Install Raid for Free ✅ IOS: clik.cc/YA35W ✅ ANDROID: clik.cc/UbedD ✅ PC: clik.cc/NgsU6 and get a special starter pack 💥 Available only for the next 30 days!

Rugal was known by some in latinamerica as the "enemy of the tortillas" because when you mother sent you to buy them you will spent all the change and also time playing KOF (it also applies to other arcade games) and of course Rugal is very broken specially with his infamous genocide cutter so you can expect your mom wouldn't be very happy when you came with cold tortillas and no change.

Recently the SNK fighters have become my favourite fighting games.

The King Of Fighters series definitely won over a hard core Street Fighter fan such as myself. True fighting game fans can't help but love this series.

A fun fact about KOFs popularity in certain countries. Because of the lack of advertising and popularity, the KOF arcade machines were incomparably cheaper than SF, MK or KI, hence plenty of arcade owners, especially in less wealthy countries, obviously went for the cheaper option. I'm from Poland, a country that was way behind in terms of gaming back in the early & mid 90s, and while SF2 or MK2 machines could be found, they were pretty rare and only in big cities, while KOF machines were pretty common.

Top Hat Gaming Man: covers The King of Fighters Shoryugame: *My time has come*

KOF series has some of the best OST’s I’ve ever listened to. KOF94 has a certain charm to it.

Strange that the very first version had the year in the title. As if the plan was to release a yearly version was made before they even knew how successful it would be.

KOF '97 was the game that got me into fighting games. It was at an arcade near the bus-stop I used for school.. At the end of the day, I'd use all my coins to get my butt kicked playing it. It got me into FAQs, finding one with all the move names and translations.. Ryuji Yamazaki was my favourite.

I screamed like a Japanese fangirl when I saw this upload! KoF 94 was an absolute JOY for me in arcades in 94! Truly a great time to be alive during fighting game wars!

I didn't know much about King of Fighters until Capcom VS SNK 2. That was mindblowing. When I was a freelance game reviewer, I was on SNK's mailing list for press copies. I got to play and review most of their games during the PS2/Wii/DS era, including their fighting game anthologies. Good times.

While Capcom was making thousands ports or Street Fighter II, SNK was building their fighting universe, SNK games were part of my childhood I love them

I like how the KOF series is a celebration of SNK history, Ralph, Clark and Athena are great inclusions. 98 is my favorite but I played 94 a lot because it was in the Neo Geo collection for Wii

For me, KOF has always been the best! I grew up on Street fighter and MK, but the combos, sheer variety and lore of KOF is way superior, IMO.

That title ain't clickbait, it's just facts.

SNK fighting games are so awesome and very detailed.

You’re gonna conquer the Latin America section with these videos haha

This series is extremely popular and well know in alot of countries till this day, wish more americans understood the influence and importance of these games.

as an Argentinian, I can confirm this, KoF was super popular back in the late and early 2000s, I remember going to copyshops that had arcades (for some reason) and there would always be kids around waiting to play KoF 2000. None of my american friends seem to know about the franchise

En Latinoamérica es la franquicia más popular de juegos de pelea

Since it's the Month of June, please make it Orochi Saga Month.

Aww man, I can’t tell you how many quarters I spent on KOF ‘94 at a local grocery store as a kid. Everytime I went there I’d go straight to that NEO GEO machine and just play KOF ‘94, Street Hoop, and SamSho 1.

From Malaysia here. I can't thank you enough for this upload. KOF was such a big part of my childhood, and I still play it today. I have wonderful memories of playing the various iterations of KOF for hours with friends every week in the arcades.

My favorite franchise!!! This one literally defined SNK's legacy.

KOF was the king of the arcades here in Mexico, while all the SF games after Street Fighter II and the Tekken games were expensive for the arcade owners to buy and also demanded lots of coins from the player, more than half of the KOF games and most SNK games ran on the same freaking hardware for almost 20 years! A local arcade ran an event when SF III launched making all the games free to play with the exception of SFIII. Needless to say the SFIII cabinet was all alone after a few hours while the KOF cabinets were flooded with players.

Regardless of what anyone says I will always love this series. I never understood why people hate Kyo and the other KOF originals so much along with the whole franchise with a passion. A LOT of them are pretty cool characters who are fun to play with. And Although Terry does have a lot of status among SNK fans, I feel Kyo in my mind will always be the TRUE Ryu and mascot of SNK, mainly because of how much KOF grown in popularity that no only did KOF eventually overshadowed Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting, it even used Kyo as the face of SNK's team in the Capcom VS SNK series (excluding the first game where Terry was the face of SNK's team). KOF was not only the first SNK game i heard of, but Kyo was the first SNK character i ever seen and seeing the plethora of characters SNK has at their disposal, Kyo (And Athena) stuck out the most for me. Even more so than Terry and Mai (Whom at the time I knew there was something about them that screamed popularity) or Ryo AND Yuri ever had to me. Plus KOF and Kyo gotten so popular for a time among fans Kyo was SNK's new mascot (at least thats what i seen when i look up SNK's mascot in the past) but the undying love for Terry made it not last for too long. And although im thankful for how far SNK has went along with KOF, and as much as i do love Terry, I still wish Kyo was the chosen one for Smash honestly lol

KOF 94' great start of a great series. KOF 95' was the one that really made the series known.

