The King of Fighters '96 | |
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Developer(s) | |
Publisher(s) | |
Director(s) | Kuwayan |
Producer(s) | Takashi Nishiyama |
Designer(s) | Eri Koujitani Kaori Kusunoki Masato Yokoyama |
Programmer(s) | Khozoh Nagashima S. Fujinuki |
Artist(s) | Toshiaki Mori |
Composer(s) | Akihiro Uchida Hideki Asanaka Kazuhiro Nishida |
Series | The King of Fighters |
Platform(s) | Arcade, Game Boy, Neo Geo AES, Neo Geo CD, PlayStation, Sega Saturn |
Release | |
Genre(s) | Fighting |
Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Arcade system | Neo Geo MVS |
The King of Fighters '96 [lower-alpha 1] (KOF '96) is a fighting game released by SNK for the Neo Geo arcade and home consoles in 1996. It is the third game in The King of Fighters series, following The King of Fighters '95 . Like its predecessor, the game was ported to the Neo-Geo CD, as well as the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. Unlike the previous game, the PlayStation and Saturn versions were released only in Japan, with a language setting allowing the player to set the game to English.
The game made a few changes to gameplay such as new techniques, various changes of some teams, with a few of them introducing new characters. The plot follows a new King of Fighters tournament created by Chizuru Kagura, the heir of Yata Clan who wants to find and recruit Kyo Kusanagi, who defeated the previous host, Rugal Bernstein, to ask him and his bitter rival, Iori Yagami, to help her in the sealing of the Orochi demon. The new boss is one of the servants of Orochi, Goenitz, who appears after Chizuru is defeated.
SNK members had trouble with the development of the game as they dragged on right up to its scheduled release. This happened because the developers had difficulty making the sprites and special moves of the new characters of the game. The game has had mixed reviews from several video games publications. While some reviewers have praised the graphical improvements and the addition of new characters, some have commented it was unbalanced in comparison to its prequels.
KOF '96 makes significant changes to the gameplay of previous KOF games by introducing new techniques. The Dodge technique from the previous two games has been replaced with an "emergency evasion" or "attack deflector" technique, which allows the player's character to roll away or towards the opponent. In the latter case, the player has the opportunity to end up at the other side of their opponent. The player can also determine the height of their jumps and perform small or high jumps. Additionally, the graphics for all the character sprites have been redrawn and the commands for certain Special and Super moves have been changed from previous games. Super Special Moves can still be performed when the Power Gauge is filled up or when the player's life gauge is flashing red, but in addition to this, the player can also perform a more powerful version of their regular Super move if both conditions are met (i.e., the player has low energy and their power gauge has reached Maximum level). One other change to the gameplay system is that the player can now run instead of hopping forward in order to approach the opponent faster.
A new King of Fighters tournament is announced, though the letters of invitation sent out to the fighters are no longer sent by Rugal Bernstein. There are many changes in the tournament's approach. Since the previous year, the tournament's fame has grown immensely, turning it into a major international event. Huge corporations transform the King of Fighters tournament into something widely televised, commercialized, and celebrated, drawing in many crowds from around the world. The tournament is now held by Chizuru Kagura, a descendant of the ancient Yata Clan responsible for sealing the snake demon Orochi along with the Kusanagi and Yasanaki clans (the clans from Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami, respectively). Chizuru uses the tournament in hopes of finding and recruiting Kyo and Iori in order to stop the upcoming Orochi threat, but Kyo and Iori aren't willing to work together on friendly terms.
The character roster underwent major changes since the previous game. The Rival Team was disbanded, with only Iori Yagami returning, while Heidern and Takuma Sakazaki retired from the tournament. Takuma's spot in the Art of Fighting Team is taken by his daughter Yuri Sakazaki, formerly with the Women Fighters Team. New characters include Kasumi Todoh from Art of Fighting 3 , who takes Yuri's place in the Women Fighters Team; Leona, who joins the Ikari Team in place of her mentor and adoptive father, Heidern; Mature and Vice, two of Rugal's assistants who join Iori Yagami as members of the new Yagami Team; and the Boss Team, composed of Geese Howard, Wolfgang Krauser, and Mr. Big, all villains from the Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting series. The new boss character is Goenitz, a servant from Orochi who wants to stop Chizuru's plans of sealing his master.
