1001 things you never knew about KoF

[Takumaji]

Ok, I'm bored so bear with me...

Let's start a thread about the odds and ends of KoF, random bits of info about cameos, obscure gameplay stuff, story infos, etc.

If you've found something interesting or funny, just post it here!

Don't worry if it has been said and done before, let this be a global brainstorming. Maybe if it's worth it, we could turn it into a small faq or something...

Ah well, here we go:


Ryo double attack

You can pull off both Ryo's Kohou Ken (qcf+P) and his CD attack by doing a qcf+CD. He will first do his CD anim and then "cancel" it into the Kohou Ken. This works in many KoFs., e.g. 97. Haven't found a way to exploit this so far, but it looks cool.

Jubei's rejuvenation

Jubei appears in the Mid West background of KoF96 (AoF stage). He wears no shirt and is eating one of his cookies. Perhaps the artist wanted to address a younger audience because he looks 20 years younger than in FFS...

Mai in wedding gown

In some KoF's intro anims of Mai vs. Andy, you will see Mai wearing a traditional white wedding gown. She tosses a bouquet at him and says something to the effect of "time to give up, Andy!". In another intro anim, she unveils a little baby which makes Andy's eyes almost fall out.

Eiji - too strong?

According to the character info on the official KoF 10th Anniversary website (click on "KoF successive characters", then select Eiji from the list), another reason to wipe him besides his character storyline was his exceptional power compared to other characters.

Stuff you never wanted to know about Rugal Bernstein

The name of Rugal's black panther you see in KoF94 is Rodem, and his secretaries that appear in his KoF98 victory sequence are called Hermione and Aya.

Team Psycho Weed

According to Kailu Lantis' "The Story of the King of Fighters Tournament" (available on gamefaqs), the name Athena Asamiya means "Athena of the Hemp Shrine". Gee, she must have some turbo stuff, eh.

KoF98 Iori projectile guard cancel

This is a quite useful Iori bug in 98. If you are about 3/4 of a screen length away from your opponent, throw a fireball. At the same time the projectile will touch your opp., quickly pull off his command throw (hcb,f+P). This will break the guard and the projectile will hit. The key here is chosing the right distance between you and your opponent.

Vanessa - Neo vs DC

Judging from the official dates of the developement deadlines of KoF99 Evolution (DC) and KoF2k (Neo), Vanessa made her first appearance not on the Neo but in KoF99 Evo as an extra striker.

Morituri te salutant

In KoF97 (and others), the CPU often seems to give up if its energy is very low and yours still is higher than 50%, the CPU opponent then simply stands there and awaits the death blow. The lower the diff level, the more you will see of it.

Rugal and Goro in love

If you meet certain conditions, you can make Goro literally stick to Omega Rugal for a whole round. You can use any of Rugal's moves, but Mr. Daimon will still be glued to you. I'm not sure about the command to do it, tho.


...to be continued...

 

[Eric Straven]

The art of fighting team officially won KOF2001 and they were the first runner ups after the Japan team in KOF 94 and 95, no word about the others. Which means they beat the boys from First South, woo
Iori had awesome secksy secks with Maychur and vais.

 

[k'_127]

- Yagami is spelled backward "im a gaY".


- in KOF94 (which was released before FF3), Yamazaki and Blue Mary appear as cameos in the Japan Team BG.


- Mai shows her nipple when she throws her fan. she also randomly shows her butt in her KOF2002 HSDM.


- Eiji is in love with Mai Shiranui (AOF2 ending)


- Foxy did not die after KOF2001 (KOF 10th Annivarsari site)


- the most important thing for Iori is his girlfriend. as for Maxima, it's his sideburns.


- Geese is still alive (KOF 2003 - outlaw team's background story)


- not sure, but I think K' was only 16 in KOF99.

 

[Eric Straven]

- Yagami is spelled backward "im a gaY".


- in KOF94 (which was released before FF3), Yamazaki and Blue Mary appear as cameos in the Japan Team BG.



- Mai shows her nipple when she throws her fan. she also randomly shows her butt in her KOF2002 HSDM.


