< The King of Fighters

The King of Fighters/YMMV


  • Alas, Poor Scrappy: In XIII, Ash gives one last smile before he disappears from existence entirely. Suffice to say, Elizabeth wasn't the only one heartbroken that day.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Americans Hate Tingle: Ash Crimson, along with Choi and Chang. The Japanese pretty much loves Ash, while the West hates him with a passion (his end fate notwithstanding).
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced:
  • Anticlimax Boss: Orochi. Not of his game (King of Fighters '97 was rather easy anyway), but of the Orochi Saga as a whole. He remains one of the easiest end bosses to beat.
  • Awesome Animation: One thing that really got it noticed back in 94 and made it a contender against Street Fighter. The spite animation in the earlier games is utterly gorgeous and still hold up well to this day. By 2003, they were really getting it down pat, just look how smoothly Ash throws his fireball at the screen in the intro. That's all sprite animated!
  • Awesome Music: Many.
  • Complacent Gaming Syndrome: A majority of characters in the series were overused by players quite a lot:
    • Iori Yagami was a very reliable character in the hands of a good player, having very solid offense and damage output once you get back some of his possibly clunky moves and slow walking speed. This is mainly due to the fact that his moveset is simple and very effective, but he lacks in solid pressure due to some unsafe attacks on block or on whiff.
    • The Orochi versions of the New Faces Team were used much more than their original versions: Orochi Shermie was the least used, and meanwhile, Orochi Yashiro was considered a high tier character.
    • Goro Daimon, due to his high damage potential as a grappler and some very reliable gimmicks compared to other grapplers of his kind.
    • Takuma Sakazaki, due to his powerful offensive game when he corners his opponent.
    • In '98, and more so in the Ultimate Match version, the EX versions of the characters were overused in several tournaments. EX Yamazaki, EX Billy, EX Mary, EX Ryo and EX Yuri being very frequent in the scene. Due to that case, EX Geese (who was a rebalanced version of Nightmare and Real Bout Fatal Fury 2 Geese in one) was used a lot more than normal Geese, possibly due to his better zoning with actual projectile-based Reppuuken attacks.
    • Kim Kaphwan was as a staple for several offensive Tae Kwon Do characters; due to the nature of the King of Fighters series overall, he was a very perfect character for space control and offensive pressure alike.
    • K' wasn't often as frequent in the past, but a lot of current installments make him very frequent due to his nasty and simple combo potential and his very solid space control game.
    • Krauser, as mentioned in the Game Breaker section below, ESPECIALLY his Ultimate Match incarnation. He was thankfully nerfed quite a bit in the Final Edition version.
    • A bit averted in XIII: almost every single character due to their improvements for the pacing of the new engine has been in tournament limelight, despite the fact that some DLC characters were really out there (like EX Iori who was pretty much the original incarnation everyone played-the-hell-out-of, and EX Kyo). Billy and Saiki get a lot of love too.
  • Complete Monster:
    • Jivatma.
    • Rugal: His liquid metal bath treatment counts. For everything else, check Moral Event Horizon.
  • Crack Pairing: Iori and Kasumi. It is perhaps the most popular non-Ho Yay pairing despite the fact that they've probably never even met.
  • Crazy Awesome: Duck King. The dude is almost always cheerful, overly eccentric, and can pull off some of the craziest stunts... using breakdancing moves that are humanly impossible (in Real Life, performing employing breakdancing as a martial art would leave you with several broken bones at best). Oh, and did we mention the family of ducks living inside his hair that copy his every move? This was before Sazh, mind you.
  • Creator's Pet:
    • Not many people like Ash, yet SNK let him get away with pretty controversial stuff, such as stealing Iori's powers.
    • In a reversal of the above Ash example, K' serves as this to the Japanese fandom; he's substantially better-received outside of Japan, though.
    • Something of a subversion: SNK flat-out admits they love Rugal. They designed him from the ground up to be the most badass boss character there ever was (and that's not paraphrasing by much), and that they make him the final boss in Dream Match games because he's their favorite. This would be annoying, if Rugal didn't viciously beat his way into players' hearts the world over, cementing himself as an icon to the fanbase as much as he is to the folks at SNK. The SNK fandom likely idolizes him more than Capcom fans have idolized the likes of Akuma or M. Bison.
  • Designated Hero: Compare the actions of Ash and his "Hero Team" to that of previous heroes Kyo and K'. This subverted in XIII, where it's revealed that he indeed had an agenda (a good one to boot!), but had to go out of his way to make it work.
  • Die for Our Ship:
    • Yuki, Kyo's girlfriend, is loathed by Kyo x (insert: Iori, Shingo, Athena, etc) shippers.
    • Athena, who's otherwise likable, is also hated by rabid Kensou fans of both genders who accuse her of being an ungrateful slut who plays with his feelings since she refuses or ignores his advances, and sometimes she's twisted into a self-centered skank who plays with both Kensou and Kyo's feelings solely for her own pleasure. Never mind that the worst she has done is either ignoring or turning Kensou's affections down, while also caring for him when he needs it. Although she does start dating Kensou in the Maximum Impact continuity, but has to keep it a secret given her idol status (which, in-universe, would ironically put Kensou himself as the one to die for the ship).
