King of Fighters started as a tournament of franchises; it’s become a tournament of eras

polygon.com:

From day one, the King of Fighters series came out as a “dream match,” answering the question of “Who would win?” if you mashed up various game franchises.

SNK had gone overboard with its fighting game lineup, and this served as a way to bundle some of them together and build a central tentpole series. It was a little odd to see that bundle include not just Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting, but also action series Ikari Warriors and Psycho Soldier, but it quickly became an annual affair.

Since then, the series’ trajectory has been fairly consistent. While we’ve seen a few graphical overhauls, spinoffs, and schedule hiccups, each main entry has typically mixed new characters with fighters from those same four franchises. Rather than going the Smash Bros. route of pulling in as many guest characters as possible, King of Fighters has stayed in its lane, leaving that sort of fan service for background cameos. (Though that doesn’t mean the idea never came up.)

Instead, SNK has spent a lot of time over the years designing new fighters, and unlike a lot of its competitors, it has spent a lot of time designing new main characters — often putting them up-front in its stories and marketing materials. When the series began, SNK didn’t prop up Fatal Fury star Terry Bogard; it put newcomer Kyo Kusanagi front and center. When I think back to King of Fighters ’99, the first thing that comes to mind is seeing artwork of newcomer K’. In King of Fighters 2003, Ash Crimson’s distinctive red coat gives the series an entirely different feel.

These protagonist shifts line up with story arcs in the games, but more than that, SNK’s eagerness to promote the characters on magazine covers, box art, and merchandise established different eras for the