have kickass music along with my fighting! Other than that, the game is tops, and while the Boss Team was disbanded, it DID have the excellent team of Billy, Mary, and YAMAZAKI.

1995: Many bitched about not being able to mix and match fighters in 94. Welp, their prayers have been answered! It also took out the dubious Sports team and replaced them with the matchup of Billy, Eiji, and the first appearance of Iori freakin' Yagami. Other than that, the roster was absolutely unchanged, which made it feel a bit samey to 94. Certainly not a bad game, but the series would have a bit of a ways to go at this point before it started to kick some serious ass.

1994: For the very first KoF game (not counting Fatal Fury), I'll give SNK some leniency for not being able to mix and match teammates. At the time, it was looked at as one of the greatest fighters of all time, but is VERY dated today. I do still like to play it every now and then for nostalgic purposes, but it had been outdone by itself in the years to come. I haven't played Re-Bout, but I don't expect much. And....... well, I SORT of like the Sports team. Don't tell me you haven't thought of saying, "Your character may be a martial arts master able to shoot fire, but I kicked your ass with a BASKETBALL PLAYER!" ;D

2001: And at the bottom of the list is what many call the worst KoF of all time, a consensus that I agree on. The graphics are just plain horrendous. The animation isn't bad, but the character portraits are fugly and I'd much prefer the old-school graphics of 94 and 95 to the ultra-bland backgrounds. And what is this generic techno booshit? I'd much rather have the ambience of 97 over this! The Striker system became worthless when the same bar used for more useful things like Desperation Moves and Super Cancels also depleted after calling in a Striker! And I haven't complained about the bosses up to this point. They're all cheap in their own way, but Original Zero and Igniz, badass as they may be, are no fucking fun to fight! Though... I will give it credit for three things. 1: In no other place in the series can you pit one uber-strong character against four weaklings. 2: It was the first one to be made after SNK's departure, so I'll grant leniency on that. And 3: It's still KoF, and thus, it's still good. Just not as good as the rest of the series.

And I highly await to play KoF XI, which looks to be even better than 2003! Sure, there's no Yamazaki, but there IS Duck freaking King! No Leona... but there's B. Jenet! One psycho for another, one tough and hot female for another! And I have no excuse for missing out on the console versions, seeing as how Mai, Robert, Geese, Tung, Hotaru, NESTS Kyo, and MR. DAMNING BIG as secret characters. The overall roster turns out to be 47, almost as big as the console versions of 2002! YIPES!

Does anyone think that the Orochi Collection and the NESTS Collection will ever be released over in America? That would just be super... but not bloody likely.

[ReyVGM]

"KoF 94 - The initial game, meant to be a crossover between Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting."

Actually, the real first King of Fighters history-wise is Fatal Fury. The game is called Fatal Fury: King of Fighters.

"There's also two Neo Geo Pocket Color games, at least one Gameboy game, that Quiz Fighters (??), the strange life sim/RPG King of Fighters Kyo, the two 3D Maximum Impact games and...I'm sure there are others."

The two NGP/NGPC games are loosely based on NG ones, but dialogue is different.
There are 2 GB/GBC ones, KOF 95 (got released in the USA too) and KOF96.
2 for the GBA also, KOF EX 1 & 2, with new characters not found on the NG versions. The Japanese KOF EX2 has extra alternative endings (2 or something) that the american version doesn't have.
KOF97 also has 3 endings (huge boobed mai) that were not translated for the english versions ( I have the images if you want them)

I hated the NESTS saga, too many cloning crap.
Too many loose ends too, lots of stories that never got concluded too many endings that went nowhere. In contrast with Street Fighter endings, KOF endings really meant something and were generally a taste of what was to come story-wise on the next game.

www.arcade-history.com has a lot of KOF trivia, there's always wikipedia too and gamefaqs with its countless story, character backgrounds and endings faqs. There a 600kb story faq by Klandis, that should net all the story info you could need.

"Also, which bosses go to which games?"
You can find that info on each game's faq on gamefaqs or the endings pages at vgm or arcade history.com which has all that info (or just download the history.dat for your windows mame to get all the info right in the emulator)

[Discoalucard]

Oh yeah, I forgot about the EX games on the GBA. The first one was kinda lame but it did have Geese and a Sakura ripoff called Moe. EX2 was quite a bit better and added two new characters. Both were kinda sorta based off 2000 IIRC. (EX1 may have been 99, I can't remember)

[Neo Rasa]

As far as the bosses go, I can tell you from memory.

KoF'94:
Rugal Bernstein and then Omega Rugal after you've defeated him once.

KoF'95
Saishu Kusanagi and then Omega Rugal.

KoF'96
The Boss Team (Mr. Big, Wolfgang Krauser and Geese Howard), then Chizuru Kagura, then Goenitz.

KoF'97
Riot of the Blood version of either Leona or Iori Yagami (depending on if you get there without using any continues) followed by Riot of the Blood versions of the Orochi team (Chris, Yashiro Nanakase, Shermie) followed by Orochi itself.

KoF'98
Nothing fancy, just Omega Rugal. You can confront Shingo Yabuki beforehand if you're good.

KoF'99
Two forms of Krizalid. Depending on your continues and you Battle Ability score you can confront the real Kyo Kusanagi (known as Shin Kyo) as well. In the arcade releases this Shin Kyo along with Iori Yagami are unlockable characters rather than being choosable by default in the home ports.