    • People couldn't believe that Andy didn't throw himself at the feet of an attractive and popular character like Mai who chases after him, so they bash him to death since "OMG THE HOTTEST WOMAN EVER LIKES YOU, YOU MUST BE AN IDIOT OR GAY TO NOT F*CK HER!". Finally averted in XIV where Mai and Andy are now finally in a relationship.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Barring some exceptions (like K9999), any character has some kind of fan following.
    • Shermie. A one-shot villain who never officially appears in future non-dream match installments, but remains very popular and ends up being included in both SNK Gals Fighters and Neo Geo Battle Coliseum. It helps that she's got a killer rack and nice legs.
    • Shermie's teammates Yashiro Nanakase and Chris.
    • Eiji Kisaragi, the no-nonsense Ninja from Art of Fighting 2. Very popular among the fandom. They finally brought him back in XI to please the crowd after an eight' game absence (note: his last appearance was in 95, the second game in the series).
    • There are many others, ranging to Badass NPCs like Ron, to Geese Howard himself, to Duck King, to May Lee (who oddly enough was also a Replacement Scrappy for some time). Hell, even the American Sports Team has a surprisingly large following.
    • Oswald made only a single playable appearance, with XI as his only game. The combination of being one of the best characters in the game and just having a pretty damn cool character design made him one of the most popular characters on the roster. That's pretty impressive for who is essentially a one-off character.
    • May Lee is a favorite who oddly enough was also a Replacement Scrappy for some time.
    • Angel, even though she only appears in 2001 canonically, gets a lot of popularity due to being very powerful gameplay-wise and being quite the bombshell. Enough that she even reappears in XIV when people would least suspect her (with Ramon to boot).
    • Since this series seems to relegate characters to the background in favor of emphasizing the newer faces, many of the fan-favorites from other games carry this status as well. Point in case, the cast of Fatal Fury: Terry (despite being SNK's Mascot and The Hero of his series), Duck, Billy, Geese, Mai, Kim, Blue Mary, Yamazaki, Rock Howard, Bonne Jenet, Tizoc, Gato and Hotaru all have this vibe. In fact, Mai's exclusion from the arcade version of XI and XII entirely is the reason behind the chant of "NO MAI = NO BUY!".
    • Kasumi Todoh was the only new addition from Art of Fighting 3 to make it to this series. Her popularity alone also granted her a spot in SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos despite being at best a bit character in either series.
    • Gai Tendo of Buriki One has a fanbase so devoted that he was propelled into the land of memetic badassery upon appearing in XI.
    • Makoto Mizoguchi from Fighter's History Dynamite. His status as an Ensemble Darkhorse is what allowed him to jump over to Maximum Impact: Regulation A. That, and the fact that he's a favorite of series' producer and director Falcoon.
    • Ralf, Heidern, Leona, Shingo, Kula, Vanessa and Shen Woo all seem to be approaching this status as well (that's if they're not already there).
    • Iori is something of an Invoked Trope meta example, being so different from other fighting game characters at the time that he became an insta-hit with fans.
    • Rugal. Both the dev team and most of the fandom love him so much that he's always the final opponent in a Dream Match Game as well as in Capcom vs. SNK 2.
    • Maxima is very popular with the Japanese Bara Genre community.
  • Epileptic Trees: While many fans hope that this doesn't come to pass (or at least not in the terms described), a prevalent theory is that, should SNKP ever go bankrupt again (as in, for good), their last action will be to create one final "Dream Match Game" title, but Up to Eleven: a The King of Fighters Universal Match which would bring back every character that was ever in a King of Fighters game back for the last hurrah.
  • Evil Is Cool: Most of the villains, natch. Even if they are Complete Monsters. As a result, Draco in Leather Pants ensues, though it's a wide spectrum for who qualifies and who doesn't.
  • Evil Is Sexy: About 80% of the villains. No, really. See that trope's main page for more details.
  • Fanon: Orochi Leona's habit of popping up at the wrong time, as well as her pleasured-sounding screams. Three guesses what.
  • Faux Symbolism:
    • This is the entire theme of Goenitz as a character.
    • See "Rule of Symbolism" under Iori's entry.
    • Evil Ash has a DM where the screen is filled with black flames, in direct contrast to Elizabeth's Neo MAX, which bathes the screen in white light.
  • Foe Yay: Iori Yagami, who spends roughly ninety-eight percent of his time thinking about what Kyo is doing, following Kyo around, and fantasizing about ways to kill him (meanwhile, Kyo just wants to live his life as a fighter at the fullest and be left the heck alone, and not to mention he barely cares about the whole Orochi deal unless either he and/or his friends are directly involved). This is actually lampshaded in the Dating Sim Spin-Off series Days of Memories, which sometimes has the two play the role of romantic rivals.
