The King of Fighters 2002: Challenge to Ultimate Battle is the ninth game in the King of Fighters series, and is the second and last King of Fighters game produced by Eolith. Much like The King of Fighters '98, this game is more of a "dream match" for characters from all previous King of Fighters games, including killed-off characters. The series's canon storyline would resume in The King of Fighters 2003 - adapting, however, a character introduced in this game, Kusanagi.

It was released for the Neo Geo MVS arcade system on October 10th, 2002, followed by the home AES version on December 19th of the same year. It was later released for the Dreamcast on June 19th, 2003, this time adding two characters absent from the original version, King (who'd been present on all previous games) and Shingo Yabuki (also a mainstay in the series since his debut). On the 25th of March of 2004 the PlayStation 2 version was released, including not only all characters from the previous versions, but also Wild Iori, Goenitz and Geese Howard, whom not only had been present in the series before, but also had their move lists updated from their recent appearance in SNK vs Capcom: SVC Chaos.

A remake of this title, The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match, was released in Japan on February 26, 2009.

GameplayEdit

The game brings back the team play composed by three characters each that was a tradition in previous games. The game has also several important changes in the gameplay, like the "Free Cancel System" or "Max Mode System", the "Quick Emergency Evasion" and "Quick MAX Mode Activation", aside from the countless changes in each character's special moves and their properties.

Playable CharactersEdit

Hidden CharactersEdit

Orochi TeamEdit

• Orochi Yashiro
• Orochi Shermie
• Orochi Chris

AlternateEdit

• Kusanagi

Console ExclusivesEdit

• Shingo Yabuki
• King
• Geese Howard
• Goenitz
• Wild Iori

GalleryEdit

Ending Credits

Add a photo to this galleryAdd a photo to this gallery

External LinksEdit

• KoF2002 Official Website (in Japanese)
• Data in The King of Fighters Anniversary Website
• 2002 Official SNK Hong Kong combo video - part 1
• 2002 Official SNK Hong Kong combo video - part 2

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