The King of Fighters ’98 ARCADE

The King of Fighters ’98 is SNK’s ninth entry in the King of Fighters series, released in 1998 on Neo Geo arcade hardware. Rather than advancing the ongoing storyline, it was billed by SNK as “The Slugfest” — a celebratory, story-light installment built to refine the three-on-three team-battle mechanics and bring back nearly every roster member from the series’ first four years.

That focus on roster size and mechanical polish over narrative made it one of the most balanced entries of the era, and it’s frequently cited by fighting-game communities as the high point of the “’94-through-’98” story arc — a game built to reward players who already knew the cast rather than introduce new ones.