The King of Fighters '94 (KOF '94) is a 1994 fighting game developed and published by SNK for the Neo Geo MVS arcade system, AES and CD home consoles. It is a crossover featuring characters from SNK fighting game properties Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting. It also includes revised versions of characters from their older games Ikari Warriors and Psycho Soldier, as well as original characters created specifically for the game. The plot revolves around the eponymous tournament created by the criminal Rugal Bernstein.
SNK game designer Takashi Nishiyama brought Masanori Kuwahashi into the company after seeing his work in Irem, and appointed him the game's director. Initially a movie fan, Kuwahashi ended up being more interested in gaming. His first work in SNK was Baseball Stars Professional where he met Toyahisa Tanabe, who would become the series' battle designer. The designers worked together to make an all-star fighting game involving famous SNK figures as well as original ones, most notably the Japan Team, led by the new protagonist Kyo Kusanagi, a high school delinquent who specializes in martial arts involving fire.
SNK developed KOF '94 with the concept of combining characters from several of the company’s existing games to attract their fanbases. The characters' designs, as well as its innovative gameplay system based on using teams of three members, were both well received. The success of the game enabled SNK to launch a series of sequels in The King of Fighters series, beginning with The King of Fighters '95, and the series itself eventually became the flagship franchise of SNK. In 2004, to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the series, SNK released a remake subtitled Re-Bout for the PlayStation 2, with higher resolution graphics and 3D environments. KOF '94 has since been released as part of SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 on the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and Wii, and individually for digital distribution on modern systems.
The basic gameplay system of KOF '94 is similar to SNK's previous games like the Fatal Fury series, Art of Fighting and Samurai Shodown. The game uses a four attack button configuration similar to Fatal Fury 2 and Fatal Fury Special, that consists of light punch, light kick, strong punch and strong kick. Like in Fatal Fury 2, specialized techniques are performed by pressing combinations of buttons, allowing the player to dodge an opponent's attack or to launch a character's powerful knockdown attack. As with most other fighting games, each character has a set of basic, unique, and special moves that can be performed by the player with a specific series of joystick and button inputs.[1][2]
Each player has a power gauge at the bottom of the screen which charges when the character is blocking or taking attacks. It can also be filled manually by pressing and holding three buttons at the same time, however this leaves the character vulnerable to an attack. Once the power gauge is filled, the player's basic attacks become stronger for a short period. When the characters are in this state, their players can also perform the character's Super Move, which immediately consumes the entire power gauge. The players can also access their character's Super Move when the life gauge is 75% empty and flashing red like in Fatal Fury 2. Taunting an opponent can reduce their power gauge, slow down their manual charging, and stop them from reaching the maximum level.[2][3]
KOF '94 innovated the genre by replacing a traditional round-based format used in preceding fighting games with a format consisting of 3-on-3 team-based matches dubbed the Team Battle System. Instead of choosing a single character, the player selects from one of eight available teams, each consisting of three members. Before each match, the player chooses the order in which their team members enter the battle. When the match begins, the members chosen to go first on their respective teams will fight. When one character is defeated, the following member of the same team will take his or her place, while the character on the other team will have a small portion of their life restored (if energy was lost during the previous round). If a character is losing a match against the opponent, then the player can call one of the remaining teammates standing on the sidelines to jump in and perform a support attack. The match ends when all three members of either team lose.[1]
Plot
Rugal Bernstein is a notorious and ruthless but skilled and influential black-market weapon and drug dealer bored from lack of competition. He decides to host a new King of Fighters (K.O.F.) tournament. Rugal sends out 24 invitations to individuals around the world. Unlike the previous three K.O.F. tournaments depicted in Art of Fighting 2, Fatal Fury: King of Fighters, and Fatal Fury 2, the new King of Fighters is a team tournament, with eight teams of three, each representing a different nationality.
At the tournament's conclusion, Mature, Rugal's personal secretary, invites the Japan team to fight their final match within Black Noah. Rugal reveals the true purpose of his tournament: to defeat the winning team and add them to his grisly collection of previous challengers who had been turned into statues. Kyo sees his defeated father among the statues and decides to avenge him. As Rugal is finally beaten, he triggers the self-destruct mechanism on his ship. The team escapes and reflects on their victory.
