The King of Fighters '99



The King of Fighters '99: Millennium Battle is the sixth game in The King of Fighters series. Introducting new elements like the Striker Match and Counter Mode, and increasing the number of characters per team from three to four. The game acts as the first of a three part story known as the The NESTS Chronicles involving a shadowy organisation plotting world domination, this part introducing the concept of the Kyo Kusanagi clones and K' who would be a major, if not the main, character in the story.

Plot
It has been two years since the last King of Fighters tournament (The King of Fighters '98 is a non-canonical 'dream match' game) and no-one has seen Kyo Kusanagi or Iori Yagami since they defeated Orochi at the climax of that tournament. But out of the blue new invitations are sent out to characters inviting them to a brand new tournament returning to the King Of Fighters roots as an underground secretive affair far from the mass media and big business of the tournaments from previous years it also changes the team requirement from 3 fighters per team to four.

The increased number of characters per team, as well as the story element of the missing Kyo and Iori lead to the reshuffling of a lot of teams, most notably the Women's Fighters Team and Hero Team. With Kyo missing his team-mates Shingo Yabuki and Benimaru Nikaido paired up with two mysterious new fighters K' and Maxima and with Mai Shiranui finally accepted onto the Fatal Fury Team after six tournaments and Yuri Sakazaki working with her brother Ryo Sakazaki on the Art of Fighting team King was forced to formed a new Women's Fighters Team with her connections in Southtown, reintroducing Kasumi Todoh (from Art Of Fighting 3) who was last seen in The King of Fighters '96 and introducing Li Xiangfei (from Real Bout Fatal Fury 2) to the King Of Fighters cast for the first time.

The tournament had an additional surprise in two single entries, both clones of Kyo Kusanagi but besides this the tournament went as could be expected, and nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary until The Hero Team reached the final battle (a feat considerably helped by their powerful new members) which to their surprise was in a sewer, the sewer tunnel soon revealed itself as an elevator to and entrance to strange underground location. As the Hero Team descended, Heidern: leader of the Ikari Warriors mercenary squad, discovers strange signals coming from all over the world, the source of these signals being millions of Kyo Kusanagi clones hidden all over the world, Heidern traces the source to the exact same location as where the Hero Team are.

The Hero Team is greeted by a strange man named Krizalid in a dark room and a battle between him and the team commence. With Krizalid displaying incredible but dangerous power, the fight lasts some time until Krizalid is knocked to the floor by Benimaru. Krizalid then reveals that the room is his underground base and explains his true intentions; he took Kyo Kusanagi, unconscious after his battle with Orochi two years previous and used his DNA to clone him, but the real Kyo escaped midway through the process. Krizalid decided to use the King Of Fighters tournament as a way to find powerful fighters, whose 'fight data' could be input into the clones, now spread around the globe, to launch them and use their power to take out the governments of the world. Krizalid then reveals that K' has the DNA of Kyo implanted in his own body and that he has the ability to wield crimson flames through the use of a special glove, but during the final process of harnessing the ability, K' had broken away from his orders and joined forces with Maxima, who in turn was a fugitive from the same organization that K' had escaped from. Meanwhile, Heidern orders his soldiers to stop the impending Kyo invasion as soon as possible.

The ensuing battle between Krizalid and the Hero team goes badly. Shingo and Benimaru are knocked unconscious and K' and Maxima use the last of their strength in an unsuccessful final attack that while appears to knock Krizalid out, does not. As all appears lost and Krizalid readies to kill the four characters, they are saved by the return of the real Kyo Kusanagi, who defeats Krizalid with his signature crimson flames. The characters are then addressed by a bright light and a strange omnipotent voice who scolds Krizalid for his failure and drops a boulder on him, trapping him and possibly killing him outright. The voice reveals itself as an organization known as the NESTS cartel and that it states its sole purpose of world domination. Upon the vanishing of the mysterious voice, the underground base begins to fall apart. K' attempt to fight Kyo, but is stopped as the Hero Team are shut off from Kyo by a steel door and the team flee from the destruction. As the base continues to fall apart, Kyo senses the presence of his old rival Iori Yagami and the two fight as the base falls down around them, both seemly enjoying the experience. After the base's destruction, Heidern and his military squad enter into the remnants of the room and discover the lifeless body of Krizalid from within their investigation. While Kyo and Iori are nowhere to be seen, Heidern tries to figure out on who was behind Krizalid's scheme and wonders if the same threat will strike again in the future. Meanwhile, two mysterious voices shrouded in complete darkness discuss Krizalid's failed plan and readies the NESTS cartel for the second part of their nefarious ambition.

Hero Team

 * K'
 * Maxima
 * Benimaru Nikaido
 * Shingo Yabuki

Fatal Fury Team

 * Terry Bogard
 * Andy Bogard
 * Joe Higashi
 * Mai Shiranui

Art of Fighting Team

 * Ryo Sakazaki
 * Robert Garcia
 * Yuri Sakazaki
 * Takuma Sakazaki

Psycho Soldier Team

 * Athena Asamiya
 * Sie Kensou
 * Chin Gentsai
 * Bao

Ikari Warriors Team

 * Leona Heidern
 * Ralf Jones
 * Clark Still
 * Whip

Women Fighters Team

 * King
 * Blue Mary
 * Kasumi Todoh
 * Li Xiangfei

Korea Team

 * Kim Kaphwan
 * Chang Koehan
 * Choi Bounge
 * Jhun Hoon

Singles Entry

 * Kyo-1
 * Kyo-2

Boss

 * Krizalid

Hidden Characters

 * Kyo Kusanagi
 * Iori Yagami

The King of Fighters '99: Evolution
The King of Fighters '99: Evolution was a remake of KOF '99 to the Dreamcast. This version had different stages and a few selectable striker characters. This version also marked the introduction of Vanessa and Seth to The King of Fighters series.

Strikers

 * Goro Daimon
 * Billy Kane
 * Ryuji Yamazaki
 * Syo Kirishima
 * Alfred Airhawk
 * Vanessa
 * Seth
 * Gai Tendo