The King of Fighters/YMMV

• Alas, Poor Scrappy: In XIII, Ash gives one last smile before he disappears from existence entirely. Suffice to say, Elizabeth wasn't the only one heartbroken that day.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Surprisingly, it's happened a few times before. The prime candidates are Krizalid (retroactively by Whip when she discovers his dead body), Original Zero, and Mukai.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • One that extends to the entire New Faces team: were they generally nice and decent, unassuming citizens whose personalities were permanently overridden by their true selves, or were they always that evil, their current persona being a ruse with the trio letting pieces of their malicious nature slip through the cracks every now and then until there was no longer a need to keep up the charade? Or, to take another route, when their status as Heavenly Kings were revealed, did they go along with the plan to resurrect Orochi, not because of their loyalty or the pleasure that evildoing brought, but because they couldn't turn back and go against their fate?
  • In XIII, Mature and Vice warn Iori that if he takes back the Yasakani-no-Magatama, he'll be subjected to his clan's curse once more. Seeing as they're agents of Orochi, it's possible that they were hoping that if Yagami didn't take the Yasakani-no-Magatama, the Three Sacred Treasures would no longer be complete and Orochi would finally be freed from its seal once the time came. However, it could also qualify as a Pet the Dog moment; maybe they did care about Iori enough to place his wellbeing over their mission to resurrect Orochi.
• Americans Hate Tingle: Ash Crimson, Choi, Chang, etc.
• And the Fandom Rejoiced:
  • Whenever an Ensemble Darkhorse makes an unexpected appearance, or a fan-favorite joins the roster:
    
    Duck King in XI.
    
    Eiji Kisaragi's return in XI.
    
    Geese Howard in 96.
    
    Blue Mary in 97.
    
    The entire Garou: Mark of the Wolves Team in XI.
  • On a much larger scale, The King of Fighters XIII for stalwart fans.
    
    For one, fan-favorite Mai Shiranui is back with the rest of the original Women Fighters Team (i.e. King and Yuri) in tow, thus ending the idiotic rant of "NO MAI = NO BUY!"
    
    Also, the confirmation of the K' Team would be part of the final roster of the game.
    
    Gameplay seems to be back to pre-2003 mechanics.
    
    And then there's the official website, where you can sample the latest tunes for each team. Impressive. Looks like SNKP is back on the top of their game.
    
    And just when everyone has given up on SNKP for the console port... there came Atlus saying that they'll bring it to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Oh yeah.
    
    And just as Elizabeth and Mature became console exclusives for XII, XIII continues the trend by bringing in BILLY KANE!
    
    Saiki is playable in the home port of XIII? Ok, cool... Wait, what's that? Preordering the game nets you a a 4-disc compilation soundtrack spanning the series' history? Check, please.
    