- Eiji is in love with Mai Shiranui (AOF2 ending)


- Foxy did not die after KOF2001 (KOF 10th Annivarsari site)


- the most important thing for Iori is his girlfriend. as for Maxima, it's his sideburns.


- Geese is still alive (KOF 2003 - outlaw team's background story)


- not sure, but I think K' was only 16 in KOF99.

I think we all knew the first one ...And Iori doesn't really have a girlfriend, look at his name. Yes, Geese is alive, look at Terry's win quote against Billy in KOF2003...I think SNK is going to retcon KOF/FF/AOF/MOTW and make it so that Geese didn't really die for real in Real Bout Fatal Fury as confirmed in MOTW...

 

[Kazuki Dash]

Terry has a pet monkey (named Ukee I think) first shown in Fatal Fury 3...apparently the little guy's been taking his vitamins, cuz he's much larger when he's observing the match in the Italy Stage of KOF '95

 

[k'_127]

And Iori doesn't really have a girlfriend, look at his name.

I'm sure I read about it at kofonline.com (kof2002 character profiles). the info isn't there at the 10th Annivarsary site though.

 

[SouthtownKid]

- Eiji is in love with Mai Shiranui (AOF2 ending)


- Geese is still alive (KOF 2003 - outlaw team's background story).

That dumb Eiji quote is only in the English version of his AOF2 ending. It's not in the real (Japanese) ending. According to SNK (from 'All About SNK Fighting Games 1991-2000'), Mai would only have been 5 years old at the time of AOF2, so that's completely disgusting anyway. (AOF2 in 1979, Mai born in 1974) Way to go, SNK USA, or whoever made that shit up in the translation. There's a lot of goofy stuff in the English "translation" of that game, that isn't in the original.

As for Geese being alive in KOF...it doesn't mean anything. There are too many things that don't mach up between the FF series and the KOF series to count. I think KOF was not originally meant to be taken as seriously as people do now. That's how the AOF team can be mysteriously 10+ years younger than they should be, nobody adds a year to their age, year after year in KOF (but they do in the FF games), and Geese has never been shown to be dead in KOF.

Many characters from other time periods -- the past: Sam Sho and LB characters, and the future: Metal Slug and Kizuna -- appear in KOF 2000, which is NOT considered a "dream match". To my mind, that means anything goes in KOF, and makes it a seperate continuity from FF and AOF, which do fit together.

That's kind of my pet topic, that always turns me psycho whenever it comes up...

Oh yeah: the profile for K' in 1999 says he's between age 16-18, meaning he doesn't know. I guess because of his loss of memory. Says the same thing in his '01 profile. No character ages are given in the KOF '03 profiles, but his birthday is listed as "unknown", so he probably still doesn't know his age.

 

[KagerouSama]

Many characters from other time periods -- the past: Sam Sho and LB characters, and the future: Metal Slug and Kizuna -- appear in KOF 2000, which is NOT considered a "dream match". To my mind, that means anything goes in KOF, and makes it a seperate continuity from FF and AOF, which do fit together.

I always figured that the inclusion of these non-cannon characters in KOF 2k was meant as a fanplease and a last hoorah for the company as bankrupsy encroached.

And since most of them included Neo & Geo, G-Mantle, and Burning Fight Duke as only being "Alternate Another Strikers" and not appearing in any ending, regardless of if the alternate character was on your team or not...they were just kinda oatmeal filler for the meatloaf feast.

 

[G-Product]

There's a Pao Pao Cafe' in Mexico WTF?

Kyo has a g/f yeah right?!

Kyo is still in high school?!

Kyo is a dumbass, which I already knew

 

[SouthtownKid]

I always figured that the inclusion of these non-cannon characters in KOF 2k was meant as a fanplease and a last hoorah for the company as bankrupsy encroached.

And since most of them included Neo & Geo, G-Mantle, and Burning Fight Duke as only being "Alternate Another Strikers" and not appearing in any ending, regardless of if the alternate character was on your team or not...they were just kinda oatmeal filler for the meatloaf feast.

