The History Of THE KING OF FIGHTERS '94 - KOF 94 Documentary
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- Опубліковано 28 лют 2024
- Dive into the riveting history of "The King of Fighters '94," the game that forever altered the landscape of fighting games. Released by SNK in 1994, this groundbreaking title not only introduced the world to a unique 3-on-3 team-based fighting concept but also laid the foundation for one of the most iconic fighting game franchises in history.
In this documentary-style video, we explore the origins of "The King of Fighters '94," uncovering how it was developed, the challenges its creators faced, and the innovative ideas that set it apart from its contemporaries. Discover the stories behind its unforgettable roster of characters, the creation of its intricate gameplay mechanics, and how it managed to captivate players around the globe.
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👊 #fightinggames #snk #kof - Розваги
No, no, no. You're not gonna cover "some of the sequels" my man, you're gonna cover ALL of them.
You bet! :D
I support this.
Agree!
I personally would appreciate it
You're the only person who talks about these old school games.
They were literally my childhood.
The only person? 😂 sure about that? Pretty sure I've seen a bunch of others on UA-cam.
@@DanJackson1977 They're pretty hard to find. I've since found them.
I imagine the people that worked on this were exhausted. Imagine making a fighting game back in 94 woth 24 characters. That was insane and its still a big roster for 2024
Yes, for reference, even in the late 90s the only Capcom fg to reach the 20s mark was SFA3. Most Capcom fgs had an average roster of 12-14 chars around 93-94. MK as well, before UMK3. And inside the own SNK as well, in AOF, FF and SS.
Let's remember that the VS series was king back then so it was no big thing to have a myriad of characters In video game
Kof 95 still is as beautiful as it was the first time I saw it almost 30 years ago.
Agreed!
Agreed ❤ Love from Pakistan
Fantastic soundtrack
King of Fighters '94 is now celebrating its 30th Anniversary!
And I witnessed it BRAND NEW...
XD
OMG that barely sunk in for me
That's terrifying. Great game !
Shit! That means I was around 16 when the game came out. Felt like I was younger. Goddamn it flys by
They still owe us a proper anime for KOF& Samurai Spirits
For real, the anime are horrible. Top Street Fighter V with it, very curious any of these fighters where legendary as their properties where showing glaring weaknesses due to animation being so bad.
Well, as they say, there is nothing written about taste, but I think that the first 2 Fatal Fury OVAS are amazing (specially the second one)
On the other hand, I don't blame you if you dislike "Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture" and the AOF OVA, since both have made up stories with nothing in common with the games.@@caiusmadison2996
@@caiusmadison2996Street fighter 2 v is goated
@@MichaelJamesLeBronjacksontandem: the pressure point below the navel where Chi is stored through Dhalsim 's instruction, Ryu was able to harness his ki/chi and generate the Hado wave.
I can't believe KOF is gonna be 30 years old, thus celebrating its 30th anniversary. Damn, this is wild!
This is a genre that is solely carried by their classic franchises, and all of them are around 30-35 years old. And few others are getting there. This year KOF and Tekken will be 30, last year were Virtua Fighter and Samurai Shodown, and next year will be Soul Calibur (Edge). Not all genres have multiple big classics since the beginning and that still are influential and the absolute center of attentions.
Neo geo was the most innovative cabinet back then. Multi games. Variations of game types and colorful and compelling fun!
Bro I was one the luckiest guy in my country Cameroon in Africa because we discovered In the arcade of my neighborhood kof 94. I remember that from distance I saw the game intro and I knew that shit will ruin my life and that street fighter was an ancient story. Everything was like I imagine the perfect game and the sound the theme ooh boy. I can speak of KOF for days and that's why I love this channel
Edit: we were lucky because we had it in 94 just like the rest of the world
KOF indeed must have felt very fresh in a time Capcom was still doing nothing but recycle SF2. In a way Capcom created the situation to make certain games stand out even a lot more than expected, like Samsho and KOF. Im not very familiar with the early history of the games because my first was 97.
Indeed kof has a big scene in cameroon
SNK from what I heard didn't even intent on turning KOF into a series. Good thing they had a change of heart as it ending up being their main cash cow.
Happy 30th anniversary KOF.
Very true.
Remember this game use to be fatal
Fury?
We need more guy's from other
SNK games in KOF.
Heck even add in the dudes from
P.O.W.
Been like the only game they focused on for years.
@@nehemiahpouncey3607 or Art of Fighting, both are connected, actually all are connected.
