The King of Fighters 99

Despite the mysteries of what lie ahead of the human race after December 31, 1999, there was at least one constant that fighting game fans could count on in the final year of the century - a new entry in the King of Fighters series. King of Fighters 99 launched as the arcade scene and fighting games in general were not seeing the generous returns on investment they saw earlier in the decade. Despite slowing sales in 2D arcade fighters, SNK released two heavy hitting fighting games for the aging Neo-Geo that year, The King of Fighters 99 and the legendary Garou: Mark of the Wolves. While King of Fighters 99 isn't quite the game Mark of the Wolves is, it is still a solid entry in the long-running franchise that was well received by most, but not so well received by some. 

Unfortunately there is little sales data for the game aside from some numbers released in 1999 by the Japanese gaming publication Famitsu. According to them the AES version sold over 14k copies in its first week and the CD version sold over 18k copies. There is no sales data from MVS sales available, but one can guess that it was quite popular given the healthy SNK home console sales and the abundance of reasonably priced MVS copies still floating around the retro game market in 2023. In the competitive community, though, King of Fighters 99 is easily one of the more divisive entries in the series due to a litany of changes across the board that still divide players 21 years later. What's so divisive? Let's dig in.

The King of Fighters 99 kicks off a new storyline that introduces series protagonist K' (pronounced K-Dash). K' is joined by series staples Benimaru Nikaido, Shingo Yabuki, and newcomer Maxima (a cyborg) as they investigate the NESTS corporation - the mysterious organization that is the sponsor of the 1999 King of Fighters tournament. After the events that lead to the demise of Orochi in King of Fighters 97, Kyo Kusinagi went missing and Iori Yagami remained illusive until events in this tournament began to unfold. Behind the scenes Heidern, Ralf, Clark, and Leona were also on a reconnaissance mission to investigate the odd business practices behind the NESTS organization. During the tournament they discovered that Kyo had been kidnapped and was used to create a series of Kyo-Clones that NESTS was going to use to take over the world.  

Using the new storyline and main characters as a starting point, SNK made sweeping changes not only to the overall tone of the game, but also the gameplay. Series staple gameplay elements like the run, super-jumps and hops, and CD blowback attacks are all present and accounted for. Button layout stays the same as well with two punch and two kick buttons. Where 99 begins to deviate from past entries is in the defensive options given to the player. The evasive forward and backward rolls were replaced with a forward standing evade that has less invincibility frames and travels a shorter distance than a forward roll in prior games, and a backward evade where the character jumps back a few spaces then hops back forward to where they were standing to set up for a surprise attack. Essentially, there are no defensive options that allow you to retreat that don't require meter. The omission of the backward roll immediately split the fan-base, and was so despised that the new evasion systems introduced here were dropped in all subsequent King of Fighters games in favor of bringing back the roll mechanic. That said, you can still safe fall out of a knockdown and spend one bar of your super meter to either do a blowback on block, or do a super evasive roll forward or backward on block. 

Another big change to the gameplay, the one that gets the most attention, is you now select a team of four characters rather than three. The game is still set up as a three on three match, but the forth character can be called in to assist in battle with one of their signature moves. This "Striker" system is similar to the assists from Capcom's Vs series and was a welcome addition to the KOF franchise that adds some more strategy to the flow of the fight. When you call out a striker by pressing light kick and heavy punch together, you have a short window of invincibility while your striker character jumps into action. If the striker's attack connects, you are often set up for a combo opportunity so long as your timing is right. The striker system allows for more strategic team combinations, and many players designate a particular character as a striker in their base team that compliments the main three characters they play with. For example: my team of Terry, Mai (or Andy), and Iori is complimented by Kyo - who I always use as my striker character due to his Orochinagi assist that juggles the opponent on hit and travels a good distance across the screen. 

The Max meter mechanic was also overhauled for the game. During battle your max meter fills as you attack, and you can save up to three meters worth of stocks to use at any time during play. Unlike prior games, your meter stocks are tied to your on-screen character and do not transfer over to your next team member upon KO. Your Max meter fills very fast in this game, though, so that's not too much of a sticking point. When you have three bars maxed out you can enter one of two Max modes: press ABC to enter a Counter Mode that powers up your desperation moves and allows you to cancel into attacks you normally can't, or you can press BCD to enter a super armor mode that halves damage and gives you immunity to hit-stun for a short while. Either Max mode lasts about 10 seconds in the match, but completely depletes your super stock. Another change to the desperation mechanic is that there are very few invincibility frames on start-up compared to King of Fighters 98, making clutch comebacks and upsets far more rare in this game. 

SNK also brought back the flashing red life bar as an indicator of when your on-screen character is about to be KO'ed. Like prior SNK games with this mechanic, if you do a desperation move when your life bar is flashing you will do the Super version of that move. Unlike prior games with the flashing bar mechanic, though, it does not grant you infinite desperation moves while in this state. 

Not only did the core gameplay mechanics get an overhaul, but almost all returning characters had sweeping changes to their move sets that make them feel unique when compared to the Orochi story arch's gameplay. Terry Bogard, for example, lost his Power Dunk but gained a unique two hit turn punch (or kick), gained his Round Wave from the Real Bout games, his Power Wave now travels full screen but only has one speed, his Rising Tackle has been reverted to a down/up charge move, and his CD attack now has new animations and properties. Similar to Terry, all characters saw a swath of changes. Basically, if you play a lot of 98 then 99 will feel somewhat foreign to you until you wrap your head around not only the changes to the general mechanics, but also to the litany of changes to your favorite characters - except Iori. He generally plays just as he did in prior games.

Despite the overall focus on offense, I find that matches in 99 last longer than in prior games in the series. This isn't a complaint so much as it is a noted change in the tempo of battle. I run into more time outs against both AI (on the hardest difficulty) and human opponents than in any other King of Fighters game. 