Japan Team (Hero Team)
Fatal Fury Team
Art of Fighting Team | Ikari Warriors Team
Psycho Soldier Team
Korea Team
| Women Fighters Team
Yagami Team (Rivals Team)
Boss Team
| Mid-Boss
Main Boss
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The development period for KOF '96 dragged on right up to the time of its scheduled release. At the location test for the title, Mature and Vice were still not included in the game, since the staff did not have enough time to completely design them. [1] The King of Fighters '96 is the second game to break the technical limits of the Neo Geo platform by using a memory footprint of 362 mega bits (which is roughly 46 mega bytes). [2] The proposed theoretical limit of game sizes prior to this was 330 mega bits. Real Bout Fatal Fury, which released in 1995, was the first game to break the 330 mega bit barrier.
Kasumi Todoh was added to the cast since the coinciding release of Art of Fighting 3 had increased the character's profile. [3] Geese Howard from Fatal Fury was first meant to appear in KOF '95, but developers abandoned this idea. When KOF '96 began development, the staff decided to make Geese become a playable character. The Boss Team in which he starred along with Mr. Big and Wolfgang Krauser received "special treatment", such as music for each individual member (in comparison to other teams, who only had one). Due to memory restrictions, some of the special moves that were designed for Geese had to be left out of the game. [4] The sub-boss character, Chizuru Kagura, was the hardest one to create. Her pixelated image was completed in a month, and the designer in charge of her often worked until six in the morning. [5] The game also meant to introduce Whip into the Ikari Team. However, due to Leona's introduction in the same team, the developers waited until The King of Fighters '99 to add her to the cast. [6]
The original KOF '96 was released for Japanese arcades on July 30, 1996. Neo Geo and Neo Geo CD versions were released on September 27, 1996 and October 25, 1996, respectively. The Sega Saturn port was released on December 31, 1996 and the PlayStation port on July 4, 1997. [7] Unlike the previous game, the PlayStation and Saturn versions were released only in Japan, with a language setting allowing the player to set the game to English. The Saturn version optionally uses a 1MB RAM cartridge to run additional animations which would not fit in the Saturn's internal RAM. [8] A "Saturn Best Collection" version of the port was released on October 1, 1998. The PlayStation version was a bestseller and was re-released in the "PlayStation the Best" series in Japan.
Like the previous game, a Game Boy game based on The King of Fighters '96 was released by Takara in Japan titled Nettō The King of Fighters '96 on August 8, 1997, and was released in Europe titled The King of Fighters: Heat of Battle in 1998. This version only includes 17 of the 29 characters in the original version. The Game Boy game features a secret code called "Carnage" mode, which allows the player's (including CPU) Power Gauge to be filled automatically without charging. This feature also enables the player to use powerful versions of their Super Special Moves and normal versions of Super Special Moves without having the player's health at a low rate. Characters exclusive to the Game Boy version includes Orochi Iori and Orochi Leona from The King of Fighters '97 ; a stronger version of Chizuru Kagura; the final boss of the game, Goenitz; and Mr. Karate (Takuma's persona in the original Art of Fighting ). [9]
An emulated version of the game was released as part of The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga in 2008 for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and Wii. [10]
The Neo Geo AES version was added via emulation to the Wii Virtual Console in Japan on February 15, 2011, in North America on July 12, 2012 and in the PAL region on November 22, 2012.
The arcade version was emulated and released as part of the ACA Neo Geo series for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on March 30, 2017 with releases for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, iOS and Android following afterwards.