  • Game Breaker:
    • Armor Ralf in Maximum Impact 2. As the name implies, it's Ralf decked out in armor. This version of Ralf is a contender for the most broken non-boss fighting game character of all time. He has super armor, cannot be thrown normally, has infinite priority, does EVEN MORE DAMAGE THAN NORMAL RALF, and cannot be knocked down. He was so broken that he was actually removed from the Regulation A upgrade to the game, though his data and model are still on the disc.
    • Angel in 2002. She is meant to be played by players with experience in string-system combos; however, since this system would be considered hard to use properly, the game rewards Angel with long invincibility periods while doing her moves. This translates in the opponent having to guess what Angel will do and attack in the hopes that her next move won't have invincibility. Also, one of her moves in the string is a uppercut that can hit the opponent while he is recovering in the air. Should Angel spam this on the corner, we have a infinite combo that requires absolutely no power stocks.
    • Billy Kane fights with a stick that gives him a unfair advantage at zoning. He also has a incredibly fast 2-hit attack that can be abused and can combo with other way stronger moves, should it hit near the corner. His Maximum Impact 2 incarnation is far worse. The Tekken-esque dial-a combos only bolster his rushdown game, his specials come out far quicker with less cooldown lag, and he gains devastating new attacks revolving around his bo. In order words, he can do all sorts of wicked shit. This match from Mamximum Impact 2 and this match from Regulation A are good examples of what you're up against.
    • Athena has a fireball with almost instant recovery, as well as a teleport and a bug that makes she retreat at absurd speed when doing a backdash. Should you be at a lower health when the match time is about to finish, unless you're a very fast character yourself there's pretty much nothing you can do other than try and follow her while avoiding her firebals and watching out for a DM that jolts you if you touch her.
    • Choi is a dwarf: his Hitbox Dissonance is about half the vertical size of a regular character. Most attacks, including specials and a good number of super moves pass right above his head: essentially cutting in half the viable options, strategies and combos of practically every other character in the game. Because of this, he's been top-to-god tier in almost every single installment of the series, and a staple Tier-Induced Scrappy.
    • Iori Yagami in '98 is beatable, yes, but he is also a god tier character. Pretty much all of his moves, normal or not, have a longer range than they look, are extremely fast, and goes on a anything-comboes-from-anything pattern. His air attacks hit extremely low, so much that his air C can easily hit a crouching Choi Bounge. He has a invincible grab that makes the opponent open to anything, and anything he does can combo into his Deadly Flower, a 3-hit move that deals high damage and quickly stuns the opponent. And, he has a fast fireball of his own. AND, his Maiden Masher DM rushes toward the opponent with high priority, low enough to go under any mid-air fireball and, for some reason, jumping opponents will stop in the air to be hit by the move. Go ahead, try to find a pro-level match where Iori isn't present.
      • As mentioned before, Iori is more of a shotoclone-like character, but due to his unique moves and his actually high damage output, he's often used a lot as he provides massive combo potential and decent mixup. Though he's a bit of a case of Difficult but Awesome due to the fact that his moves are clunky, as in very easy to punish if misused, and his walking speed is quite slow. In it all, Iori is powerful, but still a difficult character to manage due to some of his more unsafe tools.
    • Wolfgang Krauser in '98 Ultimate Match. Normal moves have good reach and damage, simple but damaging Bread and Butter combos and an autocombo DM that can serve many functions like Iori's Maiden Masher DM. Eventually, in the Final Edition version of that game, he was heavily nerfed in terms of total damage done on several of his moves and a bit of range and more recovery on them, while other characters received some nice buffs.
    • Rugal's Genocide Cutter in King of Fighters '94. At maximum power, it can be a One-Hit Kill. Coupled with his SNK Boss status... Word of God apologizes for "going a bit overboard" with the damage ratio. The move was toned down in later installments, but is still quite devastating.
    • Daimon in '98, thanks to a glitch. Averted in Ultimate Match, which removed said glitch.
    • Heidern's Moon Slasher and Stormbringer in King of Fighters '94. Due to bugs, these two moves had abusive damage ratios to the point that a maximum power Stormbringer could one-shot a character who was at full health. Luckily, these bugs were addressed by the time '95 rolled in.
    • Ralf's Galatica Phantom in EX2: Howling Blood. This version has a much, much shorter charge time and is a regular move instead of a (S)DM. As a tradeoff, it loses some of its power, but still eats about 50% off of an opponent's lifebar. Go buck wild with it, and watch the body count skyrocket.
    • A highly technical combo involves Ralf cancelling out of his Blazing Vulcan Punch on the last hit and performing the Galatica Phantom. In other words, the moment the opponent recovers, they're greeted by Ralf's (unblockable) fist.
    • Eiji in '95. He held of the distinction of being able to chain almost anything together. Seriously, you could flail your hands across the controller like a frantic monkey and still catch your opponent off-guard about 75% of the time.
