Rugal/Orochi Saga
The King of Fighters '94 | The King of Fighters '95 | The King of Fighters '96 | The King of Fighters '97 | The King of Fighters '98
NESTS Chronicles
The King of Fighters '99 | The King of Fighters 2000 | The King of Fighters 2001 | The King of Fighters 2002
Tales of Ash Saga
The King of Fighters 2003 | The King of Fighters XI | The King of Fighters XII | The King of Fighters XIII
Shun'ei Saga
The King of Fighters XIV | The King of Fighters XV
- Even Better Sequel: In a relative term, this game is considered better than KOF '94 because it has a Team Edit function and relatively less bugs (emphasis on "relatively"). It also has a benefit of being the last "classic" KOF, as the series would receive a massive Retool in the next game.
- Gameplay Derailment:
- KOF '95 has a technique called Charge Cancel (which also exists in '94 but has a better use in this game). By starting a Light normal, charging your Power Gauge and immediately dropping it, you can link a Light normal into a Heavy normal, which is otherwise impossible to for most of the cast. Being able to do Charge Cancel is an absolute requirement in the metagame, and players with custom controller mapping have a huge advantage because they can do Charge Cancel so easily. Charge Cancel is also responsible for many bugs in '95, like Iori's multi-hit Ge Shiki Yuriori
. - Special Move Morphing also returns from '94, and there are some new moves to try with it. Like before, some characters get new combo routes out of it; one of the most infamous is Joe's Bakuretsu Ken infinite. Like Charge Cancel, it's often difficult to pull off, but practices and custom controllers make this viable.
- KOF '95 has a technique called Charge Cancel (which also exists in '94 but has a better use in this game). By starting a Light normal, charging your Power Gauge and immediately dropping it, you can link a Light normal into a Heavy normal, which is otherwise impossible to for most of the cast. Being able to do Charge Cancel is an absolute requirement in the metagame, and players with custom controller mapping have a huge advantage because they can do Charge Cancel so easily. Charge Cancel is also responsible for many bugs in '95, like Iori's multi-hit Ge Shiki Yuriori
- Porting Disaster: The Neo Geo CD and Sega Saturn versions suffer from loadings (typical for home ports of 90s), but they're tame compared to the disaster that is the PlayStation version. It has a longer loading than the other CD versions, it has loadings in parts that weren't in the other versions, the music resets between rounds, and it has more combo bugs than the already buggy arcade version. It's impressive SNK ported it to a weaker hardware without losing its awesome graphics, but its problems make the tradeoff not worth it.
- Sequel Difficulty Spike: Amazingly, KOF '95's arcade mode endgame succeeded in making it even harder than '94. In '94, the final boss' first phase was Rugal without his Special Moves, whose AI is predictable. In '95, it's replaced by Saisyu, who has button-reading AI and can counter just about every move on higher difficulty. Worst of all, Saisyu and Omega Rugal are still treated as a Sequential Boss together, so you only get a small portion of health restored between the fights. Even expert KOF players will admit they struggle against them without abusing A.I. Breaker.
- So Bad, It Was Better: KOF '95 is infamous for its ridiculous damage scaling where a mundane combo can wipe out more half of a full health, high-level techniques that rely on bugs, and outdated systems that the series had moved on from since. Yet this is why some people still love and play KOF '95 over the others as it has a unique and challenging metagame not found in later KOF games. It's easy to find local tournaments hosting '95 after decades, a fate not shared by many Neo Geo fighting games.