An extensive database for the game, titled The King of Fighters '96 Neo Geo Collection, was released on February 14, 1997 to promote the year's title. It was available only for the Neo-Geo CD. The database includes the game's intro, an interactive reenactment of the game's backstory, character profiles spoken by their voice actors, outtakes, an exclusive gallery section from the creators, a complete command list and a sound selection. [11] A similar version of this database, The King of Fighters '96 Perfect File, was also released for Windows and Macintosh computers. This version was released on June 18, 1997 and includes most of the features found in its predecessor. [12]
Ryo Takamisaki also wrote The King of Fighters G, a manga that retells the events of the game following Athena Asamiya. [13]
Publication | Score |
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Electronic Gaming Monthly | 7.5/10 [14] |
Nintendo Life | 7/10 [15] |
Publication | Award |
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Electronic Gaming Monthly | Neo Geo Game of the Year [16] |
In Japan, Game Machine listed The King of Fighters '96 on their September 1, 1996 issue as being the most-successful arcade game of the month. [17] According to Famitsu , the AES version sold over 33,323 copies in its first week on the market. [18]
The game received praise and criticism from video game publications, which commented on its new additions. The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the Neo Geo AES version a 7.5 out of 10, citing the huge roster of fighters and retention of the series' strong playability. However, Dan Hsu and Sushi-X both criticized it for failing to improve graphically over the previous installment and thereby keep up with contemporary 2D fighting series such as Street Fighter . [14] 1UP.com noted the game to be unbalanced in comparison to its prequel such as noting the projectile attacks needed to be improved. However, they liked the additions of Vice and Mature and more character interaction such as the special introductions between related characters, custom endings and custom winposes. [19] Chris Wigham from consoleob.com also found issues with projectile moves, as the fights were closer. However, he noted the graphics to have gone through a big improvement in comparison to KOF '95. [20] Zentendo.com writer Chuck Allen praised the improvements of music and voice acting such as the announcer's voice which is "audible and understandable". He also praised the addition of new characters to the cast as well as the boss Goenitz, who is easier to defeat than Rugal Berstein from KOF '95. [21] In a review from the compilation The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga, George Damidas from entdepot.com commented that KOF '96 should be the first game as he praised the graphical improvements and the new characters appearing in the series. [22]
Electronic Gaming Monthly editors named The King of Fighters '96 their Neo Geo Game of the Year, calling it "an excellent packaged deal for any fan of 2-D sprite-based fighting games." [16]
The emulated Virtual Console release for Wii obtained a good review by Nintendo Life based on the improvements SNK added to the title, such as balancing the gameplay, movements of characters but criticized the audio. [15]
GameSpot noted the game helped start "a modest resurgence in the sales of AES consoles and cartridges." [23] During its release week, the Sega Saturn port of the game sold 109,752 copies in Japan. As of 2004, the sales went to 155,116. [24]
The King of Fighters (KOF) is a series of fighting games by SNK that began with the release of The King of Fighters '94 in 1994. The series was developed originally for SNK's Neo Geo MVS arcade hardware. This served as the main platform for the series until 2004 when SNK retired it in favor of the Atomiswave arcade board. Two King of Fighters games were produced for the Atomiswave platform (The King of Fighters Neowave and The King of Fighters XI) before SNK decided to discontinue using it for the series. The series' most recent arcade hardware is the Taito Type X2, first used with the release of The King of Fighters XII. Ports of the arcade games and the original The King of Fighters games have been released for several video game consoles. The latest entry in the series, The King of Fighters XV, was released in February 2022.
Art of Fighting is a fighting game trilogy released for the Neo Geo platform in the early 1990s. It is the second fighting game franchise created by SNK, following the Fatal Fury series, and is set in the same fictional universe. The original Art of Fighting was released in 1992, followed by two sequels: Art of Fighting 2 in 1994 and Art of Fighting 3: The Path of the Warrior in 1996.
Geese Howard is a fictional boss character and the main villain in SNK's Fatal Fury fighting game series. Debuting in Fatal Fury: King of Fighters, Geese is the local crime boss of the fictional city of South Town. Geese created and hosts a fighting tournament named "The King of Fighters", in which he faces the brothers Terry and Andy Bogard who want to take revenge for their father's death. After several tournaments in the Fatal Fury series, Geese is killed by Terry in Real Bout Fatal Fury. However, he appears in following games without storyline as a "ghost" named Nightmare Geese. Geese has also appeared in other SNK's games such as The King of Fighters games, in which he seeks to get the power from the creature Orochi and often sends teams representing him. His young self makes an appearance in the second Art of Fighting game as the final boss character. He also appears as downloadable content in Bandai Namco's fighting game Tekken 7.
Iori Yagami is a character from SNK's The King of Fighters video game series. The character first appeared in The King of Fighters '95 as the leader of the Rivals Team, as the initial enemy and later rival of Kyo Kusanagi. Iori is the heir of the Yagami clan, who use pyrokinetic powers and sealed the Orochi devil along with the Kusanagi and Yata clans. Iori suffers from a curse – "The Riot of the Blood" – under which he becomes faster, stronger and wilder, exhibiting a deadly tendency to indiscriminately attack everyone in close proximity. In this state, Iori is commonly called "Wild Iori" or "Orochi Iori". Aside from the main series, Iori appears in several other media series, including spin-offs, crossover video games and comic adaptations of the series.
Kyo Kusanagi is a fictional character in SNK's The King of Fighters series of fighting games. The character was first introduced in the 1994 video game The King of Fighters '94 as the leader of the Japan team from the series' title tournament. Kyo, heir to the Kusanagi clan, is first introduced as a cocky, delinquent high-school student who has pyrokinetic powers. His clan is one of three who banished the legendary snake demon entity Yamata no Orochi. During the series' story, Kyo meets rivals and enemies who seek to take his flame abilities. Aside from the main series, Kyo appears in several crossovers and spinoffs with other games. He is also the central title character of the manga The King of Fighters: Kyo and video game adaptation with the same name which center around his daily life.
