King of Fighters '96 General Information

Last Update: Aug 29th, 1996

Before You Start

King of Fighters '96 is the third in it's series of "Dream Team" fighting games, beginning with -- King of Fighters '94. A few new players enter the scene: 

Kasumi Todoh    AOF1 Todoh's daughter from AOF3
Leona           Joins Team Brazil as Heidern's replacement
Mature & Vice   Rugal's secretaries from KOF '95 replace Billy Cane and Eiji on Iori's team

Being a Team Player

King of Fighters '96 is all about Team Fighting a concept, at its inception, that was pretty new and fresh to the fighting game world. In King of Fighters '94 you chose a team. That team consisted of three people.

As of King of Fighters '95, the rules are a little different. Now you choose three people to be ON a team; you're not stuck with players you don't want. That means you can choose your best fighters out of 27 different possibilities and team them up.

You will, using these three characters, try to beat each of your opponent's team members, one by one. When a team member loses his/her life bar, the next team member jumps in to pick up the fight and the victor gets a tiny bit of power back.

The first person to go through all three of their team members loses the match.

Insert Coin

I don't believe if this game has been officially released yet, although it is at the Del Amo Mall in Southern California as well as Southern Hills Golfland in Stanton (also in Southern California.) The game is 50c/50c at Golfland right now.

Who Do I Choose

Move the cursor amongst the different fighters, and choose three people that you would like to fight on your team.

You can choose between different colors for your characters by pressing either the A or D buttons when picking them.

Line 'em Up

After you've chosen your team members and your opponent has done the same, you'll see a line up of all three of your fighters with a number 1 below one of them. This means that you need to choose who will fight first, second and third in your line-up.

You make this choice by moving the number right or left so it is under the fighter you want to be first, and then press a button. The number will switch to 2 and you choose who goes second in the same manner.

Ready... FIGHT!

When describing moves in this game, I will use a standard Moves Legend so that there won't be any confusion.

Meters and Gauges

Throughout the course of your match, you'll have to meters to keep an eye on:

  1. Life Meter
  2. Super Meter

Their use is pretty much self-evident. When your Life Meter is all the way down, you lose the round and the next fighter jumps in to take your place, unless you are the last fighter, in which case you lose the match.

Your Super Meter can be charged by attacking your opponent, or by purposefully gathering your "Ki" - done by holding down buttons A+B+C. (more on this later)

When your Super Meter becomes full, it will then turn blue and say "Maximum." That meter will then start counting down slowly, ticking away the time that you have to use your Super Meter.

You can use your Super Meter to do any of your character's 2 Super Moves. These moves are very powerful, and a very powerful version of these moves will be done if your Super Meter is filled to the top when you execute the move.

Common Moves

In this game, many players have certain kinds of moves that they can do in common with the rest of the players in the game. They are listed here:

The Obvious

There are four buttons:

The Not-So Obvious

Also, there are a few button combinations that prove useful to you:

Pressing B+C together causes your character to taunt your opponent, reducing the opponent's Super Meter, if it hasn't already hit the Max.

Press C+D together causes your character to do a powerful attack that will knock your opponent down, this can also be done in the air.

Jumping

There are three different kinds of jumps in KOF '96:

Dash In/Dash Out

Dashing can be done in this game by tapping either f,f or b,b. This will cause your fighter to dash in quickly or retreat away. You can turn your forward dash into a full Rush, by just holding F on the second tap (f,F)

Rolling and Dodging

For the most part, Dodging has been removed from King of Fighters '96, with the exception (so far) of Clark and Goro. They can "dodge" in the traditional sense of the word by pressing B+C+D.

For the rest of the characters, instead of dodging, you have the ability to roll through projectiles and some other attacks by pressing A+B together. This will cause you to roll forward while pressing b+A+B will cause you to roll backwards.

Super Escapes

Ever get really mad because you're trapped in the corner by somebody who just won't stop attacking you? Well now there's a solution: Super Escapes

When your Super Meter has been charged to maximum, but while it's still in blue (your time hasn't run out yet) you can perform a Super Escape. All you have to do, to do this is to do a roll (whichever direction you want to go) after you've blocked.

When you do this, your character will flash and will roll away quickly, even if your opponent is in the middle of a multiple-hit attack. Run up behind 'em and get em!

Desperations

Having a full Super Meter is not the only time when you can do one of your character's 2 Super Moves. You can also do them when your Health Meter has been reduced far down and begins flashing white and red. Super Desperations BUT If you have a full Super Meter AND a Flashing Red bar, then you can do a Super Desperation, which is usually a more powered up version of your normal Super Move.

However, there are some characters whose Super Moves will change slightly if you do a Super Desperation. Example: Terry Bogard to do 3 (not 1) Power Geisers in a row when he has a full Super Meter and a Flashing Red Health Meter. COOL!

I'll be building this whole Guide for a while, so if there's anything else you'd like to see, then E-mail me at jedi@tstonramp.com.