The King of Fighters ’98
Introduction
The King of Fighters ’98, known in Japan as Dream Match Never Ends, was developed and published by SNK for the Neo Geo arcade and home systems in 1998 as the fifth entry in the King of Fighters series. Rather than pushing the ongoing story forward, SNK explicitly marketed it as a special ‘dream match’ edition, pulling together nearly every character who had appeared across the previous four games, including several who had been killed off in the series’ own continuity, into one enormous roster free of narrative constraints. Teams of three fight in the series’ trademark three-on-three format, choosing from strikers and multiple fighting styles across a huge cast drawn from Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, Ikari Warriors, and King of Fighters’ own original characters, all refined with the smoother mechanics and balance tweaks the series had built up over its first four years. Its enormous roster and status as a celebration of the series’ history made KOF ’98 an instant fan favorite, and it’s still widely regarded by longtime players as one of the best and most replayed entries in the entire King of Fighters franchise, eventually spawning an expanded Ultimate Match rerelease years later.