    DLC characters have been announced for XIII. Among the first reveals are Classic Iori (with his flames) and NESTS-era Kyo.
• Anticlimax Boss: Orochi. Not of his game (KOF '97 was rather easy anyway), but of the Orochi Saga as a whole. He remains one of the easiest end bosses to beat.
• Awesome Moments: Any time Ralf's Galactica Phantom succeeds in hitting the opponent. Even moreso against human opponents, since they are ten times less likely to fall for it than the AI. (For those needed further clarification, the Galactica Phantom is absurdly powerful [to the point that it had to be toned down from its OHKO status in '98], but also has an ungodly charge time; a fully-powered one requires seven or eight seconds. It is, essentially, a Death or Glory Attack cranked Up to Eleven.)
• Awesome Music: Many.
• Blind Idiot Translation: A frequent case in earlier titles, as well as one of the many detractors of the Maximum Impact localization.
• Complete Monster:
  • Rugal Bernstein from The King of Fighters is the most evil villain SNK has ever come up with. In contrast with Geese Howard (a Badass Magnificent Bastard with a tragic backstory), Wolfgang Krauser (a Noble Demon with a strong sense of honor), and the Orochi clan, Rugal does evil for the sake of being evil. We're talking about a man who owns one of the world's biggest weapons manufacturers, has a BIG influence on global politics, is capable of causing World War III, and killed God-knows-how-many martial artists just to bathe their bodies in liquid bronze and make them into decorative statues for his yacht, FOR SPORT. And that's not even going into Heidern's backstory, where we find out that Rugal slaughtered all 50 soldiers in the guy's squad before killing his wife and daughter, who he had previously kidnapped, just for the fun of it, and topping it off with gouging out Heidern's left eye and leaving him to live in despair. When Rugal was finally consumed and killed by the Orochi power he had gotten from Goenitz, it was probably a joyous day for all fighting game players everywhere.
    • Funny thing is, SNK even tried to salvage Rugal from this trope by revealing his Freudian Excuse: apparently, he was once a kind and loving man, but after the death of the woman he loved (hey, he did father Adel and Rose...), he went crazy and swore revenge on the whole world. Needless to say, this earned him no sympathy at all, as nothing could ever excuse his atrocities - much less a reason as weak as this one.
  • To say nothing of NESTS themselves. While unlike Rugal they at least have Take Over the World as a motive, they kidnapped countless innocent children and putting them through God knows what kind of experiments, and very, very few of them even survived. The ones that did ended up either completely bitter and hateful (K', K9999, Kusanagi) while Nameless and submissive, loyal slaves. And then there is Igniz. The guy who's implied to be responsible for all of this. Just look at what a smarmy prick he is when you fight him, he really doesn't feel anything about what he had to do to get that powerful.
  • Rugal: His liquid metal bath treatment counts. For everything else, check Moral Event Horizon.
• Crack Pairing: Iori and Kasumi. It is perhaps the most popular non-Ho Yay pairing despite the fact that they've probably never even met.
• Crazy Awesome: Duck King. The dude is almost always cheerful, overly eccentric, and can pull off some of the craziest stunts... using breakdancing moves that are humanly impossible (in Real Life, performing employing breakdancing as a martial art would leave you with several broken bones at best). Oh, and did we mention the family of ducks living inside his hair that copy his every move? This was before Sazh, mind you.
• Creator's Pet: Not many people like Ash, yet SNK let him get away with pretty controversial stuff, such as stealing Iori's powers.
  • In a reversal of the above Ash example, K' serves as this to the Japanese fandom; he's substantially better-received outside of Japan, though.
  • Something of a subversion: SNK flat-out admits they love Rugal. They designed him from the ground up to be the most badass boss character there ever was (and that's not paraphrasing by much), and that they make him the final boss in Dream Match games because he's their favorite. This would be annoying, if Rugal didn't viciously beat his way into players' hearts the world over, cementing himself as an icon to the fanbase as much as he is to the folks at SNK. The SNK fandom likely idolizes him more than Capcom fans have idolized the likes of Akuma or M. Bison.
• Designated Hero: Compare the actions of Ash and his "Hero Team" to that of previous heroes Kyo and K'. This subverted in XIII, where it's revealed that he indeed had an agenda (a good one to boot!), but had to go out of his way to make it work.
• Die for Our Ship: Yuki, Kyo's girlfriend, is loathed by Kyo x (insert: Iori, Shingo, Athena, etc.) shippers.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Barring some exceptions (like K9999), any character has some kind of fan following.
  • Shermie. A one-shot villain who never officially appears in future non-dream match installments, but remains very popular and ends up being included in both SNK Gals Fighters and Neo Geo Battle Coliseum. It helps that she's got a killer rack and nice legs.