This is expertly done. Not only is there a lot of information here that even big SNK fans don't know about, but you use the right images at the right time and exactly the clips you needed, including the concept art, movie clips and game clips. Maybe you didn't want to get into a discussion of working conditions, but it might've been interesting to note that this game had a nasty crunched development where people had to sleep at the office and work all day. That wasn't a recurring problem for the company though.
The first time i saw KOF 94 in an arcade near my home,i knew this is something extraordinary.i used to play 3-4 hrs after returning from school and then later back for some more challenges
The king of fighters 94/2024
Bon anniversaire SNK🔥🔥🔥🇩🇿🙏
I'm surprised on how the importance of KOF 94 is understated.Very nice video, this game specifically deserves it.
I don't know how you manage to do all this stuff, but you certainly deserve a statue in Rugal's collection !
Lol thanks for the compliment. But im not sure i want to be a statue in Rugal's collection.
I'm glad i was there at the arcade when, that '94 autumn , this game popped up into our lives...
some of the best memories man!
Neo geo was a absolute blast and still this day I love the power on sound from neo geo. Great nostalgia
Kof94 was my first neo geo game and is still a favorite. I really like that you can't edit teams. It makes the game really unique and forces you to learn an entire team.
Back in 1994, it never bothered me that you couldn't edit the teams.
same@@NeoGeoNow
Nah dude, im cool with kyo and benimaru…… but i am not playing with goro.
He sucks.
Grappling characters aren’t my jam at all.
Kof 94 is the one i do not play because of that.
I’d rather play anything else.
Play them all from 94 to 13 in from year 94 till now I stopped in kof13 the best is 98 2002
@@nicks4802Goro is friggin awesome when you DO know what you're doing.
Without kof there would not be an smash brothers not only because it also took the concept of having many characters from different Ips but the system in smash 64 feels very similar, you can run, roll, there are different jumps and the way you used you control air and keep the opponent in the ground, Sakurai himself used to play kof 95 all the time before he became a game dev and it’s obvious he took a lot of inspiration from it in fact terry is in smash only cause Sakurai himself wanted him be in smash.
There's alot of shit snk invent lmao super meter tag game rush attack combo super
@@ameerrusdi2540 exactly, Snk and Capcom are both pioneers and shape the 2d fighting game genre.
@@eddD14 yeah both goats but right now I waiting for snk too become big roo
This is a great video and KOF 94 was definitely a game changer one aspect to compare is the jump from early Neo Geo Games like Magician Lord and Sengoku to KOF 94, when I played KOF 94 in the arcade not only graphics stood out but the Audio as well, while I still play KOF 97 and 2000, 94 is still the game I come back too
Crazy it's the 30th Anniversary of KOF this year. I remember the first time seeing KOF94 in EGM magazine in John Menzies magazine section as teen on my school break in 1994.
Took me back to my childhood memories.
It all began in 94...
Kof94 was an awsome game back in the days! I remember going to the arcade during the weekend and organise tournaments with all other kids in the neighbourhood. Rugal was the, for me, the hardest boss I have confronted back then. Was amazing! I still play it on ps5 or pc emulator!
Rugal was insanely difficult for the 12 years old me :D things of nightmares lol
I remember Terry Bogard's introduction to Smash Bros and Sakurai was a very good KOF player, like professional level!
But he took mercy on a couple who were pretty much newbies and thought to himself: what if I can make a game where anyone can be good at it, regardless of skill level? And that's why we have Super Smash Bros.
Masahiro Sakurai made me respect KOF to this day so I'm grateful!
Smash only exists because of KOF after all, because it introduced the all-star crossover concept in the world of gaming.
Now that I think about, the roll command in Smash Bros. must have been inspired in the rolling command introduced in KoF '96. It's kind of amazing that Sakurai managed to combine different aspect from different kind of games in order to create Smash Bros. It was nice of him and Nintendo to bring Terry as a playable character, I hope that if there's another Smash Bros. planned for the future, that Terry remains in the roster, but also include an alt costume based on this Mark/City of the Wolves look
Man... Thanks a lot for this video ! I am a fan of KOF and i am si happy to sée this video ! I learned so manny things. Thanks again and much love ❤
Thank you for the nice words. I am currently finishing the script for the History of KOF 95.
@@NeoGeoNow Your welcome ! That's nice. I am waiting for the kof 95 vid ❤️
Snk in the 90s was absolutely on another level. Except for the most famous franchises they made so many good fighting games still worth Playing today: the last blade, breakers, savage reign, gowcaizer, world heroes, kabuki klash, ninja masters, waku 7.
Mai Shiranui ..