KoF 2000
You'll fight Kula Diamond and then Zero.

KoF 2001
You'll fight Original Zero and then Igniz. Original Zero is AWESOME. His music is nice and his special moves involve gogeously animated cronies coming in and doing stuff.

KoF 2002
Omega Rugal

KoF 2003
Depending on your team and your continue status you can confront both of the Kagura sisters, a version of Kyo, and then finally Kunai.

KoF XI
I never played it.



KoFEX1 is a steaming pile of feces made by Marvelous, a company previously known for various dating sims. EX2 was done by the same people that made KoF'94 and '95 which is why it's awesome. Both are heavily based on KoF 2000 though EX1's menues and select screen (along with a couple of backgrounds) are borrowed from KoF'99. Moe Habana is in both of them. EX2 also has a Yashiro/Ralf badass brawler type named Reiji on their team. Along with two new female characters on Iori's team, Jun and Miu. One is a low stamina projectile character themed around ravens while the other is a brawling type somewhat reminiscent of Vanessa.



If you do an article on Samurai Shodown (or vice versa), note that Nakoruru is a hidden character in the GB KoF'95. The GB KoF'96 as OROCHI IORI AND OROCHI LEONA as unlockable characters which is totally rad. This version also has a ton of extra endings and boss fights (many teams result in you battling an arch enemy after you fight Orochi). The best is if you beat the game with Terry/Andy/Geese, you have a final battle where you control just Terry/Andy and get to fight Geese.

Also Iori is hidden in Real Bout FFSpecial on the GB.

Finally, you know how there's a different quote in KoF'94 for every combination of team defeating team, and in SNK vs. Capcom and AoF2 there's also unique dialogue for every combination of player vs. player? SNK has done that in every fighting game they've ever done since AoF2, they just don't translate 95% of the win quotes. It would be cool if someone went through and translated them, especially for the storyline-relevant games.

Nothing beats Takuma going "Jeff must be crying in heaven" to the Fatal Fury team in '94 for gratuitous cruelty.

[recap]

reyvgm said:

"KoF 94 - The initial game, meant to be a crossover between Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting."

Actually, the real first King of Fighters history-wise is Fatal Fury. The game is called Fatal Fury: King of Fighters.

The game's actually called 'Garou Densetsu: Shukumei no Tatakai'. English names and versions should be ignored for any deep article on any Japanese game, if you ask me.

But you're quite right. I think I've discussed this before; 'The King of Fighters' is not a true 'crossover'. Garou Densetsu and Ryuuko no Ken were always related each other. Indeed, the latter was born as a 'spin-off' from the former. Hence the use of 'crossover' is more than a stretch here, depite the popular belief. And sure - there're other series present on KOF, like Ikari, but more like 'homages' than true 'crossovers'.

[ReyVGM]

I heard that the KOF Athena is not based on the arcade/nes game Athena, but the SvC Chaos Athena is the one from the nes/arcade version.

[Weasel]

KOF Athena is actually based on Athena as she appears in the arcade game "Psycho Soldiers" - that's also where Kensou comes from (and you can see him in his original costume as an alternate striker in KOF 2000).

[ReyVGM]

Yeah, but I was talking about the game Athena.
There are 2 Athena's I guess, the one from Psycho Soldier used in KoF and the one from Athena used in SvC Chaos.

[Neo Rasa]

That's quite correct actually. ATHENA Athena from the original game, Ikari Warriors (her first appearance, a hidden bit like the fairy in Zanac, she gives you a ton of bonus points if you get her to appear) and SvC Chaos is literally the goddess Athena when she was younger. The one present in Psycho Soldiers and the King of Fighters series (and the PSX game Athena: Awakening from the Ordinairy Life) is a Japanese school girl who is the reincarnation of said goddess.

The game's actually called 'Garou Densetsu: Shukumei no Tatakai'. English names and versions should be ignored for any deep article on any Japanese game, if you ask me.

Agreed, but in this case it's relevant. It was subtitled King of Fighters long before the actual King of Fighters series got started, so the desire for a further connection between FF/AoF and SNK's other franchises was clear. When designing the game they were originally even going to put World Heroes and Samurai Shodown characters in it but later in development opted to have a continuing storyline set in modern times focusing on characters new to King of Fighters like Kyo. At a time when the industry could support many 2D fighters coming out at once this was awesome as it got to the point where youy had KoF/FF/etc. all being supported seperately with totally different gameplay, sprites and moves even for the same characters.

My girlfriend might have it, but somewhere amongst our old game stuff I think I still have one of the oldest ads for KoF '94, talking about how it will combine characters from the hottest franchises, it lists World Heroes among them.

Imagine what a different world it would be.

Besides Garou Densetsu: Shukumei no Tatakai, I mean contextually with what SNK intended it's Legend of the Hungry Wolf: Fate of the Fighters I believe, close enough to KoF.

Originally it really was just going to be called Real Bout in all territories. If you play the original Fatal Fury "Real Bout" is still there on most of the signage in the backgrounds.

[MRSKELETON]

I'm Sorry. I'm american though i'm strongly against calling a game it's japanese name. I don't call castlevania Akumajo Dracula i call it castlevania. It slightly irritates me when people call megaman rockman when they just call it that to pretent to be asian.

Though I thought 95 and 96 utilized different hardware

[Neo Rasa]

Nope, they're both Neo Geo MVS/AES games. KoF XI is the first 2D console KoF to not originate on the Neo Geo hardware.