(KOF '96) is a 1996 fighting game developed and published by SNK for the Neo Geo arcade and home platforms. It is the third game in The King of Fighters series, following The King of Fighters '95. Unlike its predecessors, it features more emphasis on hand-to-hand combat rather than projectile moves. The plot follows a new King of Fighters tournament created by Chizuru Kagura, the heir of the Yata Clan, who wants to find and recruit the protagonist, Kyo Kusanagi, who defeated the previous host Rugal Bernstein. She seeks to recruit him to ask him and his bitter rival, Iori Yagami, to help her in the sealing of the Orochi demon like her predecessors. The final boss of the game is Goenitz, one of the servants of Orochi. Developers made several changes to the cast when compared to The King of Fighters '95, with special focus on a Boss Team composed of famous villains from their other two IPs, Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting.
SNK members had trouble with the development of the game, which continued right up until 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 received mixed reviews from several video games publications. While some reviewers praised the graphical improvements and the addition of new characters in the game, some commented that its gameplay was unbalanced in comparison to its prequels as a result of characters possessing new moves that failed to mesh the ideas of projectiles and hand-to-hand combat.
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 would later be ported to other consoles such as the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Wii Virtual Console, and PlayStation 4 as part of the King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga, as the story follows a story arc that begins in The King of Fighters '95 and ends with The King of Fighters '97. The game sold over 188,000 copies.
Gameplay
KOF '96 is a fighting game that carries the same goal of previous games in the series, involving the creation of a team of three fighters who participate in the title tournament against several rivals. This installment 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 on the other side of their opponent. The player can also determine the height of their jumps and perform small or high jumps. Moreover, the player is able to perform several counter-techniques to cancel the enemies' attacks.
Additionally, 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 now 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. While the game includes several bosses, both Chizuru Kagura and Goenitz can be unlocked as playable characters. This is the first game that the Combo Counter entitled Rush can be used in the game.
Plot and characters
In-universe, 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. The fighter roster has undergone major changes since the previous tournament. The Rival Team was disbanded, with only Iori Yagami returning, while Heidern and Takuma Sakazaki retired from the tournament. Takumas spot in the Art of Fighting Team is taken by his daughter, Yuri Sakazaki, formerly with the Women Fighters Team. New figures include Kasumi Todoh from Art of Fighting 3, who takes Yuris 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 tournament is now held by Chizuru Kagura, a descendant of the ancient Yata Clan, which is one of the three clans responsible for sealing away the snake demon, Orochi. The other two clans are the Kusanagi and Yasanaki clans, from which Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami are descended. Chizuru uses the tournament in the hopes of recruiting Kyo and Iori in order to stop the upcoming Orochi threat. The new boss is Goenitz, a servant of Orochi, who wants to stop Chizuru's plans of sealing his master. After Chizuru tests the winners, Goentiz ambushes her and faces the player. Following his defeat, Goenitz passes away as his body disappears in a tornado. If Kyo and Iori are allied with Chizuru, the two rivals join forces to incinerate Goentiz in combat. If Goenitz is chosen by the player, Goenitz is defeated by Chizuru's late sister, Maki, who put a spell on him before her death.
Hero Team Kyo Kusanagi Benimaru Nikaido Goro Daimon
Fatal Fury Team Terry Bogard Andy Bogard Joe Higashi
Art of Fighting Team Ryo Sakazaki Robert Garcia Yuri Sakazaki
Ikari Warriors Team Leona Heidern (new) Ralf Jones Clark Still
Psycho Soldier Team Athena Asamiya Sie Kensou Chin Gentsai
Korea Justice Team Kim Kaphwan Chang Koehan Choi Bounge
Women Fighters Team Kasumi Todoh (new) Mai Shiranui King
Rivals Team Iori Yagami Mature (new) Vice (new)
Boss Team Geese Howard (new) Wolfgang Krauser (new) Mr. Big (new)
Mid-Boss Chizuru Kagura (new)
Main Boss Goenitz (new)
Development
SNK developer Yasuyuki Oda referred to KOF '96 as the most important game from the franchise because it served as the basis for most of their works. The development period for KOF '96 continued 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. The King of Fighters '96 was 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). While the first two games used the Neo Geo MVS arcade, The King of Fighters '96 included 68 KB of video RAM and 64 KB of RAM. This made The King of Fighters '96 the first game to break the technical limits of the MVS system. SNK staff members noted that due to the great popularity of some of the series's characters, it was difficult to design new ones that would have the same appeal. This also happened during location tests of new games. The number of deadlines led to having to balance issues and bugs. The game took a year to develop; the first King of Fighters, by comparison, took two years. A total of six musicians worked on the audio.
While the previous installment was created to develop the protagonist, Kyo Kusanagi, and his rival Iori Yagami, The King of Fighters '96 was mainly created to continue the narrative of the Orochi arc, based on Japanese myths. Director Masanori Kuwasashi was responsible for the handling of the Orochi arc, which he based on the Yamata no Orochi demon, from which the antagonist is derived. The game established that Kyo's and Iori's predecessors trained together to create a nearly identical fighting style, but due to the latter's corruption by Orochi, Iori's clan was able to harness sinister techniques that differentiated them from their peers. Originally, The King of Fighters '95 was intended to be a complete remake of The King of Fighters '94, but due to time constraints, it was The King of Fighters '96 that was a complete revamp in comparison. Chizuru Kagura was created as a means to expand the Orochi arc and bring Kyo and Iori together as the "Three Sacred Treasures Team", which represents the three Imperial Regalia of Japan: the sword, the mirror, and the jewel. Their ancestors were then said to have defeated Orochi during the time of myths. Due to issues with development, the original clothing damage Yuri Sakazaki and King were to suffer when defeated by special moves was removed. Mai Shiranui's bouncing-cleavage animation was also changed due to censorship from non-Japanese games. Mai's artist had to be told there was too much work to be done to reuse Mai's appearance. In retrospect, The King of Fighters '96 was the first game from the franchise developed to openly compete with other games on the market. However, The King of Fighters '96 was the last game directed by Kuwasashi, who expressed experiencing pressure due to the annual release schedule. This led to his eventual replacement with battle designer Toyohisa Tanabe as the next director; he would end the Orochi arc with The King of Fighters '97.
The basic concept of the game was novelty through new characters, new language, and new systems. The key point was how to change the way the players used the characters. The tempo of the game increased. SNK aimed to create a game with less waiting and more attacking. How to make the new characters stand out was also a considerable issue. The original attack evasion move caused the game to pause for a moment. The developers felt that this was an element that contradicted their previous aim of speeding up the game, and although the "attack evasion" itself was well received, they changed it to an "emergency return action" that involved movement - though this was also a bit difficult to use. This led to the removal of projectile techniques to make fights more strategic and make the characters more unique. Many people attended the location testing events, which provided the developers with feedback about the mechanics, and helped to further balance the game. The inclusion of Geese was innovative, but at the same time was confusing to players because the game was released after Real Bout Fatal Fury, which marked the death of that character. Among several characters, the protagonist Kyo Kusanagi has different moves, which reinforce a hand-to-hand combat style rather than throwing projectiles like in previous games. While Kyo remained popular, SNK developers noted players missed the original Kyo play style, which often resulted in subsequent games including an alternate version of the main character that possessed his classic moves. The team was confident in their cast and visuals and showed all of them in the intro sequence.