I agree. I also don't think their decision to blow up a chunk of Southtown in that game was a coincidence. The difference is, I see the entire KOF series kind of as fanplease.

"Cannon" itself, is kind of an American construct, that doesn't necessarily translate into Japanese thinking. We here have an obsessive desire to make everything "fit" and "make sense". But there's a lot of evidence to suggest that they don't take it the same way there. One example (out of a million) would be the comic/cartoon character of Captain Harlock. Everytime the (original!) creator does a new comic, he alters the known history of the character, so that character A met B before C, instead of the other way around... Harlock met B before losing his eye, instead of after, A and B met as kids instead of as adults, and many other things, all without any explaination. Never mind the vast differences when you start adding the movies and tv shows to the mix.

There are a million comics, animated series, pop culture figures, that do this kind of thing in Japan. When it happens in comics or whatever here in the US, they have to make a big deal over how exactly history changed, and the scientific explaination as to how time/space could be altered, or whatever nonsense. In Japan, they don't seem to care about that. If a story says, no, this is different now... it's just accepted that it's different. Has nothing to do with what went on before.

 

[snesaes]

I was gonna post a whole list of trivia, but I'll just post this one for now.

If you look at Duo Lon's left foot in KOF 2003 when he's in his neutral stance, his foot is on backwards!

 

[Mushiki]

KoF98 Iori projectile guard cancel

This is a quite useful Iori bug in 98. If you are about 3/4 of a screen length away from your opponent, throw a fireball. At the same time the projectile will touch your opp., quickly pull off his command throw (hcb,f+P). This will break the guard and the projectile will hit. The key here is chosing the right distance between you and your opponent.

The more "classic" version for this is Heidern's projectile followed by a Stormbringer (hcb+P) when it is about to hit the opponent.

- Heidern's Stormbringer and qcf, qcf+P DM will deal much more damage if you perform a "missed" Moon Slasher (hold d, u+P) before them.

- 98 Ralf's sC is the most effective normal ever.

- 98 Yuri's normals deal huge damage when they hit as Counters.

- (2000) If you perform Lin's qcf, qcf+K DM with no power stocks, your opponent will not be able to block any of your attacks until he hits you.

Kyo has a g/f yeah right?!

Kyo is still in high school?!

Kyo is a dumbass, which I already knew

Kyo is the best KOF character, simple.

 

[firebomber]

kof 2003. If you kill Kusanagi with a tag attack that juggles, the music will continue playing through the KO screen instead of stopping.

 

[insaneben]

More Use(ful/less) Facts

-The most common KOF doujinshi pairing in Japan is Kyo x Iori (thus further supporting the Iori "Imagay" theory).

-Speaking of manga, Kiyohiko Azuma, Yukiru Sugisaki, Nozomi Watase, Masato Natsumoto, and Ryo Takamisaki all did their own KOF manga before hitting it big in the manga industry.

-Furthermore, Nobuteru Yuuki illustrated the cover to the King of Fighters '96 Comic Anthology. In addition, Hiroaki did the covers to both volumes of the KOF 2001 manga anthology (Tonko also provided an original illustration in each volume).

 

[Stephane]

The more "classic" version for this is Heidern's projectile followed by a Stormbringer (hcb+P) when it is about to hit the opponent.

Your forgot the same bug with takuma, projectile followed by a hcb+k

 

[Takumaji]

-The most common KOF doujinshi pairing in Japan is Kyo x Iori (thus further supporting the Iori "Imagay" theory).

According to the character designers' records, the name Yagami was not chosen because it reads "Imagay" backwards. He chose two girls for his team, after all.

