32 Years Ago, a Landmark Fighting Game Franchise Began, And Super Smash Bros. Might Not Exist Without It

There are many storied Fighting Game franchises out there, from the traditional Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat games to the more experimental Under Night In-Birth or Guilty Gear titles. Although a great number of series within this genre have origins in the arcade, projects like the Super Smash Bros. games owe much of their explosive success to a home console release and a crossover cast from multiple known IPs. However, while Nintendo popularized the collaborative series fighting game, one franchise inspired it using the same approach.

The peak of fighting game innovation likely came during the 1990s, where the arcade scene was producing landmark titles year after year. During this time, the first iteration of Street Fighter 2 took the world by storm, later inspiring Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct, and other great games. That being said, many fans often forget that developer Capcom’s creation of Street Fighter was challenged by rival company SNK, whose Fatal Fury franchise began around the same time. SNK’s games would evolve quickly, producing one of the longest lasting and abundant fighting game series out there.

The King Of Fighters ’94 Brought Together Multiple Popular SNK Series Into One Unified Fighting Experience

The King of Fighters ’94 was released for arcades in, well, 1994, creating a roster of characters that have become staples of the genre over time. This game came out around the same time as Darkstalkers, Capcom’s highly stylized project that would become a cult-classic quickly. Other great games like Killer Instinct, Tekken, and Super Street Fighter 2: Turbo would release in the same year, but developer SNK’s The King of Fighters had something none of those games did.

Although The King of Fighters ’94 would introduce a variety of fighting game icons in its characters (who we’ll get to later), the game was primarily made as a crossover between all of SNK’s popular series. For example, you had Terry Bogard from the Fatal Fury series, Ryo Sakazaki from the Art of Fighting games, Ralf and Clark from Ikari Warriors, and even Athena Asamiya from Psycho Soldier. Games that weren’t just other fighting games were represented through The King of Fighters, making the game a celebration of SNK within a solid framework.

A respectable 24 character roster was massive in 1994, and even big by today’s standards when you consider games like Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls has just been released with only 20 fighters. Each character in The King of Fighters ’94 was part of a story team as well, such as team Fatal Fury consisting of Terry Bogard, Andy Bogard, and Joe Higashi. This would be something Marvel Tokon would adopt as recently as 2026, indicating just how impactful the SNK’s game legacy is within the genre.

Some Of The Fighting Game Genre’s Most Iconic Characters Originated From This Title

Although some of the faces from SNK’s other games were well-known going into The King of Fighters‘ inception, this didn’t prevent developers from creating original characters for the crossover series. Some of the genre’s most beloved fighters exist solely within the collaborative games, including figures like:

• Kyo Kusanagi
• Iori Yagami
• Goro Daimon
• Benimaru Nikaido
• K’
• Rugal Bernstein (and later Omega Rugal)
• Kula Diamond
• Ash Crimson

The list could go on and on depending on who you ask, even if all they’ve played was the most recent entry in the series — The King of Fighters 15. Although not every The King of Fighters game has been successful, its characters have certainly lasted the test of time, with players still demanding obscure faces in new franchise entries decades later. As a recent example, the “joke” character Shingo was added to The King of Fighters 15 through fan demand, which wouldn’t have been possible if The King of Fighters ’94 hadn’t started the series in a dynamic way.

The First King Of Fighters Would Later Inspire Other Fighting Games With Ensemble Casts

The nature of The King of Fighters ’94‘s roster never felt like it compromised gameplay systems for a bigger cast either. Even during an era where 3D fighting games were beginning to gain popularity, KoF ’94 innovated on the genre by allowing players to form teams of three characters to fight another person’s squad. There was no tagging in or calling upon assists from other characters like Marvel vs. Capcom or other tag fighters, instead encouraging players learn how each of their fighters interacted with the game’s systems.

This approach inspired a variety of other fighting games, including yearly releases of new The King of Fighters titles, which would add new crossover and original characters. Famously, the game that was inspired the most by The King of Fighters was Super Smash Bros., with series creator Masahiro Sakurai directly referencing the series as one of his favorites. Attempts to make the fighting game genre more approachable to casual audiences led to Super Smash Bros. taking steps in other directions, but its roster was almost a direct reference to SNK’s internal collaborations.

Super Smash Bros. is known for having multiple Nintendo characters within it, but it has evolved overtime to be a celebration of figures from across gaming within a fighting game environment. Without figures like Terry and Athena meeting, we wouldn’t have Minecraft‘s Steve fighting with Sephiroth from Final Fantasy 7. For that alone, The King of Fighters ’94 is always worth celebrating as a milestone title for the fighting game genre.