The King of Fighters '94

The King of Fighters '94 kicked off one of the longest-running annual fighting game series and brought to the Neo Geo the concept of three-on-three team battles, where the player assembles a team of three characters drawn from various older SNK series, including Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, and Psycho Soldier, supplemented by new original teams. Fights proceed one fighter at a time, with the winner of one match carrying over directly into the next with partially replenished health, which requires careful thought about fighter order and adapting tactics to a specific opponent's team.

Visually, the game benefited from the power of the Neo Geo hardware – characters were large and finely animated, match backgrounds represented various national teams from around the world from Japan to Italy, Mexico, and England, and they were accompanied by energetic, genre-spanning music matching the character of each team. The control scheme remained close to the Fatal Fury series, but the pace of matches was faster, new special and super moves were added, and the dodge system offered plenty of room for both defensive and offensive combinations.

The game's reception at the time was very positive; it became one of the most popular titles on the Neo Geo and established a tradition of annual sequels that lasted for many further years and, in another form, continues to this day. The team battle concept influenced many later fighting games, and King of Fighters established itself thanks to it as a full-fledged brand alongside Street Fighter and Fatal Fury, with its own extensive cast of characters and an overarching story. To this day '94 is valued as a historically significant starting point for the series, even though later entries significantly improved and clarified it in many gameplay and visual respects. This entry also laid the foundation for later crossovers between the King of Fighters universe and other SNK series, making it a key node in the history of the entire publisher.

Why play it: For fans of team battles, this is the founding of one of the longest-lived fighting game brands alongside Street Fighter and Fatal Fury, even though later entries surpassed it in many ways.