The King of Fighters '97 (Neo Geo)

The King of Fighters '97
Developer: SNK Publisher: SNK Platforms: Neo Geo, Arcade (Neo Geo) Released in JP: September 25, 1997 Released in US: September 25, 1997 This game has unused graphics. This game has regional differences.

To do: Is that a bit of Morse code in the Orochi Team's stage theme?

It came to the end in 97.

Unused Graphics

Orochi

To do: Add Orochi's super bar charge animation in Extra mode.

Orochi has unused graphics that would come to be used in the PS1 version, where he is playable. To see them in-game, enable him by changing address 10A84B (for P1) or 10A84C (for P2) to 1E; he will not appear in the player select screen, but the first character you select will be changed to him.

Battle queue portrait. Since he is a single character in the boss fight, this is not seen in the normal game.

Win screen portrait when he is the team member who wins the match. Since the CPU does not use win screens, this is not seen in the normal game.

Win screen portrait when he is not the team member who wins the match. Also shown in the player select screen (PS1 only) and in the post-credits "All Clear" screen.

Blue Mary

Apparently in some point of development, Blue Mary's Round 1 intro originally shows her riding a motorcycle. Blue Mary uses the same intro in Real Bout Fatal Fury Special, but it was for whatever reason unused in KOF '97.

Unused Portrait

For some strange reason, a crudely drawn face (apparently for Kim) appears a bit later exploring character portraits using debug animation viewer. Probably this is a Dummy Graphic

Regional Differences

Endings

Playing the game in Japanese will allow you to access three special promotional endings, all for Japanese magazines, by clearing the game with certain teams:

...But does it make sense? The translations on this page need to be proofread. If you are fluent enough in this language, please make any corrections necessary!

Terry, Mary, and Joe - Gamest magazine

Ending	Japanese	Translation
	遥かなる欲望チーム やあ、みんな、マリー、テリー、東３人のゲーメストチームこと 「遥かなる欲望！チーム」を使ってくれてありがとう。 来年もぜひマリーを ゲーメスト代表として選んでくれよな。 舞もOKだよ。じゃ！	Distant Desire Team Hey, everyone. Mary, Terry and Higashi together are the Gamest Team. Thank you for using the Distant Desire Team. Next year be sure to choose Mary as the Gamest representative! Mai is okay as well. Bye!

Yamazaki, Chang, and Choi - Weekly Famitsu magazine

Ending	Japanese	Translation
	悪い子ちゃんチーム 週刊ファミ通の読者人気投票でナンバー１の座に輝いた 山崎竜二がついに「KOF」に登場！！ キムの修業に耐えかねたチャン・チョイを引き連れ、 悪（ギャグ？）の限りを尽くします。 イラストは柴田亜美先生だ！！	Bad Boys Team Shining at the number 1 spot in Weekly Famitsu's Reader Poll, Yamazaki Ryuji finally appears in KOF!! Joining Chang and Choi, who can no longer bear Kim's training, he is devoted to evil (or at least mischief?) until the end. Illustration provided by Ms. Ami Shibata!!

Billy, Kyo, and Mai - Neo-Geo Freak magazine

Ending	Japanese	Translation
	火気元気チーム Yah！勝利おめでとう！ ま、オレたちがついてるんだから当然だよな！ ネオジオフリーク・火気元気チーム、 イカシてただろ？ オレたちも結構楽しかったぜ！ じゃあな、ほかのチームに浮気すんなよな！	Fiery Vigor Team Yah! Congratulations on your victory! Well, since we make up the team, it was expected! The Neo Geo Freak Fiery Vigor Team, you made good use of us, eh? It was pretty fun for us too! Well, see you, and don't cheat on us with some other team!

(Source: VGMuseum)

(Japanese translation: johnny2x4)