The game has 24 playable characters, consisting of eight teams of three fighters. The final boss is not a part of any of the teams, is unplayable and fights the player's team alone. Five teams consist of characters from other SNK series while the rest consist mostly of KoF originals. Each team represents a different country, though this only affects the stage on which the team is fought and the characters in many cases don't share nationalities with the country they represent. Unlike later games in the series, the player cannot freely build a team and must choose one of the eight preset teams. Teams include:
Ryo Sakazaki, protagonist of the Art of Fighting series and the first champion of KoF tournament who practices Kyokugenryu karate, which is similar to Kyokushin karate but also contains ki-based techniques. He fights with a traditional version of Kyokugenryu.
Robert Garcia, Ryo's best friend and friendly rival who fights using a kick-heavy version of Kyokugenryu karate.
Takuma Sakazaki, Ryo's father and a master of Kyokugenryu karate, the only one who can perform the most advanced techniques of the style.
Sie Kensou, the self-proclaimed love interest of Athena. He has the same psychokinetic abilities as Athena, though his fighting style emphasizes his kung fu.
Chin Gentsai, master of Athena and Sie and a master of various styles of Kung Fu, though he fights primarily with drunken boxing.
Rugal Bernstein, an arms dealer and the organizer of The King of Fighters tournament. He is capable of copying any technique after seeing it performed once and he makes heavy use of Geese Howard's Reppuken and Wolfgang Krauser's Kaiser Wave ki-attacks. He also has techniques of his own, such as a slashing kick named Genocide Cutter.
SNK game designer Takashi Nishiyama brought Masanori Kuwahashi into the company after seeing his work in Irem. Nishiyama would then turn him into the director of The King of Fighters '94. Initially a movie fan, Kuwahashi ended up being more interested by gaming. His first work in SNK was Baseball Stars Professional, where he met Toyahisa Tanabe. Tanabe would become the series' battle designer.[4] According to an interview with veteran designers of The King of Fighters series, the prototype version of the game was a Double Dragon-style side-scrolling beat 'em up, titled Survivor. It would only use core characters from the Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury series, specifically allowing players to play Robert Garcia and Terry Bogard for location testing. However, the idea was eventually abandoned. Since SNK were attached to the idea of the two-series crossover, they eventually agreed to make their idea into an all-star fighting game. Vintage characters from Ikari Warriors and Psycho Soldier were also added to the roster. The concept of a three-man team was one of the ideas kept from the side-scrolling version.[5] The title "The King of Fighters" was re-used from the subtitle of the first Fatal Fury game, Fatal Fury: King of Fighters.[6]
The King of Fighters series director Toyohisa Tanabe asserted that the Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury fighters were added specifically for adults, and the newer KOF characters were aimed to appeal to younger and newer audiences. Characters such as Benimaru Nikaido and Chang Koehan were added to have an offbeat variety to the cast, which he has previously deemed to be too serious.[7] The team aimed to compete with the Street Fighter fighting game series by providing a team-based system in response to the single fighters from Capcom's games. This led to the desire of a total of 24 playable characters, even if the roster felt too large by then-current fighting game standards.[8] SNK artist C.A.C Yamasaki commented that although the lead programmer thought the game would not sell well, he believed it would eventually become popular. While only ten people arrived at the first location test, more people came to subsequent tests.[9] The SNK staff also had troubles with advertising the game due to a lack of advertising budget and reportedly low-quality ads.[10]
Kuwasashi expressed concern about creating a young lead who would clash with veteran fighters, but still thought it would be beneficial for sales. After several discussions, the staff decided to create the new hero Kyo Kusanagi, focusing on the idea of a more realistic fighter than the ones seen in other fighting games, especially due to his younger age, relationships and stylish clothes.[11] Designers wanted a new, "snazzy" lead character who would easily compete with Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting characters.[12]Masahiro Nonaka was inspired by the late musician Yutaka Ozaki when voicing Kyo and gave him an appealing personality despite initial doubts.[13] Fellow Japanese character Benimaru Nikaido was also meant to contrast common fighting game characters like Liu Kang from Mortal Kombat or Sagat from Street Fighter with his slender look.