The King of Fighters '98: Ultimate Match

A remixed version of King of Fighters '98 with rebalanced gameplay, "Ultimate" fighting mode, an unlockable art gallery, and 64 fighters to choose from (10 of these were previously unseen in KoF '98). Also…

85 18 March 2008

Arcade Fighting Action

The King of Fighters '98: Ultimate Match is an arcade developed by SNK, released 18 March 2008 on PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 and Arcade.

Verified 18 Oct 2026 Sources: IGDB , Wikipedia

What The King of Fighters '98: Ultimate Match is

The King of Fighters '98: Ultimate Match is an arcade game developed by SNK and released in 2008. It is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, Arcade and PC (Microsoft Windows).

The premise, in the publisher's words

The King of Fighters '98: The Slugfest, known in Japan as The King of Fighters '98: Dream Match Never Ends, is a 1998 fighting game developed and published by SNK for the Neo Geo systems. It is the fifth game in The King of Fighters series and features most of the characters who appeared in the previous games, from The King of Fighters '94 to The King of Fighters '97. The game provides no storyline in contrast to the previous installments. Instead, The player selects a team of three characters to participate in The King of Fighters tournament until they reach the boss Rugal Bernstein, even though the character dies in The King of Fighters '95. Two fighting styles can be selected, and…

Description from Wikipedia · source

How it plays

It is played from a side view perspective. Its themes are action. It is a single-player game with no multiplayer component. Available modes: Multiplayer, Single player and Split screen.

Where it sits in the The King of Fighters series

The King of Fighters '98: Ultimate Match is the 32nd of 71 entries we hold in the The King of Fighters series. It arrived 11 months after The King of Fighters: NESTS Collection. The next entry was The King of Fighters: Maximum Impact Regulation A in 2008. Its critic score of 85 is 15 points above the series average of 70. The highest-rated entry is Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 at 90.

See all 71 The King of Fighters games in release order →

How it was received

The King of Fighters '98: Ultimate Match holds a critic score of 85 out of 100. That places it above 88% of the 2,164 rated arcade games in our database, which average 70. Games released in 2008 averaged 65, so it scored 20 points above the year average.

What it launched against

The King of Fighters '98: Ultimate Match launched on 18 March 2008, within three weeks of God of War: Chains of Olympus, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, Condemned 2: Bloodshot and Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut Edition. It reviewed better than 2 of the 4. It was a PlayStation 4 launch-window title.

Released around the same time: God of War: Chains of Olympus, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, Condemned 2: Bloodshot, Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut Edition.

Cheats and codes

We have not confirmed any working cheat codes for The King of Fighters '98: Ultimate Match yet. Rather than reprint a list we have not tested, this section stays empty until one is verified.

Know one? Send it in and we will test it →