  • Eiji Kisaragi, the no-nonsense Ninja from Art of Fighting 2. Very popular among the fandom. They finally brought him back in XI to please the crowd after an eight' game absence. (Note: his last appearance was in 95, the second game in the series.)
  • Shermie's teammates, Yashiro Nanakase and Chris.
  • There are many others, ranging to Badass NPCs like Ron, to Geese Howard himself, to Duck King, to May Lee (who oddly enough was also a Replacement Scrappy for some time). Hell, even the American Sports Team has a surprisingly large following.
  • Oswald made only a single playable appearance, with XI as his only game. The combination of being one of the best characters in the game and just having a pretty damn cool character design made him one of the most popular characters on the roster. That's pretty impressive for who is essentially a one-off character.
  • Since this series seems to relegate characters to the background in favor of emphasizing the newer faces, many of the fan-favorites from other games carry this status as well. Point in case, the cast of Fatal Fury: Terry (despite being SNK's Mascot and The Hero of his series), Duck, Billy, Geese, Mai, Kim, Blue Mary, Yamazaki, Rock Howard, Bonne Jenet, Tizoc, Gato, and Hotaru all have this vibe. In fact, Mai's exclusion from the arcade version of XI and XII entirely is the reason behind the chant of "NO MAI = NO BUY!"
  • Kasumi Todoh was the only new addition from Art of Fighting 3 to make it to this series. Her popularity alone also granted her a spot in SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos despite being at best a bit character in either series.
  • Gai Tendo of Buriki One has a fanbase so devoted, that he was propelled into the land of memetic badassery upon appearing in XI.
  • Makoto Mizoguchi from Fighter's History Dynamite. His status as an Ensemble Darkhorse is what allowed him to jump over to Maximum Impact: Regulation A. That, and the fact that he's a favorite of series' producer and director Falcoon.
  • Ralf, Heidern, Leona, Shingo, Kula, Vanessa, and Shen Woo all seem to be approaching this status as well (that's if they're not already there).
  • Iori is something of an Invoked Trope meta example, being so different from other fighting game characters at the time that he became an insta-hit with fans.
  • Rugal. Both the dev team and most of the fandom love him so much that he's always the final opponent in a Dream Match Game as well as in Capcom vs. SNK 2.
  • Maxima is very popular with the Japanese Bara Genre community.
• Epileptic Trees: While many fans hope that this doesn't come to pass (or at least not in the terms described), a prevalent theory is that, should SNKP ever go bankrupt again (as in, for good), their last action will be to create one final "Dream Match Game" title, but Up to Eleven: a The King of Fighters Universal Match which would bring back every character that was ever in a KOF game back for the last hurrah.
• Evil Is Cool: Most of the villains, natch.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: The natural extension of the above, although it's a wide spectrum for who qualifies and who doesn't.
• Evil Is Sexy: About 80% of the villains. No, really. See that trope's main page for more details.
• Fanon: Orochi Leona's habit of popping up at the wrong time, as well as her pleasured-sounding screams. Three guesses what.
• Faux Symbolism: This is the entire theme of Goenitz as a character.
  • See "Rule of Symbolism" under Iori's entry.
  • Evil Ash has a DM where the screen is filled with black flames, in direct contrast to Elizabeth's Neo MAX, which bathes the screen in white light.
• Foe Yay: Iori Yagami, who spends roughly ninety-eight percent of his time thinking about what Kyo is doing, following Kyo around, and fantasizing about ways to kill him.
  • This is actually lampshaded in the Dating Sim Spin-Off series, Days of Memories, which sometimes has the two play the role of romantic rivals.
• Game Breaker:
  • Armor Ralf in Maximum Impact 2. As the name implies, it's Ralf decked out in armor. This version of Ralf is a contender for the most broken non-boss fighting game character of all time. He has super armor, cannot be thrown normally, has infinite priority, does EVEN MORE DAMAGE THAN NORMAL RALF, and cannot be knocked down. He was so broken that he was actually removed from the Regulation A upgrade to the game, though his data and model are still on the disc.
  • Angel in 2002. She is meant to be played by players with experience in string-system combos; however, since this system would be considered hard to use properly, the game rewards Angel with long invincibility periods while doing her moves. This translates in the opponent having to guess what Angel will do and attack in the hopes that her next move won't have invincibility. Also, one of her moves in the string is a uppercut that can hit the opponent while he is recovering in the air. Should Angel spam this on the corner, we have a infinite combo that requires absolutely no power stocks.
  • Billy Kane fights with a stick that gives him a unfair advantage at zoning. He also has a incredibly fast 2-hit attack that can be abused and can combo with other way stronger moves, should it hit near the corner.
    
