Video Game / The King of Fighters 2003

"King of Fighters 2003 begins.
As usual, matches are 3-on-3...
but this time, you can look
forward to some new rules.
We welcome all oncomers!"

The King of Fighters 2003 is the tenth game in The King of Fighters series, and the first game in the Tales of Ash. It was released for arcades on December 12, 2003, and for the Neo Geo four months later. It was the first game in the series to be developed and published by SNK Playmore, and the last to be developed for the Neo Geo.

Two years after the destruction of NESTS, the King of Fighters tournament returns with a mysterious new sponsor. As both regulars and newcomers enter the arena, a sinister plot unfurls...

The structure of each fight has been overhauled considerably. Fights are still 3-on-3, but instead of starting a new round every time a team loses a member, the next fighter tags in and the round continues. In addition, both teams can switch out their active fighters after a brief cooldown. Another mechanic known as the "Leader System" has also been introduced — the first character added to the team in the character select become the team leader, with their health meter highlighted as orange, and gains access to a unique "Leader Super Special Move".

The game was eventually ported to Playstation 2 and Xbox in 2004 and 2005, respectively.

Teams

• Team New Hero: A mysterious Frenchman named Ash Crimson enters the tournament for unknown reasons, joined by Chinese fighters Duo Lon and Shen Woo
• Team Fatal Fury: With Andy Bogard staying behind to train a younger ninja, Terry Bogard and Joe Higashi this time enter the tournament alongside the wrestler Tizoc.
• Team Art of Fighting: The usual Kyokugenryu trio of Ryo Sakazaki, Robert Garcia and Yuri Sakazaki return to KOF once more.
• Team Korean Justice: Kim Kaphwan seeks to instill more justice in the tournament, joined by Jhun Hoon and Chang Koehan.
• Team Ikari: Leona Heidern, Ralf Jones and Clark Still are once again on a mission to investigate the sponsor of this KOF tournament and their true motives.
• Team Outlaw: Billy Kane, Gato and Ryuji Yamazaki are all hired by Geese Howard to investigate the tournament for his own ends.
• Team Women Fighters: Series mainstays King and Mai Shiranui return, this time joined by Blue Mary.
• Team Japan: With Kyo Kusanagi attending to his own business, Benimaru Nikaido and Goro Daimon instead recruit Shingo Yabuki into their usual team.
• Team High School Girls: Psycho Soldier alum Athena Asamiya finds herself on a new team alongside Malin and Hinako Shijou.
• Team K': K', Maxima and Whip return to assist Team Ikari's investigation, at the request of Heidern.
• Other entrants: Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami enter the tournament without their teams, investigating the nebulous organisation known as Those from the Past.

• Bosses
  • Mid-Boss 1: Kusanagi - A mystical clone of Kyo created by a brainwashed Chizuru Kagura. ^note How you defeat him determines which of the final bosses you encounter.
  • Mid-Boss 2: Chizuru Kagura, alongside a mirror clone of her deceased sister, Maki.
  • Final Boss 1: Adelheid Bernstein - The boss of the false route, son of Rugal Bernstein and sponsor of this year's KOF who wishes to challenge the winners.
  • Final Boss 2: Mukai - The boss of the true route, a high-ranking member of Those from the Past who wields the power of stone and wants to test the strength of the winning team.

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This video game shows examples of:

