SNK has been busy as of late, announcing a new Metal Slug and AES+ console, and they aren’t done yet. Among their iconic IP, The King of Fighters has been a series that has established itself as a strong player amongst the many fighter series. I’ve had a few “KOF” games over the years, and out of those that people ask for the most, ’98 tends to be #1. Games with such longevity in arcades can always get a second lease of life, and so with today’s news, we can confirm that The King of Fighters ’98 is returning to arcades via exA-Arcadia. Let’s take a look:
The King of Fighters ’98
Originally released to the NEOGEO MVS in July 1998, KOF’98 wasn’t the first of the series, but it quickly gained a strong reputation as among the best, thanks to the huge roster (38 fighters), great graphics & music, and a polished game system. The original was subtitled The Slugfest in the West, and this did so well that SNK produced some other versions, including a port to the Sega Dreamcast that used 3D backgrounds, to Ultimate Match that was released in 2008.
The company has licensed IP to exA-Arcadia before, such as with Samurai Shodown V Perfect, but it has been a while since we’ve last had another SNK title. For this new release, we don’t know much about it beyond this image of it setup on an ARC-32 cabinet, and that it will take advantage of exA’s lighting fast input. It will be playable at EVO Japan 2026, where we will presumably be learning much more as players get hands-on time with it:
For those who don’t know this platform, this means that the game will be made available worldwide and not just in Japan, despite EVO Japan otherwise being focused on that market. exA’s releases are not region locked and include English localization (and often times, other languages. I’d be shocked if this doesn’t include a Spanish translation).
On my personal thoughts, this is quite exciting. When I first opened my arcade back in 2008, I would ask customers what games they wanted to see and KOF’98 was one of the most frequently requested. I had a single-slot NeoGeo MVS at the time, so it was easy to find a cart, and it quickly became one of my most popular games. My arcade is in an area with a lot of Latinos, and as I soon found out, the MVS was huge in many parts of Latin & South America as it was far more affordable than most other arcade titles. I did occasionally get people asking for KOF’00 or ’02, but ’98 has been the most consistently liked and played, as already mentioned.
As such, this game becomes something of a no brainer for me, and I’ll be adding it to my setup when it becomes available. Plus, while this is already exciting enough, do also note that exA will be announcing many other new titles at EVO Japan, and showcasing others which are coming soon (like AVATAR Legends: The Fighting Game, which begins testing in Tokyo on the 30th), and those already available like Axel City 2: The Final Storm. For now though, what do you think of the new exA-Arcadia release for The King of Fighters ’98?
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