The King of Fighters '99

and Robert Garcia calling their respective Striker to attack. The bottom bars indicate how many Strikers the player can use. Instead of the three-character teams from earlier The King of Fighters (KOF) games, each team now has four members. Before a match, the player chooses three of the characters to use in the fights. The fourth member becomes the "Striker" the player summons during battle to help their character by performing one of their Special Moves against the opponent. A Striker can be summoned only a limited number of times during a single match. This is determined by the number of "Strike Bombs" at the bottom of the screen. Kyo Kusanagi or Iori Yagami. The updated ''The King of Fighters '99: Evolution version features stages remodeled in 3D and includes two additional stages, as well as new characters who can only be used as Strikers. The new Strikers are Kyo Kusanagi (in a different outfit), Athena Asamiya (in her school outfit), Goro Daimon, Billy Kane, Ryuji Yamazaki, Chizuru Kagura, Syo Kirishima, Alfred, Vanessa, Seth, Fiolina Germi, and Gai Tendo. Also, the game can be connected to the Neo Geo Pocket Color game The King of Fighters: Battle de Paradise. Points won in Battle de Paradise can be transferred to The King of Fighters '99: Evolution'' to speed up the leveling process for the Extra Strikers. ==Plot and characters==

Two years have passed since the last King of Fighters tournament. Nobody has seen Kyo Kusanagi or Iori Yagami since they defeated the evil being Orochi at the climax of the 1997 tournament. Invitations are sent to many characters inviting them to a new tournament, which this time around is more of a secretive affair and away from the public eye than the ones in both '96 and '97, with each team now having an additional member. However, the tournament's host remains unknown. He is faced in two states: first he appears with a special coat that analyzes an opponent's data. Once he's defeated, he burns away his coat and increases his strength while having stronger moves. New characters are marked below in bold: '''K' Team (Hero Team)''' • '''K'''' • Maxima • Benimaru Nikaido • Shingo Yabuki Fatal Fury Team • Terry Bogard • Andy Bogard • Joe Higashi • Mai Shiranui Art of Fighting Team • Ryo Sakazaki • Robert Garcia • Yuri Sakazaki • Takuma Sakazaki Ikari Warriors Team • Leona Heidern • Ralf Jones • Clark Still • Whip Psycho Soldier Team • Athena Asamiya • Sie Kensou • Chin Gentsai • Bao Women Fighters Team • King • Blue Mary • Kasumi Todoh • Li Xiangfei Korea Justice Team • Kim Kaphwan • Chang Koehan • Choi Bounge • Jhun Hoon Single Entry • Kyo Kusanagi • Kyo-1 • Kyo-2 • Iori Yagami • Krizalid ==Development==

''The King of Fighters '99 was the last KOF'' game with producer Takashi Nishiyama due to issues with the company in 2000. Like the earlier games the artwork was done by Shinkiro. The designs in general were retouched to give a cooler emphasis, most notably in K' as his sophisticated style is meant to breathe new life into the series. Eiji, one of the game's designers, commented that he thought K' would be more popular than he turned out to be, noting that K' was too plain. As the game was developed at the same time as SNK's Garou: Mark of the Wolves, the protagonist's designer was fearing he was too similar to Rock Howard which made him nervous. There were also similarities with Cool from the fighting game The Fallen Angels as its designers moved to SNK to work in ''The King of Fighters '99. Kyo and Iori were originally designed by Shinichi Morioka who had left Steel Hearts after The Fallen Angels and upon returning to SNK for The King of Fighters '99'', he also created K' and Maxima. With the introduction of a new lead character, K', SNK had originally planned to remove main characters Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami, who had previously appeared in earlier installments of the series, from ''The King of Fighters '99. Instead, they ended up as unlockable hidden characters after fans responded negatively to their removal at location tests. Kyo and Iori were supposed to disappear due to business reasons or the requests of enthusiastic fans, but in the end they have continued to appear ever since. Kyo was involved in the story to some extent, but not Iori, in terms of the connections with the new protagonist. The same issue would happen in the third story arc, where Kyo and Iori are major characters opposing The King of Fighters 2003'' lead Ash Crimson but more due to narrative intended reasons rather than fan demand. Kyo was redesigned for this game for the first time in the entire series replacing his school uniform with more casual clothing that were well received by the staff and fans. To contrast with the previous series' protagonist, Kyo, K' was designed to be the "dark hero". The staff wanted to create a Robo Army Team. This idea was abandoned, but they later created a tribute to it in The King of Fighters 2000 by introducing Rocky, a character from Robo Army, as a Striker for Maxima. The character Whip was originally meant to appear in ''KOF '96'', but due to Leona Heidern's introduction in that game, the staff decided to wait until ''KOF '99''. The large number of young characters appearing in the game represented a problem for the developers; as a result, the staff introduced older characters such as Seth and Vanessa to balance the game. Bao was added to reduce the average age of the Psycho Soldiers Team from 42 to 34. The boss character, Krizalid, was designed "with a straight, stylish appearance and earnest strength"; however, the designer in charge mentioned he "overdid it". Due to the large number of unused graphics accumulated on the Neo Geo version, some of Krizalid's graphics were removed. With the release of the Dreamcast port, the staff could add Krizalid's graphics because of the console's capacity. Vanessa was meant to be a playable character, but due to time constraints, she was only a Striker in the Dreamcast port. Meanwhile, while Kyo and Iori are always written as rivals who interact before their matches begin, this time their exchanges were made to give a subtext of happiness as both fighters are happy to see each other manage to survive to the battle against the demon Orochi in the 1997 tournament. ==Release==

