, also shortened as KOF '95, is a 1995 fighting video game developed and published by SNK for the Neo Geo arcade and home platforms. It is the sequel to The King of Fighters '94, and the second installment in The King of Fighters series. The game features a similar cast to KOF '94 with the exception of the USA Team, which was replaced by the Rival Team. The plot features a new King of Fighters tournament once again promoted by the criminal Rugal Bernstein, who seeks revenge against the protagonist Kyo Kusanagi, who defeated him in last year's tournament. KOF '95 marks the first appearance of the fighter Iori Yagami from the Rival Team, who becomes Kyo's rival in the series.

It is also the first game in the series to be ported to other home consoles besides the Neo Geo AES and Neo Geo CD, with versions released for the PlayStation, Sega Saturn and Game Boy. One of the main focuses in the creation of "Orochi arc" for which director Masanori Kuwasashi used Saisyu's return, Iori's introduction and Rugal's stronger from to create a more coherent narrative than in the previous game. Gameplay remains similar to the first KOF game, with SNK working to balance the original gameplay with the new team feature as well as each character's expanded moveset.

The King of Fighters '95 received glowing reviews in the Arcade and consoles, but mixed reviews for the PlayStation, with critics praising the gameplay and new characters but criticizing the game's controls and long loading times, especially on the PlayStation version. Several critics compared the game to Capcom's Street Fighter Alpha, released the same year, with some finding it too similar. The game was followed by The King of Fighters '96, which continued the "Orochi Saga" that concluded with The King of Fighters '97. The game sold over 700,000 copies.

Gameplay

The King of Fighters '95 is a fighting video game with gameplay and rules that are mostly unchanged from its predecessor, The King of Fighters '94. Players choose a team of three members and compete against others until all three characters are defeated using taunts, special moves and combos. The dodge and counterattack mechanics were revised, resulting in better reactions from the fighters.

The main addition is the introduction of the Team Edit feature, allowing the player to create a custom team from any of the game's twenty-four characters in addition to the pre-defined teams in the game. Through the main play mode, players must defeat all other teams in order to fight the bosses: the brainwashed Saisyu Kusanagi, followed by a stronger Rugal Bernstein.

Plot and characters

A year after the events of The King of Fighters '94, a new fighting tournament is sponsored by the anonymous "R" who seeks revenge. Rugal Bernstein, thought to have perished in an explosion in the previous game, had in fact survived and sent out invitations to the teams from the previous game signed simply ‘R'. The story introduces the newcomers from the rival team who have a vendetta with different competitors: Iori Yagami wants to kill the champion Kyo Kusanagi, Eiji Kisaragi wishes to beat the Kyokugen Ryu martial artists from the Art of Fighting Team and Billy Kane wants to kill the member from the Fatal Fury Team in place of his leader Geese Howard. Saisyu Kusanagi, Kyo's father, appears as a fighter for the first time, having survived being beaten by Rugal in the first installment. Saisyu appears as a computer-controlled sub-boss character. After defeating Saisyu in the arcade mode, it is revealed that Saisyu was being brainwashed and that Rugal replaces him as the stronger version named "Omega Rugal". Following his defeat, Rugal loses control of his powers which consume him and kill him. In Kyo's ending, it is revealed that Saisyu survived, and he says his son still has a fight against his fate.

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 Takuma Sakazaki

Ikari Warriors Team Heidern 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 Yuri Sakazaki Mai Shiranui King

Rivals Team Iori Yagami (new character) Billy Kane (new character) Eiji Kisaragi (new character)

Mid-Boss Saisyu Kusanagi (new character)

Final Boss Omega Rugal (new character)

Development

The King of Fighters '95 was directed by Masanori Kuwahashi, who had directed the previous installment, The King of Fighters '94. Production took place at SNK's headquarters in Osaka. Creation of the game started shortly after winter 1994 when The King of Fighters '94 was released. The staff was tired from developing the first game, which made coming up with new ideas far more challenging. The initial plan for the sequel was a "fun version" that incorporated more ideas than the previous game. The staff chose from as many ideas as possible to fit into a set schedule, and worked hard every day, cutting down on sleep, but there were quite a few elements that they had to cut down on due to time constraints. The trial and error of figuring out the order to bring them in within a fixed team—that was what made the original game appealing. The entire The King of Fighters '95 was meant to be a remake of The King of Fighters '94 but issues with time scheduling and balancing resulted in the similarities between both installments. An important concept for the game was to bring team editing to the forefront and give players more freedom to play. The team introduced new features, including the counterattack, which was an improved version of the dodge attack that was difficult to execute in "'94" and was arranged in the KOF style.

