| The King of Fighters '98: The Slugfest/Dream Match Never Ends | |
|---|---|
 North American arcade flyer, depicting Kyo, Iori, and the Women Fighters, Outlaw and Fatal Fury teams | |
| Developer(s) | SNK[a] |
| Publisher(s) | SNK |
| Director(s) | Toyohisa Tanabe |
| Producer(s) | Takashi Nishiyama |
| Designer(s) | Akiko Yukawa Chikara Yamasaki Hiroto Kittaka |
| Programmer(s) | S. Fujinuki Souta Ichino |
| Artist(s) | Toshiaki Mori |
| Composer(s) | Hideki Asanaka Marimo Yasuo Yamate |
| Series | The King of Fighters |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release | 23 July 1998
|
| Genre(s) | Fighting |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
| Arcade system |
|
The King of Fighters '98 (KOF '98), subtitled Dream Match Never Ends in Japan or The Slugfest elsewhere, is a 1998 2D arcade fighting game released by SNK for the Neo Geo system MVS, AES, CD. It is the fifth game in The King of Fighters series and was advertised by SNK as a "special edition" of the series, as it features most of the characters who appeared in the previous games from KOF '94 to '97. The game provides no storyline in contrast to the previous games and instead is labelled as a "dream match" like its subtitle where the player selects a team composed of three characters to participate in a King of Fighters tournament until reaching the boss Rugal Bernstein even though the character dies in The King of Fighters '95. Two fighting styles can be selected to fight and several characters have alternate personas to select with their classic moves from previous games.
Following its release, it was ported to the PlayStation in Japan, while an updated Dreamcast version subtitled Dream Match 1999 was released in 1999, featuring remade 3D backgrounds. Another updated version in 2008 was made for the Taito Type X arcade system subtitled Ultimate Match (KOF '98UM), which expands the number of playable characters by returning characters from the Orochi arc, further tweaks the gameplay and features a third fighting style option; this version was ported to PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 home systems. While the artwork of The King of Fighters '98 was made by Shinkiro, Ultimate Match artwork was made by new artist Eisuke Ogura. A third update, subtitled Ultimate Match Final Edition (KOF '98UMFE), was released in 2011 on arcades and since ported to Windows and PlayStation 4. Despite lacking a plot, a novelization was written by Akihiko Ureshino.
The game was well received by the critics and fans as one of the best The King of Fighters games ever as well as one of the best 2D fighting games ever thanks to its large amount of characters and proper balance. Both the original game and the enhanced version went also to sell several copies in Japan. However, despite the game's sales, the franchise suffered a breakdown due to SNK going bankrupt resulting in the game being the last game developed by designer and director Toyohisa Tanabe who has been working for the series since its first game.
- ^ https://dengekionline.com/elem/000/000/815/815468/
- ^ "Sega.com". December 30, 2001. Archived from the original on April 6, 2002. Retrieved June 20, 2023.
- ^ "News - Now Available on Steam - THE KING OF FIGHTERS '98 ULTIMATE MATCH FINAL EDITION". Steam. Valve. December 16, 2014. Archived from the original on July 19, 2016. Retrieved June 28, 2019.
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