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 and will move the series to the Taito Type X2 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 the Neo Geo CD, Neo Geo Pocket, Game Boy and Game Boy Advance, N-Gage, Sega Saturn and Sega Dreamcast, PlayStation and PlayStation 2, PC, and Xbox. One of the most recent games in the series are KOF: Maximum Impact series.
The initial storyline follows Kyo Kusanagi, a young Japanese who enters The King of Fighters tournaments. Being the heir of the ancient Kusanagi clan, who wield pyrokinetic powers, Kyo manages to use its powerful techniques to become champion of the tournament along with his friends. Kyo and his friends find themsleves meeting the host of the events: a powerful criminal named Rugal Bernstein, who wants to find worthy opponents to kill so that he can turn them into statues in order to remember his ruthless victories but is defeated. In the 1995 KOF tournament, it is revealed the entity of Orochi: an ancient eight-headed demon who was sealed by the three ancient artifacts of Japan. Rugal tries to use it but dies in the process. In this game, a fighter named Iori Yagami appears aiming to kill Kyo and destroy the Kusanagi clan, as revenge for the Yagami clan.
In 1996, a new tournament is organized by the heir of the Yata clan, Chizuru Kagura, who wants to gather Kyo and Iori in her team to seal the Orochi demon, as their clans had done in the past. During the '97 tournament, a group known as the New Faces team learn of their past as being three of Orochi's Four Heralds and decide to awake Orochi. Kyo and Iori decide to join Chizuru to stop them and although they succeed in defeating them, Orochi is able to revive through the use of his Heralds' sacrifices. Joining their forces, Kyo, Iori, and Chizuru defeat and seal Orochi once again, however Kyo and Iori disappear during the aftermath of the battle.
The King of Fighters '98 was released on July 23, 1998 and unlike previous games it did not feature a story; instead, the game allows players to play with most of characters available on previous ones, including ones that were supposedly dead. SNK refitted the Sega Dreamcast version renaming it The King of Fighters: Dream Match 1999 with an extended cel animated introduction and 3D backgrounds. A remake titled Ultimate Match was released in Japanese arcades on March 18, 2008 and later on some video game consoles expanding the character roster and improving the graphics.
The Playstation version features an Art Gallery with illustration gallery, unused art and a secret ending demo unlockble, this version is also vibration function compatible.
Manufacturer's description:
SNK fifth All-Star Celebration of Dreams, a total of 38 special edition strongest with popular characters from the series "KOF'98". Do randomly during character selection team organized, "Roulette Team Edit System" adopted . "PlayStation" original version of the familiar elements "SURVIVOR" mode and "Art Gallery" mode is alive and well.
Features:
- Third person perspective.
- 2D graphics
- Cartoon graphics
- Fighting theme.
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