The King of Fighters '98: The Slugfest
Two, three! It all began in '94, kept on rollin' in '95. Pieces were in place in '96, and it came to an end in '97. And now it comes, and here we go, KOF is here again, nothing's gonna stop 'cause it's 1998!
SNK is a very weird company. The company has almost gone bankrupt quite a few times and yet they're still around.
SNK was originally known as "Shin Nihon Kikaku", and first got started with making an arcade system that allowed the owner to easily replace the board in the cabinet so that they would be able to change the game. This is a very early predecessor to the Neo Geo.
The Neo Geo is also a bit of an odd system in itself. Most SNK games are known for having just 4 buttons and a joystick which came about with the company's game "Vanguard". "Vanguard" might also be the first game to have a continue feature. There are also some other notable games like "Ikari Warriors" and "Athena" who have characters that are featured in The King of Fighters series. If you're a fan of SNK games, you'll also note that games will not have the best English translations which make them a lot more lovable.
The Neo Geo was released in 1990 and was essentially an arcade system in two flavors, the MVS and AES. The MVS is the arcade system and the AES is the home system. Unfortunately they aren't compatible with each other, but you can get adapters for the cartidges. The cartridges were also $200 on release so they were very pricey. With that said, it is the best looking 16-bit system ever. It was actually a lot cheaper compared to contemporary arcade games so it made sense for arcades to buy these games because of the cartridges.
So how did "The King of Fighters" get its start? Well it all started with Fatal Fury. "Fatal Fury: King of Fighters" is a 1991 release that the original creator of "Street Fighter" was responsible for. You're introduced to Terry, Andy, and Joe who enter the "King of Fighters" tournament in order to defeat it's organizer Geese Howard, the man responsible for killing Terry and Andy's adoptive father. In "Fatal Fury 2", more staple characters of the series are added, notably Mai Shiranui, and a new King of Fighters tournament takes place. A prequel series, "Art of Fighting" released in 1992 and takes place between 1978 and 1980.With all of that history out of the way, lets get to "The King of Fighters '94". In the previous games, the fights were 1-on-1. This time, the main villain, Rugal Bernstein, hosts another King of Fighters tournament, but makes it 3-on-3, which would become a staple of the series. Characters from Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury join the tournament in hopes to win.
So after all of of that, more tournaments are held in what is called "The Orochi Saga". This is the over arching story in "The King of Fighters '95", "The King of Fighters '96", and "The King of Fighters '97" More plot happens, and characters are added and removed. Art of Fighting gets its final game, "Art of Fighting 3: The Path of the Warrior", and Fatal Fury gets its 5th release in "Real Bout Fatal Fury". You'll see many of these characters in the tournaments.
All of this for "The King of Fighters '98". KoF '98 doesn't have a plot, which is totally fine, it's a fighting game so it doesn't really need one. However there's something special about it. Unlike previous games in the series that wouldn't include characters who were dead or not playable due to plot reasons, KoF '98 has every character. Titled "The King of Fighters '98: Dream Match Never Ends" in Japan it's a "Dream Match". This is a term that applies to a few SNK games as it lets you play as almost any character you'd want to from the series. KoF '98 is the first "Dream Match" in the King of Fighters series and has a massive 38 character roster. It's quite litterally all of the best elements from the Orochi saga.
It was all of this that led me to play KoF '98. After wanting to get into the Neo Geo, and learning about the history of SNK back when Terry Bograd came to Smash, I looked up some of the best Neo Geo games. On that list was KoF '98, KoF '00, and KoF '02. I knew that KoF '98 was one of the best in the series and was highly regarded as an amazing game so I began playing it in an attempt to get better at fighting games. And man it was a blast.
The music is amazing, the sprite work is incredible, the game oozes with character, and the gameplay is top notch. I can't say enough good things about it. I usually play the most fan service team so Terry Bogard, Mai Shiranui, and Athena Asamiya. One day I'll gain the confidence to play this on Fightcade, but that day is not today.