KOF Year-End Party

The KOF Year-End Party (KOF忘年会, KOF Bōnenkai) were special limited seating fan event held by SNK for The King of Fighters series. Usually early news of upcoming media for the series are first heard in detail here. Three events have been held each year from 2004~2006 and took place on December 22~24. Events include information dedicated to fans such as voice actor appearances, developer comments, and exclusive location tests. Fans were given a take-home bag of SNK merchandise, regardless of whether they bought anything from the booths.

General Info
The first year end party was started to celebrate the franchise's 10th year anniversary. A talkshow with Falcoon took place first, where he revealed upcoming plans for the series such as Neowave and the second Maximum Impact title. The second talkshow featured Masahiro Nonaka, Kunihiko Yasui and Haruna Ikezawa, which allowed the trio to reflect on their experiences in voice acting. The third event was a tournament for the PS2 versions of KOF 2003, KOF '94 Re-bout, and KOF: Maximum Impact. The party concluded with a group quiz event concerning various trivia for the series.

Events in the 2005 party were geared to promoting the still-in-development KOF: Maximum Impact 2 as well as the anime that was being released at the time. Three talkshows took place, the first featuring Hiroyuki Satou, Kouji Haramaki and Ryoko Tanifuji. After the screening of the first episode of Another Day, the voice actors were allowed to comment on their characters. The second talkshow again featured Nonaka, Yasui, and Ikezawa, where they told their memories of the series as well as their time in The Band of Fighters and Neo Geo DJ Station. The final talkshow focused on KOF: Maximum Impact 2 with Falcoon and Ureshino present for commentary. All three shows answered at least 30 questions from fans. Other events included a KOF XI tournament, a tournament with KOF: MI2 that had a "punishment game" for losers (Falcoon, Ureshino, Nonaka and Yasui were participating as well), and a quiz from the Bikkei Conference.

The 2006 party included events and goods that were shown at the 2006 Tokyo Game Show. One of them included the official bonus drama starring Alba and Soiree, which has the brothers protecting a woman named Anne and her brother, Tony. Lucky fans could also take a bus tour of the old SNK area with Nona, who readily answered their questions on the spot. Games highlighted this time included KOF: Maximum Impact Regulation "A", The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match, and The King of Fighters: NESTS Saga. All three producers for the titles were present including Neo Geo Hakasei. One talkshow also created a comical skit for the Days of Memories series, particularly the fourth title, Kare to Watashi no Atsui Natsu. Voice actors from the previous year attended and were joined by Sōnosuke Nagashiro, Harumi Ikoma and Monster Maezuka for a short drama session. Tournaments for the upcoming titles were also held, which climaxed with a "Kyo vs. Iori" match for KOF '98 UM. The event ended with a quiz contest to determine who was "the real king" amongst fans.

Webvideos of the events were taken by Neo Geo Freak (now down) and Showtime Japan. The KOF Test was later adapted for a cellphone application on October 1, 2008.

2004

 * During this event, KOF XI was still called "KOF 2004" even though Falcoon announced that there would be no KOF that year.
 * Fans asked the seiyuus to perform key quotes from their characters (for instance, Ikezawa said "Moetaro?" from Cosplayer Kyoko). Yasui and Nonaka also participated with their characters' quotes. While Nonaka said a quote, Yasui pretended to be Choi Bounge as an experiment.
 * The tournament was played with the Neo Geo PS2 arcade sticks. Winners were awarded a golden Neo Geo controller pad.
 * Presents for the fans included an exclusive poster set, an offer for their own Neo Geo PS2 joystick, and rare trivia cards about the series' characters.

2005

 * Falcoon stated that he would love to see the World Heroes characters in 3D and regrets not putting them into the King of Fighters series.
 * The winning team for the KOF XI tournament was Kyo, Kula, and Athena (leader).
 * One request for Ikezawa was to sing one of her image songs; she sang her first one as Athena, Present Holiday. Shortly afterwards, fans also requested the same for Nonaka and Yasui and they responded by singing a couple lines from The Sun & The Moon which turned into an a cappella adlib.
 * The punishment game for the KOF: MI2 tournament was an "ill-fated potion" drinking challenge; the winner chose the drink for the loser and they drank their respective tonics. Falcoon picked Luise Meyrink and Ureshino played as Billy Kane. Ureshino lost though couldn't finish his drink due to the reportedly bad taste (Ikezawa volunteered to gulp the second half in his stead). Nonaka and Yasui played their respective characters with Yasui being the loser. During the tasting part of the punishment phase, Nonaka winced and said, "Feels like I got the wrong drink."
 * Presents for the fans include a Terry Bogard cap, an original calendar, KOF 10th Anniversary sticker set, and a pinky doll of either Mai or Athena (same ones made available for The King of Fighters '94: Rebout).