Neo Geo

The King of Fighters '94

The game's voice samples are hard to make out, but the background music is a nice blend of guitar and electronic beats. Brazil's edgy soundtrack has a brooding undercurrent, but China's playful melody is a little cheesy. There's a high score screen, but the scores are not saved, and you'll need 188K just to rank in, which is pretty excessive. Overall, King of Fighters 94 is a top-notch fighter that established a franchise that would endure even after the Neo Geo system had faded from the scene.

There are certainly areas SNK should address in the inevitable King of Fighters '95, such as the ability to create teams, better characters to replace the useless ones and a little more overall game balance. But until then...all hail the King!

With the majority of the series still quite expensive (rarely seen under triple digits), this may be the only one the majority of gamers will be able to afford. While the lack of team creation is a downer, this forces players to master a wider variety of characters, increasing the replay value. Then again, mastering all of the characters with the difficulty level could simply prove frustrating. Regardless, this game is really a major piece of gaming history as it has spawned countless sequels on multiple platforms and is a must own for self-respecting fighting game fan.

King of Fighters is another great fighting game for the Neo Geo. The graphics are, by far, the best of all the fighters for the system. Everything almost looks 3-D. And like all other Neo Geo games, the music and sound are exceptional. I totally dig the Team Mode where you can pick a team of three characters and pit them against another team. I just wish that all the characters from the other games were included.

King of Fighters '94 is a very good fighting game, but it lacks some refinements that would have made it great. Team play is a unique experience, but in a glaring oversight players can't create their own teams. So if you like a particular fighter you're also stuck with his or her two teammates, who you might not enjoy playing with. The graphics and sound also could have been improved upon as in this game they don't show what SNK is fully capable of. All in all though this game is an enjoyable experience with a fighting system that's ahead of its time.

Man merkt, das King of Fighters ’94 der erste Teil einer Reihe ist, zwar ist das Gameplay schon damals sehr gelungen, aber die Nachfolger bieten in Sachen Kämpfern, Musik und der allgemeinen Präsentation einfach wesentlich mehr. Auch nervt es ein wenig, das man nicht einfach sein eigenes Team zusammenstellen darf.

Where King of Fighters excels is the massive amount of playable, diverse characters. Even before Capcom started teaming their fighters up to see who was the better (my bet will always be on Strider), SNK was teaming the Art of Fighting combatants and the Fatal Fury kids with the Ikari Troupe ... all representing a different game SNK developed. I must say, this was always intriguing, and I wished more companies would do things like this. However, as much as I like this game, it seems like they have missed a wonderful oppurtunity to cross some of the Samurai Shodown, or Last Blade characters into the King of Fighters universe. This series has just improved over time, however subtly. And while it's not Street Fighter II, it isn't Time Killers, either. I wish there was more to it, but each of the games is fun to play.