Moment pages are Spoilers Off by default, so all spoilers were removed and all entries folderized. Proceed with caution. You Have Been Warned.
Miseteyaru, Kusanagi no kobushi wo!English
KOF is practically built on awesomeness, being a fighting game and all. And considering it's long history of releases, there's no shortage of epicness to be had.
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The Rugal/Orochi saga
- The King Of Fighters 98: Ultimate Match is this saga's Dream Match Game, starting with the fact that it's the remake of what some gamers consider it's the best KOF in the franchise!
It brought back not only the whole roster of the original KOF 98 Slugfest, but in general, it brought back all characters appearing during the Rugal and Orochi sagas, which adds up to 43 different characters. (Not including extra versions and the final bosses, which brings it it up to a grand total of 64, technically speaking). Aside of the already known stages, it also included new stages, such as a train station in Hong Kong, the Great Wall in China, and even the dark arena from 96, where you fight Geese Howard and his cohorts Wolfgang Krauser and Mr. Big, the coliseum where the battle with Goenitz takes place; and the Different Dimension stages from 97, where you engage the New Faces Team in their Orochi versions, as well as Orochi himself. Beware, as this time, the bosses really mean business.
Aside of the already known Advance and Extra modes, KOF 98 UM adds a third mode, named Ultimate, which enables the player to combine aspects from the former two modes into something players feel is more comfortable to them (You can choose between Emergency Evade or Sidestep, Dash or make a long step, Charge the power bar by attacking and taking damage, or charging it manually). The Final Edition for PC even made a huge rebalance of all characters, so no, Krauser, you no longer are the lonely Top Tier.
It also took it out of the park by including 3D versions of the stages, as well as an arranged soundtrack for the PS2 (These features were removed in the Final Edition for PC, but that doesn't reduce its awesomeness).
The NESTS saga
- Krizalid's I Am Not Left-Handed moment. So you beat the first form of Krizalid pretty easily right? Now to show that he isn't messing around anymore, he burns his coat WHILE HE'S STILL WEARING IT! Rugal Bernstein, eat your heart out!
- Kensou has two in the NESTS saga. If you use him to beat Krizalid
in 99, he awakens the Dragon Spirit to save Athena and himself. In 2000, he saves Bao's life after he takes a massive beam from the NESTS Kill Sat and again releases the Dragon Spirit, recovering his powers.- Bao going Badass Adorable via fearlessly jumping and taking the hit to protect his teammates and Kaoru is pretty awesome in itself.
- Also, Takuma using a single Haoh Shoko Ken to save King via deflecting the same energy beam from the same Kill Sat.
- If you don't fight Kula Diamond, you will see Heidern kick ass and take names via disabling Zero. If you do, Diana and Foxy disable him instead. And in Kula's own ending, she succeeds into dismantling the Zero Cannon... which prompts Candy's own CMOA with her Heroic Sacrifice.
- The King Of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match, the remake of the classic KOF 2002 (and after the deception that was Neowave) is considered a Crowning Moment Of Awesome per-se in the KOF franchise:
It brought back not only all characters from KOF 2002 from the Arcade and console versions (Except for K9999, who was Put on a Bus and replaced by Nameless, a brand new character), but in general, it brought back all characters who appeared during the NESTS chronicles, resulting in the biggest roster in the franchise so far with 52 different characters.note
It also includes colorful stages with a lot of cameos, contrasting the gray, desaturated stages from the classical KOF 2002 and the lacking stages from Neowave; stages including a beautiful beach in Italy (For the Fatal Fury and 97 Special Team, and Geese), The NeoGeo World (An amusement park for K's Team and Pretty Girls Team), a station in Korea (For Kim's Team and the new Edit Team), some ancient ruins in Cambodia (perfect for the Ikari and Father Teams), a Chinese Restaurant (Fitting for the Psycho Soldiers), a New York street in front of a concert hall (For the Agents and Woman's team note ), The Kyokugen Gym, located in Taiwan (Where you can even spot Gato and Hotaru from Garou: Mark of the Wolves), a spectacular battle arena in Greece (For Iori Team, the New Faces Team, and Goenitz), a colorful High School in Japan (For Kyo and company), an ominous yet awesome Abandoned Laboratory (for Kyo clones and NESTS lackeys), and probably the best of them all, remastered versions of the stages for the bosses (Including the Skynoah stage for Omega Rugal); Clone Zero's and Igniz's stages are particularly gorgeous and well detailed, specially with their new music.
