The King of Fighters '96 (Neo Geo)
A year after the previous KOF tournament, a mysterious invitation is sent to all the world's best fighters for yet another. With Rugal dead, though, who is this enigmatic new figure at the head of the King of Fighters tournament and what is their connection to the devastating evil power that destroyed Rugal known as the "Orachi"? The only way to find out is through VICTORY!
Yes, it's King of Fighters '96 and I gotta say, despite my affection for the original KOF '94, so far this one is the all around best entry. KOF 95 improved the gameplay and character animations, but featured a rather lackluster soundtrack, but King of Fighters '96 has all of those things AND a killer soundtrack! The "Hero Team" theme, "Esaka", is especially fire:
Sure, that's the arranged version, but still - FIRE. All of the music in 96 is nothing if not catchy, which is more than I can say for 95's disappointing score.
But, hey, we don't play these games for the music! King of Fighter '96 also has much more balanced gameplay, introducing such things as air blocks and "attack deflections", all of which combine to make fights feel more fluid and less stiff (or cheap) like previous SNK games, including my beloved KOF '94. Special moves are easier to pull off, as are the super moves, although those don't take off nearly as much health as they used to, unless your power meter is full and your life is low (kind of making it a desperation move really).
The story is decent, with fun ending cinematics for nearly all of the teams. The big bad, Goenitz, is so easy to beat it's actually kind of refreshing, so I'm hardpressed to complain really. However, when it comes to character design and being an end boss, Goenitz isn't even fit to hold Rugal's torn off tuxedo, despite canonically being more powerful than him.
I had a lot of fun playing this though and was less frustrating for the wrong reasons as the previous games.