. My first pixel puberty moment
Shermie …
… She turned me into a simp
Lol
So many child hood memories. Thank you for sending me back in the past
I remember the very first time I laid my eyes on this game in the arcade. It was so beautiful it was perfection! Now I feel old... but KOF FOREVER!!!
I love how solid the hits of kof 94 that you can feel the sound, it think of all the realistic hits of kof series, kof 94 wins overall.
Despite not being good with KOF 94 let me say that I deeply repect the idea that SNK made a crossover game which became their magnum opus franchise. Also I was impressed at SNK for pushing their neo geo hardware when it comes to graphics.
And the important part to me was the artistic vision of the company as a whole. Each game in that early period had a different art style. AOF was made to look different, then SS was made different from both FF and AOF, and lastly KOF was made different from the 3 previous games. And it really had a considerably distinct art style compared to all jp 2d fgs around that time, even outside SNK. Shortly afterwards that vision was reinforced with attempts to make FF and SS look even more distinct with the FF3/Real Bout graphics and the SS3 graphics.
KOF '94 got it right for SNK.
Lot's of memories of playing KOF '94 in the RV parking lot pool house at Circus Circus in Vegas before work.
wow this video is really good bro. the nostalgia... good ol days
I have KOF games for 30 years now !
this is great documentary, deserve more views ...
This should be in Netflix, you are a monster
Oh wow! Thank you for the awesome comment.
KOF was the Madden of Fighting games.
So it’s trash?!?
@@armando7257 what?
It is interesting to see how Chang could be included without having memory issues, but Big Bear/Raiden couldn't. By the way, as the author of a book on KoF series in Turkey, I have to say this is a great video, I appreciate your effort man 🎩
Thank you. Share the link to your book so people who speak turkish can check it out.
It's 30 years of K.O.F.
I wish SNK made something more memorable game of it's 30th anniversary edition.
I expect a retro collection since it became a trendy thing nowadays. 30 years is pretty significant, and SNK's main franchise and the carrier of the company since the 00s. Not because it was the only one but because it was the only solid one. Samsho was revived in the 00s but was too unstable and went downhill after 5sp.
Street Fighter & King Of Fighter owned our smiles
Now u must own the DLC and New Skin..
KOF was my first fighting game. But I remember when I got to play on a neo geo the first time. SNK is like this one company that I’ve always admired due to my childhood till date. Owning Metal Slug games along with KOF games as well including the orochi saga release on ps2
I remember clearly I was 14 at that time. I was a fan of Street Fighter 2 and to me there was no competition... until KOF 94 showed up! It was a revolution, it surpassed SF2 on every aspect. Up until now I enjoy watching matches of KOF 98!
Came here (looking for this) after seeing your KOF95 doco.
I'm really enjoying this... Again, superb content. OKAY! 👍
Thank you!
Excellent documentary on a classic game!! Thanks for sharing!
Glad you enjoy it!
Excelente trabajo! Estaré atento para ver la serie completa.
Thanks to SNK for giving us nice childhood ❤❤❤❤❤❤
KOF is my favourite fighting game of all time.
When I first time saw KOF 94 in the arcade in the mall it blows my mind.
I remember the moment i saw it too. Love at first sight!
Why it is so difficult to know how many units a KOF game have sold so far?
And I was also wondering, is there still a new Metal Slug for consoles in developtment? And a new Art of Fighting game as well? Soneone knows? Thank you so much in advance!
Very insighful video reagarding the story of KOF'94. I look forward to watch more videos like this.
Wow, so funny I bumped into this video as I literally just beat KoF '94 for the first time ever on my Neo Geo AES! Had to be a bit cheap on Rugal to beat him, but hey, that's the way it is with these SNK boss characters. Now I can finally move on to KoF '95!
Scirpt for the History of KOF 95 has been done. I will start editing the video next week, after i finish the story lore of KOFXIV and XV :)
The start of a Legendary series.
Indeed :)
wow is that the official KOF94 commercial?
It is :)
90's fighting games will always be the best, and KOF '94 is no exception. Even though it has that broken difficulty problem.
i think that what gave this game a title of a legend.
Thumbnail: I'll always love THAT art
That one Falcoon game wasn't bad, and current 3D is definitely good, but SNK hired great artists!
I was lucky enough to fall in love with this game on the MVS at my local pizza shop in the 90s. Great documentary! My only wish is that you'd also focus on the music. It's absolutely stellar!!
I own KOF Collection of 94', 95', 96', 97', and 98', on PS4 and love it, plus I own 98' Dream Match if i'm correct and 02' Unlimited Match as well.