The King of Fighters '95(KOF '95) is a fighting video game developed and published by SNK for the Neo Geo arcade and home consoles in 1995. It is the sequel to The King of Fighters '94 and the second game in The King of Fighters series. It is also the first game in the series to be ported to other home consoles besides the Neo Geo AES and Neo Geo CD with versions released for the PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and Game Boy.
The King of Fighters '97(KOF '97) is a fighting game produced by SNK for the Neo Geo arcade and home console in 1997. It is the fourth game in The King of Fighters series. It was ported to the Neo Geo CD, as well as the PlayStation and the Sega Saturn in Japan only. It is last game in the "Orochi Saga" storyline, that began in The King of Fighters '95.
The King of Fighters '98: The Slugfest, known in Japan as The King of Fighters '98: Dream Match Never Ends , is a fighting game released by SNK for the Neo Geo arcade and home consoles in 1998. It is the fifth game in The King of Fighters series. It was advertised by SNK as a "special edition" of the series, as it featured most of the characters who appeared in the previous games.
The King of Fighters '99: Millennium Battle is a 1999 fighting game developed and published by SNK for the Neo Geo MVS arcade and home consoles in 1999. It is the sixth installment in The King of Fighters series, introducing a new story arc known as the "NESTS Chronicles" which is centered around a young man named K', who is formerly associated with a mysterious yet threatening organization known only as NESTS. The game introduces several changes to the established KOF format, most notably an assisting character labeled "Striker". The game was ported to the Neo Geo CD and the PlayStation. Dreamcast and Microsoft Windows versions were also released under the title The King of Fighters' 99: Evolution whose stages were remodeled in 3D.
Ash Crimson is a character in The King of Fighters fighting game series developed by SNK Playmore. His first appearance was in The King of Fighters 2003 as leader of its Hero Team. Ash, a teenager, participates in the series' fighting tournaments. He employs a personal fighting style that involves pyrokinesis with green flames. Despite being the series' protagonist during its third story arc, Ash's behavior is generally antagonistic and he tries to steal powers from several recurring characters, leaving them powerless. His identity and intentions are further explored in the 2011 title, The King of Fighters XIII, and he has been featured in print adaptations and a drama CD based on the games.
SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos is a 2003 fighting game produced by Playmore for the Neo Geo arcade and home platform. It was then later ported to the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, although only the Xbox port was released in North America and both platforms were released in Japan and PAL regions.
The King of Fighters XI(KOF XI) is a 2D fighting game produced by SNK Playmore. It is the eleventh installment in The King of Fighters series following The King of Fighters 2003. It was originally released as a coin-operated arcade game for the Atomiswave platform in 2005. A home version for the PlayStation 2 was released in Japan in 2006, followed by releases in the PAL region and North America in 2007. It is the second The King of Fighters game to not run on the Neo Geo following its predecessor, The King of Fighters Neowave and also the first major canonical entry to not be named after its year of release.
The King of Fighters 2001(KOF 2001, or KOF '01) is the eighth game in The King of Fighters series. It is the latest installment in SNK's popular fighting series, will be distributed by South Korea-based company Eolith and Sun Amusement after SNK declared to bankruptcy. This game also is the third and final chapter of the "NESTS CHRONICLES" story arc, started in The King of Fighters '99. The game was ported to the Sega Dreamcast in Japan only and PlayStation 2. The stand-alone PlayStation 2 version was released in North America and in Europe in a two-in-one bundle with the preceding game in the series, The King of Fighters 2000. Both the original Neo Geo version and the Sega Dreamcast version were included in The King of Fighters NESTS Hen compilation released for the PlayStation 2 in Japan.
The King of Fighters 2002: Challenge to Ultimate Battle(KOF 2002, or KOF '02) is a fighting game developed by Eolith and published by Eolith and Playmore for the Neo Geo in 2002. It is the ninth game in The King of Fighters series and the second one to be produced by Eolith. The game was ported to the Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, and the Xbox, where in the PS2 and Xbox versions were released in North America in a two-in-one bundle with the following game in the series, The King of Fighters 2003. The Dreamcast port was released only in Japan, it was also the last game in the series to be officially released for the Japanese Dreamcast.
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