The King of Fighters '98

KOF '98 was originally released for arcades on July 23, 1998.[3] It was also released for the Neo Geo AES on September 23, 1998, the Neo-Geo CD on December 23, 1998, and the PlayStation on March 25, 1999. The PlayStation version was published in North America by Agetec, becoming the first PlayStation installment in the series to be released outside Japan since The King of Fighters '95.

An emulated version of the game was released as part of The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga in 2008 for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and Wii (the game was not included in the Japanese Orochi Hen compilation).[7] The Neo Geo AES version was added via emulation to the Wii Virtual Console in Japan on October 23, 2012, in North America on March 7, 2013 and in the PAL region on May 30, 2013. Another emulated version was released for iOS and Android in 2014. The arcade version was emulated and released as part of the ACA Neo Geo series for the Nintendo Switch on March 3, 2017 with releases for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One following afterwards.

An updated Dreamcast version was released on June 24, 1999, under the title The King of Fighters: Dream Match 1999, reflecting the year the version was released.[8] It came out in North America on October 16, 1999.[9] It features remade 3D backdrops and runs at 60 frames per second. This version also featured its own anime style intro, produced by the studio Digimation K.K., before it merged to become part of the studio Gonzo a few years later.

KOF '98 was updated under a standalone title of The King of Fighters '98: Ultimate Match (KOF '98UM) released in 2008, ten years after the original game's release. It was released in Japan as an arcade game for the Taito Type X hardware in March 2008. The PlayStation 2 version released on June 26, and was also published on the NeoGeo Online Collection The Best on June 18, 2008. The game was released in North America by Ignition Entertainment on March 3, 2009.[10] It was released in Europe on June 10, 2009.[11] An Xbox 360 version was released on July 1, 2009 via Xbox Live Arcade. A China-exclusive version for the PolyGame Master 2 arcade hardware was also released in 2009, which was called The King of Fighters '98: Ultimate Match Hero.[12] A PlayStation 4 version of Ultimate Match was released on March 20, 2018.

Ultimate Match includes additional characters not featured in the original version of the game, such as Eiji Kisaragi from KOF '95, along with Kasumi Todoh and the Boss Team (composed of Geese Howard, Wolfgang Krauser, and Mr. Big) from KOF '96, as well as the final boss characters Goenitz and Orochi, essentially including all the characters featured in the KOF series prior to KOF '98. New moves were added to the USA Sports Team to improve their playability, and EX versions of certain characters not featured in the original version were added, namely King with her Art of Fighting 2 moveset, and Ryuji Yamazaki, Blue Mary and Geese Howard with their Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers movesets. The Orochi versions of Leona and Iori Yagami are also playable, and both also appear as optional mid-bosses alongside Eiji, Kasumi, Shingo and original version of Rugal in the Arcade Mode. New stages were added to the game such as China and Hong Kong to show appreciation for KOF's high popularity in such regions; it is also the only fighting game to feature an accurate representation of Saudi Arabia in one stage, as the country was a major market for the NEO GEO line in the early 1990s.[13] A third fighting style is also introduced in addition to Advance and Extra, dubbed "Ultimate" mode. Ultimate mode is a customizable style that allows the player to choose between features from Advance or Extra mode, such as which kind of Power Gauge to use. It also includes a 'Neo Geo' mode, directly ported from the Neo Geo console.

An updated version titled The King of Fighters '98: Ultimate Match Final Edition, featuring balance changes for most characters, was released for arcades on January 24, 2011. It was released for Microsoft Windows on Steam on December 16, 2014,[2] and on GOG.com on June 1, 2018.[14] This version came to the PlayStation 4 on June 21, 2022.

In Japan, Game Machine listed The King of Fighters '98 on their September 1, 1998 issue as being the most-successful arcade game of the month.[26] According to Famitsu, the AES version sold over 22,651 copies in its first week on the market.[27]

During its release week, the Dreamcast version of the game sold 58,354 copies in Japan. As of 2004, the sales increased to 104,049.[28] Famitsu magazine scored the Dreamcast version of KOF '98 a 30 out of 40,[29] and GameRankings gave it a 71% based on a total of 18 reviews.[17]

Various reviewers from video game publications have commented on KOF '98. While reviewing the compilation The King of Fighters: The Orochi Saga, Matt Edwards from Eurogamer noted KOF '98 to be the most enjoyable game from the collection as well as the most famous game from the series "that really made people stand up and take an interest in the series. We'd disagree in favor of some of the later games, but for its time KOF '98 was reasonably well balanced for a 2D fighter. And there's no denying it was a blast."[30] The game also received praise by 1UP.com writer Richard Li who found it to be the most balanced game from the KOF series due to the fact it improved the game mechanics from the previous titles.[31] Jeremy Dunham from IGN gave the game an 8.4, praising, apart from the gameplay and characters, the graphics, the music as well as the background designs added for the Dreamcast version. However, he was disappointed with the lack of story in the game, noting the ones from previous games to be very entertaining.[32] GameSpot's Jeff Gerstmann found it to be one of the best 2D fighting games, noting that although new players may find it hard to play due to the difficulty in executing various special moves and how difficult the opponent AI is.[33] Although Andy Chien from Gaming Age found that the Dreamcast port of the game was well done since it does not have the disadvantages that it had in other consoles, he noted it "could have been a lot better." He also found that the game had a bug when he tried to perform a special move from Mai Shiranui, which unlike the other versions, is very inconsistent.[34]

Tom Russo reviewed the Dreamcast version of the game for Next Generation, rating it two stars out of five, and stated that "Not bad, but with so many other high-quality fighters available, this one only makes sense for players nostalgic for old NeoGeo fighting games."[24]

GameRankings gave Ultimate Match a 77% based on 14 reviews for the PlayStation 2 version and 74% based on 5 reviews for the Xbox 360 version.[18][19] Metacritic gave it a 73 out of 100 for both the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 versions based on 11 reviews and 4 reviews respectively.[20][21] Various publications for video games and other media have commented on Ultimate Match with IGN writer Ryan Clements giving it a 7.8, saying that probably this game should only be recommended to fans of The King of Fighters due to how old its graphics are as well as the little balance it has with 60 characters being playable.[35] James Mielke from 1UP.com complained on how the game is very similar to KOF '98, but found the controls to be comfortable and intuitive for any fans of 2D fighting games.[36] However, Heath Hooker from GameZone found that the gameplay and sound from the game make up for the graphics even though there is not much difference between KOF '98 and KOF '98: Ultimate Match.[37][38] In 2013, KOF '98 Ultimate Match was ranked as the 15th best arcade game of the 1990s by Complex, who also called it "possibly the greatest SNK fighting game of them all,"[39] and included it on their list of 25 best 2D fighting games of all time in 2013.[40]