• The Battle Didn't Count: In all endings, even after his defeat, Mukai is as good as before, and teleports the player characters outside of his lair and escapes without getting his comeuppance. Justified, as Mukai was only using a fraction his true power to see if humans are of any worth.
• Brought Down to Normal: Happens to Chizuru in the Sacred Treasures Team's ending. While at the Orochi seal, Ash ambushes her, steals the Yata Mirror directly out of her body, tells Iori he's next, then legs it.
• Canon Immigrant: Kusanagi from KOF 2002, a story-free dream match game, makes his first canon appearance in this game, with a different backstory. That game implied he's one of Kyo clones seen in '99, but KOF 2003 retcons him into a doppelganger created with Chizuru's Yata mirror.
• Canon Welding: While Fatal Fury was always predominantly represented throughout the KOF series, KOF 2003 is the first installment to pull from its Distant Sequel, Garou: Mark of the Wolves. Terry loses his red cap and wears a brown jacket, and Gato and Tizoc join the roster. It's awkward if you consider Art of Fighting characters are still same and in fact look younger than Terry in this game, when in their original timeline Terry is at least a decade younger than them.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Pressing Heavy Punch + Heavy Kick will no longer perform a Blowback attack. Instead, it's used to switch characters. Some characters can still perform them in the air, and others have them as command normals, but for most of the cast the mechanic has been removed.
• Defeat Means Playable: In the Playstation 2 and Xbox versions, both Adelheid and Mukai are unlocked after being defeated for the first time.
• End of an Era:
  • This is the last King of Fighters game to be released for the Neo Geo.
  • It's also the last game to be named based on the year it was originally released — all installments after this one are Numbered Sequels.
• Multiple Life Bars: Because bosses fight alone, they get three life bars in contrary to one for each player character. This is also possible in a regular match if you play the game as one-versus-one on setting.
• New Work, Recycled Graphics: A lot of sound effects were borrowed from SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos. Some notable examples include the hit sounds, the super flash sound effect, and the sound effects in menus.
  • The voice clip used for Terry's Power Stream LDM is identical to the one used for the finisher of his Exceed.
  • Iori's Evil Laugh during his Bloom of the Wolf DM is the exact same as the one he did in SVC Chaos when performing it.
• Public Domain Soundtrack: Adelheid's Leitmotif starts with Chopin's Étude Op. 10, No. 12 (known as "Revolutionary Étude"), before transiting into guitar-driven techno.
• Riddle for the Ages: Who attacked Takuma in the Art of Fighting Team's ending? The assailant is never actually seen, and the only clue as to who they might be is that Takuma appears to recognize them, which does narrow it down, but not by much.
• Secret Character: Kusanagi and Chizuru can be played by entering a code in the character select screen. Averted in the console versions, where they're playable from the start.
• Story Branching: After six battles, your team meets the sponsor of the tournament. The exact details of this meeting change depending on how you defeated Kusanagi.
  • If you defeated Kusanagi with a normal or special, you're sent to the Sky Noah to fight Adelheid. After defeating him, you receive a generic ending.
  • If you defeated Kusanagi with a DM or LDM, the sponsor reveals themselves to be Chizuru Kagura, who fights you alongside an illusory copy of her sister Maki. After that, Botan cuts the strings controlling her, and Mukai appears. Defeat him, and you get your team's ending.
• Super Special Move:
  • Replacing MAX Mode and its associated MAX2's from 2002, 2003 grants Leader Desperation Move to one of your fighters. This move is unique to each character, spends two Power Gauge stocks, and will do tons of damage on hit or produce a beneficial effect.
  • Ash Crimson's "Thermidor" resembles a larger and multi-hitting version of "Genie", which has Ash blow forward a ball of flame to blow up in his opponent's face. On the other hand, "Pluviose" is a string of three Anti-Air "Nivose" specials.
    • Shingo's Oboroguruma is a Hurricane Kick he's borrowed from the Kusanagi Style. In The King of Fighters '97 it was a normal move while in the 2003 videogame and in The King of Fighters XI, it's upgraded to a super special move.
• Switch-Out Move: By inputting a quarter-circle forward motion and one of the character switch inputs ^note Light Kick + Heavy Punch or Heavy Punch + Heavy Kick, you can perform a Tag Attack. This launches the opponent in the air if it hits, and regardless of whether or not it does, the active fighter switches out to a teammate based on which input you used, potentially setting up a combo.
• Un-Reboot: After mixed reception of Soft Reboot during the NESTS Chronicles, KOF 2003 revisited the Orochi Saga by bringing back the Three Treasure mythology. Many characters from the NESTS games like the heroic trinity (K', Maxima and Kula) were still here to stay, but it scrapped the rest of story elements related to NESTS into a mere backstory.