Speaking of music, the stages have several remixed versions of old songs, as well as new music for some teams. See SNK for more details.
MAX2 final moves make a return, and more visually impressive than before, complete with a Super Move Portrait Attack. Well done, they can turn the tables on a seemingly lost match. Hard to admit, but the NESTS bosses have the best of them all:- Krizalid's Lightning Disaster involves him expelling all the data of his battle suit in form of lasers that fill the entire screen.
- Clone Zero's Anryuu Tenha can catch his opponent into a black hole, where he apparently does a Raging Demon on him.
- Original Zero starts his take on Anryuu Tenha by stunning his opponent in place, then, his striker Ron whacks his opponent's soul out of its body, then all the strikers gang up and completely beat it up. The awesome part is, when Ron pushes the soul back to its body, it's when the whole damage is registered.
- Finally, Igniz's Disintegrational Universe: He catches his opponent inside a small galaxy and explodes it, glorious and lethal.
- Another awesome aspect of KOF 2002: Unlimited Match is, despite it being a Dream Match Game, it actually comes with a plot (an Excuse Plot, but a plot nonetheless), which seems to be centered on Nameless and his story. (It is not referenced or mentioned in-game, but it's in the manual, but that doesn't make it less awesome).
The Ash saga
- Ash Crimson saving the day and our timeline in his XIII ending, revealing his benevolent true intentions. After he fuses with Saiki, he goes Dark Ash, and after his defeat Saiki wants to return to the past in order to restart his plans. However, being trapped inside of Ash means he's at the mercy of anything Ash wishes, and Ash chooses to stay. This causes a Temporal Paradox that cleanses both Saiki and Ash from this timeline. It's pure awesome and pure tears.
The Shun'ei/Verse saga
- Ladies and gentlemen, the unthinkable has actually happened. Rock Howard is finally becoming playable in XIV. In a canon game, to boot.
- The King of Fighters XV is shaping up to be one of the best modern installments in the series and one of the best overall, and for good reason —
- Starting with the unexpected team-up of Heidern alongside Dolores and Isla as a part of this game's Rival Team. That's one way to shatter expectations, alright.
- After their absence for 25 years' worth of canon installmentsnote , Chris, Yashiro, and Shermie finally make their triumphant return to a canon installment (no) thanks to Verse's destruction at the end of XIV, something that was foreshadowed in SNK Heroines with Shermie's inclusion in that game. The very fact that the latter's character trailer was the first to reach a million views on YouTube says quite a lot about how sorely missed they were.
- For fans that have been clamoring for the return of K9999 despite SNK's stance on him, they more than got their wish in the form of Krohnen. More than that, he's joined by his old teammates from 2001/2002 — Angel and Kula — for the first time in over 20 years!
- And just to seal the deal, Ash is not only Back from the Dead, but he's also partnered with his former Rival-turned-Teammate (and Childhood Friend/Adoptive Sister), Elisabeth! ...And Kukri, who was helping Elizabeth get him back.
- SNK has announced a new "boss challenge" mode will be coming to the game with a free update, allowing players to test their skills against the franchise's signature SNK Boss himself, Omega Rugal, making his grand return to the franchise with his first canonical appearance in over a quarter of a century.
- It's pretty clear that SNK went all-out on much of the Climax Supers for KOF XV, not only improving the visuals so that they're up to snuff but also making sure that they actually hurt and are incredibly gratifying to land. All it takes is an Orochinagi motion plus both Strong Punch and Kick, and...
- Despite his hiatus, Ash still hasn't lost his edge at all. For his Climax, he lights up the entire screen in flames, brings the opponent to their knees, and, much like Kyo, burns them in a flaming vortex.
