In the 90’s, fighting games were the rage. Street Fighter II had a tremendous success and (obviously) many companies released games for the genre, one of those companies was SNK. They developed some of the most successful fighting games that hit the arcades, including Samurai Shodown, Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting. In 1994, they decided to create a 3 vs 3 fighting game based on teams that included the characters from other series, not only from previously released games from the genre but also arcade classic from the 80’s such as Ikari Warriors and Athena. They also created a team featuring new characters that would serve as the “protagonists” and a sports team. The game system allowed the player to pick a team (yes, you had to learn how to use the 3 of them), defeats the remaining ones and at the end, a ruthless boss was waiting to kick your ass. It used a 4 button configuration, a dodge mechanic and a super bar that could be charge with a button combination. It also had a storyline that was OK (story in fighting games are really not that important, it’s awesome if they have one) The development team use the title King of Fighters, which was the subtitle from Fatal Fury and added 94 and released for the Neo Geo Arcade system. The game was a success and it spawned many sequels. While is this entry is very outdated it’s still good fighting experience. It was re-released for the Playstation Network, the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console and the King of Fighters: The Orochi Saga anthology disc (also for the PSP). A remake of the game with updated sprites was launched in 2004 in Japan.
Over the years, the series improved some of the mechanics and expanded the roster with more unique characters (like Iori in 95 and K’ in 99). KOF 95 was very similar to 94 but player could pick make their on team and pick any 3 characters they wanted. KOF 96 saw a revamp of the sprites and move sets of many characters, and introduced one of the most awesome bosses in fighting game history (for me, this is when the series really got really interesting). KOF 97 saw the end of the first storyline (called the Orochi Saga).
For 1998 SNK created a “Dream Match”, a game without storyline. It is the best entry of the series: perfectly balanced gameplay, a large roster (including multiple versions of characters), impressive animations and backgrounds. In the beginning of the new millennium, some of the most popular characters in the series clashed with characters from Capcom’s Street Fighter in the classic Capcom vs SNK games. But also, it was the time when SNK went bankrupt and things were never the same. KOF was released each and every year until 2003, then they numbered the titles (KOF XI). The series had a 3D spin-off which was enjoyable (with some of the worst English voice acting ever). In 2012, KOF XIII was released, and after the disappointment of the previous title (impressive animation and fighting mechanics but small roster and lack of final boss) it returned with a vengeance. KOF XIII is one of the best games of the series (my favorite fighting game for the PS3), is highly recommended and it’s not expensive. After this title, SNK Playmore (as the company is called now) is re-releasing some entries for mobile (including KOF 98) and a rhythm spin-off game called Rhythm of Fighters. A couple of week ago some news came out of an apparent new entry for the series. Apparently, it will abandon hand drawn sprites in favor of 3D models. While this change may not be welcomed by fans, I hope it’s a way for the series to return as one of the most popular fighting game series.
The anniversary logo was made by me. You can use it but please, give me credit and a link to this website.
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