Top 10 Fiercest Rivalries in KOF 

Kyo:*exists* Iori:And i took that personally

Honorable mention: ShoryuGame and King

Kyo: *Exists* Iori: so anyways I started blasting.

"It's just impossible for two edgy teenagers with fire powers to cool down." - you absolutely nailed this description for Kyo and K' xD

Honorable mentions: Terry and Ryo (it was shown a lot in older Kof) Joe and King (he always likes to brag about his champion title when he sees her) American sports team and New face team (because of what happened in 97) Kyo and Benimaru Mai and B.Jenet Billy and Yamazaki

IORI and KYO rivalry feels strangely enough even more interesting and iconic than Goku and Vegeta itself... it also makes more sense given the ancient lore, that's what makes Iori and Kyo beef really interesting. It's also deeply symbolic.

The good young wolf and the mean old Goose that got me

Man the reference to the Terry being Geese's son theory was gold

We all know who would be number one in this one, kyo and iori’s rivalry is truly iconic

"The angel with the heart of gold: Rugal Bernstein" AJAJAJAJAJAJAJA!!!

Haha "strive towards a goal" as you cut to Strive footage. I see you.

"... but strive towards a goal..." *shows GGStrive footage Well played, Shoryu

Bizarro KOF Alternate timeline: Iori has just added Kyo as a close friend shortly before asking him to be his best man at his wedding with Mai... Wait that's just the movie again.

Kensou vs Unriquited love

Knew the no 1 spot from the beginning but was still waiting to hear it 😂

Underrated rivalry in KOF Kim Kaphwan and Jhun Hoon

I always appreciated Geese as a (evil) character and is probably my favorite SNK boss. He didn't just rely on supernatural/godlike powers. From AOF to Fatal Fury, he was a true badass and it was worth fighting him. Not a lot of KOF bosses really ever made me feel like that. Though Rugal and Goenitz were cool. Also, again, Chizuru seems to not get a lot of credit and recognition from the common public (I'm glad you do in fact highlight her, Shoryu!), especially for the fact that she's dealing with two of the biggest heavyweights in the entire franchise. She's on the same team with them this time (and not a hidden team like the other installments though in KOF R1, they were on the same team) and is their glue. Iori doesn't seem to hate her and Kyo seems to care for her. The fact she can stand between the fiercest rivalry and get them to work together deems a lot of respect in my book. I hope when KOF XV comes out, she gets at least as popular as Kyo and Iori. I always kinda thought she is to KOF as Rose is to Street Fighter.

my personal favorite: K' vs. Krizalid

Honorable mention: Yamazaki and Billy Ash and Saiki Rugal and Saisyu Kusanagi K’ and Krizalid Whip and Ralf

The movie doesn't count - ShoryuGame This alone is enough to give this video an instant like

Honorable mention: Terry and Ryo, the first two Kings of Fighters.

Heidern's another character that I respect. He wasn't in a lot of the games playable, but he was in the background a lot and has ties with a lot of the cast and story. His losing of family because of Rugal and his gaining of Leona as a daughter. I think that's why it makes his rivalry with Rugal more impactful for me. Billy and Eiji's rivalry against Iori, especially when they were a rivalry team to begin with! And then Eiji was on another rivalry team with Kasumi and Malin! I think that's cool about KOF that even though there's big beefs, there's also petty beefs and that adds a lot of character to the characters.

I SWEAR TO GOD SHORYU, YOU MAKE A VID ABOUT RIVALRIES AND ONE OF THEM IS YASHIRO AND IORI, AND GUESS WHO LITERALLY JUST SHOWED UP WITH DIALOGUE WITH IORI!

Shoryu and king true rivals

Yashiro Nanakase is back! Let’s GO!!! This means Chris and Shermie are pretty much confirmed.

Malin vs Yuri really took me by surprised. I didn't know they had a rivalry. Another honorable mention is Ryo and Kazumi Todoh since their fathers are rivals and ever since Todoh losing Ryo, Kazumi is wanting to take revenge and honor his father that's her story in AOF2. Terry and Yamazaki also had a fierce rivalry in FF and KOF franchise, but isn't really dwelled into. Robert and King had draw in their kicking contest another honorable mention.

