The King of Fighters '98

The King of Fighters '98 (KOF '98), subtitled Dream Match Never Ends in Japan or The Slugfest elsewhere, is a 1998 fighting game developed and published by SNK for the Neo Geo systems. It is the fifth game in The King of Fighters series and was advertised by SNK as a "special edition" of the series, as it features most of the characters who appeared in the previous games from KOF '94 to '97. The game provides no storyline in contrast to the previous games and instead is labelled as a "dream match" like its subtitle, where the player selects a team composed of three characters to participate in The King of Fighters tournament until reaching the boss Rugal Bernstein, even though the character dies in The King of Fighters '95. Two fighting styles can be selected to fight and several characters have alternate versions to select with their classic moves from previous games.

Following its release, it was ported to the PlayStation in Japan, while an updated Dreamcast port subtitled Dream Match 1999 was released in 1999, featuring remade 3D backgrounds. An updated version in 2008 was made for the Taito Type X arcade system subtitled Ultimate Match (KOF '98UM), which expands the number of playable characters by returning characters from the Orochi arc, further tweaks the gameplay and features a third fighting style option; this version was ported to PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 home systems. While the artwork of The King of Fighters '98 was made by Shinkiro, Ultimate Match artwork was made by new artist Eisuke Ogura. A second update, subtitled Ultimate Match Final Edition (KOF '98UMFE), was released in 2011 on arcades and since ported to Windows and PlayStation 4. Despite lacking a plot, a novelization was written by Akihiko Ureshino.

The game was well received by critics and fans and is often considered as one of the best The King of Fighters games ever, as well as one of the best fighting games of all time, thanks to its large amount of playable characters and proper balance. Both the original game and the updated version went to sell several copies in Japan. However, despite the game's sales, the franchise suffered a breakdown due to SNK going bankrupt resulting in the game being the last game developed by designer and director Toyohisa Tanabe who has been working for the series since its first game.