In November of last year, SNK Playmore and Dotemu teamed up to bring the classic arcade fighting game The King of Fighters ’97 ($2.99) to the App Store, and according to a page on SNK’s website, it looks like the sequel The King of Fighters ’98 is also on its way to mobile. The King of Fighters series began in 1994 when SNK combined characters from their Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury games, as well as some new original characters and those from previous SNK games, into one ultimate fighting game. The series continued with yearly releases, with The King of Fighters ’98 being the fifth entry, up until 2003. From that point on the series had a more staggered release schedule, with the most recent release being 2010’s The King of Fighters XIII.
As for the iOS port of The King of Fighters ’98, SNK touts it as a “perfect port" of the NeoGeo original and it’ll feature two main modes, Extra and Advanced just as in King of Fighters ’97, as well as a Training mode. You’ll be able to choose between classic 4-button virtual controls or an expanded 6-button setup, and also like last year’s KOF release The King of Fighters ’98 will support MFi controllers. Finally, it’ll include local Bluetooth multiplayer so you can battle against your friends. Here’s a random YouTube video of a single match of the arcade version of The King of Fighters ’98, which should pretty much look just like the version heading to iOS.
I’ve always loved the King of Fighters series because of its sheer number of playable characters and interesting crossover opportunities between all the different SNK characters. It’s also a damn fine fighting game in its own right, and the ’98 edition is considered an ultimate culmination of all the previous games in the series. These games play surprisingly well with virtual controls, but especially well with MFi controllers. I’m looking forward to giving The King of Fighters ’98 a happy home on my iPhone, and once pricing and release date have been announced we’ll let you know. Hopefully SNK Playmore continues to release all these classic NeoGeo games on mobile, as I absolutely love them.