I'm very hooked on playing them!
Wow!!! Awesome video!!! Big LIKE! Can't wait for part 2, man! ⚡🎇🔥
King of fighters 98 is one of the best balanced fighting game ever , with no bugs
The music on the England stage is awesome!
I miss having the team in the background
They almost did that in KOFXV.
That feature should have never been removed. But it was something that had to accepted for the sake of expanding the gameplay elements after 98. The Neogeo system was already under heavy pressure of KOF since 95 and especially 96.
Now my criticism of SNK is about not bringing the teammates back in the post Neogeo games, when the old memory limitations were surpassed. That could be forgiven in KOF 12-13 only because of the highly demanding spritework, but then there is no excuse remaining for the 3d games.
19:39 Funny how back then SNK was worried that Choi's design looked a lot like Freddy so they changed his outfit but many years later in KOF XIV, Choi wears a striped sweater 😂
1:11 Ah the original Fighter's History...good memories 🥲
"THESPIO! THESPIO! THESPIO!"
"TAKE A LOOK AT THAT!!"
That game has the funniest voices in 90s fighting games 😂
Also the soundtrack rocks!! 🎵
At least we got Makoto Mizoguchi as a guest character in KOF Maximum Impact Regulation A
Hope we see him as a guest (again) in a future SNK game.
Years later, they make a carbon copy of tetsuo from akira lol
@@SKKaelth It wasnt SNK but Eolith, the korean developer that continued making KOF games after SNK closed in 00. It officially closed in 01 but the game production stopped in 00... so Eolith made KOF 01 and 02. Then when they returned in 03 and went to remake/update KOF 02 with the UM version, they decided to turn K9999 into Nameless.
I wonder how Mizoguchi got in MI since its not a game that SNK got the rights of (as far as i know). I know that SNK got the rights of World Heroes after ADK's died, but never heard about getting the rights of Fighter's History from Data East. And that makes sense because there was no FH representation in NGBC, but there was ADK chars in that game. I wonder if Mizoguchi could ever return and get in a modern KOF.
Season 3 kof xv is still waiting.
Great video!! Always love the history and lore of fighting games, especially SNK and its KOF series!! They have been my favorites for years!!
The idea of beat em up game including KOF characters is great one that s why I have many openbor games that include characters from many games like Final Fight LNS Ultimate V4 you can see Iori kicking butts in the streets etc... for ex !
Wow this was amazing 👏
My favorite team based fighter series.
i love the angle of this video's more of deep dive into the series. other vid i see sometimes take it as footnote if not foothold but not all of them really encompass the question of 'source of inspiration, creative choice, hurdle of development, and lots of things'. this is truly a love letter to the series and particularly the one title itself.
now i'm eager to wait on KoF 95. here's hoping this vid and its series can go viral
Just so you know, Syo is just another spelling of "Sho" (you can type syou to get しょう, so a lot of Japanese type it out in English like that too). So you don't need to say "see-yo", since it's not how Japanese pronounce it.. This goes the same for Saishu, which was written as Saisyu in English..
I've got all these other King Fighters for NEO-GEO AES. And this one really still appeals, this one is strong "94"!!!!
And KOF turned to be a definitive rival to The Street Fighter series in terms of gameplay and popularity. Especially in HK where KOF arguably remains to be the most popular fighting game.
AMAZING job my friend; that was quite some detailed research. Keep up the good work
Glad you enjoyed it! Curretly working on the history of KOF 95!
This is my Favorite Fighting game series and KOF 97 is my favorite fighting game of all time its the game that perfected the format that would be used by almost every KOF game afterwards.
KOF 97 was really special for me as well!
Kof 97 is objectively one of the worst kof games, is broken in so many ways that competitively it doesn't have more than 4 viable characters and is filled with infinites, abusive bugs, glitches, etc. I like the story though.
I said it was my favorite fighting game ever I never said it was perfect and you pretty much described most if not all fighting games in the 90's heck every Capcom fighting game during that time had bugs, glitches and infinites galore from Children of the Atom to Marvel VS Capcom in my case those supposed issues you called out is what made KOF97 special. @@javierortiz82
Thanks for this video, very well narrated ;)
I have a soft spot for the American Sports Team 😄
My homies (& Brian)!
Heavy D! is still my favorite SNK boxer
Golly! So Lucky was gonna be what Bandeiras is, a dude who loves japanese culture way too much 😁
1994 was the year of basketball in fighting games 🏀
In that year we got Magic Dunker (Fight Fever), Slamdunk (Shadow Fighter), Bobby Nelson (Aggressors of Dark Kombat) and Lucky Glauber.