    His MI2 incarnation is far worse. The Tekken-esque dial-a combos only bolster his rushdown game, his specials come out far quicker with less cooldown lag, and he gains devastating new attacks revolving around his bo. In order words, he can do all sorts of wicked shit. This match from MI2 and this match from Regulation A are good examples of what you're up against.
  • Alba Meira, supposedly being a "cooler Falcoon," receives godly tools like an anti-air command throw and a triple projectile.
  • In Maximum Impact: Regulation A, Alba is outclassed by the series's proverbial Creator's Pet, Ash Crimson. And now you know what the "A" in Regulation A stands for.
  • Athena has a fireball with almost instant recovery, as well as a teleport and a bug that makes she retreat at absurd speed when doing a backdash. Should you be at a lower health when the match time is about to finish, unless you're a very fast character yourself there's pretty much nothing you can do other than try and follow her while avoiding her firebals and watching out for a DM that jolts you if you touch her.
  • Choi is a dwarf; his Hitbox Dissonance is about half the vertical size of a regular character. Most attacks, including specials and a good number of super moves pass right above his head; essentially cutting in half the viable options, strategies and combos of practically every other character in the game. Because of this, he's been top-to-god tier in almost every single installment of the series, and a staple Tier-Induced Scrappy.
  • Iori Yagami in '98 is beatable, yes, but he is also a god tier character. Pretty much all of his moves, normal or not, have a longer range than they look, are extremely fast, and goes on a anything-comboes-from-anything pattern. His air attacks hit extremely low, so much that his air C can easily hit a crouching Choi Bounge. He has a invincible grab that makes the opponent open to anything, and anything he does can combo into his Deadly Flower, a 3-hit move that deals high damage and quickly stuns the opponent. And, he has a fast fireball of his own. AND, his Maiden Masher DM rushes toward the opponent with high priority, low enough to go under any mid-air fireball and, for some reason, jumping opponents will stop in the air to be hit by the move. Go ahead, try to find a pro-level match where Iori isn't present.
  • Wolfgang Krauser in '98UM. Normal moves have good reach and damage, simple but damaging Bread and Butter combos and an autocombo DM that can serve many functions like Iori's Maiden Masher DM.
  • Rugal's Genocide Cutter in KOF '94. At maximum power, it can be a One-Hit Kill. Coupled with his SNK Boss status... Word of God apologizes for "going a bit overboard" with the damage ratio. The move was toned down in later installments, but is still quite devastating.
  • Daimon in '98, thanks to a glitch. Averted in Ultimate Match, which removed said glitch.
  • Heidern's Moon Slasher and Stormbringer in KOF '94. Due to bugs, these two moves had abusive damage ratios to the point that a maximum power Stormbringer could one-shot a character who was at full health. Luckily, these bugs were addressed by the time '95 rolled in.
  • Ralf's Galatica Phantom in EX2: Howling Blood. This version has a much, much shorter charge time and is a regular move instead of a (S)DM. As a tradeoff, it loses some of its power, but still eats about 50% off of an opponent's lifebar. Go buck wild with it, and watch the body count skyrocket.
  • A highly technical combo involves Ralf cancelling out of his Blazing Vulcan Punch on the last hit and performing the Galatica Phantom. In other words, the moment the opponent recovers, they're greeted by Ralf's (unblockable) fist.
  • Eiji in '95. He held of the distinction of being able to chain almost anything together. Seriously, you could flail your hands across the controller like a frantic monkey and still catch your opponent off-guard about 75% of the time.
  • Orochi Iori was playable via a rather simple code in the KOF '97 arcade, as was Orochi Leona and the Orochi New Faces Team.
  • Gato and Kula received one too many buffs in XI, thrusting them into top-tier.
  • Krizalid. Yes, he might be a SNK Boss, but the Typhoon Rage gives Rugal's Genocide Cutter a run for its money with its omni-priority, high damage output, juggling ability, and the ability to fill his super meter at the speed of sound. In 2002: Ultimate Match, this fact alone makes Krizalid more broken than Clone Zero, Original Zero, "lovable" Igniz, and Omega Rugal himself. Only Nightmare Geese can outdo him.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • Chang, along with Choi, is one of the franchise's most popular characters in Korea. Now you know how Choi made it into SvC: SVC Chaos.