SNK is a mega powerhouse in the fighting game world. Right up there with Capcom, Bandai Namco, WB games, Sega, Temco and Nintendo. Plus Team Japan’s theme is my favorite bgm in this game.

Yess KOF had an awesome story and goose pumping "arranged" sound tracks. Also the super fast gameplay makes it very hard to go back to play street Fighter.

As one speaking from a Latin American country, I shall say your take on KoF franchise popularity around here was pretty accurate! I'd also add the fact that playing 3vs3 matches granted more playtime per credit, which is also why KoF got even more popular than the SF series in some regions. Also, a fun fact: Even tho Japan team is officialy inspired by japanese folklore (as cited in the video), it also confirmed to have gathered inspiration from the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Mangá/Anime regarding overall char design from both Kyo and Benimaru, surfing on the hype of one the most succesfull mangas of its time. Benimaru's design is just a slight palette swap from JJBA Polnareff char, going as far as having himself being reffered to as Polnareff among the devs team. Also take note that Player2 Benimaru collour swap is the exact same one of Polnareff. As for Kyo Kusanagi, its original costume was changed to a customized black High school uniform look, matching the identity stapled by Jotaro Kujo, one of the protagonists in JJBA. Another Fun Fact: Brazil's stage theme is actually a rendition of a song by the 'Faith no More' Band, which is 'Surprise...You're Dead!". Alas, congratulations for another great vid, THGM!

The KOF series are EXTREMELY popular in mexico and the movie ... The less we talk about it, the better. It makes look DB: Evolution like a masterpiece. ... So what's next? The King of Figthers: Kyo?

I found out about the KOF series from one of those PS1 demo discs. It had KOF 95 and you could only play as Terry or Kyo!

Not really dedicated my time to my Neo Geo since I was much younger. Managed to grab all the Kof games back in the day, should really get back on the grind. I miss Last Blade too.

Philippines represent! I have very fond memories playing KOF and Street Fighter games and their different iterations, switching from either of them to fully grasp their differences in gameplay. Comparing both, Street Fighter was all about zoning and mastery of your mains and opponent's moveset but KOF required me to use my head more as the gameplay was so much faster and requires on point execution and had more layers of depth and substance e.g. hops and super jumps. Fun times! Thanks for bringing back my childhood memories, THGM! 😁

King of Fighters is legendary, but like legends it's true importance has been forgotten over the years. KoF 14 had a rough start & that hurt it in the long run, after seeing how the new Samurai Shodown has been received I'm hopeful that 15 will be the renaissance that the series needs to bring the players in.

if there were a class that taught about videogames, he'd probably do a good job at it

KOF 98 is still the best KOF game in my opinion. 2002 came close to dethroning it but KOF 98 is still my preferred KOF game to play.

KOF is fantastic! Can't wait for KOF XV footage! It's about time...

It was more than Fatal Fury and KOF being in the same city. Takuma, Ryo's father, was sent after Jeff Bogard, Terry's step father, in that franchise's very first outing. Both South Town stories were bound in blood from the get go. The fact later that younger Geese Howard would then show up as the boss in Art of Fighting 2 and Ryo would show up as a guest character in Fatal Fury Special if you had a losseless run, helped solidfy the likes and sealed the deal as to what was working further. Fatal Fury 1 froom the get go used the tournament of King of Fighters, but then the ideal further spun name sake wise into it's own grand franchise that Capcom would borrow ideals from, like spirit gauges, step dashes, high jumps, and several other things, into the grand history we know today.

Best in so many ways Music Gameplay innovation and mechanics were there almost in every new title of KOF starting from KOF94 up to 98 these games were awesome and so far ahead of the competition.

Great video. I've been playing SNK games since I was a kid and these days King of Fighters All Stars on the phone which is great nostalgic journey.

OMG THANK YOU!!! I've been waiting for you to do this for a long time!!! KoF 94, 96 and 98 are where it's at!! I pumped SO many quarters into my local MVS machine between 1994-2000 playing these games. The KoF 94 OST is one of the best fighting game soundtracks. PERIOD. When I visited Venice a few years ago, I remember listening to the Italy team over and over again. :)

Here in México, KoF was greater than street fighters and mortal Kombat together.