    • Orochi Iori was playable via a rather simple code in the King of Fighters '97 arcade, as was Orochi Leona and the Orochi New Faces Team.
    • Gato and Kula received one too many buffs in XI, thrusting them into top-tier. Oswald too, thanks to his speed and versatility.
    • Krizalid. Yes, he might be a SNK Boss, but the Typhoon Rage gives Rugal's Genocide Cutter a run for its money with its omni-priority, high damage output, juggling ability, and the ability to fill his super meter at the speed of sound. In 2002: Ultimate Match, this fact alone makes Krizalid more broken than Clone Zero, Original Zero, "lovable" Igniz and Omega Rugal himself. Only Nightmare Geese can outdo him.
    • Nightmare Geese has faster Reppuukens, and non-negateable Shippuukens (meaning they pass through all projectiles and CAN'T BE CANCELLED BY ANOTHER NIGHTMARE GEESE'S SHIPPUUKENS) and that he can fire FOUR of them at once, a powerful multi-hitting OTG version of his Raging Storm, a throw much like Iori's where he can toss you aside and leave you open to a free combo (one of his throws in past Fatal Fury games) AND even has an infinite combo involving one of his old command normals chained into his x4 Shippuuken. Averted in XIV where Nightmare Geese is simply a skin for Geese (as well as being balanced beforehand in Maximum Impact 2 and Regulation A).
    • Alba Meira, supposedly being a "cooler Falcoon", receives godly tools like an anti-air command throw and a triple projectile. In Maximum Impact: Regulation A, Alba is outclassed by the series's proverbial Creator's Pet Ash Crimson. And now you know what the "A" in Regulation A stands for.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
    • Chang, along with Choi, is one of the franchise's most popular characters in Korea. Now you know how Choi made it into SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos.
    • Sho Hayate is also a cult-fave in Japan, which most likely led to his inclusion in XI.
    • K' is much more popular in the States than he is in Japan: some American King of Fighters fans widely regard him to be a better character than previous protagonist Kyo. K' did, at least, receive some backlash before the fans warmed up to him.
    • The series is very popular in Central and South America, where arcade owners found it more cost-effective to utilize Neo Geo cabinets and keep up with the latest entries by simply purchasing new cartridges, as opposed to whole cabinets. As a result, audiences in those regions were more exposed to KOF than its more expensive (and better known elsewhere) competitors such as Street Fighter, and many professional King of Fighters players are Mexicans who started out as the archetypal kid who spent the tortillas' change at the King of Fighters arcade in the corner shop. Characters such as Ramon and Angel (and eventually the Mexico and South America teams) were made to acknowledge the popularity of the games and the audience in those regions.
  • Good Bad Bugs:
    • This series of videos is all you need to see.
    • Rugal's Kaiser Drill bug in 2002, which has not been fixed for either Neowave or 2002: Unlimited Match. God forbid that you roll behind Omega Rugal when he's charging up a Kaiser Wave... The phenom is explained here and here.
    • The Amazing Flying Jhun glitch in 2003. To elaborate, one of Jhun's aerial moves involved stomping on your head. Performing a roll quickly after successfully executing this technique would leave Jhun hovering in the air. On top of that, his pushback was no longer functional, allowing him to smash anyone open with the purest of ease. For examples, see here and here. However, as seen here, it can also go horribly wrong and end in utter, hilarious humiliation.
    • According to developers, Takuma had several extended combos in 94 that weren't supposed to be there initially. But when they removed the combos during testing, they felt he was weaker without them, so they left them in. Some of these combos would stay in for later games that Takuma appeared in.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • In '99, Ralf's victory quote was "I can survive anything--even nukes!". Fast forward to his and Clark's inclusion in Metal Slug 6 where Ralf is the only member of the playable cast who isn't a One-Hit-Point Wonder.
    • With a possible side of Fandom Nod: in the MUGEN fanbase, the King of Fighters-centric Vans gave his version of Kyo an aerial version of the Orochinagi. Come XIII...
    • K9999's official profile on the King of Fighters 10th Anniversary website blatantly acknowledges his resemblance to Tetsuo. Shortly after 2002: Unlimited Match was released, his picture on the site was mysteriously deleted.
  • Ho Yay:
    • Aside of the Kyo/Iori super hyper Foe Yay? For someone who was apparently said to be Camp Straight by the developing team themselves, some of Benimaru's pre-battle quotes against handsome males in XIII were rather... flirty. Especially against Shen and Duo Lon.
    • Shingo's hero worship of Kyo can be very easily seen as a man-crush, most noticeable in their special pre-match intros for both 98 and 99.
  • I Am Not Shazam: The Sega Saturn port of 95 refers to him as "Omega Rugal", even when recapping the events of the previous game... when he wasn't Omega Rugal. Likewise, the O in his name stands for O'mega, not Orochi, a common misconception, seeing as he draws upon the Orochi power.