  • Sho Hayate is also a cult-fave in Japan, which most likely led to his inclusion in XI.
  • K' is much more popular in the States than he is in Japan; American KOF fans widely regard him to be a better character than previous protagonist Kyo.
• Good Bad Bugs: This series of videos is all you need to see.
  • Rugal's Kaiser Drill bug in 2002, which has not been fixed for either Neowave or 2002: Unlimited Match. God forbid that you roll behind Omega Rugal when he's charging up a Kaiser Wave... The phenom is explained here and here.
  • The Amazing Flying Jhun glitch in 2003. To elaborate, one of Jhun's aerial moves involved stomping on your head. Performing a roll quickly after successfully executing this technique would leave Jhun hovering in the air. On top of that, his pushback was no longer functional, allowing him to smash anyone open with the purest of ease. For examples, see here and here. However, as seen here, it can also go horribly wrong and end in utter, hilarious humiliation.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In '99, Ralf's victory quote was "I can survive anything--even nukes!" Fast forward to his and Clark's inclusion in Metal Slug 6 where Ralf is the only member of the playable cast who isn't a One-Hit-Point Wonder.
  • With a possible side of Fandom Nod: In the MUGEN fanbase, the KOF-centric Vans gave his version of Kyo an aerial version of the Orochinagi. Come XIII...
  • K9999's official profile on the KOF 10th Anniversary website blatantly acknowledges his resemblance to Tetsuo. Shortly after 2002: Unlimited Match was released, his picture on the site was mysteriously deleted.
• I Am Not Shazam: The Sega Saturn port of 95 refers to him as "Omega Rugal", even when recapping the events of the previous game... when he wasn't Omega Rugal. Likewise, the O in his name stands for O'mega, not Orochi, a common misconception, seeing as he draws upon the Orochi power.
• Iron Woobie: Heidern, Iori, K', probably Duo Lon. And especially Elisabeth.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • All things considered with the Yagami/Yasakani's 1600-year blood curse, Iori still manages to be a massive Jerkass while doing so. There is also Ash, an odd variation in that he starts out acting like a grade-A jerkass, but when the act drops and his backstory is fully revealed, he then earns major Woobie points.
  • Also, Yashiro, in the New Face Team's ending. He kills Chris and Shermie to power up Orochi, but then he cradles the fatally injured Shermie in his arms to comfort her as she she bleeds to death — and when she's gone, he offs himself. And then Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies.
• Large Ham:
  • Krauser's "I'll chisel your gravestone! SLEEP WELL!" is hilariously cheesy.
  • The Maximum Impact announcer.
• Left Hanging: Basically everything surrounding the Dragon Spirit, what exactly is, how with intertwines with the overall plot or other characters. Ron has said that the power is so absurd that makes all of NESTS look like nothing and yet this plot point never achieves to be as important as it is implied. Years after such reveal and pretty much nothing happening around it, it is said that Kensou has mastered the control of the Dragon Spirit, still no major changes can be seen through his character taking account at how leagues more powerful he should have been if he truly mastered the control of his powers.
• Magnificent Bastard: Goenitz, Geese, Igniz, Ron, Ash.
• Mary Sue: Ash Crimson, Mignon Beart.
  • The latter is more questionable, as, judging by ability alone, she's somewhat inept as a witch and very clumsy, not to mention handily outclassed in terms of skill by her younger sister Ninon.
  • God Mode Sue: Ash. In XI, he's able to deal with Orochi Iori and suffer no personal injury. OP? You bet.
• Memetic Badass: Depending on the community, Terry, Ralf, Yamazaki, Shen Woo, and Gai Tendo.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Pretty much anything Terry says.
  • Rugal's Dead End Screamer/Rugalspin. Driven into the ground by MUGEN.
  • Iori's laugh.
  • There was a small trend of plastering Yao Ming's head onto Goro's artwork in XIII shortly after the game's announcement.
  • KOF XI Robert: Fear the Almighty Stance!
  • Kim's declaration to evildoers: Aku wa yurusan! HA!
