The King of Fighters Game Collection List
The King of Fighter 94
The King of Fighter 95
The King of Fighter 97
The King of Fighter 98
The King of Fighter 99
The King of Fighter 2000
The King of Fighters officially
abbreviated KOF, is a series of fighting games by SNK Playmore (formerly
SNK). The series was originally developed for SNK’s Neo Geo MVS arcade
hardware, which served as the main platform for the series until 2004,
when SNK retired the MVS in favor of the Atomiswave arcade board. Only
two King of Fighters games were made on the Atomiswave platform (The
King of Fighters Neowave and The King of Fighters XI) before SNK decided
to discontinue using the platform for the series. The current arcade
hardware for the series is the Taito Type X2, with its first usage
coming with the release of The King of Fighters XII. Ports of the arcade
games and original The King of Fighters games have been released for
several video games consoles.
The first game in the series, The King of Fighters ’94,
was released by SNK on August 25, 1994. The game featured characters
from SNK’s previous fighting game series Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting,
as well as original characters (including characters from older games
such as Ikari Warriors and Psycho Soldier, adapted for a versus fighting
game). The success of the game led SNK to release yearly installments
of the series and numbered the games for the year they were released.
The King of Fighters ’95 was released on July 25, 1995, with several
ports being released the next year. In addition to adding new
characters, this game also began the first story arc of the series
titled “The Orochi Saga”. KOF ’95 was also the first game in the series
that allowed the players to create their own team of three members, out
of any character in the game. The King of Fighters ’96, released on July
30, 1996, establishes the second part of “The Orochi Saga” and replaced
the character sprites from the previous two years with newly drawn
ones, improving the gameplay of the series as well. Depending on the
playable characters in a team, an exclusive ending will be played. The
King of Fighters ’97, released on July 28, 1997, concluded “The Orochi
Saga” story arc. The King of Fighters ’98 was released on July 23, 1998,
and unlike the previous games of the series, it did not feature a
story. Instead, the game was promoted as a “Dream Match” game that
allowed players to choose most of the characters available from the
previous titles, including ones that were supposedly dead. SNK refitted
the Dreamcast version and renamed it The King of Fighters: Dream Match
1999 with an extended cel animated introduction and 3D backgrounds.
On July 22, 1999, The King of Fighters ’99 was released, which
introduced a new story arc known as “The NESTS Chronicles”. The game
introduces several new characters into the series, as well as the rule
of a fourth member being added to each team and that a new tactic is
introduced in this game as well. The tactic would be that a specific
person from a team would be an assistant called a “Striker” and that
this person would be able to aid the team for a few seconds in combat.
The Dreamcast version was titled The King of Fighters: Evolution, with
several improvements in the game such as new strikers and better
animation. The King of Fighters 2000 was released on July 26, 2000, and
is the second part of “The NESTS Chronicles”.
System= Pentium III CPU 500 MHz
RAM= 128 MB
Size= 279 MB
Video Memory= 32 MB
OS= Windows 98, 2000, ME, XP, Vista, 7 and Windows 8