  • Iron Woobie: Heidern, Iori, K', probably Duo Lon. And especially Elisabeth.
  • It's Easy, So It Sucks!: Veteran gamers think this about King of Fighters XIV, due to the inclusion of an "Aggresion" system that enables the player to perform a 4-6 hit autocombo by rapidly mashing a button.
  • Jerkass Woobie:
    • All things considered with the Yagami/Yasakani's 1600-year blood curse, Iori still manages to be a massive Jerkass while doing so. There is also Ash, an odd variation in that he starts out acting like a grade-A jerkass, but when the act drops, and his backstory is fully revealed, he then earns major Woobie points.
    • Also, Yashiro, in the New Face Team's ending. He kills Chris and Shermie to power up Orochi, but then he cradles the fatally injured Shermie in his arms to comfort her as she she bleeds to death... and when she's gone, he offs himself. And then Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Goenitz, Geese, Igniz, Ron, Ash.
  • Mary Sue: Ash Crimson, Mignon Beart.
  • Memetic Badass:
    • Depending on the community, Terry, Ralf, Yamazaki, Shen Woo and Gai Tendo.
    • The boss characters, who are so badass that they collectively are the Trope Namer for SNK Boss.
  • Memetic Mutation:
  • Misblamed:
    • It would seem that Nona is getting flak for the most recent entries in the series, due to their new art designs. While he was the art director for XII (and draws for the pre-fight exchanges in XIII), it's actually Ogura Eisuke, the artist for Neo Geo Battle Coliseum, who handled the artwork. For some odd reason, Nona is also being blamed from the story developments, an area that he has minimal influence in at best.
    • People have whined against fellow artist Falcoon for his work in Maximum Impact. While he is the artist in charge, it doesn't mean he handles all the decisions in regards to the artwork, and he didn't certainly have ALL the shots in regards to the character roster and story.
  • Moe: Athena (moreso starting in XII), Momoko, Hotaru. Leona might count, but this overlaps with her status as The Woobie.
  • Moral Event Horizon:
    • Rugal crosses it several times:
      • A King of Fighters '94 drama CD has him killing his servants for making minor goofs and not being "perfect". That same action is repeated in a King of Fighters '94 manga, bloodily murdering a teenaged maid for merely bringing him the wrong wine for dinner. As he approaches her, you see him walking and looming over the poor girl as she begs him to not hurt her... and then "SPLAT".
      • In the third volume of the same manga, Rugal orders one of his subordinates to kidnap Kyo's girlfriend Yuki and lock her in a room with a fake time bomb just to force Kyo, Benimaru and Daimon fight the Women's Team in the streets of Tokyo, in a sort of Deadly Game where instead of fighting to the death, they fought to rescue poor Yuki. Rugal didn't even really need to have them fight that way, and did just For the Evulz.
      • And then, there's the wicked pleasure he took on having Saisyu Kusanagi tortured and then Brainwashed and Crazy to make him his servant in '95. Double when you play with the Japan Team and he gloats about it in front of Saisyu's son Kyo.
      • There's also his mauling of Heidern's family and mercenary unit (mind you, this was single-handed and that Heidern's unit was fifty men strong). Apparently done for no other reason than to provoke and slight Heidern. It was also featured in Shinjyouji's manga, with an added bonus: Clara and Sandra were killed while trying to protect the badly injured and now eye-less Heidern.
    • Goenitz, in response to Gaidel turning down his offer to join him in the attempt to resurrect their master Orochi, awakened Leona's Orochi blood for the first time when she was still a child, causing her to destroy her whole village and kill every inhabitant, her own family included.
    • Jivatma ordered the death of Lien's parents and family because her father would not join Addes.
  • More Popular Spinoff: Of both Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting. Even in this very wiki, people mention some Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting characters as being from The King of Fighters even when those characters, at best, only make cameos in the series.
  • Most Annoying Sound: The "OOOOOOOUUUUUUAAAAAAAAGH" sound Andy makes when you hit him. Not so prevalent in the Fatal Fury series, but it cropped up quite a bit in early King of Fighters titles. It got ridiculous in '99 onward where for no apparent reason they made it his KO cry. You will hear this especially in 2002 and Unlimited Match, where he groans this practically every time you hit him.
    • "KOKO DESU KA? KOKO DESU KA? KOKO DESU KA? KOKO DESU KA? KOKO DESU KA?" This the sound of Goenitz's Yonokaze murdering you.
    • Some of Malin's yells have her sounding like a strangled duck.
    • Angel's voice (mostly her 2002 seiyuu; the 2001 one wasn't so grating on the ears).
    • Whip's "teleport", which has her screaming "HYAAAAAH!!!" every time. The CPU loves to abuse this in '99, so get used to it... or try to get past her Noblewoman's Laugh whenever she lands one of her other moves.
    • Blue Mary's voice. High pitched and with VERY repetitive kiais. And let's not get started on her "I shall return" ko cry.
      • That naturally extends to EVERYTHING 98's announcer says.
