The King of Fighters '94 (Neo Geo CD) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of SNK's 1996 versus-fighting game for the SNK Neo Geo CD, The King of Fighters '94.

Played through as the Japan team (Kyo, Benimaru, and Goro) on the normal difficulty level.

The King of Fighters '94 was the inaugural entry of the series that would ultimately become the Neo Geo's defining franchise. When it first showed up in 1994, it was an instant hit, and it introduced several ideas that would become staples of the fighting game genre through the rest of the 90s.

It was the first major fighting game with a roster that pulled from several popular franchises. In addition to six new characters (the USA and Japan teams) created specifically for the new franchise, KOF94 featured fighters from Ikari Warriors, Psycho Soldier, and the Fatal Fury and The Art of Fighting series, making it a "who's who" of SNK's most recognizable personalities.

You play as one of eight pre-assembled teams, each comprised of three fighters. For each fight you're asked to order your characters, and you start the fight as the first. If you go down, the character is knocked out and your second member jumps in to take their place. If you knock out your opponent's character, some of your health will be refilled before the next round begins. Once the opposing team has been beaten, you move on to the next location in the tournament.

This was a big departure from the usual fighting games of the time. Each team featured three unique fighters that all had to learned individually, and though eight teams might not sound like much, the 24 characters that made up those 8 teams dwarfed Super Street Fighter II's selection of 16 fighters.

The fighting feels like a fusion of Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury's systems, and the controls reflect this. You have the standard punches, kicks, special moves, taunts, and throws, as well as a dodge maneuver, and a team assist attack, as well as desperation techniques for when you're lifebar gets critical low and super moves that can be used after you've filled your power gauge. That is a lot to cram into a four button control scheme, but it's smartly laid out and easy to pick up with a bit of practice. The game's different systems aren't as "casual accessible" as many of Capcom's games, but there's more than enough depth here to satisfy anyone who cares to invest themselves in it. The AI isn't nearly as impossible to beat as it is on the MVS game, either, as long as you set it at normal.

The graphics and sound were both huge selling points for KOF94, and it was a real Neo Geo showpiece in its time. There were tons of sampled voices, the backgrounds had an amazing amount of detail (check out those crowds in the Pao Pao Cafe stage!), and the characters all had unique styles and animations that kept them from feeling like clones of one another. The sheer scope of what was on display was incredible, as was the size (and cost) of the game's memory. At 196 megabits, it was a behemoth of a cart for 1994, but the game made excellent use of its resources. It was obvious from day one that this would never see a port for poor man's 16-bit consoles.

This CD version (which was released in Japan in 1994, a month or so after the AES cart release) is virtually identical to the AES and MVS versions. The soundtrack has been remixed for the CD format (including a brand new vocal arrangement of the theme from Psycho Soldier!), and all of the original animations appear to be intact, and the sounds and voices are all of good quality. There are load times between matches, but since the game doesn't need to load between rounds, the downtime doesn't hurt the flow of the game much. The same definitely can't be said for some of the later KOF CD games.

The King of Fighters '94 was a very forward-looking game. It had its fair share of rough spots, but the ideas here went on to inspire some of the decade's most beloved fighting games (Capcom's Vs. series, anybody?), and the production values were next-level stuff, even for a high-end platform like the Neo Geo.

If you're a fan of fighters or of the Neo Geo, The King of Fighters '94 is well worth checking out. It lacks the polish and balance seen in the later KOF games, but it's hard not to impressed by what KOF94 achieved as a first effort.

If you're interested, you can find my playthrough of the PlayStation version of KOF95 here:    • The King of Fighters '95 (PS1) Playth...  

My Neo Geo playlist can be found here:    • SNK Neo Geo Playthroughs  
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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