The King of Fighters All Star (KOFAS) is a beat 'em up action role-playing game developed by Netmarble Neo and published by Netmarble. It was first released in Japan on July 26, 2018, for the iOS and Android. The game is a retelling of SNK's The King of Fighters games with the player being able to create their own team as they battle across multiple annual tournaments. It was released in English regions on October 22, 2019. A Microsoft Windows version is also available, starting from its beta version on February 10, 2022.
The game is a beat 'em up with elements of an action role-playing game, similar to River City Ransom and its spiritual successors River City Ransom: Underground and River City Girls. The player controls one character as he engages multiple enemies until reaching the boss of the stage.[3] The character possesses normal techniques and special moves as well as Desperation Moves. The last two cannot be used consecutively as the player is given time to prepare for the next usage of the move. When first playing, the game offers the player a choice of the characters Kyo Kusanagi, Terry Bogard and Ryo Sakazaki. However, upon passing the first stage, the player can select randomly new characters developed by SNK. All characters carry a number of stars depending on how strong they can become and from what title they originate. For example, the first Kyo is his incarnation from The King of Fighters '94 but can be replaced by other incarnations of Kyo who possess more stars. Every time a stage is cleared, the player obtains different types of objects for multiple purposes such as increasing experience and raising stats, as well as rubies to summon more characters or restore their health.
The game often offers alternative versions of the characters that can only be obtained through events such as Halloween versions of Yashiro Nanakase or Kula Diamond.[4]
Each of the characters and one of their variants have different memory border classes aside Bronze, Silver and Gold, which are Purple, EX (Extreme)/Red and UE (Ultimate)/White Borders. Purple border has three different classes, which are FES, Boss Syndrome and Special Signature. The differences between regular KOF-related characters and crossover collaboration characters from Bronze to Purple FES is that the latter can alternatively uses Dimensional Exchange invitation letter memories to awaken to the next level, instead of character-based memories. As for Purple-based Boss Syndrome and Special Signature fighters, and both EX/Red and UE (Ultimate)/White fighters, they can alternative use generic memories based on their represented borders. However, unlike Boss Syndrome and Special Signature memories, creating generic EX/Red memories requires amount of rainbow shards and Purple FES fighters’ memories needed. Currently, only one of the Purple border can be charged up into a same level as EX/Red fighters with three of their character-based memories.