Yep, great video fella! A balanced and honest dissection of the kof games in a nutshell. Sure you could do an hour on each game but this is a very informative overview

Kyo Kusanagi is such a cool dude. He reminds me of the 90's anime protagonists like yusuke from yu yu hakusho.

Thanks Top Hat Gaming this is the one i been waiting for my favorite arcade game of all time and my favorite arcade character Kyo Kusanagi

Such great information on the series. Been playing this stuff since inception and never knew any of this. Well done sir

This is every Latinos favorite game

As soon as I heard the words "Raid Shadow Legends" I immediately screamed as loud as I could because the fact that everyone and their mother is being sponsored by a garbage cash grab that can barely be called a game

I'm from SE asia and I used to play kof 98 with brothers thru neoragex emulator back in my button mashing day. Now I own all kof series on steam and still play with my brother occasionally. Best fighting game ever!

It's always been impressive that the staff kept the ever growing roster of KOF characters as unique and varied as possible.

I first experienced KOF94 at an arcade. Love the teams, character designs, music, atmosphere, stage design etc.. plus what it could display contained way more content than other Fighters. It is an awesome legacy, and still going strong

I fondly remember playing that right in late 1994, in both the AES and the Neo Geo CD. And soon afterwards, KOF '95 would arrive in the arcades.

KOF'94 was also the game that first taunted Capcom's Street Fighter series😂 If you managed to reach Rugal Bernstein, Rugal will introduce his collection of gruesome statues of fighters he defeated. 3 of the statues looks like Guile,Ryu and Akuma from the Street Fighter series😂

Pleasantly surprised by this video, very informative and well researched. Good job. And for the record, I would love to see you do a video on KOF All-Star eventually. That game has given me many hours of fun.

This game was my baby sitter for many years I would gladly play it again. It was so popular in Mexico holly hell there would be crowds watching or waiting to play it. It got very competitive

The popularity of kof was insane here China. Many Chinese game media introduced smash brothers to their audiences said like "this is the USA version of kof 97".

YES! IT TRULY IS THE KING!!!! Thanks for the amzing video about one of my favorite game series of all time!

Not popular in Europe? I'd like some sources on that I grew up in Italy and frequented arcades a lot, and it was much easier to find KoF cabinets than SF Cabinets, I know now that it was because of how cheap and convinient the MVS was, but still; are you sure it wasn't popular in EU?

Here in Brazil KOF '94 was very popular in the arcades and I got to know it since the beginning, because home consoles were so expensive back then! (They still are actually). Good old times :)

I remember playing this game and 95 in the arcades! They were the second most popular games in arcades here, behind Super Street Fighter 2. Killer Instinct was never very popular here, in Spain, at least from my experience. And Mortal Kombat grew old too quickly. I remember when I bought King of Fighters 95 for PlayStation for 2000 pesetas (12 euros, not counting inflation). Yes, it lacked a lot of animation sprites, but I didn't care! I was playing a NeoGeo game for pocket change! Of course, back in 1999 I discovered emulation; I remember the first NeoRage, which didn't have sound. And when it became NeoRageX... oh my Goddess, those were the days: it felt like magic, being able to live the NeoGeo in my house, even as a bastardized version. Of course, newer games took forever to load (King of Fighters 2000 took more than 10 minutes). Of course, that helped a lot when I found this games in the arcades, since I was trained from home: I remember doing in KoF 99 K' simple combo of jumping HP, standing HP, One Inch Punch, Chain Drive and everyone was like "what was that?!". Aaaaah, nostalgia.

Looking forward to more in-depth KOF videos!! Particularly the 97, 98, and the Nest Saga!

I was there when they first brought the arcade to the arcade place I used to hang out and everyone was new to the game.... We were blown away immediately, we all were like "I can't believe my eyes" "what is going on" "what is this".

Fun fact: Ryo & Robert are at less 10 or 15yrs older then Terry & Andy Bogard, A young Geese Howard was the final boss in art of fighting 2. If you follow the fatal fury anime movie Andy and Terry was little kids when Geese was younger plus he killed there father Jeff Bogard in a fight.

I haven’t seen the video yet (saved for later) but yes, a million times YES! The King of Fighters IS the best fighting game series, hands down, y’all Smash and Mortal Kombat fans can suck it!

The kof series did a huge impact here in Arabian Gulf especially in Bahrain, UAE, Qatari and Kuwait i played all SNK games and remember after art of fighting 2 came a few months later came kof94 and was configured to be 1 vs 1 and we enjoyed it and one of our friends told us there is another Arcade center have the same game with the features 3 vs 3 we moved there and we went crazy for it every day we traveled few kilometers just to play it and challenged each other and buy the magazines egm, fangame, game cheats just fibd new moves , tricks and cheat codes ahhh the 90's i still have my Neo Geo AES somewhere in my home.

top hat... I love you dude. this is my all time favorite fighting game. I'm glad to see your perspective and in depth info on it.. hope to see more from this series on your channel! fuckin a man..I'm so hyped lol

As someone from Asia, I can confirm I knew of the King of Fighters franchise back in the late 90s, as I played a ton of it on the arcade, while Killer Instinct I didn’t hear about until the late 2000s.