Oh, and Benimaru isn't gay as well. Here is Beni's background info from kof10th:

"This character was loosely based on a comic book character, and even after the name of Benimaru was decided on, game developers gave the poor guy an identity crisis by continuing to call him by the comic book character's name. The voice for this character, too, had a peculiar bent to it, and when Benimaru's designer heard his creation's victory line of "Thank you." recited for the first time, rumor has it that he couldn't work for days after: the reading had nothing to do with the character's original image. His speech patterns have led some to question Benimaru's preferences as far as certain lifestyles are concerned. All we have to say is: It's not what you think. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)"



I think this reflects a basic problem of storylines and character backgrounds, as soon as the game is out and all those story-crazy ppl start digging into it, there always will be flaws, but often because the main story (or canon) is not publicly available, and it isn't meant to be in most cases because this what we call canon is just a general guideline which is there to support designers who roll parts of these story bits into their chara design.

So, what was meant as a design tool ends up as an object of heated debates. As SouthtownKid mentioned, this orthodox way of dealing with storylines is very Western, over here, a game story has to be sat in stone forever, while the Asian have a much more relaxed approach to that.

In the end, nobody plays these games for the story anyway...

 

[neojedi]

Let me see if I can't get some entries for my personal favorites, Team Ikari!

- In KOF '94, the opponent is jugglable after a close Bari Bari hits enough times to send them into the air.

- In KOF '99, Leona has an extremely fast super cancel from X-Caliber to V-slasher.

- Whip's gun move has OTG properties even in KOFs without a major OTG system.

- In KOF '02, Clark's Mount Tackle is breakable when the opponent uses the same button as Clark used for the followup. This leads to a glitch situation, where both players are able to pass through each other, until someone gets hit.

- In KOF '03, Ralf has a 1-frame cancel from Arm Block into Ralf Kick. The opponent is jugglable after Ralf Kick.

 

[Domino-chan]

In the end, nobody plays these games for the story anyway...

The storyline is what got me into KoF to begin with. While it has gotten a bit silly over the years, it's still the driving force for me to continue to play along with the impressive character development. And now onto my dorky fact.

-Everyone probably knows this, but Koyasu Takehito (Shingo's voice actor) is more prolific than I expected. He's done music for Initial D, Weiss Kreuz (where he is the voice for Ran/Aya, a chara modeled just for him), and has several albums to his name. His music style (to me) is like a Billy Joel/Beatles piano fusion, very much like easy listening in the US.

 

[neojedi]

His music style (to me) is like a Billy Joel/Beatles piano fusion, very much like easy listening in the US.

I don't know about that... Shingo singing in 2001 is anything but easy to listen to.

 

[G-Product]

in the USA stage in 98 it says Mo' Money on the wall, I thought this was funny.

 

[kafuin_gaira]

- (2000) If you perform Lin's qcf, qcf+K DM with no power stocks, your opponent will not be able to block any of your attacks until he hits you.

gotta try this one out. i knew 2000 was a bugfest, but i never heard of this before.

 

[Takumaji]

The storyline is what got me into KoF to begin with. While it has gotten a bit silly over the years, it's still the driving force for me to continue to play along with the impressive character development.

I like some parts of the KoF story too but I'm not anal about it.

Chara developement is the key - a good story helps to enhance an already good chara and make him even better, but the problem starts with the timeline - a reason why I like 98's roster, it has nice charas in it that wouldn't fit into any official storyline (like Kyo's father), they should have made more dream matches like that without all those limitations due to keeping things logical.

 

[Eric Straven]

In Kof '94 do the following with Heidern.
Do a Moon Slasher[Charge d, u + P] but make sure it misses. Then go up to your opponent and perform a Storm Bringer[hcb + P]. 100% Damage.

 

[EX_Andy]

Ryo double attack

You can pull off both Ryo's Kohou Ken (qcf+P) and his CD attack by doing a qcf+CD. He will first do his CD anim and then "cancel" it into the Kohou Ken. This works in many KoFs., e.g. 97. Haven't found a way to exploit this so far, but it looks cool.

Multi-hit CD's are a bug/glitch from 96, and Ryo isn't the only character who has this (though I can't rember many others...I believe Leona's jump CD in '96 also has this). If you're skilled enough, you can guard crush people faster with this thing, but it's really more of a novelty.

Other random notes:

-Terry turns his cap backwards when he performs a Power Dunk in '95.

-Terry's "monkey" from Fatal Fury 3 appeared in the KOF 95 stage (and also in the RBFF load screen, I believe), then was never seen or heard from again.

