Continuing from Monday’s guide to King of Fighters, here’s another chunk that could make you guys and gals have some insight (or trivia knowledge) on the perennial series that went head-to-head with Capcom’s fight in the street.

G is for Girl Power

Upping the female fighters set in Street Fighter 2, SNK added in a couple of their own big guns. From Mai Shiranui, buxom ninja of the Shiranui style of fighting, throwing fans, and setting your robe on fire to ignite foes, to the adorable Yuri Sakazaki, former damsel-in-distress turned Kyokugen Karate powerhouse, there’s something for everyone. Especially if there’s 37 strong-willed and fisticuffs-happy females to pick from (sorry, dudes,  Ash and Bao are male, in case you’re wondering). Hell, I like Vanessa since she’s a female Balrog that’s easy on the eyes.

It also help matters that the endings for the all-girl teams are light-hearted and places a dash of humor in the series.  Even the Neo Geo Pocket has a game dedicated to the lovely ladies called SNK Gals Fighters, something Capcom didn’t even pull off exclusively for their own fighting stable lacking a Y chromosome.

H is for Hatred Everlasting

Most rivalries between two main protaganists in a fighting game are just hugely competitive at the worst-case scenario. In KOF however, Kyo’s rival, the sociopathic red-haired Iori Yagami, aims to sate his bloodlust to kill the last remaining known Kusanagi descendant still in plain sight (which happens to be Kyo Kusanagi, as his dad Saisyu is hiding in god-knows-where after ‘95). His fighting style (before XII’s revamping) was much like Kyo’s 95 moveset, only with a 3-hit Aoihana combo attack and his famous Desperation Move, the Maiden Masher. Think of it as a groovier iteration of a Street Fighter Shotokan warrior.  Just don’t expect friendly sparring matches between him and Kyo, lest you want your new persian rug suddenly having different shades of red.

I is for Ikari Warriors

When not being a two-man army killing off guerilla forces led by a dead guy in a chair and not saving the world from intergalactic menaces in their top-down shooter games they star in, the popular duo of Ralph Jones and Clark Steel ditched their guns and participate in some  King of Fighters fisticuffs and pugilism. Ralph can allegedly survive nukes, being that his fists explode whenever he does an attack, while Clarke is the laid-back buff guy in the shades who happens to have a trademark grapple move where he flings you up in the air, grabs you when you land, and proceed to slam you down onto the ground complete with a back-breaking “THUD”. Due to their popularity among fans, the both of them have yet to be excluded from any of the KOFs.

J is for Jazz And All Sorts Of Music


KOF’s soundtrack is, to put it mildly, unlike anything you’ll ever hear in a fighting game. As soon as you heard the hard rocking music of Rugal’s theme at the end of KOF ’94 when he ripped off his top suit, you knew the s*** was going to hit the fan. KOF ’96 was where it hit the high mark of musical prowess with standouts like “Esaka” and a soothing remix of Terry’s theme “Big Shot”. Throughout the many iterations, the music has taken a turn for the better up until their temporary bankruptcy. After said bankruptcy passed, they reverted to the rocking soundtrack in KOF 2003 and KOF XI composed by Shinji “Cave Shooter Music” Hosoe and SHA-V respectively.

K is for Kawasaki, Eikichi

The founder of SNK, he jumped in on the coin-op video game craze that stemmed from the likes of Pac Man and Donkey Kong. His first two accomplishments from the then-new SNK were Ozma Wars and Safari Rally. His love for fighting games is shown throughout the 90s or so when Fatal Fury and Samurai Shodown reared their heads to capture the hearts of arcade gamers. As a former martial artist, he occasionally asks game designers and artists to pause what they’re doing and give a demo to how a punch is thrown and the effect it gives when doing fighting games.

L is for Load Times

Ah...load times in CD mediums. Those were the days.

SNK games usually get ported over to other systems, and KOF was no different. However, the ports of both the Sega Saturn and PSOne suffer from load time. Extremely long load times. Saturn owners at least got a pass out of this conundrum via purchasing a RAM card for extra space and memory-crunching. Large chunks of 2D sprite art wasn’t exactly the PSOne’s forte.

M is for MAX2!

What would a stable fighting franchise be without a fighting mechanic involving super bars? The first few King of Fighter games let you manually charge up your bar by holding down three buttons. When it came to ’97, you get the option to use an Advanced Mode or Extra Mode; one lets you keep up to three stocks of power-up bars (gained through damage) that you can expend to get into MAX! mode, while the Extra lets you go old-school with the ability to charge your bar manually and also do an on-the-spot dodge that has a few frame advantages over the standard roll.

It got more complex from ‘98 and beyond, adding in Wire Attacks, Armor Mode, Max 2 cancelling abilities, and whatnot. This eventually led to the twelfth game going back to its roots, since it’s scaring off casual fighting game fans.

That’s all for today. Stick around as I try to figure out if O should be Orochi or R should be Retarded Kid Bao (because he truly is).