Most of the gameplay remains the same as its predecessor, with some new additions and changes (including updated movelists for all characters).

The King of Fighters '97 plays like a traditional 2D fighting game, using four buttons (Light Punch, Light Kick, Strong Punch, and Strong Kick). While the series continued to use stages that are not team-specific, King of Fighters '97 is the only entry to have ambience for fights instead of music. Teams also no longer have their own specific theme song in the background, with some characters having their theme song played when fought against and others being restricted to the stage's general ambience. Unlike previous games in the series, where each team has their own represented stage that are lightly populated, all of the game's six main stages are densely populated and 'festival' in nature. While there is no mysterious benefactor, it is later revealed that the tournament is being used to strengthen the power to resurrect Orochi itself.Īs the game hints at the tournament being a worldwide phenomenon, some changes were made in the game's presentation (stylized like a television broadcast). Despite the incident (which destroyed the main stadium), the tournament's success triggered a worldwide phenomenon leading the new King of Fighters tournament. The third and final part of the series' 'Orochi Saga' arc, the game's story takes place a year after the defeat and demise of Goenitz (the leader of the followers of the divine being Orochi). The fourth installment of the King of Fighters series (and the sequel to The King of Fighters '96), King of Fighters '97 features the addition of selectable playstyles (where players can choose from two distinct 'Command Modes' that change certain gameplay mechanics). It was subsequently released for the Neo Geo AES and Neo Geo CD later that year. The King of Fighters '97 is a 2D tag-team fighting game developed and released by SNK for arcades (running Neo Geo MVS hardware) on July 28, 1997.

King of fighter 97 play