The King of Fighters '95



The King of Fighters '95 is the second game in The King of Fighters series. It is also the first game in the series to be ported to other home consoles besides the Neo Geo AES and Neo Geo CD, with versions released for the PlayStation and the Sega Saturn in 1996. The PlayStation version was published in North America and the PAL region by Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., while the Saturn version (which required a ROM cartridge that came packaged with the game disc) was only released in Japan and Europe by SNK. A Game Boy game based on The King of Fighters '95 was also released. A possible bootleg Famicon release, mistakenly titled "The King of Fighters '99", was also made.

Gameplay
The gameplay of King of Fighters '95 was left largely intact from King of Fighters '94. The one major change SNK was to allow players to select any combination of characters to fight with, as opposed to the concrete teams that players were confined to in the previous game. In addition, almost all the teams from the first game returned, but were no longer affiliated with specific nationalities. The Sports Team from the previous game was replaced by a Rivals Team, composed of Iori Yagami (a new character designed to be Kyo Kusanagi's rival) along with Billy Kane (Terry Bogard's rival) and Eiji Kisaragi (Ryo Sakazaki's rival).

Storyline
The King of Fighters '95 marked the beginning of the Orochi Saga, who would continue in KOF '96 and KOF '97. However, the only elements from the Orochi saga known in this game are the introduction of a key character, Iori Yagami, and Rugal's use of the Orochi power.

King of Fighters '95 revealed that boss character Rugal Bernstein, thought to have perished in an explosion in the previous game, had in fact survived and sent out invitations to the teams from the previous game signed simply 'R'. Only one of the previous teams failed to attend the new tournament, the USA team (Heavy D!, Lucky Glauber and Brian Battler) because their invitations have been stolen by Fatal Fury mid-boss Billy Kane, Art of Fighting character Eiji Kisaragi and new character Iori Yagami, who would become a main character in the King of Fighters series who make up instead a 'Rival Team' with Kane being a rival of Fatal Fury hero Terry Bogard, Eiji a rival of Art of Fighting hero Ryo Sakazaki and Iori the rival of King of Fighters hero Kyo Kusanagi. The team did not make the finals of the tournament in which Iori went into a rage and brutally assaulted Eiji and Billy, leaving them to die.

After being drugged with sleeping gas in a locker room, the Hero Team woke up in a dark room where they found Rugal was alive and had been augmented with cybernic implants making him a Cyborg (known as 'Omega Rugal') and were introduced to and forced to fight Kyo's mind controlled father Saisyu Kusanagi. Defeating Saisyu left Benimaru and Goro Daimon exhausted and unable to fight, leaving Kyo to face Rugal alone again (quite a common ending in King of Fighters games). During this battle Rugal exhibited new powers including a new aura making him much more powerful than Kyo, who was assisted by various other characters in the game, including Terry Bogard, Ryo Sakazaki, and Athena Asamiya. The battle ends not with Rugal's defeat but with his new powers causing him to explode, as he was consumed by a pillar of light, while Iori appeared in front of him giving a warning "You fool! Only those of the bloodline can control such power! You didn't have a chance!" . This quote would inspire and lead onto the following two games' stories. King of Fighters '95 is stated to be the canonical death of Rugal Bernstein, with his subsequent appearances being in non-cannon games.

Japan Team

 * Kyo Kusanagi
 * Benimaru Nikaido
 * Goro Daimon

Fatal Fury Team

 * Terry Bogard
 * Andy Bogard
 * Joe Higashi

Art of Fighting Team

 * Ryo Sakazaki
 * Robert Garcia
 * Takuma Sakazaki

Ikari Warriors Team

 * Heidern
 * Ralf Jones
 * Clark Still

Psycho Soldier Team

 * Athena Asamiya
 * Sie Kensou
 * Chin Gentsai

Women Fighters Team

 * King
 * Yuri Sakazaki
 * Mai Shiranui

Korea Team

 * Kim Kaphwan
 * Chang Koehan
 * Choi Bounge

Rivals Team

 * Iori Yagami
 * Billy Kane
 * Eiji Kisaragi

Sub-boss

 * Saisyu Kusanagi

Final Boss

 * Omega Rugal