I'm from Canada and I never saw any King of Fighters or Art of Fighting arcade cabinet anywhere. Everyone was playing Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. I feel like I missed out on the SNK fighting games

Ooh, been waiting on this one. Ty Top Hat, you rock!

Also, this is hands down my favorite video from this channel.

You have no idea how popular kof is here in Brazil

King of fighters is SNK's MARVEL VS CAPCOM. I've played the game and my favorite movesets are probably kyo's and iori's. Just something about purple fire.

I bought King of Fighters '95 by accident. But I'm glad that I did!!!! It's definitely one of the Top 10 Fighting Games in the 90's!!!

I'd like to thank SNK Arcade Classics Volume 1 for getting me into not only King of fighters,but just SNK in general

Yes! Such an amazing series

Great video mate and congratulations on the Sponsor.

In some parts of Europe like Spain it was extremely popular since day one, the specialized press loved it and talked a lot about it.

you mentioned all my favorite fighting franchises of all time. Street Fighter mortal Kombat killer instinct king of fighters

"A Rich and powerful Universe with so many stories. Wish There was an RPG of the series. Top Mark For this Vid TopHatMans."

Kof 94 was in a candy around my high school in 1994, I spend alot of quarters playing.

Hey, Top Hat Gaming Man! In a future video, you should do a review of The King of Fighters '95.

Literally my first fighting game but, the King of Fighters game I played is the computer game ones (KoF Wing 1.91 for example). I got instantly curious about the background of the game and the story until I realized that I am hooked up with the series and the SNK franchise.

Always preferred KOF over Street Fighter. Always thought the characters had a very cool aesthetic to them, but it kept them grounded and not outlandish. Graphically it reminded me a lot of Streets of Rage games which were among some of my favorites. Plus, who doesn't love characters like Terry or quarter killers like Rugal?

The best KoF games are pound by pound, easily on par with legendary fighting games like Thrid Strike or Marvel 2.

I was introduced to the series when I lived in Mexico back in 1995 and got pretty much hooked on it. To emulate the feeling I tend to set the language option to Spanish. Nowadays if i want to emulate that feeling I'll go to a nearby Mexican grocery store with an internal restaurant, order myself some fajitas or a gordita, get a Mexican Coke(Coca Cola in a glass bottle), and play KoF '99 on my PS Vita.

KOF XV feels incredibly nice and fluid, will be tough not switching to Street Fighter when VI releases for the Xbox 😖

Nice Video!

that looks like katsuya terada's line work on the fatal fury/kof drawings at the beginning of the video. if so, that's mad dope...

KOF has always been my favourite fighting series of all times.

Top hat with the knowledge yet again, amazing video .as a child in chile i had the blessing to have a snes with of course fighting games , who were and still are a big part of latin america gaming culture.

KOF '96 for me. 95 on the Playstation. Orochi Saga Series (94-98) on the Nintendo Wii. 2002 on the XBOX. KOF XIII on the XBOX 360.

King of fighters 13, my best! Also I like gameboy games.

Just the word's Helllooo makes my week

I remember playing this in the arcade, its the first time I played 3 vs. 3 fighting game.

Some characters from fatal fury never made it to the big KOF. Would of loved seen Tun Fu Rue transform into the buff character and kick ass.. Not to forget Duck King...

You know, it's funny how in all of these games, the tournament organizer is not only an ultra-wealthy crime lord, but *also* one of the worlds greatest fighters, capable of being the ultimate challenge in the game. I think it was a missed opportunity for them to have it so that the "final boss" was just some weak "suit," but when you get to that stage you're faced up against his _champion,_ who's either some pure muscle ultra boss, or maybe your own character's rival with suped up abilities to make them boss calibur. Then, once you've beaten this actual fighter, the suit, who's been sitting on a throne in the background, is yanked into the ring and you can punch him out, MK style, to finish things.

Still my favourite KOF just for how revolutionary it was. I like the restriction to set teams too and the presentation beats a lot of the later games.

Well show my lad! Top of the morning King of Fighters!

I learned of this seriesway back in the day in Electronic Gaming Monthly magazines, though arcades here in my area never carried a single KoF game (though Sam Sho 1 and 2, and the World Heroes, as well as the Metal Slug games were represented). These days I own KoF 94 (via 94 Rebout) through 03, XI, Neowave, 98 Ultimate Match, and 2002 Unlimited Match all on my PS2. I also own XIII on PS3, and have almost all of the Saturn KoF games (outside of 95), all the PS1 games in the series (95-99), and both Gameboy titles (95 and 96). You could say, the more KoF one owns, the merrier.