[14] The boss character, Rugal Bernstein, was developed to be "the mightiest (most violent) and most evil boss character ever".[15] The game was developed to have a "Fugitive Team" composed of Chang, Choi, and an unknown criminal, but Kim Kaphwan was placed in their team.[16] The English Team was composed of King from Art of Fighting along with Billy Kane and Big Bear from the first and second Fatal Fury games. Designers had several problems with Big Bear concerning capacity and the Art of Fighting staff insisted on adding Yuri Sakazaki to KOF. Yuri replaced Billy Kane, and later Mai Shiranui took Big Bear's place to form the English Team (later known as Women Fighters in the following games).[17]
Most of the characters from other games were meant to have some of their moves changed or removed in order to balance them with KOF's new characters. However, designers focused on balancing the characters without removing any moves. In the end, creators of the series noted that the Art of Fighting characters were the strongest ones in the game.[18][19] Nevertheless, other characters such as Terry and Andy Bogard became the ones who got the designers' utmost attention and were given new moves.[20][21] There was also a careful approach when designing the background stages, with the Japanese stage being based on the developers' office areas.[22] Tanabe and his team worked to properly balance the cast through trial-and-error, although they intentionally made Heidern one of the most overpowered characters.[23] Though the team found freedom with the Neo Geo hardware, it was difficult to maintain the same quality on ports to other platforms. The game was popular because most of the team was composed of relatively young people and the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn ports were successful. However, they received negative response to the bland stages and characters.[24] Despite early negative response, Kuwasashi and his staff were surprised by the popularity the video game got, most notably becoming the winner of a Gamest award involving fighting games.[25][26]
Release
The King of Fighters '94 was released in Japanese and North American arcades on August 25, 1994.[27] Home versions of the game were released later that same year for the Neo Geo AES on October 1 and for the Neo Geo CD on November 2nd.[27][28] The home version was censored outside Japan in two ways, removing Mai's breasts bouncing animations and blood effects (the blood also could be disabled by arcade operators).[29]
In Japan, Game Machine listed The King of Fighters '94 as the second most popular arcade game of September 1994.[46] In North America, RePlay reported it to be the third most popular arcade game of September 1994.[47]Play Meter also listed it as the 32nd most popular arcade game of October 1994.[48] The game was well received, with reviews generally praising the deep combat system[1][38][49] and the matching up of fighters from different SNK franchises,[38][40][42][49] though the inability to choose team lineups in Team Battle Mode was a near-universal complaint among critics.[1][38][40][42][49]
A reviewer for Next Generation argued that King of Fighters '94 was a particularly worthwhile arcade game, since the three-character teams meant the player would effectively get three lives for each credit, providing a high value per quarter at a time when most arcade games were much more expensive than they had been in the past.[42] Reviewing the Neo Geo home version, GamePro remarked that the character selection is massive, but very unbalanced, and that most of the new characters are "goofy looking" and underpowered compared to the other fighters. They nonetheless concluded that "The King of Fighters is the very best non-Shodown game available for the Neo Geo, and it's one of the most playable fighting games ever", citing enjoyable gameplay additions such as the dodge move and juggle combos.[49]
In a review of the Virtual Console release, Lucas M. Thomas of IGN praised KOF '94 for its graphics, fluid animation and vibrant colors, but concluded that buyers might be better off waiting for the improved sequels to arrive on the Virtual Console.[1] According to IGN's Jeremy Dunham, the game "was essentially a cross between Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting," with a faster control response. He added commented that the creation of three-on-three battles was an advanced feature for a game from 1994 and the idea of 'borrowing' characters from other games from the company was also innovative.[50] Reviewing the Virtual Console release, Dan Whitehead of Eurogamer identified the use of characters from multiple franchises and the Team Battle Mode as the most distinctive points. He concluded the game to be "a solid, technical fighting game that, like most SNK outings, skews more towards the hardcore player than the casual punching aficionado."[40] According to Kyle Knight of Allgame, the graphics and sounds, while better than most games of the time, were subpar by SNK standards. He concluded The King of Fighters '94 is "a very good fighting game, but it lacks some refinements that would have made it great."[38]
