Terry Bogard
The titular King of Fighters tournament originated from SNK's previous fighting game franchises, "Fatal Fury" and "Art of Fighting". The first game in the series, "KOF '94", centers on a black market arms dealer named Rugal Bernstein, who hosts a well-known fighting tournament to lure worthy adversaries into his trap so that he can kill them and turn them into stone statues, adding them to his collection of defeated martial artists. In addition to previously established fighting game stars Terry Bogard and Ryo Sakazaki, the game introduces a new hero: a young Japanese martial artist named Kyo Kusanagi, who serves as the lead character in the early "KOF" games. In making Kyo, SNK wanted his personality to contrast with those of earlier leads and stand out within the crossover.