The history of KOF actually begins long before Kyo Kusanagi first stepped into the fighting arena in 1994. In fact, the game’s lineage can be traced all the way back to founding fighting game titles from the ’70s and ’80s, such as Heavyweight Champ, Champion Boxing and Karate Champ, the latter of which was a major influence on the seminal arcade classic Street Fighter, released in 1987.
Street Fighter was the brainchild of Takashi Nishiyama, who cut his teeth at Japanese gaming firm Irem on fighting-filled beat-’em-up titles such as Kung-Fu Master and Avengers. After moving to Capcom, he joined forces with friend and colleague Hiroshi Matsumoto to create what would become one of the most influential fighting game series of all time.
Indeed, Street Fighter was the title that introduced many of the fighting game staples that now underpin the genre, with the game being the first in the genre’s history to introduce command-based special moves, such as the now famous Hadōken and Shōryūken attacks. It also pioneered the use of a six-button control scheme, with each player having access to three punch buttons and three kick buttons.