Software:The King of Fighters Neowave

Short description: 2004 video game

The King of Fighters Neowave
Japanese arcade flyer featuring Kyo Kusanagi (foreground) and Geese Howard (background)
Developer(s)	SNK Playmore
Publisher(s)	Sammy Corporation (Arcade) JP/NA: SNK Playmore EU: Ignition Entertainment
Director(s)	Kazuaki Ezato Gou Miyazaki Takahiro Abe T‑2000
Producer(s)	Eikichi Kawasaki Moon
Artist(s)	Tomokazu Nakano
Composer(s)	Tamotsu Karatsu
Series	The King of Fighters
Platform(s)	Arcade PlayStation 2 Xbox
Release	Arcade JP: July 30, 2004 PlayStation 2 JP: July 21, 2005 EU: October 13, 2006 Xbox JP: March 30, 2006 NA: April 18, 2006
Genre(s)	Fighting
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Arcade system	Atomiswave

The King of Fighters Neowave, often shortened as KOF Neowave, or KOF NW, is a 2004 2D fighting game produced by SNK Playmore. It is their first coin-operated arcade game for Sammy's Atomiswave hardware, following the release of The King of Fighters 2003 being the final Neo Geo arcade installment from the franchise. Home ports of the game were released for PlayStation 2 and Xbox shortly after its release in the arcade. The game is loosely based the previous installment The King of Fighters 2002 with some changes in the roster and stages, most notably featuring the boss Geese Howard from Art of Fighting 2, replacing Rugal Bernstein.

The game features no narrative. The character artwork was done by Tomokazu Nakano, famous for doing art for Power Instinct. The game uses the common fighting system of the series involving the creation of teams each composed of three characters who compete against each other to decide which team should move on. The two console ports also added multiple hidden characters not present in the arcade. Compared to usual The King of Fighters games, Neowave received a lukewarm critical reception with several writers criticizing its lack of innovative features as well being called inferior to previous installments.

Gameplay

The game reverts to the 3-character elimination system from The King of Fighters '94 to The King of Fighters '98, ignoring gameplay features from later games such as the "Striker" system used from The King of Fighters '99 through The King of Fighters 2001 and tag team system in The King of Fighters 2003. With the change of hardware from Neo Geo to Atomiswave, the number of buttons is now increased to five. In addition to the standard four attack buttons used in the previous games, a fifth button is now added which is used to activate the Heat Mode. Heat Mode will cause the character to blink red and increase their offensive strength, with the side effect being that the character's health will begin to drain. The player will return to normal after getting hit by the opponent or by pressing Heat Mode button again to deactivate it, and the player must wait until you lose a round to activate it again. The player cannot use Heat Mode when the life gauge is low.

The player can select their own playing style similar to KOF '97 and KOF '98, from three different styles, which affects the techniques available to the player and the length of their Power Gauge.

In Super Cancel Mode (SC Mode), the player has a three stock Power Gauge. The player can use Super Special Moves (which requires one Power Gauge stock) and MAX Super Special Moves (which requires two). With one Power stock, the player can cancel a regular move into a Special or Super Special move, and a regular Special into a Super Special. The player can also use one Power stock to cancel a guard into a Knockdown Blow or an Emergency Escape, or do a Quick Emergency Escape during a normal or command move.

In Guard Break Mode (GB Mode), the player has a two stock Power Gauge. Like in SC Mode, the player can perform Super Special (one stock) and MAX Super Special Moves (two stock). The player can parry an opponent's attack using the "Just Defend" technique, guarding against an opponent's attacks at the precise moment it makes contact with the character, allowing the player to follow it up with a counterattack. Using one Power stock, the player can guard cancel into an Emergency Escape or do a Quick Emergency Escape. The player can also perform a Guard Break attack with one Power stock, which is an unblockable version of a character's Knockdown Attack.

In MAX2 Mode (M2 Mode), the player has a single stock Power Gauge. The player can perform Super Special Moves with one stock, as well as MAX Super Special Moves. However, MAX moves can only be performed when the player has 25% or less of their life gauge remaining. Additionally, an exclusive MAX2 move can be performed under these conditions as well. In M2 Mode, the player can guard cancel into a Knockdown Attack.

Characters

Like KOF '98 and KOF 2002, Neowave has no actual storyline, but is instead a "Dream Match" which gathers numerous characters from various past KOF games, regardless of their status in the overarching storyline. The character roster of the arcade version is similar to the Neo Geo version of KOF 2002, with a few differences in the team placement. The KOF 2000 Team and the KOF 2001 Team are eliminated from the lineup, and a Mixed Team is introduced, composed of Saisyu Kusanagi, Kula Diamond, and Shingo Yabuki from both KOF '98 and KOF '99. Vanessa and Ramón, are still featured in the arcade version as hidden characters, along with the Orochi versions of the Orochi Team. Geese Howard appears in the game as the main boss character, with this incarnation of the character being based on his younger self from Art of Fighting 2.

