The King of Fighters ’98 (given the subtitle Dream Match Never Ends in Japan and The Slugfest in the U.S., commonly abbreviated as KOF ’98) is a 1998 fighting game released by SNK released for the Neo Geo arcade and home console. It is the fifth game in The King of Fighters series. This installment was advertised by SNK as a “special edition” of the series, as it featured most of the characters who appeared in the previous games (from KOF ’94 to ’97), regardless of whether the character was killed off in the series’ ongoing storyline (which would be resumed in the following game in the series with a new story arc).
Ports of KOF ’98 were released for the Neo-Geo CD and the PlayStation. A Dreamcast version titled The King of Fighters: Dream Match 1999 was also released, which featured much of the stages remade in 3D. The game was also remade for the PlayStation 2 as The King of Fighters ’98: Ultimate Match, which expanded the number of playable characters.
As KOF ’98 did not feature a plot, the SNK staff took this opportunity to add Rugal (who died in KOF ’95) as well as various alternate versions from various characters to the game. KOF ’98 has been commonly praised by several video game publications as the best KOF from the series due to its graphics and gameplay. Ultimate Match, however, was criticized for how similar it is to KOF ’98.