We need more basketball characters in modern fighting games 😁
Back when developers where very creative and put all kinds of sports in fighting games, not only boxing.
It was goofy, silly and awesome at the same time! I miss that era.
O
M
G
XD
4:35 oh DEAR
In the early times there was more creative freedom in the genre. Or in all of gaming pretty much. Because there was no recipe, no guidelines, no set standards... everything was new and starting. And i really like the interest in using sports in fgs, a very different idea. What was the last important representation of sports in fgs? Rival Schools 1 and 2/Project Justice?
My fav kof 96, Especially the BGM 🎵
superb game....always loved it!!
good video and coverage!
It is true that the 90s are the golden era of video arcades. There are many variety of games could be played in that time especially the kof😊...thanks for the upload of the history of kof series...
I remember playing this in the arcade and the first thing I liked was team play and just 4 buttons instead of 6. I played Kim Chan Choi
One of the greatest Fighting game of all time.
Thanks for the execellent video man.
Glad you liked it!
Excellent video. Have been playing the games in this series since '94. Takes me back to those early days.
Glad you enjoyed!
When I was a teenager in the 90s I used to drool over every SNK and Neo Geo advertisement and game review in my gaming magazines! I wanted one so bad! Especially once this series started!
Great video. Made my jaw drop a few times:
1. Kensou was meant to appeal to women? WHICH WOMEN? He is the dorkiest character in the game.
2. They thought that Choi was far enough away from Freddy Krueger to avoid legal action!?
3. They thought adding a SINGLE EXLAMATION POINT was enough to avoid legal action on Heavy D!?
I've rarely seen such interesting judgment on matters both legal and aesthetic.
Very in-depth video. Outstanding
Thank you! It took months to gather and vet all the information.
amazing video, congrats
Thank you so much! working on more!
Awesome video man well done!
Thanks a ton!
It's mindblowing how this game still never got an anime series
True! Hopefully the situation changes soon.
I was a big fan of World Heroes fighting franchise. World Heroes 2 Jet was my favorite.
Chin Gensei is inspired by Sam the Seed, the character that played the drunken master that taught Jackie Chan's character.
That character would frequent various other martial arts movies including ond called Sleeping Fist
Can't wait for the next episode! Cheers!
Currently writing the script!
Great historical background included in this video, I really enjoyed it. Thanks
Glad you enjoyed it
Great video, can't wait for more kof video
I still love kof more then any other game . Its movew are legendary
Great video! Thank you!
I love The King Of Fighters XI (PS2)
KOF XI for me is the only game with a roster done right.
Because of the unlockable fighters, SNK's fan-favorites were added to the hidden side of the roster without shoehorning them into teams. All KOF games needed this.
@@KenMasters. KOF XI was ran on the atomiswave hardware instead of Neo Geo. However, KOF XII was originally supposed to be a sequel to KOF XI with atomiswave hardware; but Falcoon and SNK messed everything up by redoing the whole series and many characters that were supposed to be playable like Bhotan and Ron; never made an appearance. KOF XIII was amazing... but KOF 14 and 15 made me upset with the 3-D instead of 2-D!
@@tropicalbeach9225
I think both the Ash Saga and the Maximum Impact Saga were both messed up by SNK, because of the "title year continuity" being ruined.
The *NESTS Saga* needed more sequels:
"Neo Blood" should've been KOF 2003,
"Howling Blood" should've been KOF 2004, "Neowave" should've been KOF 2005.
The entire *Tales of Ash Saga* (X, XI, XII & XIII) would be better off as PS3 & XBOX 360 releases with all games having the fluid animation and large sprites seen in XII.
Also to be released as KOF 2006, 2007, 2008 & 2009.
The *Maximum Impact Saga* would've been better as SNK's answer to Street Fighter IV.
And released as KOF 2010, 2011, 2012 & 2013.
And of course the *Shun'ei Saga* (XIV & XV)… Would've probably ended the series because SNK is starting to run out of ideas.
Yah played it a lot but Kof 98 2002 99 2000 97 are better
@@user-nq2xc1ff9z
No KOF 2001?
Awesome documentary of KOF looking forward for more KOF History Documentary episode.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Awesome, yet another kickass retrospective on another beloved SNK franchise, nice work! So, now, since you've reviewed the big gun titles, how about another retrospective on the criminally underrated World Heroes games, whether the next video or soon?
Very well done. Thank you.
Glad you liked it!
Great Video❤
Thank you!!