The King of Fighters '94

The King of Fighters '94 (KOF '94) is a fighting game released in 1994, developed and published by SNK for the Neo Geo MVS arcade system, AES, and CD home consoles. It is a crossover game, featuring characters from SNK’s earlier titles, including Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting, updated versions of characters from Ikari Warriors and Psycho Soldier, and new, original characters. The story centers around the tournament organized by the antagonist Rugal Bernstein.

Designer Takashi Nishiyama recruited Masanori "Kuwa" Hashi as the game's director after admiring his work at Irem. Hashi's first project at SNK was Baseball Stars Professional, where he met Toyohira Tanabe. Tanabe would later become the series' battle designer. Together, they aimed to create an all-star fighting game that combined established SNK characters with new ones. This included the Japan Team, led by the new protagonist Kyo Kusanagi, a high school delinquent skilled in fire-based martial arts.

KOF '94 was developed with the concept of bringing together characters from several of SNK's existing games to attract their fanbases. The character designs and the innovative team-based gameplay system, where players use three-member teams, received praise. The game's success led SNK to launch the King of Fighters series, beginning with KOF '95, which eventually became the company's flagship franchise.

In 2004, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the series, SNK released a remake titled KOF '94 Re-Bout for the PlayStation 2, featuring higher-resolution graphics and 3D environments. KOF '94 has also been included in SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and Wii, and is available individually for digital distribution on modern platforms.