A Brief History On The King Of Fighters
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Fighting games have been a part of gaming history since time immemorial. While most have negligible story lines, it's hard to disregard the story of the King of Fighters and the rich history that it pulls from within the confines of SNK's treasury of games.
Fatal Fury: King of Fighters
Interestingly enough, the King of Fighters tournament didn't originate with the first King of Fighters game, but instead began in 餓狼伝説 (Garō Densetsu) also known as Fatal Fury: King of Fighters all the way back in 1991. It continued in 1992 with Fatal Fury 2, and a prequel game to the Fatal Fury series named Art of Fighting. It wasn't until 1994 that SNK would release The King of Fighters '94, which marked the first official entry in the King of Fighters series. KoF 94 featured brand new original characters while including characters from the Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting games. It also featured characters from SNK's non-fighting game related franchises such as Ikari Warriors and Psycho Soldier.
The King of Fighters '94
As a prequel to Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting proved to be problematic due in part to the significant age discrepancies between characters. Certain villain characters being canonically dead also posed an issue. KoF solved this by having its own separate continuity despite being set in the same world and featuring the same characters. What differentiated KoF ‘94 from other budding fighting game series from other companies was the innovation of the Team Battle System. KoF 94 introduced a 3-on-3 team based match format as opposed to the standard round-based format that would become a mainstay of the KoF series.
The success of KoF's led to additional entries in the form of yearly installments up until 2010. The naming convention for each game followed the year it was released in (ie The King of Fighters '95, '96, '97, etc). This came to a halt in 2004 when SNK released 3 KoF games that same year with The King of Fighters: Maximum Impact, The King of Fighters: '94 Re-Bout, and The King of Fighters Neowave. We'd continue to see yearly releases of KoF games with the streak ending on the spectacular game that is The King of Fighters XIII in 2010.
The King of Fighters XIII
5 years passed with no new mainline entry in the KoF series. During those years, SNK shifted their focus on their line of Pachinko machines. But in 2014, founder and CEO, Eikichi Kawasaki, decided that the company should return to producing the fighting games that they were known for. This led to the release of The King of Fighters XIV which features one of the largest rosters that the series has seen to date sporting a whopping 50 characters.
The King of FIghters XIV character select
The return of KoF in the form of KoF14 was met with solid review scores and a resurgence in popularity for the storied franchise. This prompted SNK to produce more spin-off games and even have their characters make guest appearances in other titles by rival companies.
A new game called KoF ALLSTAR VNG (The King of Fighters ALLSTAR - Final Battle) is in the works and will not only feature characters from the vast roster of KoF's history, but will also feature even more characters from the likes of the Samurai Shodown series and the Last Blade series.
It’s a strategy game that allows players to build their own squad consisting of up to six fighters. Each of which bring unique stats and skills that can either make or break the outcome of a battle. A number of diverse minigames will also be present to keep things fresh as you work to strengthen your collection of fighters.These range from something as simple as throwing darts to a side scrolling shoot-em-up flight game.
KoF ALLSTAR VNG will be out for iOS and Android devices by the end of June, 2020. You can pre-register right now and be the first batch of players to play the latest entry in the King of Fighters franchise. Pre-registration will be open until June 21, 2020.
Players who pre-register will be given in-game rewards in the form of 500x Diamonds, 3x (M) Stamina Potions, and 50x (S) EXP Chocolates. For more information, check out what we know of KoF ALLSTAR VNG here.
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