This article has a talk page!This page details pre-release information and/or media for The King of Fighters '95 (Neo Geo).
Cut Teams#
KOF '95 features the same amount of teams as the previous game, only swapping out the American Sports Team (a.k.a. the USA Team) for the Rivals Team. In its concept stages, the game was intended to feature more teams than that, but this was stripped down due to cartridge space limitations.
The artwork shown above features some of the game's initially planned teams;
- A Boss Team featuring the main bosses of the Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting series; Geese Howard, Wolfgang Krauser and Mr. Big. This would've directly followed up on Geese and Krauser's tease in the Team Italy ending of the previous game. This team would later come to fruition for this game's sequel.
- An earlier version of the Rivals Team. Billy Kane and Eiji Kisaragi are still here, but in place of Iori Yagami is Rody Birts, curiously appearing here quite some time before his formal introduction in Art of Fighting 3.
- A Samurai Shodown Team featuring Haohmaru, Nakoruru and Galford from that series. They were apparently cut from the game due to concerns regarding how they would fit into the game's story, given they hail from hundreds of years in the past before the game's events. Notably, Nakoruru would be included as a secret boss character in the game's Game Boy port, and later be part of a separate team for The King of Fighters XIV. A Samurai Shodown Team would finally come to fruition for The King of Fighters XV featuring a similar line-up, aside from switching out Galford for Darli Dagger.
- Rugal Bernstein posed alongside what seems to be a cut second form for him. It would appear the game was initially meant to follow a similar formula to the previous entry for the final boss, where one would first face Rugal in his standard form then a powered-up form. Instead, one is pitted against Saisyu Kusanagi before facing Omega Rugal. This cut form's existence explains some curiosities regarding the boss encounter, such as the fact the Saisyu fight's theme features Rugal's leitmotif. This may also explains reports that Saisyu was a last minute inclusion to the game.