The King of Fighters '98 - The Slugfest

The King of Fighters '98 - The Slugfest, known in Japan as Dream Match Never Ends, is a 2D tag-team fighting game released by SNK for arcades in July 1998. The fifth installment in the King of Fighters series, it was advertised as a "dream match" celebration of the franchise's first four years. Unlike previous entries, the game features no storyline, instead bringing together most characters from KOF '94 to '97 regardless of their canonical deaths. The roster includes 38 playable characters split into 12 teams, with Rugal Bernstein returning from KOF '95 as the final boss in his Omega form. Players select a three-character team, with the game retaining the Advanced and Extra fighting styles from KOF '97 while introducing refinements including the "Advantage" comeback mechanic. The game also features alternate "EX" versions of select characters.

Arcade

Released worldwide on July 23, 1998, The King of Fighters '98 runs on Neo Geo MVS hardware, featuring a 68000 main CPU at 12 MHz, Z80 sound processor, and Yamaha YM2610 sound chip, with a massive 683-megabit cartridge capacity. The cabinet supports two players with an 8-way joystick and four buttons. Game Machine listed it as the most-successful arcade game in Japan in September 1998. The game is widely regarded as the best entry in the series and one of the greatest fighting games ever, praised for its balanced roster, refined mechanics, and vibrant sprite art by Shinkiro and Toshiaki Mori, with a soundtrack by Hideki Asanaka, Marimo, and Yasuo Yamate.