  • Narm Charm:
    • SNK's Dodgy Engrish usually downright HILARIOUS lines in otherwise serious circumstances. From the slightest misspellings to Rugal's almost babyish "I'LL BE BACK... YOU JERKS!" line from '95.
    • Any time anyone insults anyone. Which happens often. "Absolute karate. That's Kyokugen. And don't you forget it, dweebenheimer!"
    • The English dub of the Maximum Impact games.
    • The movie. The directors clearly show through several subtle details in the scenes that they know the games, They Just Didn't Care and instead made a hilariously over the top, So Bad It's Good cornball of a film not unlike the Van Damme Street Fighter movie.
    • Terry's mangled English has become a vital part of his character. As well as Geese's. Which led to his hilariously cheesy reveal trailer at XIV (although this quote was instead taken from his Capcom vs SNK incarnation): "PREDICTABO!!"
  • Never Live It Down: Athena. It doesn't matter how many King of Fighters or fighting games she appears in, most older NES owners are still gonna remember her awful game on that system, which was actually a disastrous port of a decent arcade game.
  • Older Than They Think:
    • Jhun's Zankou Haki Geki HSDM in 2002 Unlimited Match actually first appeared as his Maximum Impact 2 in the lesser known Neowave, the sort of alternate 2002 where Jhun was playable.
    • Athena's and Kensou's designs from XII and XIII were only new to the King of Fighters games: the costumes were actually derived from their original appearances in Psycho Soldier.
  • Polished Port:
    • The upcoming Steam release of The King of Fighters XIII will apparently have better netcode than the console releases.
    • The Dreamcast versions of 98 and 99, Dream Match 1999 and 99 Evolution respectively, feature smoothed sprites, 3D backdrops and arranged music. 99 Evolution also included some extra Striker characters that could be unlocked (including the first appearances of Vanessa and Seth, who would become full characters in 2000).
  • Porting Disaster: Not an extreme case, but King of Fighters: The Orochi Saga was marred by in-game loading, which wasn't present in the arcade versions. The same issue occurred for Metal Slug Anthology for PS2, and both compilations were made by Terminal Reality.
  • Relationship Writing Fumble: Kyo and Chizuru are acquaintances, if not good friends (with Chizuru as a Cool Big Sis figure that Kyo can't deny a lot to, if Sky Stage is to be believed), and have close roles in guarding the Seal of Orochi. When Kyo became majorly pissed at Ash for stealing Chizuru's powers in 2003 (and violating her while doing so), some fans were led to believe that Kyo has feelings for her. It doesn't help that Kyo's intro with Ash in XI has him screaming "YOU BASTARD!" at the top of his lungs. Apparently, these fans have forgotten that Kyo has Yuki. Word of God also jokes on the Anniversary website that Chizuru must have envisioned Kyo eternally as a schoolboy (i.e. from the time they teamed up during the Orochi Saga) when creating Kusanagi. Cue fans claiming she's in some type of a Loving a Shadow relationship with Kyo.
    • Then there is the mysterious relationship between K Dash and Kula Diamond. Unlike the protagonists from the Orochi arc, these two barely interact in the NESTS arc. However, in some artwork by Hiroaki, the two appear to get really close, to the point there was a suggestic theme for the XIV where the two are removing their clothes. There is also a novel where the two hug, but in the Maximum Impact series, Maxima suggest Kula to call K Dash "uncle" despite their close age. Lastly, if in XIII K Dash and Kula fight, the former expresses regret in having come to do this, which comes as a surprise considering his bad mood.
  • Replacement Scrappy:
    • While K' managed to avoid this during NESTS, Ash Crimson got the full brunt of hatred from fans, especially when he started actively upstaging Kyo by beating Riot of the Blood Iori. His flamboyant appearance doesn't help either. Thankfully, XIV's new protagonist Shun'ei managed to avert this: while he wasn't that greatly received, at least he did not generate the massive hate Ash got.
    • May Lee was once seen as this due to replacing Jhun in 2001 and then replacing longtime regular King in 2002 and taking her spot on the Women Fighters Team alongside fellow vets Yuri and Mai. The Japanese essentially screamed "I RAGED. HARD." over the latter to the point that not even adding King back in the home ports could undo the damage. Most of this scorn has passed over since and May Lee is seen as an Ensemble Darkhorse elsewhere.
    • Momoko is sometimes considered as such. To Bao of all people. Frequently cited reasons are her voice, Button Mashing, and the fact that she was based off of discharged designs of Bao.
  • The Scrappy:
    • Bao. Added to the Psycho Soldiers team in 99. Too annoying to fight as, overpowered (at least his first incarnation) to fight against; stealing Kensou's powers. The strangest thing about this? He was conceptualized as beginner friendly'. How they could screw that up so much is a mystery.
    • SNK Playmore sees K9999 as this due to the blatantness of his tribute to Tetsuo Shima, which eventually led to his replacement by Nameless.
  • Sequelitis: 2001, due to the game being handled by a different team, and King of Fighters XII, due to being an Obvious Beta.
