What Could Have Been / The King of Fighters

Concept art of a scrapped boss character named "Osamu" who would then be split into Goenitz and Chris.

Sometimes not everything that's on the cutting room floor will come to fruition. And in KOF's case, that cutting room, which includes various prototype designs of characters, many of which can be seen as Strikers in 2000 and plot points being either altered or shafted is massive.

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• The series wasn't originally a fighting game; it was going to be a Beat 'em Up in the vein of Final Fight and Streets of Rage called Survivor with Terry, Robert, and Ralf as playable characters.

• The King of Fighters '94:
  • Billy Kane was planned to be playable in '94, but scrapped due to limitations.
  • Lee Pai Long was originally the third member of the Mexico Team, but was replaced by Yuri at the Art of Fighting devs' request. Yuri herself was originally supposed to be part of the team before being moved to the England Team, with Takuma ending up as the team's third member.
  • Originally, Chang and Choi were going to be paired up with another dangerous criminal to from the "Fugitive Team". Kim was a last-minute addition, thus setting up the whole "rehabilitation" plot. This concept would be revisited for XIV, with Chang and Choi teaming with Xanadu to form the Villains Team.
  • King's Surprise Rose super move from Art of Fighting 2 was her original DM in '94 but was scrapped for some reason. King's designer then came up with the Illusion Dance DM and it was well received. Surprise Rose returned in later games as a mere special move for King. It was turned back into a DM in 2002.
  • Ralf (and presumably Clark) was supposed to have a moveset revolving around grenades back in his KOF debut as a Shout-Out to Ikari Warriors. This was scrapped due to a possible case of game breaking mechanics.
    • Lampshaded in the intro dialogue between Kyo and Clark in XIII, wherein Clark explains that the grenades he's wearing are duds, so there's no danger of them going off if Kyo uses his fire on them.
  • Heidern's moveset and their names were so strange that the designers were going to make him an alien as explanation for his "abilities." However, the lead designer became attached to the character, giving him a tragic backstory instead and keeping him as a human.
  • Saisyu was supposed to have died during his Early-Bird Cameo in '94. His appearance in the following game was a last-minute addition.
  • Rugal was originally planned to mirror special moves of the characters and use them against them. Hardware limitations killed this idea. Rugal's Reppuken, Kaiser Wave, and Dark Barrier are relics of this idea.

• The King of Fighters '95:
  • According to this interview from SNK during their 40th anniversary, a Samurai Shodown team was initially planned and potentially considered for both KOF '95 and KOF '96, with the team itself consisting of Haohmaru, Nakoruru, and Galford, but the entire scenario was scrapped due to time constraints. Nakoruru would eventually join XIV as part of the Another World Team and a full Samurai Shodown team would eventually be realized in The King of Fighters XV (albeit with Darli from the 2019 game replacing Galford).

• The King of Fighters '96:
  • Whip was planned to enter the series as early as '96, but was pushed backed til '99 due to Leona being introduced.

• The King of Fighters '97:
  • In order to decide on who would become the members of the '97 Special Team for '97, three polls were conducted by the Japanese video game magazines Weekly Famitsu, Gamest, and Neo Geo Freak, in which the readers had voted for the characters that they wanted to see in the game as part of the team itself. While Billy was the winner of the Neo Geo Freak poll and Yamazaki had won the Weekly Famitsu poll, Duck King had came very close to winning the Gamest poll, but ended up losing to Blue Mary who had barely defeated Duck via a few mere votes and that Duck himself was reduced to making background cameos until he finally became a playable character in The King of Fighters XI.
  • Orochi Iori was originally planned to be the final boss of '97 (remnants of this manifest as Iori being an Optional Boss in said game if you beat Orochi with Kyo).
  • "Chris of the Flames of Destiny" (aka, Orochi Chris) was originally going to have black flames, but the idea was dumped as they would have been too hard to notice in his rather dark stage.
  • One of Orochi's early designs was that of a naked Chris using an energy ball to attack...
  • Concept art for '94 and '95 depicts a potential boss character named "Osamu" who heavily resembles Chris in his Hakkeshu robes. Given that no such concepts exist for '96 onwards, it seems that character concept was split; Osamu's concept evolved into Goenitz while his design was retooled for Chris in '97. Chris does wear Hakkeshu robes in one of the '98 credits images (along with Yashiro and Shermie) and the concept of Chris fighting in the robes would be revisited in The King of Fighters All Star with "False Resurrection Chris" as well as The King of Fighters XV's Awakened Orochi Team, making him closer to Osamu.

• The King of Fighters '98:
  • It's speculated that Kasumi Todoh was meant to be in the original release of '98, even before her appearance in Ultimate Match.

• The King of Fighters '99:
  • Kyo and Iori were going to be dropped from '99 to put emphasis on K'. They became secret characters instead.
  • Believe it or not, it was planned for Terry to actually die at the climax of '99^note One of the Fatal Fury team endings give off this vibe by having Terry stay behind in the collapsing base, but The Stinger reveals that he survives. Luckily, head management disagreed and brought him back in 2000, avoiding what would have been a shocking Player Punch and the ensuing barrage of complaints. However, the "what if" aspect of his death was played up for the remainder of the saga to the point that Blue Mary told Terry how his teammates (or more specifically, her) were worried about him in the team's 2000 ending.
  • Vanessa was supposed to be playable in '99, but didn't make it in time. She makes an Early-Bird Cameo as a Striker in the '99 Evo console release.
  • If unused◊ concept◊ art◊ for '98 and '99 is any indication, it might have been intended for Adel, Rose, and Magaki to join the series as early as the NESTS Chronicles. In particular, one of Rose's prototype designs is shared with that of Whip.