Speaking of characters, there are no shortage of them in 99 with 30 unique players and two clones. Because the storyline revolves around using Kyo Kusinagi's clones to take over the world, of course there are Kyo clones in the game along side the real Kyo. The two versions of Clone Kyo play like his two variants seen in the Orochi saga: Clone 1 plays like KOF 94-95 Kyo, and Clone 2 plays like KOF 96-98 Kyo. Each clone looses one or two moves to show they are "imperfect." Real Kyo got a design overhaul sporting a new jacket, shirt, and jeans. He plays most like 98 Kyo, but with notable changes inline with the rest of the cast. 

Kyo isn't the only character with a sprite redesign. Robert now sports an outfit more similar to his get-up in the first two Art of Fighting games, and Yuri got a much needed update to her animation set despite keeping the same basic outfit as in prior games. Even characters that didn't see a complete sprite overhaul got new frames of animation, new win-poses, and new before fight taunts and interactions. 

Due to the new storyline, SNK created a host of new characters to join the fight. Series protagonist K’ and Maxima round out the new Japan Heroes team, energy siphoning child Bao joined the Psycho Solder Team, Juhn Hoon – another Taekwondo master - joined the Korea Team, Whip – a new secret agent – joined team Heidern, and Xiangfei from Real Bout 2 joined the Women Hero’s team along with a return of Kasumi Todo from Art of Fighting 3 (and King of Fighters 96). The game’s boss, Krizalid, has two forms, but he is not playable even via cheat. Real Kyo and Iori are hidden characters, but are only unlocked from the start on the AES or home ports of the game. If you are playing on MVS and don’t have a Unibios installed on your board, you are out of luck.

If the new gameplay mechanics and sweeping changes to the character roster divide the community, then the stunning presentation in the game brings the community together. Nobody will argue that the King of Fighters 99 is one of the most beautiful entries in the series. Despite the generally good sprite work and updates to old animation sets, the backgrounds are some of the most intricate SNK has ever created; with many backgrounds cycling day/night or even weather as the fight progresses. The standout background is the Victorian era-like park that eventually has you fighting in an all out storm by the third round. The rain and water pixel art effects are absolutely stunning even 22 years later.

To compliment the edgy storyline and main character, the overall tone of the game is much darker than the Orochi series, so the bright colors of King of Fighters 98 have been replaced with more subtle shades across the board. The character select screen has been updated with a new portrait for all characters, and a nifty new Vs screen was created that even plays mid-fight between rounds - it's all very slick. There are many more storyline cutscenes in 99 versus earlier games in the series as well. The King of Fighters 99 is one of the most beautiful games on the Neo-Geo hardware and is one of the standouts in the overall King of Fighters series. But, what would amazing art direction be without an equally amazing soundtrack?

Due to the darker tone of the game, the overall soundtrack has a more hard-edged, electronic vibe to it. Outside of the Fatal Fury team, which uses the track 176th Street from the Hyper Neo-Geo 64 game Fatal Fury Wild Ambition, all the music was created from the ground up specifically for this game. From K’s rocking theme, to Kyo’s new more subtle theme (aptly named Tears), the music in this game is one of the most deserving video game soundtracks to be listened to outside of the game. Actually, both the original and arranged soundtracks are stellar in their own right, and there are some tracks I actually prefer on hardware rather than on CD. The character select theme, for example, is much more edgy on hardware. Hell, it’s one of my favorite tracks because of the killer drum beat that kicks in about 40 seconds into the song.

The King of Fighters 99 is a breath of fresh air for a game series on its 6th iteration. But because it came out just one year after the nigh-perfect King of Fighters 98, and introduced a litany of contentious changes, it wasn’t met with a more mixed and slightly more muted reaction than the prior year's entry. The new defensive mechanics remain divisive to this day, and many of them were retooled or reverted in the next entry because of the negative feedback received by fans. Despite the odd mechanics, the King of Fighters 99 is a solid fighting game – and like most King of Fighters games, it is well worth your time. 

So, should you buy it? Well, that answer comes down to why you play the King of Fighters series in the first place. If you play for the story, characters, presentation, and music (like many fans), then 99 is a no-brainer and you should pick it up any way you can. If you are a King of Fighters fan for gameplay first, then I recommend getting getting the more serious games in the series like 95, 98, and 2K2 before picking this one up. King of Fighters 99 is one of the more reasonably priced AES games sitting around $190 on the low end to $300 on the high end for a complete Japanese copy. A US AES edition will run you over $3000 at the very least in 2023. MVS editions can be had for less than $80, and the Neo CD release (the last King of Fighters released on Neo CD, and one of the last CD releases period) is around the same price. 

Like most fighting games of the era, the King of Fighters 99 was ported to various platforms like the Sony Playstation and Sega Dreamcast. The Dreamcast port got updated 3D backgrounds, which like 98 before it, look fine. That said, I much prefer the 2D sprite work. The Playstation port, like all other King of Fighters ports, plays fine but has loads of missing content and frequent load times. Outside of those, your only way to play it is in the middling collections that have been floating around for years, or the pretty solid Arcade Archives release on modern platforms from Hamster – which is how I recommend you play it if not on original hardware. The one caveat to that release is that it is based on the MVS version so you won't have immediate access to Real Kyo, Iori, or training mode. 

If you’re getting into AES collecting, I’d say hold off on this game and get some of the more hard to find and more important games in your collection first…unless you have some crazy nostalgia for this game. King of Fighters 99 is a good game to be sure, but there are so many amazing fighting games on the Neo-Geo it is hard to recommend as a must have out of the gate. Make no mistake, though, you’ll want to get this game eventually even if it’s just for the amazing art direction and music.