  • Ship Mates:
    • Ryo/King and Robert/Yuri shippers get along very, very well.
    • Kyo/Yuki fans tend to ship Iori with Athena, and sometimes Leona and Chizuru. If not, they'll likely go for Kensou/Athena.
  • Shipping Goggles: All over the place, with the above Relationship Writing Fumble example being a standout case. The series is in no way light on Ship Tease, but fans will pick up on the smallest hints. Iori's semi-decent towards Chizuru? Pair them up! Goenitz is mistranslated into making snide remarks about Mature and Vice not being able to keep their virginity and the two seem to care for Iori's well-being? Threesome, anyone? Mature is somewhat infatuated with Rugal? She must be Adel and Rose's mother! These are the most common instances, and far less logical cases most certainly exist. Let's be honest: every company in charge of King of Fighters is very, very aware that the franchise as a whole is EXTREMELY popular among female gamers of all ages (from teenage girls who are new to the games, to older ladies who grew up either wathcing others play or played alongside the boys). With the buttloads of Ship Tease, it'd be weirder to NOT have a good part of the fandom all over it.
  • Ships That Pass in the Night: Iori/Leona. Likely routed in their common ailment (the Riot of the Blood), but the pair hardly seems to think much about each other, let alone anything remotely positive. The most you'll get is Iori expressing some curiosity in XIII that Leona is showing signs of being able to control her powers.
  • So Bad It's Good: The movie. It was not made with being a serious film in mind. At all.
  • Stoic Woobie: Heidern, adult Leona, K', Nameless, Clark (once you learn where his dogtags come from).
  • Surprisingly Improved Sequel:
    • 2002 is seen as this to 2001 for some. Although others hold the game in the same regard to 2001 given Eolith's involvement, its popularity rivals the first Dream Match game in certain regions. Returning it to the traditional 3-on-3 system without strikers, new mechanics, and seeing the return of several old favorites probably helped.
    • XIII is this to XII. It added a lot more characters, including those that were inexplicably missing before, more modes, closed the Tales of Ash saga, and made the fighting more fun overall.
  • Suspiciously Similar Song:
  • Tainted by the Preview: It did not take long at all for the reaction to XIV's first trailer to garner this response. Though this has died down a bit after more trailers were released.
  • That One Attack:
    • Heidern's neck roller in 2002 Unlimited Match. It's unblockable and has a deceptive hitbox.
    • Rugal's Genocide Cutter will beat your ass if you don't prepare accordingly. When you couple all of this with his already impressive arsenal...
    • Goenitz's Yonokaze technique. Dude will use it for all it's worth. Nonstop. KOKO DESU KA?
    • Marukare is probably the first thing to come to mind when one thinks of Orochi, although his Harue special (the projectile-esque attack that can't be nullified by anything) is pretty bad too. Just be thankful that they didn't have him spam his Honosu Sori like Goenitz's Yonokaze.
    • Krizalid, who could be considered NESTS' equivalent to Rugal in several aspects, has Typhoon Rage, as noted in Game Breaker above. Better get to writing your will while he's juggling you to death.
    • Igniz' whip attack, which can juggle infinitely when the AI feels like it. You can even play as Igniz in 2002 Unlimited Match with the move completely intact in terms of cheapness and combo ability.
    • Jivatma's Breath Weapon. It can break your guard and kill you in one or two hits if you're not careful.
  • That One Boss: Rugal in every King of Fighters except '98.
  • They Just Didn't Care: From '96 to 2001, King kept using the same vocals. Even in Capcom vs. SNK, where every other SNK character had new vocals, King kept the same dated audio.
    • The same point could be made for Robert. It wasn't until 2003 that Robert finally got an updated audio track.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
    • Despite being toted as "the other protagonist" of "The Tales of Ash" saga, Adel Bernstein (Noble Demon son of Rugal) plays no role in the climax. Hell, he's not even present in XIII. Only his sister Rose appears. Subverted by the console version, which shows Adel working behind the scenes to help the Ikari Warriors in their investigation of Those from the Past. He's still not playable, despite concept art indicating that he was considered for the roster.
    • This is a general consensus about the revelation that Kyo-1 and Kyo-2 were two of thousands of Kyo clones created by NESTS when it was Left Hanging immediately afterwards.
    • The Out of Focus status of the Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting cast (and to a lesser extent some of the characters from the earlier King of Fighters games): they are either Demoted to Extra, become The Artifact, or are a case of Chuck Cunningham Syndrome. SNK seems to be downplaying the fact that the King of Fighters series is supposedly a big crossover of various SNK series and is focusing more on the characters that are more made for this series instead. However, SNK Playmore is showing some signs in trying to rectify this with XIII as they are starting to flesh out the older characters more.
  • Tier-Induced Scrappy:
    • Choi Bounge. He wasn't the most popular character (outside of Korea, of course) to begin with, but after his appearance in 2002, he became flat out despised.