• The King of Fighters 2001:
  • Foxy, who made her debut in 2001, originally wasn't meant to be playable. When it was decided that she'd be added to the roster, it was intended for Diana to join her, although this didn't pan out because of time constraints and Diana remains to this day an NPC.

• The King of Fighters 2002:
  • 2002 may have been planned to keep Strikers, as a lot of unused old Striker animations were kept in the game's code.
  • It's also rumored that 2002 was going to bring back the Sidestep system; many old Sidestep animations are in the game's code, especially curious as the other NESTS games do not contain them.
  • In 2002 Unlimited Match, the potential idea for the alternate versions of Takuma, Kensou, and Robert was that you could switch between their two fighting styles during battle, much like May Lee. However, the developers of the game had felt and considered that this would unintentionally confuse some players of these characters and eventually left them as separate choices from within the final version of the game itself.
  • Concept art for Unlimited Match suggests that Nameless was initially going to be right-handed much like K9999, as his Power Limiter is worn on his right arm. In the actual game however, he's a Left-Handed Mirror instead.

• The King of Fighters 2003:
  • Raiden's first playable entry in the KOF series (prior to XIII) was going to be in 2003, but the developers eventually decided on using Tizoc instead. In addition, his "Big Bear" persona was also going to appear back in '94, but scrapped in favor of Yuri being added.

• The King of Fighters XII:
  • Athena's appearance in XII was originally conceived to be not quite as moe as the final result.◊ Said art would be polished and used as a promo image for The Rhythm of Fighters.
  • Takuma, Momoko, Malin, Oswald, Big Bear, and three unknown newcomers were originally meant to be in XII. Andy, Joe, Kensou, and Chin were not originally planned to appear, but eventually made it in over the former choices. Bear did technically get in under his Raiden persona however.

• The King of Fighters XIII:
  • According to the Developers' Blog for XIII, Chang, Malin, Momoko, and Oswald were meant to be in the game. Chang was reduced to a cameo in the India stage (and also making the customary Kim Team ending cameo alongside Choi), whereas the other three cameo in endings (the Women Fighters Team, Psycho Soldiers Team, and Ash Crimson, respectively).
  • The Neo MAX supers in XIII were at first created as extensions to normal supers, but because of testing feedback they were eventually changed into stand alone supers. A few Neo MAX supers in the final build still look like they were supposed to follow up on normal supers, some of them only effective gameplay-wise when used as such.
  • Adelheid was apparently meant to be playable in XIII, based on some full-body and winpose sketches by Eisuke Ogura.

• The King of Fighters XIV:
  • Among the characters submitted to the Character Design contest, there was a burly man who fought by wearing an eagle-inspired armor, a young man that fought with ink, a soldier that used a scarf as a weapon and a bespectacled guy carrying a giant sand clock on his back.
  • Among the potential DLC costumes SNK considered for XIV, the entire list itself had consisted of MOTW Terry, Business Suit Geese, a ton of costumes for Mai, King in different cocktail dresses, Mui Mui in a panda suit, Ryo's Mr. Karate II persona, KOD with a Triceratops motif, Kim Sue Il clothes for Kim, Meitenkun in a sheep costume, Yuri in a cheerleading outfit, Angel donning the "Tizoc 2" persona, Goth Sylvie, and a Rera color palette for Nakoruru among others. That last one would be used as one of Nako's palettes in the next game, complete with a unique outro.
  • Yamazaki and Blue Mary were initially part of XIV's base roster. They were cut and saved for DLC due to the team feeling there was already enough Fatal Fury characters.
  • In a similar manner, Jack Turner and John Crawley from Art of Fighting were considered early on for the roster, but the team felt they were just too obscure to include.

• The King of Fighters: Maximum Impact:
  • Kim Kaphwan was supposed to debut in the first Maximum Impact under the alias of "Mr. Taekwondo", akin to "Mr. Karate". Instead, Chae Lim took his place, and Kim popped up in the sequel as his good 'ol regular self. Chae Lim herself was chosen over the likes of Jhun Hoon, May Lee, and Buriki One character Seo Yong Song.
  • According to two tweets from Maximum Impact producer-designer Falcoon, Regulation A's sequel (called Maximum Impact 3, Maximum Impact 360 or Regulation A2, depending on the console) would have included at least new eight characters: Joe Higashi, Hotaru Futaba, Angel, and Griffon Mask/Tizoc as returning characters while four new ones would've made their debut: an "unnumbered NESTS modified human", an "undead Hizoku Clan member", a "single person with five personalities", and a "third Beart". Also, following Makoto Mizoguchi's crossover cameo in Regulation A, Samchay Tomyamgun from Fighter's History was potentially considered to being a Moveset Clone in line with Maximum Impact 2's hidden characters.

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