Could King of Fighters ‘94 have worked on the PS1?

There have been so many popular 2D fighting games that people got to see on the PS1 shortly after its release back in ’94. We got to see games such as DarkStalkers: The Night Warriors (1994), Marvel Super Heroes (1995), Street Fighter Alpha 2 (1996), Guilty Gear: A Missing Link (1999) and many others which are all seen a classic fighting title for the PS1. However, as far as 2D fighting games are concerned one of the few titles that surprising never appeared on the PS1 back in the 90’s was the original King Of Fighters game which started in 1994. In fact, King Of Fighters ’94 was never released outside of Japan during the ’90s and only appeared in arcade along with the two Neo Geo consoles during that decade. Its quite possible that SNK decided to keep KOF ’94 a Japanese exclusive due to the rising popularity of the Street Fighter & Mortal Kombat series in countries like America.

Both the Art of Fighting & Fatal Fury series were not quite as popular as Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat and by the Fall of 1994 Namco had released its very first Tekken game. The landscape of gaming in relation to the fighting genre was changing towards the mid 90’s and more people had become attracted to 3D gameplay & graphics during the time. SNK would of had a pretty difficult time competing against companies such as Capcom & Namco in terms of fighting games in America between the ’95-’97 time period. While there is almost no question that a PS1 port of King Of Fighters ’94 could have worked back in ’95 it many not have been as popular as it was on the Neo Geo. King Of Fighters ’94 being a Neo Geo exclusive is what added to its appeal and its value would have plummeted if it appeared on the PS1 outside of Japan during the mid 90’s.