I poke fun at it a lot, but The King of Fighters '94 was a remarkably well-made game for its time. The task of combining the playstyles of SNK's biggest 2D fighter franchises and pitting their respective characters against one another was a monumental task, and KoF '94 pulled it off admirably. Even though its sequels may have surpassed KoF '94 in many ways, nostalgic SNK nuts and fighting game historians will want to give this one a shot.
The King of Fighters '94 packs several of the Internet's most popular animated .gifs together in a team-based battle to the death. These characters travel far and wide from a number of parallel universes -- the bulk of KoF '94's cast originates from fellow Neo Geo fighters Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting, but the game also features a handful of fighters from '80s arcade games like Ikari Warriors and Psycho Soldier. Throw in some oddball original characters (GO AMERICAN SPORTS TEAM!), and you've got an ambitious fighter with more depth than you'd expect.
Unlike many other 2D fighters, The King of Fighters revolves around three-on-three team-based matches. You'll pick a predetermined group of three characters (picking and choosing between teams unfortunately wouldn't become an option until KoF '95), and you'll take on another team of three via a series of one-on-one matches. Lose a match, and you'll switch to another character in your lineup. Health bars carry over between matches (though the winner receives a small energy boost), and whoever knocks out all three of his or her opponent's characters is the winner.
The team-based fighting mechanic was innovative for its time, and gave the game loads of replay value, as players were essentially required to learn the moves and styles of three different characters in order to win consistently. Some teams are saddled with characters that are practically worthless, though, which limits your choices somewhat.
Still, if Street Fighter II Turbo isn't enough for you and you're looking for a 2D fighter with tons of characters and depth, there's no better choice on the Virtual Console right now than The King of Fighters '94. You may want to hold off until the release of one of the later entries in the franchise, though -- The King of Fighters '98 is regarded by many as the series' high point, and even King of Fighters '95 is a vast improvement thanks to its team edit feature. If you can't wait, though, KoF '94 is still a satisfying experience.
Whew, hopefully I managed to seem like I knew what I was talking about. The secret is that I'm actually quite terrible at fighting games and know very little about them. Shhh, don't tell anyone!
YouTube is packed full of replay videos from just about any fighter you could ever want (even stuff like Fighters History Dynamite), and it's a great resource if you want to compare and contrast between the many different versions of The King of Fighters. Here's what KoF '94 looks like. ALL OF YOU ARE JUST BIG!
