Rugal/Orochi Saga
The King of Fighters '94 | The King of Fighters '95 | The King of Fighters '96 | The King of Fighters '97 | The King of Fighters '98
NESTS Chronicles
The King of Fighters '99 | The King of Fighters 2000 | The King of Fighters 2001 | The King of Fighters 2002
Tales of Ash Saga
The King of Fighters 2003 | The King of Fighters XI | The King of Fighters XII | The King of Fighters XIII
Shun'ei Saga
The King of Fighters XIV | The King of Fighters XV
- Awesome Music: Has its own page.
- Complacent Gaming Syndrome: The striker system allows players to choose a fourth character to call in as an assist, and offers you many options to choose from, but there are three that are so powerful they tend to overshadow all the rest.
- Seth jumps in from above with a diving kick attack, followed by an uppercut. This attack is very fast, covers a huge distance, and lasts a very long time, so it works for almost every character. It can be used to extend combos, make unsafe attacks safe, or protect a character from being punished.
- Joe moves forward performing his Bakuretsuken attack, which on its own is nothing special but can be combined with command grab characters (namely Ralf, Clark and Iori) to create a touch of death combo. Essentially, after securing a hard knockdown the player calls in Joe, who hits the opponent long enough for the player to perform a command grab and repeat the process until the round is won.
- Another Iori flies onscreen with a lunging kick followed by his Tsumagushi attack. Because of the attack's speed, range, and flexibility, this is often thought of as the most versatile striker in the game.
- Contested Sequel: KOF 2000 goes all out with the Striker system from '99, allowing you to combine it into your combo in many creative ways. The sheer number of Strikers (including Another and Maniac types) is cited as a highlight along with its excellent graphics and soundtrack, making this game one of the most unique entries in the series. However, said Striker system tends to overshadow other aspects of the KOF systems, as a well-timed Striker can easily create a death combo (Striker only needs one Power Gauge stock to refill, while the MAX Super spends three; most of the time, it's clear Strikers should always be prioritized). Furthermore, 2000 suffers from balance issues (like all the other Neo Geo KOF games), but the Strikers themselves are also quite unbalanced, to the point you'll likely see only a handful of them in the competitive scene. As a result, those who didn't like '99 dislike this game even more for diluting the game with gimmicks and displacing what made KOF unique and fun.
- Ensemble Dark Horse: Ramon and Vanessa make their playable debut in this game as teammates to K' and Maxima. While their overall role in the saga is as supporting characters, the two have proven popular enough to become series mainstays in their own right.
- Gameplay Derailment: After the Armor Mode underperformed in '99, KOF 2000 buffs it by increasing its duration and some others. Unfortunately, this change raised an opinion that the Armor Mode was perhaps not a good addition for the series in the first place, as it has side effects that break the metagame in disturbing ways. This is perhaps why it was removed in the next game and never returned.
- Armor Mode increases your opponent's hitstun from your attack. This means some characters with fast Normals, like Lin and Ramon, gains access to infinites even without any Power Gauge stock or Strikers, like this video
. Contrary to common belief, Counter Mode also increases the hitstun, but players prefer Armor Mode because it makes you Immune to Flinching, which provides them a better opportunity to do infinites. - One of Armor Mode's effect is rendering the player character Immune to Flinching to Normals and most Special Moves. This is a huge advantage for characters with good zoning tool, as Armor Mode removes nearly all weakness they had. Chang is considered one of the most suitable for Armor Mode, as it makes his spinning steel ball move immune to crouching Heavy Kick and he can chip his opponent to death with little risk (even less if he covers his blind spot with Strikers).
- If both players are in Armor Mode, they can continue exchanging attacks without any hitstun in repercussion, which can end the round in seconds. It's much more ridiculous and hilarious than it sounds, like this Ralf versus Chang video.
- Finally, Armor Mode requires three Power Gauge stocks and disables Super Moves, which should have made it risky in a match. However, Counter Mode and MAX Super Moves (whose system was changed in 2000) also require the same resources, but have no way near advantage as Armor Mode compared to their risk. Therefore, while Armor Mode is expensive, it dwarfs Counter Mode and MAX Supers in the metagame, only slightly less preferred than Striker combos.
- Armor Mode increases your opponent's hitstun from your attack. This means some characters with fast Normals, like Lin and Ramon, gains access to infinites even without any Power Gauge stock or Strikers, like this video
- Good Bad Bugs: Thanks to the increased hitstun of Counter Mode, Lin has a pretty straightforward infinite combo that consists of looping a single normal until the opponent is defeated.