    • There is also a respectable number of people who have come to despise Kula after King of Fighters XI.
    • Igniz is a SNK Boss-Induced Scrappy: while having the voice of Norio Wakamoto is always a blessing, fans do not enjoy the idea of having to face him. There's a reason he was once the poster boy for SNK Boss.
    • K' is seen as such in XIII, right next to Raiden. The best teams have both as staple members with a rotating third. While revisions for the console version have knocked down Raiden a peg or two (mainly due to lengthening the charge time for his dropkick, a staple part of Raiden's lockdown and pressure game), fans are divided on whether the changes to K' have really made him less of a threat, as some have actually served to improve his ability to string together hits in a combo.
    • XIV has quite a few depending of the version. Nakoruru dominated the scene completely in version 1.00, after being nerfed, Leona and Robert became the dominant characters during version 1.10. The 2.00 version brought Benimaru to the spotlight and finally, version 3.0 has been characterized by Iori, Shun'Ei, Heidern and Najd becoming the top picks in the competitive scene.
  • Uncanny Valley: Sprites before XIII had Kula resembling a human-sized doll with bug eyes.
  • The Unexpected:
    • Seeing at it was the old SNK's last hurrah, 2000 featured a massive overload of cameos from most of their older IPs.
    • It happened again with XI, which added the likes of Gai Tendo and Silber from Buriki One and Sho Hayate and Jyazu from SavageReign/Kizuna Encounter as Secret Characters.
    • Raiden in XII and Hwa Jai in XIII, two characters from the original Fatal Fury that players never expected to see again. Ever. Bonus points for teaming up with Kim.
    • XIV brought with it not only Nakoruru from Samurai Shodown, but also a Mui Mui and Love Heart, characters from a couple of obscure Japan only pachinko games as part the "Another World Team". The fact that they're appearing in a non-Dream Match Game opens the door to more of these as well.
    • Absolutely no one saw Seth coming in Maximum Impact.
  • Unfortunate Implications:
    • Heavy D! is the head of a team full of walking American National Stereotypes. Their Running Gag involves them being on the receiving end of a Curb Stomp Battle and having their invites stolen. Their stage is set in the ghetto; the original '94 version included multiple stray cats, blinged-out onlookers, a wacky, afro-sporting midget named Cool Guy, and a woman in a skimpy outfit who appears to be a hooker. The American Sports Team's theme is even sometimes spelled as "Slum No. 5". Really, Japan?
    • The word "bimbo" is used in some of the earlier games in place of "airhead", apparently ignoring that the former can also be interpreted as "slut".
    • Vice holds a grudge against Saisyo for "putting up a struggle" and "resisting" the brainwashing process. Stop for a moment and think about how she does her brainwashing, and how Saisyu went along with it.
    • Goenitz's insulting remark in 96 about how Mature and Vice couldn't keep their virginity once led to the belief that the two had sex with Iori. It should be mentioned that he says nothing of the sort' in the Japanese version.
    • Angel, a native of Mexico. She's a character who seems to exist solely for the purpose of Fan Service (nice rack, a good eyeful of skin, flirtatious personality, etc). She also is very touchy about her weight and is a bit of a hotheaded loudmouth. Her favorite foods are tequila and raw cactus slices, and her forte in sports is Mexico's national pastime: football (that's soccer for all of you Americans). Her theme in 2002 is named "Tacos Dance". Oh, and she's evil.
  • Viewer Gender Confusion:
    • Unless you played the games, Benimaru from a visual standpoint.
    • Sometimes players refer to Chris as a girl. It doesn't help that he has a Gender Blender Name.
    • Bao. A Japanese magazine had to place the male symbol character along with his name when introducing him, and probably also to explain his special intro with sexy female characters. It didn't help that one of his Spanish quotes for King of Fighters '99 was worded as if he were female.
    • Ash Crimson, Shion, the list goes on...
  • What an Idiot!: It's already strongly implied that Eiji was on the receiving end of a Yagami beatdown at the end of '95, but his XI backstory states that he also challenged the entire Kyokugen Team after the tournament. If the latter happened immediately after the former, we all may need to reconsider Eiji's status as a threat. Maybe.
  • Win Back the Crowd: XIII is this by virtue of completing the Obvious Beta that was XII. Mai and K' are back as well as a true SNK Boss. You'll find every known character that was planned for inclusion in XII in XIII as well.
  • The Woobie: Chizuru, young Leona, Kula (especially with Candy's heartbreaking "death"), Hotaru, Krizalid, Nameless, Xiao Lon. Arguably Iori, K' and Ash.
  • WTH, Costuming Department?: General consensus regarding Shun'ei's outfit is that it looks rather overdone and screams "chuunibyou protagonist" all over, what with the half-rolled pants leg, Coat Cape and headphones. Sylvie gets it even worse, with some deriding her just because of her very flamboyant J-Pop styled outfit.
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  1. ↑ For example, the songs CYS composed dealt heavily with blood and death.
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