news45

Last Update: 7/11/98

King Of Fighters 98 Character Illusts, Additional Pictures & Info

KOF 98' is OUT !!!

Today (7/11/98) a number of individual arcades in Japan installed their shipment of King Of Fighters 98'. It seems that the game was not distributed together with the machine as was first rumored.

A few pointers that have been uncovered, confirmed or forgotten to be mentioned-

1- The are no new characters. There still is a possibility of hidden characters, but there are no new characters in the select screen: it is the same as before. Basically the game is the same as the beta version- in play, graphics, etc.

2- Extra mode's counter is definitely comboable. a number of players were spotted using Extra mode and they were doing exactly so.

3- When a DM throw misses, the stock goes down.

4- It seems that the AOF team members cannot do their Haoh-shokoken in normal situations, only Takuma can.

5- The controls are much more stiff than in 97', but not as drastically as 96'. There is sure to be a debate over this issue in times to come.

Check the Bulletin board for locations on where arcades with the game have been confirmed in Tokyo by Henry Moriarty.

A couple of notes on character voices-

The Flames Are Calling For You... Character voices have not been redone in general, although there are additional voices. Main KOF only characters such as Kyo and Iori are exceptions, but characters like Shermie and Chizuru did not have a voice remake. But, many characters did have additional voices, such as Blue Mary. Shermie seemed to have been humming while walking sideways left and right from her old victory pose. Revived character voices have been redone, although Takuma's voice sounded suspiciously identical.

Same Voice Actor, Sworn Enemies. Rugal and Heidern's voice have been done by the same actor. Brian and Kensou's voice have been done by the same actor. HeavyD! and Cheng's voice have been done by the same actor.

Iori's Victory Shot

Iori's voice actor reported not casting out voices for Iori in pure blood riot, but commented on a suggestion to look forward to something.

Shingo From The Intro

Shingo's voice actor has reported on shouting out a couple in ad-lib- one for a move which did not yet have a name at the time of casting, and another for his Ko voice. In his KO voice, Shingo says "I just don't Leeearrr-n!!!" in Japanese.

In an interview Geibunsha Publishing had with SNK's 2nd division R&D department's head, it was commented that there were no plans to add in new characters- their plan was to keep all the characters from 97' and add in classic characters to make a KOFSpecial as much as memory would allow them to. It was also commented that there was no storyline of KOF98' as the Orochi chapter had already ended- that the game should be thought as the "encore" from after the main theatrical event.

Note however that the existence of The Orochi version of the band team was not revealed although somewhat hinted. Thus not all possibilities of the existence of new characters have been taken down.

Team Illustrations Click to View -You Need Javascript Enabled.

Japan Team Kyo, Benimaru, Goro	Fatal fury Team Terry, Andy, Joe	Art Of Fighting Team Ryo, Robert, Yuri
Ikari Team Leona, Ralf, Clark	China Team Athena, Kensou, Cheng	Neo Females Team Chizuru, Mai, King
Kim Team Kim, Chang, Choi	Band team Yashiro, Shermie, Chris	KOF Special Team Yamazaki, Mary, Billy
Yagami Team Iori, Mature, Vice	Mid-age Team Heidern, Takuma, Saishu	USA94' Team HeavyD!, Lucky, Brian

Rugal 94'

Shingo

Additional Pictures Please Wait while Loading. It Will Still Load Faster Than A NeoCD so be patient.

Still has her strong splash rose, but no longer comboable to her Snatcher?

You don't nessasarily need Kusanagi/Yagami blood to use fire...

The Old Sand Sweep now pushes the opponent away- no more infinites or massive combos.

At the Back- Big, Duck and Todo in the noon, Eiji in the Night.

Yuri's Raikou-ken changes to her old projectile in classic mode, but still the same in normal mode.

Are the Classic Or 96/97 version of AOF & FF characters stronger? Only time will tell...

Athena has her reflector from 97' as shown, but also has her classical "vertically huge" mirror version as well.