While Kyo was given a new move to show his dedication to fights, the duo of Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia from Art of Fighting were revised as they were considered overpowered. The time spent on balance adjustments was longer compared to the previous game. The team had learned from their experience balancing the previous installment, which helped the process move faster. The CPU fighters in "'94" were easily trapped in fairly simple strategies, so the team sought to make the computer's movements as difficult as possible to defeat with just one pattern. The team also was careful to balance the sexualization of Mai Shiranui with the younger Athena Asamiya. Kuwahashi also came up with the idea of letting the player create their own teams in the form of the Edit Team feature rather than using the same fixed teams as usual, which resulted in him consulting producer Takashi Nishiyama about it. The team considered including Samurai Shodown characters, but balancing issues and weapons led to their removal. The creation of the Rival Team was one of the things developers worked hardest on, focusing on their moves and lines. The character of Eiji Kisaragi was originally from Art of Fighting 2 and the staff had to adjust most of his moves to balance him with the other characters. Following this game, several Art of Fighting characters were removed from each sequel with developers saying it was "thanks to KOF jinx." Fatal Fury villain Geese Howard was meant to be playable in the game but such idea was scrapped.

To further develop the protagonist Kyo Kusanagi, SNK introduced Iori as his rival and made the former's father Saisyu a mid-boss, resulting in the game having a more coherent narrative than the first game. Due to development reasons, the team had to limit the number of teams to eight, and after much deliberation, they decided to cut out the American teams. Saisyu was added at the last minute as he originally died in The King of Fighters '94 during one of the cut-scenes from the Hero Team. Kuwahashi made the plot which was inspired by the Yamata no Orochi myths as both Kyo and Iori were related to Orochi demon power first seen in this game when Rugal develops his maximum power. However, when it came to Kyo's girlfriend mentioned in his file, the director was against using her. During the initial location tests to determine the popularity of the game, Iori was the character who stood out most, and also became a favorite of the developers, due to his violent moves comparable to the ones from Midway's Mortal Kombat fighting game series. A more outlandish design, called "Rugal Infinity", would have featured his body merged with Geese and Krauser, appearing as a six-armed naked man with the other two men's faces sticking out of the sides of his head, akin to depictions of the god Ashura. Dubbing him "Omega Rugal", they ultimately settled on an appearance similar to his King of Fighters '94 counterpart, but with his upper body having burst from his clothing, wild white hair, cybernetic prosthetics replacing his right hand and eye, and the Greek letter "Ω" tattooed on his back.

Release

The original Japanese arcade version was released on July 25, 1995, and it was ported to the Neo Geo AES and Neo Geo CD later that year. In 1996, the game was ported to the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. A Game Boy Color version was also made, changing the visuals from the original game into a cartoon-like style. A Game Boy game based on The King of Fighters '95 (Nettō The King of Fighters '95 in Japan) was published by Takara in Japan and by Nintendo in North America. It featured compatibility with the Super Game Boy, as well as introducing Nakoruru from the Samurai Shodown series as a secret character.

The King of Fighters '95 was one of the first titles from SNK to be ported to the PlayStation. To improve its appeal to the North American market, Chad Okada of SNK added new options to the game that were not present in the original Japanese version, such as selecting stages and improving the grammar and spelling, which was one of the biggest issues from the Neo Geo version. The PlayStation version was published on August 31, 1996, in North America and the PAL region by Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. It featured a remixed soundtrack which took advantage of the Redbook audio format. The PlayStation version released in Europe ahead of the Saturn version due to a timed exclusivity deal between SNK and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. The "PlayStation the Best" version was also re-released on March 28, 1997. The Saturn version (which required a ROM cartridge that came packaged with the game disc) was also released in Europe by Sega. The bundled ROM cartridge contains the majority of the character animations. It was the first video game to use a CD-ROM and a ROM cartridge in tandem.

An emulated version of the game was released as part of The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga in 2008 for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and Wii. The Neo Geo AES version was added via emulation to the Wii's Virtual Console service on April 26, 2010. It is slightly edited, however; the blood is removed and Mai lacks her signature bounce, both in her fighting stance and win animation. Both of these aspects can be activated with a code, however.

Hamster Corporation re-released the game as part of their ACA Neo Geo series for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows, Android and iOS.

Reception

Critical reception