-KOF '95 lets you cancel the animations of many special moves by inputting qcf + A in the middle of their animation. You can also cancel the animation of some blocked normal moves if you have a command throw that you whiff (storm bringer, etc.) in '95.

-KOF '94 has super jumps (undocumented feature). Performed just like super jumps in later KOF's (not KOF '95, where you briefly tapped the joystick to super jump).

-With the exception of KOF '96 (where he was a complete joke), Kensou has never been weak in the KOF series, and unbeknownst to many, he had a tricky high-low game in '95 and he was an overpowered, autoguarding, unblockable DM-using bastard in 97/98. He is rarely picked not because he's difficult to play, but because he looks and sounds like a moron.

-Apparently, KOF '96 would have had many of the DMs of KOF '97, along with the Deadly Rave for Geese, but these features were cut. You can apparently watch the animations on a '96 AES cart if you have an arcade mod or on an MVS setup with access to DIP switches. You can also hear voice samples for Deadly Rave, Galactica Phantom, etc. on the '96 soundtrack. (Being unfinished was just another reason why '96 was a pile of crap.)

-KOF '97 has at least two "unavoidable" (or almost unavoidable) unblockable setups: with Ralf and 3 stocks, power up with Ralf then perform his qcb,hcf+K SDM, if the opponent survives, do an SDM Galactica Phantom immediately afterwards (it's difficult to impossible to dodge the Phantom) / with Yashiro and at least 2 stocks, power up and perform the C-button upper duel counter (both parts should connect to knock the other guy down), then perform an SDM qcfx2 + P, the SDM should be "impossible" to dodge.

-KOF '97 Yashiro's close standing D is an instant overhead and must be blocked high. (common knowledge.)

-In '98, Goro's air-defense dwn-fwd + C -> qcb + K roll is a buggy juggle setup that lets you score an unavoidable hcf + C stump throw (common knowledge)

-KOF '97 has numerous alternate endings for different team edits, including Clark/Ralf/Athena, Robert/Andy/Benimaru, and a few others. (common knowledge)

-Yamazaki is of Orochi descent (KOF '97 Orochi new face team battle dialogue).

-The "special team" of Billy, Yamazaki, and Blue Mary was (allegedly) added to KOF from fan-submitted votes. Their ending suggests that Geese was a runner-up (and that there's no justice in the world).

 

[insaneben]

-Terry's "monkey" from Fatal Fury 3 appeared in the KOF 95 stage (and also in the RBFF load screen, I believe), then was never seen or heard from again.

Not entirely true. "Ukee" (Terry's monkey) also appears in one of Terry's victory poses in KOF '99 (in which Ukee hops up on Terry's shoulder and Terry pets him). Ukee also shows up in the Terry vs. Mary intro of RBFFS.

Other random tidbits:

-Alfred is the only (original) striker to have appeared in KOF '99 Evolution and not make a return appearance in KOF 2000 (not counting Battle De Paradise Kyo and Athena).

-Foxy is the only playable (non-boss) KOF-exclusive character to have appeared only once in the entire KOF series (Eiji doesn't count since he was in AOF 2, and thus, is not original to KOF).

-Shinkirou did illustrations of the extra strikers in KOF '99 Evolution.

-One of the hidden endings in KOF '97 was later used for the cover of the Neo-Geo Freak trading card binder (it was Terry, Mary, and Joe, just so you know).

-There are original illustrations of King, Shingo, Geese, and Goenitz (by Nona) in the KOF 2002 art gallery (for PS2).

-There are currently no plans for a KOF anime; the closest you'll get to one is the KOF Dream Match 1999 opening (for Dreamcast; tough luck, SD KOF fans).

-Former SNK illustrator Shinkirou and former KOF (Hong Kong) manga artist Andy Seto have both drawn covers for the Street Fighter comic book (traitors!).

-Ironically, UDON Studios artist Long Vo illustrated the front page of the KOF 2002 webpage on SNK Neo-Geo USA's homepage (webpage is currently down- probably for good).