After the last tournament ended with the destruction of Southtown, NESTS' leaders decide to host this year's King of Fighters themselves, entering their own team into the tournament in order to eliminate any enemies that decide to enter.
In KOF 2001, Strikers have been overhauled from 2000, removing its alternative Striker types but adopting the Active Striker system into Tactical Order Select. This time, up to three members of a team can be assigned as Strikers, with more bars of meter being available if more teammates are given this designation note . In addition, Strikers no longer have their own dedicated resource, requiring 1 bar of meter instead. KOF 2001 also removes the Counter/Armor Modes, but lets the players perform Super Cancel at any moment by spending an extra Power Gauge stock for it.
The game would eventually be released on the Dreamcast in 2002, and the PlayStation 2 in 2003.
Teams In This Version
- Team K': K' and Maxima set out to claim their revenge on NESTS, this time joined by Whip and Lin.
- Team Japan: Kyo Kusanagi finally stops playing the lone wolf and hooks back up with his old teammates, Benimaru Nikaido and Goro Daimon; with Shingo Yabuki joining in as their fourth.
- Team Yagami: With their handler dead, Vanessa, Seth and Ramon enter together to bring NESTS to justice themselves, forming an unlikely alliance with Iori Yagami.
- Team Fatal Fury: Same setup as last year: Terry Bogard, Andy Bogard, Joe Higashi and Blue Mary.
- Team Art of Fighting: The Kyokugenryu school reunites once more: Ryo Sakazaki, Robert Garcia, Yuri Sakazaki and Takuma Sakazaki.
- Team Ikari: With Whip now on Team K', Heidern finally steps back into action and joins his daughter Leona, alongside Ralf Jones and Clark Still.
- Team Psycho Soldier: Same as last year: Athena Asamiya, Sie Kensou, Chin Gentsai and Bao.
- Team Women Fighters: King, Mai Shiranui and Hinako Shijou return, with Li Xiangfei stepping back into the fourth slot in place of Kasumi Todoh.
- Team Korean Justice: After Jhun Hoon injures himself in a rather embarassing accident, Kim Kaphwan entrusts his youngest pupil May Lee Jinju to join him for the tournament, and help keep an eye on Chang Koehan and Choi Bounge.
- Team NESTS: After running the previous two tournaments from the shadows, NESTS assemble a team to publicly enter this year including Kula Diamond, her handler Foxy, the newer recruit Angel and K9999, the latest in their attempts to clone Kyo.
- Bosses
- Mid-Boss: Zero, for real this time. He has his own specialize strikers which include: his pet lion Glugan, Lin's sworn enemy Ron Lon, and a clone of Krizalid.
- Boss: Igniz - A man who quickly pulls a coup just as the finalists arrive at NESTS lunar base and takes over the organization. He seeks to become a god with the energy collected from the tournament.
This work shows examples of:
- Astral Finale: The last two stages is an infiltration to NESTS' spaceship. Said ship launches into space in a match against Igniz.
- Big Bad: At first, it appears to be Nests, the leader of the eponymous cartel. However, almost immediately after he appears in person, he's killed by his son, Igniz, who serves as the Final Boss.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard:
- Zero has access to three Strikers, something players also can do in Tactical Order Select. What makes him different is that his Strikers are Special Move itself, and it does not spend a Power Gauge stock to summon them.
- Igniz can sometimes guard the player's attack even if he is too late to do so. Under normal circumstance this is undisputedly cheating, but alas, it's SNK Boss.
- Cycle of Hurting:
- Angel has a number of Launcher Moves that can be used to infinitely juggle the opponent. Ironically, a sizable portion of the cast can infinitely juggle her due to a bug.
- Bao's Rikatsu Shu command normal can hit opponents who have been knocked down. However, doing so will cause them to stay down, allowing for a string of repeated Rikatsu Shu until the opponent is KO'd.
- Kim and May Lee can do something similar with strong Haki Kyaku and May Lee Kick, respectively, although it's harder to pull off.
- Kula has an infinite involving her Ray Spin in the corner.
- Colony Drop: After having his own father Reduced to Dust, Igniz causes NESTS' headquarters to begin falling to earth, believing that a new godnote will be born. After he's defeated, he speeds it up in an attempt to take the victorious team down with him, but it lands harmlessly in the ocean, with the only casualty appearing to be Igniz himself.
- Gameplay Automation: Downplayed, since it's not a complete automation, but KOF 2001 removes the dual Mode systems from '99 and 2000, and simplifies Super Cancel from Counter Mode. You no longer have to enter MAX Mode to Super Cancel; as long as you have an extra Power Gauge for it (meaning Super Canceling into a regular Super Move requires two Power Gauge, and a MAX Super requires three), you're good to initiate a combo.
- Hitchhiker Heroes: KOF 2001 sees the return of Heidern to the Ikari Warriors, forming a team with Ralf, Clark and Leona. So what's become of its original fourth member, Whip? She's joined K' for this game, thanks to her relationship to him and NESTS (this would lead to pairing her with K' and Maxima in 2002, 2003 and XV, though she'd return to the Ikari team in XI).
- Nerf:
- Stun is disabled for this game.
- Super Cancel can now be used without having to spend three Power Gauge stocks and activate the Counter Mode, but instead of using Super Cancel as much as a player can until the Mode Gauge runs out, each use depletes Power Gauge.
- Oddball in the Series: And how. This is the only mainline KOF where...
- ...players can bring different numbers of fighters in a match, since it's the only game to have Tactical Order Select system.
- ...MAX Mode or its equivalent does not exist. No Limit Break Modes like KOF '99 and 2000, no Leader System advantange like 2003 and XI, no Art of Fighting-style Power Gauge like '94 and '95, nothing.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted with Zero. The sub-boss of this game is also named Zero, and even shares a few moves with the one from The King of Fighters 2000, but is otherwise a completely different character. The "original" would later be revealed to be a clone of this new Zero, and is referred to as "Clone Zero" in order to distinguish the two.
- Player Character Calculus: While KOF '99 and 2000 always forces one of your four fighters to act as Assist Character, KOF 2001's Tactical Order Select can manage how many fighters you can summon as one. This means you can have up to three Strikers and send out less fighters in a match, or send out all four fighters without a Striker. It doesn't restrict both players having different number of Strikers, and an extreme case like going One-Man Army against a four-fighter party is possible.
- Punched Across the Room: Some attacks have a "Wire" effect, causing anyone hit by them to bounce off the wall behind them. There are also "Counter Wire" moves, which only cause this when used to counter an opponent's attack.
- Season Finale: This game concludes the NESTS Chronicles arc that started in KOF '99.
- SNK Boss: What a leap from the easiest boss of last game to this one with Igniz and he is considered to be one of the cheapest bastards of all time. He was even the poster boy of the trope for some time.
- To put it into perspective: he's one of the best picks if you want to go up against Omega Rugal in KOF 2002UM. If you're good enough with Igniz (which isn't that hard, considering even his MAX 2 is easy to pull off), you may win handily. Remember: against Omega goddamn Rugal.
- In fact, most tier lists place him in the banned tier, only behind Krizalid and Nightmare Geese. He outstrips the other "boss-tier" characters (Zero and his clone, Geese, Goenitz, and Omega Rugal) quite easily.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
- If playing as any team except Team NESTS, Angel and K9999 critically injure Foxy and prepare to fight Kula, seemingly because they see them, as well as K', as inferior.
- Shortly before his boss fight, Igniz decides that NESTS, as well as the clones they produced, are no longer useful to him in his pursuit of godhood, and kills his father.
