The King of Fighters '96

The King of Fighters ’96 launched for Neo‑Geo arcades in 1996 as chapter two of the Orochi saga. It overhauled the entire combat engine: old dash‑evade mechanics are replaced by the new emergency‑roll system, while jump and hit‑box properties are reworked, greatly changing combo possibilities. Goenitz serves as the final boss, unveiling the lore of the Four Heavenly Kings of Orochi. Custom team building remains available alongside an expanded character roster with many classic SNK fighters. Gameplay pace is noticeably faster than KOF 95, favouring aggressive playstyles. Ports were released for PlayStation and Sega Saturn. The arcade build is playable via Neo‑Geo emulators and marks a major system‑rebuilding milestone for KOF.

These are the default keys. Every arcade board has a different number of buttons and means different things by them. The rows above are buttons 1–6 on the board: on Neo Geo boards (The King of Fighters and friends) A/B/C/D are buttons 1–4, Metal Slug uses only 1, 2 and 4 (shoot / jump / grenade), and Pac-Man uses none at all. Six-button fighters with three punches and three kicks (Street Fighter II and the like) get a different layout from the core: light punch U, medium punch I, heavy punch Q, light kick J, medium kick K, heavy kick E. Click the gamepad icon 🎮 in the player toolbar, then “Remap keys” to open the emulator’s own control settings (keyboard and gamepad, saved automatically). Gamepads are detected automatically. On phones you get on-screen buttons.