King Of Fighters 94
Year Of Release: 1994
Studio: SNK
Description
SNK have made many great arcade games over the year, most of which would be ported to their Neo Geo home system. Before King Of Fighters, SNK had success with their Fatal Fury and Art Of Fighting series of fighting games. King Of Fighters would mash these two games together which at the time was a really big deal in the gaming world. Two huge gaming franchises coming together in one game. Keep in mind this was before Capcom would mix its Street Fighter characters with Marvel’s X-Men so we had never seen a fighting game like this before.
Like other SNK fighting games, King Of Fighters 94 is just gorgeous to look at. The game boasted huge characters and incredibly detailed backgrounds. While games like Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat would be more popular there is no getting away from the fact that from a presentational point of view, King Of Fighters 94 was way ahead of the competition. The story of the game saw a Russian arms dealer putting together a fighting tournament which brought the characters from Fatal Fury, Art Of Fighting and a few other classic franchises as well Ikari Warriors and Psycho Soldier.
Game play wise, King Of Fighters 94 uses a four button control scheme with two punches sand two kicks. Players of the Fatal Fury games were able to pick this game up really fast and it was a game that could be picked up and played, but it was also a very deep fighting game that required some serious time and dedication to master.
From a game play point of view, King Of Fighters 94 was a very innovative game. It got rid of the standard one on one fighting that was popular at the time and introduced the Team Battle System. This saw you picking a team of three fighters from a selection of eight teams. You pick which one of your team gets to fight first and if you beat the first opponent you will get a bit of energy back and then take on the next member of the opposing team. Once you have beaten all three members of a team you move on. King Of Fighters 94 would also allow you to call in one of your team mates to do a support attack. Many of these features are common in fighting games these days, but back in 1994 they were truly ground breaking.
Current High Score: NA
Related Titles
King Of Fighters 94 was a huge hit in the arcades and would be released for both the Neo Geo home console and the Neo Geo CD console as well. The original game has also been included in various SNK collections over the years as well.
The amount of sequels that have been released is just mind blowing. There are the dedicated King Of Fighters games which as of writing is about to enter its 14th instalment in 2015 with King Of Fighters IV.
As well as this though there have been numerous spin offs such as King Of Fighters Maximum Impact 1 and 2. King Of Fighters EX, King Of Fighters Kyo and many more and even games like SNK vs Capcom and Neo Geo Battle Coliseum. The amount of games that are in and related to King Of Fighters is just huge and would require a huge article to do them all justice.
The series is so popular that it has spawned a live action movie and just a ton of merchandise.