The video game was originally released for the Neo Geo MVS arcade systems on 22 July 1999. A port to the Neo Geo AES and Neo Geo CD consoles followed on 23 September and 2 December during 1999, respectively. Meanwhile, the PlayStation port came in 23 March 2000 in Japan and on 27 April 2001 in North America. In Japan, it was later republished for the PlayStation SNK Best Collection on 29 March 2001 and once again on 25 July 2002. Though K' was consistently promoted in each port, Kyo Kusanagi was added to the Neo Geo CD's cover alongside the new lead since he became easier to access. The North American port was the subject of censorship and blood was omitted. The Neo Geo AES version was added via emulation to the Wii Virtual Console in Japan on 18 December 2012 in North America on 16 May 2013 and in the PAL region on 4 July 2013. The arcade version was emulated and released as part of the ACA Neo Geo series for the Nintendo Switch on 25 May 2017 with releases for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, iOS and Android following afterwards. In this port, players can change the audio to listen to arranged tracks of the soundtrack. The Neo Geo and Dreamcast versions are included in the compilation The Kings of Fighters NESTS Hen released for the PlayStation 2 in Japan. The game was also made available for the PlayStation 4 but only in Japan by Hamster Corporation. ==Related media==

Two CD soundtracks and a drama CD were published. The series' writer, Akihiko Ureshino, wrote a novelization of the game titled Beyond the "K". It was released in November 1999 by ASCII. In the spin-off game The Rhythm of Fighters, Kyo's character theme, "Tears", was used for the game to work as a rhythm game. Data of the game was used to create the Game Boy Advance game The King of Fighters EX which writer Akihiko Ureshino considers a failure. ==Reception==

Critical reception In GameSpots article "The History of SNK", ''KOF '99: Evolution was described as one of the best fighting games on the Dreamcast with Garou: Mark of the Wolves. Various video game publications have commented on the game. While the fighting system has been well-received, critics have expressed mixed feelings about the Striker system. IGNs Anthony Chau commented that although "people are probably tired of 2D fighting games, saying that they all play the same", he found KOF '99: Evolution to be very distinct. He found the new gameplay very entertaining despite knowing that some "KOF purists hate the Striker system". GamePro'' criticized the game because the Strikers' new gameplay "simply [does not] fit in the King of Fighters series" and "is more of a novelty than a game mode". Uvejuegos stated that while the game did not have a major update of its characters, except Kyo Kusanagi's redesign, it still managed to maintain its quality due to its fighting system. The new lead, K', and the final boss, Krizalid, were described as entertaining. Gaming Age felt the graphic update was more noticeable than the Uvejuegos did but was critical of Krizalid as a result of how difficult he is to beat when compared to the famous previous Rugal Bernstein and Orochi. The emulated Nintendo Switch version has garnered a similar response, with reviewers finding it modern and praising its gameplay. Critics said the game's gameplay and graphics were ahead of their time. GameSpew felt the port's mechanics, and multiple options prevented the game from being dated. The combat was described as fast enough to appeal to gamers. Bonus Stage found the graphics appealing and praised SNK's focus on giving the game a storyline, despite it being an arcade fighting game. In retrospect, 1UP.com said that while players were bothered by Kyo and Iori's exclusion from teams, and by the Striker system, K's inclusion was one of SNK's best decisions due to his fighting style. Sales ''The King of Fighters '99 was very popular after its release. According to Famitsu'', both the AES and Neo Geo CD sold over 14,620 and 18,925 copies in their first week on the market respectively. The PlayStation port sold 96,484. The Dreamcast version was released during the PlayStation 2's launch and the Dreamcast's ending, and it did not achieve very good sales according to a GameSpot article. On its release week, the Dreamcast port sold 41,387 units. == Notes ==