Electronic Gaming Monthly gave KOF '94 its Game of the Year awards in the categories "Best Fighting Game" and "Best Neo-Geo Game" of 1994; additionally, Mai Shiranui was awarded the title of "Hottest Game Babe" of the year.[51] In Japan, the game was awarded the title of "Best Game of 1994" in the Eighth Annual Grand Prize by the arcade magazine Gamest, also placing first in the categories of "Best Competitive Fighting Game" and "Best Direction", fifth in "Best Graphics", and third in "Best VGM" (several characters from the game were also featured in their list of 1994's top 50, including Athena at #3, Kyo at #4, Yuri at #7, King at #8 and Mai at #10).[52]
The game was acclaimed in a number of retrospective articles and top lists by several publications. G4 noted that The King of Fighters '94 was regarded by some fans as the "Street Fighter beater" and was unique due to its team system.[53]Maximum similarly called it "the first beat-em-up to offer more than the Street Fighter series" and said that the game "helped spearhead the SNK renaissance".[54]1UP.com lauded the game for its large and well-balanced cast of characters, calling it "a hell of a cast in 1994".[55] In 2010, UGO.com listed it among the Top 25 Fighting Games of All Time,[56] while GamePlayBook ranked it as the seventh best 2D fighting game ever made.[57]Complex writers ranked it as the eighth best fighting game of all time in 2011,[58] as well as the eleventh all-time best SNK fighting game in 2012, commenting that "the unique team selection and elimination style matches of the series made their origin in this great '90s fighter."[59]
Next Generation reviewed the Neo-Geo version of the game, and stated that "Every fighting fan should take a look at this one either in the arcades or in the home."[43]
Remake
A screenshot of The King of Fighters '94 Re-Bout, showing Kyo and Mai Shiranui
A remake, titled The King of Fighters '94 Re-Bout, was released for the PlayStation 2 in Japan only on December 28, 2004, commemorating the tenth anniversary of the franchise.[60]Re-Bout features both the original 1994 game and an enhanced version featuring higher-resolution graphics, a Team Edit option feature similar to the later KOF games, the ability to play as Saisyu Kusanagi and Rugal Bernstein, arranged music, new stages and an online versus mode.[61] SNK Playmore commented that they received negative fan feedback regarding the game's simple upscaling and smoothing of character sprites, so they decided to create new, high-resolution sprites for the following games in the series.[62]
A North American version was meant to be released for the Xbox. It was completed and even reviewed by some publications,[63] but was canceled on March 23, 2006, for an undisclosed reason.[64] In Japan, the game sold 28,482 units.[65]
Related media
The game received a variety of licensed media released in Japan in 1994 and 1995:[3]
The original soundtrack The King of Fighters '94 (PCCB-00162) and the arranged soundtrack The King of Fighters '94 Arrange Sound Trax (PCCB-00165), both released by Pony Canyon.
The art book The King of Fighters '94 (GMC-2) published as part of the Gamest Mook series by Shinseisha.
The Laserdisc audio and video release The King of Fighters '94 (PCLP-00539) by Pony Canyon LD.
Several manga published in the Gamest Comics collection by Shinseisha:
A yonkoma manga by various artists, titled The King of Fighters '94 4-Koma Ketteiban ( ISBN4-88199-150-7).
A selection of illustrations and short strips by various artists, titled The King of Fighters '94 Comic Anthology ( ISBN4-88199-196-5).
↑The King of Fighters: The Ultimate History. Bitmap Books. 2022. p.11. ISBN9781838019181.
↑Akihiko Ureshino, ed. (September 20, 2005). The King of Fighters Perfect Reader (in Japanese). Nikkei Business Publications, Inc. pp.136~137. ISBN4-8222-1711-6.
↑Akihiko Ureshino, ed. (September 20, 2005). The King of Fighters Perfect Reader (in Japanese). Nikkei Business Publications, Inc. pp.140~144. ISBN4-8222-1711-6.
↑The King of Fighters: The Ultimate History. Bitmap Books. 2022. p.20. ISBN9781838019181.
↑"Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - テーブル型TVゲーム機 (Table Videos)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No.481. Amusement Press, Inc. October 1, 1994. p.31.
↑"Player's Choice - Top Games Now in Operation, Based on Earnings-Opinion Poll of Operators: Best Video Software". RePlay. Vol.20, no.1. RePlay Publishing, Inc. October 1994. p.6.
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