- Elisabeth's Climax Super is equal parts badass and visually stunning - she launches the opponent into the air with a Coup de Vent, conjures an Energy Bow made of auroras, and shoots them out of the air, topped off with the arrow turning into a dove as the final flourish.
- Kyo's Climax Super, Yakumo, has him hurl a Yamibarai at the opponent before wailing on them with some well-placed punches and incinerating them with a spiral of fire, with his clan's symbol (the sun) serving as the finishing garnish on top. If used on any member of the Orochi team, he'll even say his trademark Badass Boast, as pictured above.
- Not one to be outdone by his rival, Iori lunges at the opponent, grabs them by the face, slams them onto the floor (with his moon symbol serving as a neat flourish much like Kyo's super as stated above), and promptly burns them to smithereens with a blood-curdling scream! Like Kyo, if performed on any member of the Orochi team, he'll forgo the ominous red eyes (that are a result of the Riot of the Blood) that he typically has and carry on with incinerating Chris/Shermie/Yashiro with the viciousness that he's known for.
- Isla takes to the skies first by spraying the opponent in the face with her spray can, having Amanda lift up the opponent, and then finishing them off with a well-placed rider kick, with the mist of paint adding to her graceful landing at the end.
- Terry, being as Simple, yet Awesome as he is, starts off with a very meaty Power Charge, and then uppercuts the opponent with a variation of his signature Buster Wolf, with the cherry on top being...Terry: BUSTER... LAUNCHER!!!
- Yashiro's Climax, like Kyo, has him hurl a full-screen projectile (albeit one that's a result of punching the air so hard) before wailing on them with a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown in the dark and then punching through the screen, with a Shrug Take at the end, feeling very satisfied with himself.
- Yashiro also gets to really display his power as a Heavenly King with his Orochi form's Climax. He counters his opponent's attack by uprooting the ground beneath them (think Hulk's Gamma Wave), sending them skyward so that he can grab them and deliver a vicious, earth-shattering powerbomb.
- Gato's Climax shows that he's more than earned the right to be an Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy. He starts with a charging punch to launch his opponent up in the air, after which he gives chase into the skies, repeatedly striking his opponent while wall jumping off of thin air, before bringing it home with the mother of all divekicks to slam his opponent back down to the floor.
- Kim's Climax showcases that he's more than deserved the right to be called the Crown of Taekwondo and the Martial Pacifist. He winds up and then goes ballistic on the opponent with a very powerful flurry of kicks from both sides, ending with a rising kick that shows an ethereal phoenix behind him.
- Being the face of merciless boss beatdowns he is, Rugal gets an absolutely spectacular Climax to show off his hellacious power. After launching a short-range projectile with vaccuum qualities, Rugal uses his Genocide Cutter on his victim and sends them to the floor for the main part of the attack; An absolutely massive version of the Kaiser Wave. The opponent barely has enough time to realize just how screwed they are before it hits them, rupturing the ground and turning the entire arena into a fiery inferno.
Other/Unsorted
- Some of the MAX2 of the normal characters are visually impressive as well:
- Nameless, for example, Encases his opponent in a huge fire column, while an image of his beloved Isolde appears behind him.
- Kasumi performs an enhanced version of her Chou Kasane Ate super, the amazing part is that she's assisted by her father Ryuhaku for extra power. Once the move is complete, Ryuhaku quickly jumps away as Kasumi looks back in disbelief.
- Mai sets her opponent on fire, all while looking as provocative and sexy as ever before, and sometimes she appears clad in a white wedding dress when completing the move.
- The very best part, if you finish the duel with any of these moves, you get a special picture on the victory screen: Nameless stands there with Isolde near him, Kasumi stands in place smiling as Ryuhaku is behind her, hidden under a bush; and Mai appears in her wedding dress. Awesome, funny... and heartwarming if you think about it.
- Any time Ralf's Galactica Phantom succeeds in hitting the opponent. Even more so against human opponents, since they are ten times less likely to fall for it than the AI. (For those needing further clarification, the Galactica Phantom is absurdly powerful [to the point that it had to be toned down from its OHKO status in '98], but also has an ungodly charge time; a fully-powered one requires seven or eight seconds. It is, essentially, a Death or Glory Attack cranked up.)