Kyo VS Wearing the same jacket for 2 games straight

I think Kuia and K and K9999 and K are worth a mention too.

Joe and Hwa Jai rivalry is great

Duo Lon and Luan (the kung fu girl wearing orange in Lin's victory animation) are childhood friends and rivals. They use similar Hizoku techniques, but Luan also uses fire and some kind of thread weapon according to her wiki. Maybe her design was the basis for Shion? Anyway, obviously she wasn't playable yet (or ever will be) but I would really like to see that.

Great video, always a pleasure when Angel shows up on your top tens.

Wait, there’s a KOF movie? The hell? Another good list, mate. Great to see the rivalries of old and new, as well as, famous and not-so-famous.

Due to the thumbnail I can only assume it's iori and kyo. I also wanna bring up who the hell is reiji or miu from kof howling blood? They are also apparently have sacred treasures like kyo and iori and were both only in that game.

Great Video Shoryu! At first I thought it was about those little hidden interactions you would get when you matched up certain characters that you didn't know had rivalries. But then I realized that's not really a rivalry since not all interactions were bad. For example when Blue Mary would see her crush Terry and she would said said "Hi, handsome boy." I guess that could be another video! Thanks for the vid Shoryu!

I'm not too familiar of SNK but I do find some of the characters lore interesting. Especially Terry Bogard. I really like these videos.

*Looks at title* "Alright! Place your bets! Kyo vs Iori at #1!" Spoiler: *It's them!*

The angel with the heart of gold, Rugal Bernstein

Amazing review!

Ryo Vs Terry should've been on here. The idea of "Ryo Vs Terry" is practically the reason KoF was created in the first place.

3 honourable mentions: Iori vs Billy Iori vs Eiji K9999 vs Kusanagi

Everyone knows the Top 1, you're just watching for 9 previous entries

Another great video as always, awesome

Great video man! Surprised no Billy vs Yamazaki

You forgot Ryo vs Terry. They even talk about how many matches they've done after how many years they fought each other.

Iori and kyo just need to get a room and they’re done

I love Mature and Vice's dynamic rivalry and they're fun to play as.

Never been early in each video you uploaded dude but I really really enjoy your content!

Another great vid! I didn't know Yuri and Malin were rivals.

I love how all CYS and Kyo want out of life is "punch the readhead."

MOST DEFINITELY fraking enjoyed watching this one right here!!!!! Iori vs. Kyo is ABSOLUTELY my MOST DEFINITE favorite rivaly. Though, I am surprised by MOST of these rivalries, probrably forgot the rivaly between Terry vs. Ryo, just saying.

Man this video was so much fun t0 watch and y0u are getting better with y0ur sense 0f hum0r with every vide0. Keep making great vide0 SG :).

well the thumbnail not really suprising xD but yeah kyo vs iori will always be one of iconic fighting game rivalry

Thank you so much 👍❤

12:33, that’s more a lover’s squabble than a rivalry

Quality over quantity videos absolute G O L D!

I love and appreciate your chanel :)

Kyo and Iori's hatred for each other has evolved and changed throughout the games. Now they dislike each other and they just enjoy fighting one another. At least Iori does. SNK heroines is canon and Iori's dream confirmed that his rivalry with Kyo is the closest relationship he has with any person. Even if it is dislike for one another. Iori doesn't have any friends, family, or relationships(anymore) besides the rivalry with Kyo.

Bless you for covering the lore of these games. I hate how people sleep on SNK storylines in favor MK. What do you think of XI and the backpedaling on the Garou progression with older Terry, Gato, etc. I think it's a shame they went back to basics. Old Ryo was badass too.

How he put Kyo and Iori above Terry vs Geese is beyond me

I didn't know about some of these, like the 'Yashiro / Iori' story and the whole rock band conflict. Heck, I didn't even really know Iori was a musician. Lemme guess, he plays the sax? Also I was always curious about the 'anti-Kyokugen' team and it's foundation, so I learned about that today. I also wasn't aware that Hwa Jai and Joe had patched up their differences, as KOF XIII still seems to portray Hwa as a villain (being 'reformed' by Kim) as well as still holding a general antagonistic air between the two. Honestly though I'm interested to learn about some of those honorable mention rivalries a bit more. Especially Benimaru / Shermie and Mature / Chizuru. Another rivalry I'd like to know more about is King/Joe. Joe's just a zany character, and in older games he would always flash his title belt at King to brag about the fact that she wasn't allowed to enter the tournament because she was a woman. And then there's Robert / Sie. They seem to be pals and I have no idea why aside from the vague excuse that they apparently speak with a similar Japanese Dialogue.

