THE KING OF FIGHTERS '94 CHARACTERS

The King of Fighters '94 is SNK's 1994 Neo Geo crossover that fused Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, Ikari Warriors, and Psycho Soldier into one tournament and quietly invented the team-fighter genre. Eight squads of three represent different countries, with Team Japan's Kyo Kusanagi leading a brand-new cast against returning faces like Terry Bogard, Ryo Sakazaki, Athena Asamiya, and Heidern. Rugal Bernstein, the arms dealer hosting the whole thing, waits at the end with a fight that became instantly iconic.

The 3-on-3 format with no character swapping mid-set forces real order decisions before each match, and the run, roll, and hop movement options give KOF '94 a very different flow from the Street Fighter and Fatal Fury arcade games it shared cabinets with. It is rough around the edges compared to later entries, but every mechanic the series leans on today started here.