History Franchise / TheKingOfFighters

* SkillGateCharacter: [[VideoGame/FatalFury Terry]], [[VideoGame/ArtOfFighting Ryo]], Iori, Shun'ei... quite a few characters for a new player to pick from. And seeing as you'll be using three at a time, you might want to get comfortable and pick wisely. Consult the [[https://dreamcancel.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page Dream Cancel Wiki]] if you need any pointers.

%%SuperWeight: Please check the discussion page.

* IconicSequelCharacter: ''The King of Fighters '95'' introduced Iori Yagami, TheRival to the game's protagonist, Kyo. His popularity, which was spurred by his appearance and personality, managed to make him so recognizable that he not only kept being used as an icon for the series in later iterations, but also became a major BreakoutCharacter.

In 2010 [[Film/TheKingOfFighters2010 a film adaptation]] was released, starring Creator/MaggieQ, Creator/WillYunLee and Creator/RayPark. [[spoiler:[[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain Let's just pretend this doesn't exist...]]]]

A spin-off game, ''VideoGame/SNKHeroinesTagTeamFrenzy'', stars the majority of the female cast of the ''XIV'' title (plus Shermie and [[GenderFlip a gender-bent Terry Bogard]]) as a 2v2 fighter [[spoiler:bridging the events between ''XIV'' and ''XV'']], released on September 18, 2018.

* The '''Tales of Ash''' saga ('03 - XIII[[note]]XII is more a dream match and test run for the new engine they were developing.[[/note]]), which introduces androgynous French pretty boy Ash Crimson as the new main character. The story involves a sinister plot to capture the powers of the Kusanagi, Yagami, and Kagura clans and use them to [[SealedEvilInACan seize the sealed power of Orochi]], as well as the question of [[EnigmaticMinion just whose side Ash is on]]. The main enemy of this arc is a band of enigmatic people named "Those from the Past". It had [[http://snk.wikia.com/wiki/Nona Nona,]] [[http://snk.wikia.com/wiki/Falcoon Falcoon,]] Shinkiro's unofficial "successor" [[http://snk.wikia.com/wiki/Hiroaki Hiroaki]] and [[http://snk.wikia.com/wiki/Eisuke_Ogura Eisuke Ogura]] as artists. It also experienced a change of hardware platforms multiple times ('03 on UsefulNotes/NeoGeo as with all the previous games, XI on Atomiswave and XII and XIII on Taito Type X2) the first in-game ArtShift ever, and turmoil in the parent company, but managed to get on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} in the end. This is also where the series drops the yearly naming convention in favor of numbered sequels starting with XI.

The home versions of the games were initially released on the (ridiculously expensive) UsefulNotes/NeoGeo home arcade system, so they had a hard time catching on with North American home gamers, but remained very popular in Japan, as well as with arcade gamers worldwide. It released new editions of the game every year with [[VideoGame/MaddenNFL Madden-like regularity]], introducing new characters and rosters into the storyline, while the old characters have seemingly retained their basic sets of special moves throughout the series, probably to dodge the problem of the older games being SoLastSeason.

Aside from fighting games and tie-ins, there were the rather infamous DatingSim games for mobiles and UsefulNotes/NintendoDS, ''Days of Memories'' allowed the player character to venture in Southtown and date most of the fighting divas from the series ([[VideoGame/FatalFury and]] [[VideoGame/ArtOfFighting from]] [[VideoGame/SamuraiShodown others]]); later versions also allowed a girl player character to date the male fighters as well. An animated web series loosely adapting the events of the ''Rugal Saga'' (as well as the first ''VideoGame/FatalFury'' game) called ''Animation/TheKingOfFightersDestiny'' began streaming in 2017.

* {{Cloneopoly}}: ''The King of Fighters: Battle De Paradise'' is a UsefulNotes/NeoGeoPocketColor game made by SNK where you can play a version of KOF as if was a Monopoly game mixed with Sugoroku, having four original player characters (one of them appeared as TheCameo in ''VideoGame/NeoGeoBattleColiseum'') and many references and other characters from KOF. Also [[NoExportForYou released in Japan only]].

* GameMod: No matter which UsefulNotes/NeoGeo installment of the series you pick, there's always a hack of it. Primarily they tend to make bosses playable though some add new arenas, graphics and bump up character's attacks to ludicrous levels. Sometimes you get the odd mod that adds new characters, such as a hack of the arcade ''2002'' that adds the console port's extra characters (King, Shingo, Orochi Iori, Goenitz and Geese).

* LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading: The UsefulNotes/NeoGeo CD ports of the games, which have loading times so frequent and so ridiculously long (20 to 30 seconds, due to the [=CDs=]' slow single-speed drive) that they slow the pacing of all the games to a crawl.

** ''2002: Unlimited Match'', which has EVERYONE who was in the NESTS saga games (except K9999, who gets a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute in the form of Nameless), INCLUDING Geese (with his added Nightmare mode from ''[[VideoGame/FatalFury Real Bout Fatal Fury Special]]'', [[SNKBoss cheapness and all!]]) and Goenitz, last seen on the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 port of ''2002''. Though for some reason, Orochi Iori is not present as a playable character though he was found as an unused element.

A spin-off game, ''VideoGame/SNKHeroinesTagTeamFrenzy'', stars the majority of the female cast of the ''IV'' title (plus Shermie and [[GenderFlip a gender-bent Terry Bogard]]) as a 2v2 fighter [[spoiler:bridging the events between ''IV'' and ''XIV'']], released on September 18, 2018.

In 2010 [[Film/TheKingOfFighters2010 a film adaptation]] was released, starring Creator/MaggieQ, Creator/WillYunLee and Creator/RayPark. [[spoiler:[[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain Let's just pretend this doesn't exist...]]

A spin-off game, ''VideoGame/SNKHeroinesTagTeamFrenzy'', stars the majority of the female cast of the ''IV'' title (plus Shermie and [[GenderFlip a gender-bent Terry Bogard]]) as a 2v2 fighter [[spoiler:bridging the events between ''IV'' and ''XIV']]', released on September 18, 2018.