    • His impossibly bright teeth seem to be on their way too, given the flood of mock-toothpaste advertisements in forums and on YouTube comment boards. Colgate EX Kim! Brush your teeth with JUSTICE!
    • Hell, just JUSTICE! itself.
  • "Koko desu ka?"
  • In Japan, there's a small fad of Maxima performing his Mongolian Chop ad naseum, usually in sync to music. This has led to Nico Nico Douga calling him "Mongolia," which is popular enough to the point that the Japanese MUGEN fandom almost always refers to him by this psuedonym.
• Mis Blamed: It would seem that Nona is getting flak for the most recent entries in the series, due to their new art designs. While he was the art director for XII (and draws for the pre-fight exchanges in XIII), it's actually Ogura Eisuke, the artist for Neo Geo Battle Coliseum, who handled the artwork. For some odd reason, Nona is also being blamed from the story developments, an area that he has minimal influence in at best.
• Moe: Athena (moreso starting in XII), Momoko, Hotaru. Leona might count, but this overlaps with her status as The Woobie.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Rugal crosses it several times: The drama CD has him killing his servants for making minor goofs and not being "perfect". That same action is repeated in a KOF '94 manga, bloodily murdering a teenaged maid for merely bringing him the wrong wine for dinner. As he approaches her, you see him walking and looming over the poor girl as she begs him to not hurt her... and then "SPLAT".In a later volume, Rugal orders one of his subordinates to kidnap Kyo's girlfriend Yuki and lock her in a room with a fake time bomb just to force Kyo, Benimaru and Daimon fight the Women's Team in the streets of Tokyo, in a sort of Deadly Game where instead of fighting to the death, they fought to rescue poor Yuki. Rugal didn't even really need to have them fight that way, and did just For the Evulz. And then, there's the wicked pleasure he took on having Saisyu Kusanagi tortured and then Brainwashed and Crazy to make him his servant in '95. Double when you play with the Japan Team and he gloats about it in front of Saisyu's son Kyo. There's also his mauling of Heidern's family and mercenary unit (mind you, this was single-handed and that Heidern's unit was fifty men strong). Apparently done for no other reason than to provoke and slight Heidern.
  • Goenitz, in response to Gaidel turning down his offer to join him in the attempt to resurrect their master Orochi, awakened Leona's Orochi blood for the first time when she was still a child, causing her to destroy her whole village and kill every inhabitant, her own family included.
  • Jivatma ordered the death of Lien's parents and family because her father would not join Addes.
• More Popular Spinoff: Of both Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting. Even in this very wiki, people mention some FF and AOF characters as being from The King of Fighters even when those characters, at best, only make cameos in the series.
• Most Annoying Sound: The "OOOOOOOUUUUUUAAAAAAAAGH" sound Andy makes when you hit him. Not so prevalent in the Fatal Fury series but it cropped up quite a bit in early KOF titles. It got ridiculous in '99 onward where for no apparent reason they made it his KO cry. You will hear this especially in 2002 and Unlimited Match, where he groans this practically every time you hit him.
  • "KOKO DESU KA? KOKO DESU KA? KOKO DESU KA? KOKO DESU KA? KOKO DESU KA?" This the sound of Goenitz's Yonokaze murdering you.
  • Some of Malin's yells have her sounding like a strangled duck.
  • Angel's voice (mostly her 2002 seiyuu; the 2001 one wasn't so grating on the ears).
• Narm Charm:
  • SNK's Dodgy Engrish usually downright HILARIOUS lines in otherwise serious circumstances. From the slightest misspellings to Rugal's almost babyish "I'LL BE BACK... YOU JERKS!" line from '95.
  • Any time anyone insults anyone. Which happens often. "Absolute karate. That's Kyokugen. And don't you forget it, dweebenheimer!"
  • And of course, the English dub of the Maximum Impact games.
  • The movie. The directors clearly show through several subtle details in the scenes that they know the games, They Just Didn't Care and instead made a hilariously over the top, So Bad It's Good cornball of a film not unlike the Van Damme Street Fighter movie.
  • Terry's mangled English has become a vital part of his character.