The PlayStation 2 version of the game brings back five characters from KOF 2002: Seth, May Lee, Angel, the Kusanagi clone, and Omega Rugal (with K9999 being the only character from KOF 2002 missing in this version). The Xbox version, due to licensing issues with Eolith, includes all the characters from the PS2 version with the exception of Ángel and May Lee.

Japan Team

• Kyo Kusanagi
• Benimaru Nikaido
• Goro Daimon

K′ Team

• K'
• Maxima
• Whip

Iori Team

• Iori Yagami
• Mature
• Vice

Orochi Team / Awakened Orochi Team

• Yashiro Nanakase / Orochi Yashiro
• Shermie / Orochi Shermie
• Chris / Orochi Chris

Fatal Fury Team

• Terry Bogard
• Andy Bogard
• Joe Higashi

Psycho Soldier Team

• Athena Asamiya
• Sie Kensou
• Chin Gentsai

Outlaw Team AKA 97 Special Team

• Ryuji Yamazaki
• Blue Mary
• Billy Kane

Art of Fighting Team

• Ryo Sakazaki
• Robert Garcia
• Takuma Sakazaki

Ikari Team

• Leona
• Ralf Jones
• Clark Still

Rival Team

• Kula Diamond
• Saisyu Kusanagi
• Shingo Yabuki

Korea Team

• Jhun Hoon
• Choi Bounge
• Chang Koehan

Women Fighters Team

• Mai Shiranui
• Yuri Sakazaki
• King

Hidden single entry characters

• Ángel
• Geese Howard
• Kim Kaphwan
• Kusanagi
• May Lee
• Omega Rugal
• Ramón
• Seth
• Vanessa

Development and release

SNK Playmore promoted Neowave since early 2004, promoting the arcade in during April in Japan with the promise of returning characters from The King of Fighters 2002 but also new type of backgrounds. By the mid-2000s, SNK's in-house Neo-Geo hardware had become quite dated. After The King of Fighters 2003, SNK Playmore looked for newer substitute platforms for future development. The Atomiswave, a cartridge-based multi-arcade system like the Neo-Geo and based on Sega's Dreamcast hardware, with which SNK was already familiar, was an obvious candidate. Rather than commit a new major game blindly, SNK instead chose to "test the waters" with a remix of The King of Fighters 2002, tweaking the game's systems; reskinning the game with high-resolution backgrounds, character art, and interface elements to take advantage of the more advanced hardware; and removing characters originating with the Eolith-developed KOF2001 and KOF2002, replacing them with other SNK-originated characters.

The game was also made on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. The PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions of the game's graphics consist of polygonal 3D backgrounds overlaid with 2D character sprites (similar to the 3D stages featured in the console versions of previous games in the series such as the Dreamcast versions of KOF '98 and KOF '99), whereas the Arcade version has 2D backgrounds. The PS2 version was released only in Japan and the PAL region, the Xbox version was released both in Japan and North America; additionally, the Xbox version was the last game released for the console in Japan. The North American version was released on April 18, 2006. In 2020, a Dreamcast homebrew adaptation of the arcade version was also made possible due to the Dreamcast sharing almost identical hardware with its Atomiswave cousin.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score Aggregator Score Metacritic PS2: 57 Xbox: 62 Review scores Publication Score GameSpot 6.5/10 IGN 6.8/10 TeamXbox 6.6/10

The King of Fighters: Neowave met with mixed reviews upon release. Reviewers noted the updated graphics and traditionally solid mechanics, and were pleased with online play in the console versions. They also commented on the game's drab presentation and overly familiar design. Charles Onyett wrote for IGN, "Sure it's got updated graphics, a few different styles of play, and a huge roster of fighters, but it does little to entice any non-KoF fans into the mix, something this genre desperately needs." For GameSpot, Greg Kasavin wrote that the game "still packs some good stuff for hardcore fans, but the touched-up paint job doesn't make this feel like a whole new game. In fact, in some ways it feels like a step backward from The King of Fighters 2002." Eurogamer praised the modified fighting system that gives player multiple ways of fighting similar to the well-received Capcom vs. SNK 2 but still lamented the recycled visuals. VideoGamer.com found both visuals and content repetitive for the series but it still felt like a solid game for casuals who have not played previous installments.

In retrospect, Time Extension claimed there are multiple people who believe Neowave is an inferior take on The King of Fighters 2002 Despite praising the character artworks, HardcoreGaming101 lamented that Neowave removed all of 2003 characters in favor of 2002 with Geese's notable exception and how characters have no victory lines. Both ports were also criticzed for it reliance of notable loading times.

External links

• Official website
• The King of Fighters Neowave at Sega Amusements USA (archived)
• MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers". This approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months. The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing. A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school. Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information. In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount. This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign. A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art). Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel, and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million. The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager. Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface. This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue. Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.

On February 13, 2025, Freyholtz stepped down as the site lead to move onto new projects, leaving operations to Tracy Poff, a veteran coder on the site, and Atari staff.

See also

• IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

External links

• The King of Fighters Neowave at the Museum of the Game