The King of Fighters '99
Seventh KOF entry that launched the NESTS Chronicles arc.
The King of Fighters '99: Millennium Battle, commonly known as KOF '99, is a 1999 fighting game developed and published by SNK for the Neo Geo arcade and home platforms. It is the seventh installment in The King of Fighters series, following The King of Fighters '98, and introduces a new story arc called the 'NESTS Chronicles,' centered on a young man named K', formerly associated with the mysterious organization NESTS. The game is notable for introducing the 'Striker' assisting character system, which altered the established three-character team format to four members per team.
- Release Year
- 1999
- Developer
- SNK
- Publisher
- SNK
- Platforms
- Neo Geo arcade, Neo Geo home, Neo Geo CD, PlayStation, Dreamcast, Microsoft Windows
- Genre
- Fighting game
- Series
- The King of Fighters
- Notable Feature
- Introduction of the Striker system and the NESTS Chronicles story arc
Lore & Background
The King of Fighters '99 takes place one year after the previous tournament, with Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami having been absent since defeating the entity Orochi, though both appear as hidden characters. Invitations are sent to many characters for a secretive tournament, with each team now having an additional member. The new protagonist K' teams with Maxima, Benimaru Nikaido, and Shingo Yabuki to form the Hero Team. Other teams gain new members: Whip joins the Ikari Warriors Team, Bao joins the Psycho Soldier Team, and Jhun Hoon joins the Korea Justice Team. The game also introduces two clones of Kyo, Kyo-1 and Kyo-2, as edit characters, while the real Kyo and Iori appear only as hidden characters.
Reader's Guide
The King of Fighters '99 is significant for shifting the series away from the Orochi saga into the NESTS Chronicles, introducing a new protagonist in K' and a four-character team structure with the Striker system. This system allowed players to summon a fourth character for a special move, adding strategic depth. The game received generally positive critical response for its fighting system and Strikers, though sales of 168,000 copies were lower than the previous game due to poor console version sales. The Dreamcast port, titled The King of Fighters '99: Evolution, featured 3D remodeled stages and additional Striker characters, and was better received than the PlayStation version. The game was succeeded by The King of Fighters 2000. SNK originally planned to remove Kyo and Iori but made them hidden characters after negative fan feedback at location tests. The Neo Geo AES and Dreamcast versions were later included in The King of Fighters NESTS Hen compilation for PlayStation 2 in Japan.
Did You Know?
- SNK originally planned to remove Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami from the game, but they ended up as hidden characters after negative fan feedback at location tests.
- The game introduces two clones of Kyo, Kyo-1 and Kyo-2, based on his previous incarnations.
- The Dreamcast version, The King of Fighters '99: Evolution, features stages remodeled in 3D and includes 14 additional Striker characters.
- The game's antagonist, Krizalid, is an agent of NESTS who uses data from enemies to activate an army of Kyo clones.
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