• Never Live It Down/Old Shame: Athena. It doesn't matter how many KOF or fighting games she appears in, most older NES owners are still gonna remember her awful game on that system, which was actually a disastrous port of a decent arcade game.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • If Magaki's highly unsettling "true form" doesn't give you nightmares, the way he fights will.
  • Duo Lon's idle pose involves him holding his leading foot in such an extreme twisted inward angle that it suggests that his ankles are broken or at very least he can easily dislocate them at will.
  • Literally in the case of Geese. He has an alternate form called Nightmare Geese that will give you nightmares trying to fight him. In this form he's one of the cheapest SNK Bosses in existence. Subverted in Maximum Impact 2 where he's balanced, but then doubly subverted in 2002UM, which introduces an even cheaper version of Nightmare Geese that you have to fight as the last Expert challenge in Challenge Mode to unlock everything.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Oswald's fight with Shen Woo in their team's XI ending. Word of God says that the fight was left open-ended because the fans would be disappointed with the final result.
• Relationship Writing Fumble: Kyo and Chizuru are acquaintances, if not good friends. When Kyo became majorly pissed at Ash for stealing Chizuru's powers in 2003 (and violating her while doing so), some fans were led to believe that Kyo has feelings for her. It doesn't help that Kyo's intro with Ash in XI has him screaming "YOU BASTARD!" at the top of his lungs. Apparently, these fans have forgotten that Kyo has Yuki.
  • Add to this their roles in guarding the Seal of Orochi.
  • Word of God also jokes on the Anniversary website that Chizuru must have envisioned Kyo eternally as a schoolboy (i.e. from the time they teamed up during the Orochi Saga) when creating Kusanagi. Cue fans claiming she's in some type of a Loving a Shadow relationship with Kyo.
• Replacement Scrappy:
  • While K' managed to avoid this during NESTS, Ash Crimson got the full brunt of hatred from fans, especially when he started actively upstaging Kyo by beating Riot of the Blood Iori. His flamboyant appearance doesn't help, either.
  • May Lee was once seen as this due to replacing Jhun in 2001 and then replacing longtime regular King in 2002 and taking her spot on the Women Fighters Team alongside fellow vets Yuri and Mai. The Japanese essentially screamed "I RAGED. HARD." over the latter to the point that not even adding King back in the home ports could undo the damage. Most of this scorn has passed over since and May Lee is seen as an Ensemble Darkhorse elsewhere.
  • Momoko is sometimes considered as such. To Bao of all people. Frequently cited reasons are her voice, Button Mashing, and the fact that she was based off of discharged designs of Bao.
• The Scrappy:
  • Bao. Added to the Psycho Soldiers team in 99. Too annoying to fight as, overpowered (at least his first incarnation) to fight against; stealing Kensou's powers. The strangest thing about this? He was conceptualized as beginner friendly.' How they could screw that up so much is a mystery.
  • SNK Playmore sees K9999 as this due to the blatantness of his tribute to Tetsuo Shima, which eventually led to his replacement by Nameless.
• Shipping Goggles:
  • All over the place, with the above Relationship Writing Fumble example being a standout case. The series is in no way light on Ship Tease, but fans will pick up on the smallest hints. Iori's semi-decent towards Chizuru? Pair them up! Goenitz is mistranslated into making snide remarks about Mature and Vice not being able to keep their virginity and the two seem to care for Iori's well-being? Threesome, anyone? Mature is somewhat infatuated with Rugal? She must be Adel and Rose's mother! These are the most common instances, and far less logical cases most certainly exist.
  • Let's be honest: every company in charge of KOF is very, very aware that the franchise as a whole is EXTREMELY popular among female gamers of all ages (from teenage girls who are new to the games, to older ladies who grew up either wathcing others play or played alongside the boys). With the buttloads of Ship Tease, it'd be weirder to NOT have a good part of the fandom all over it.
• So Bad It's Good: The movie. It was not made with being a serious film in mind. At all.
• Stoic Woobie: Heidern, adult Leona, K', Nameless, Clark (once you learn where his dogtags come from).
• Tear Jerker: If you know how XIII ends, you know why this phrase stings:

God's in his heaven, all's right with the world!

• That One Attack: Heidern's neck roller in 2002 UM. It's unblockable and has a deceptive hitbox.
  • Rugal's Genocide Cutter will beat your ass if you don't prepare accordingly. When you couple all of this with his already impressive arsenal...
  • Goenitz's Yonokaze technique. Dude will use it for all it's worth. Nonstop. KOKO DESU KA?
  • Marukare is probably the first thing to come to mind when one thinks of Orochi, although his Harue special (the projectile-esque attack that can't be nullified by anything) is pretty bad too. Just be thankful that they didn't have him spam his Honosu Sori like Goenitz's Yonokaze.
• That One Boss: Rugal in every KOF except '98.
• They Just Didn't Care: From '96 to 2001, King kept using the same vocals. Even in Capcom vs. SNK, where every other SNK character had new vocals, King kept the same dated audio.
  • The same point could be made for Robert. It wasn't until 2003 that Robert finally got an updated audio track.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Despite being toted as "the other protagonist" of "The Tales of Ash" saga, Adel Bernstein (Noble Demon son of Rugal) plays no role in the climax. Hell, he's not even present in XIII. Only his sister Rose appears.
    • Subverted by the console version, which shows Adel working behind the scenes to help the Ikari Warriors in their investigation of Those from the Past. He's still not playable, despite concept art indicating that he was considered for the roster.
  • This is a general consensus about the revelation that Kyo-1 and Kyo-2 were two of thousands of Kyo clones created by NESTS when it was Left Hanging immediately afterwards.
  • The Out of Focus status of the Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting cast (and to a lesser extent some of the characters from the earlier KOF games); they are either Demoted to Extra, become The Artifact, or are a case of Chuck Cunningham Syndrome. SNK seems to be downplaying the fact that the KOF series is supposedly a big crossover of various SNK series and is focusing more on the characters that are more made for this series instead. However, SNK Playmore is showing some signs in trying to rectify this with XIII as they are starting to flesh out the older characters more.
• Tier-Induced Scrappy:
  • Choi Bounge. He wasn't the most popular character (outside of Korea, of course) to begin with, but after his appearance in 2002, he became flat out despised.
  • There is also a respectable number of people who have come to despise Kula after KOF XI.
  • Igniz is a SNK Boss-Induced Scrappy; while having the voice of Norio Wakamoto is always a blessing, fans do not enjoy the idea of having to face him. There's a reason he was once the poster boy for SNK Boss.
  • K' is seen as such in XIII, right next to Raiden. The best teams have both as staple members with a rotating third.
• Uncanny Valley: Sprites before XIII had Kula resembling a human-sized doll with bug eyes.
• Unfortunate Implications:
  • Heavy D! is the head of a team full of walking American National Stereotypes. Their Running Gag involves them being on the receiving end of a Curb Stomp Battle and having their invites stolen. Their stage is set in the ghetto; the original '94 version included multiple stray cats, blinged-out onlookers, a wacky, afro-sporting midget named Cool Guy, and a woman in a skimpy outfit who appears to be a hooker. The American Sports Team's theme is even sometimes spelled as "Slum No. 5." Really, Japan?
  • The word "bimbo" is used in some of the earlier games in place of "airhead," apparently ignoring that the former can also be interpreted as "slut."
  • Vice holds a grudge against Saisyo for "putting up a struggle" and "resisting" the brainwashing process. Stop for a moment and think about how she does her brainwashing, and how Saisyu went along with it.
  • Goenitz's insulting remark in 96 about how Mature and Vice couldn't keep their virginity once led to the belief that the two had sex with Iori. It should be mentioned that he says nothing of the sort' in the Japanese version.
  • Angel, a native of Mexico. She's a character who seems to exist solely for the purpose of Fan Service (nice rack, a good eyeful of skin, flirtatious personality, etc.). She also is very touchy about her weight and is a bit of a hotheaded loudmouth. Her favorite foods are tequila and raw cactus slices, and her forte in sports is Mexico's national pastime: football (that's soccer for all of you Americans). Her theme in 2002 is named "Tacos Dance." Oh, and she's evil.
• Viewer Gender Confusion:
  • Sometimes players refer to Chris as a girl. It doesn't help that he has a Gender Blender Name.
  • Bao. A Japanese magazine had to place the male symbol character along with his name when introducing him; and probably also to explain his special intro with sexy female characters. It didn't help that one of his Spanish quotes for KOF '99 was worded as if he were female.
  • Ash Crimson, Shion, the list goes on...
• Villain Decay: Duke in Maximum Impact 2.
• What an Idiot!: It's already strongly implied that Eiji was on the receiving end of a Yagami beatdown at the end of '95, but his XI backstory states that he also challenged the entire Kyokugen Team after the tournament. If the latter happened immediately after the former, we all may need to reconsider Eiji's status as a threat. Maybe.
• Win Back the Crowd: XIII is this by virtue of completing the Obvious Beta that was XII. Mai and K' are back as well as a true SNK Boss. You'll find every known character that was planned for inclusion in XII in XIII as well.
• The Woobie: Chizuru, young Leona, Kula (especially with Candy's heartbreaking "death"), Hotaru, Krizalid, Nameless, Xiao Lon. Arguably Iori, K', and Ash.