You forgot Kensou vs The Friendzone.

great video. I always liked Ralf and Clark

Even before I would start the video, I knew that Kyo and Iori will be in the 1st position.

9:04 When Yashiro punch Iori with several time in his KOF XV trailer! I know anyone can watch that! We glad that Yashiro have a comeback!

Honorable mention: Kensou vs getting friend-zoned

This was a great video and quite an unspoken aspect of King of Fighters lore. One of the things I appreciate the most out of King of Fighters in comparison to Street Fighter is that we get more canon interactions between the cast. XIII had a boatload of fun dialogue between each and every character. XIV continued this but at a limited capacity. My personal favorite rivalries are Joe Higashi & Hwa Jai, Jhun Hoon and Kim Kaphwan, Robert Garcia and Ryo Sakazaki, as well as Yuri and Malin. Joe Higashi and Hwa Jai have an interesting relationship for the reasons you mentioned. Their relationship is appealing especially considering how Hwa Jai has changed as a character. Jhun Hoon and Kim are pretty entertaining due to their contrasting philosophies. Robert Garcia and Ryo Sakazaki are an interesting duo due to their rivalry. Again, it's the dichotomy of tradition as opposed to innovation. Robert Garcia interprets his teachings differently and thus has a very distinct style compared to Ryo's more traditional techniques. And if I recall the canon correctly, Robert was actually the one who demonstrated the most talent of the duo initially. He was the ace in Kyokugen whereas Ryo took longer to master the same techniques. Overtime, it's implied that Ryo is the only one who really exceeds within the pair due to his ability to become the next Mr. Karate. I think a rivalry that is rather underrated is the one between Joe and King. King is an innovative and flashy Muay Thai practitioner whereas Joe tends to focus on more traditional forms. Joe has declared King's style as a fake form of Muay Thai. This is actually reflected somewhat in reality as many Muay Thai champions will say that the medium is stagnating due to the corruption of gambling. There is currently a clash between the Old style and the New style of Muay Thai. The new style places greater emphasis on power and clinching, while the old-style allowed competitors to use a wider array of diverse techniques. While this isn't quite the same as the conflict between Joe and King, it still does reflect on the reality of competitive Muay Thai today. So I really do appreciate their rivalry a lot.

5:42 "the angel with a heart of gold, Rugal Bernstein" made me spit out my coffee 😁😁😁

Great video, ShoryuGame! I was surprised by some of them, thanks for touching up on the history of KOF. I was wondering could you give ur thoughts about the KOF 15 character trailers for the next video. Im just curious of how u feel for the upcoming game

I like the Rugal video you did and Rugal may have been the big bad of the first two games but he was just a pawn to Goenitz to revive Orochi

There should be "Rival Cutscene" of ShoryuGame vs King in the Arcade Mode of KOFXV, Just like how "Street Fighter 4" did with it's "Rival Cutscenes."

Me: sees video about KOF rivals Also me: 500 bucks say Kyo Vs Iori is No.1. But let's be real the most fiercest rivalry is KOF gamers vs SNK Boss syndrome I played KOF 96 reached Goenitz without losing and i automaticly wanted to throw my controller because he was so annoying. I was never the same at that time i didn't even realise i almost threw my controller. Great vid Shoryu

Angel: Has Foxy been finished off yet? Kula: How's K9999? I think we all know where that conversation went

Honorable Mentions the video missed: - Billy and Eiji vs Iori - Vice vs Saisyu As for King vs Ryo, it has morphed into some sort of "Shy Josei vs Dense MC-kun" sort of situation now.

Fun fact: Terry and Ryo is actually a proxy war between Ken and Ryu. Ryo being a clone of Ryu (but having the same game creator, Takashi Nishiyama) and Terry acknowledging Ken as having the "same smell" as him in one of their dialogues in SVC Chaos. In the Capcom Vs. SNK, Ken even picks up Terry's cap before a matchup

I don't know who my fav is, but Geese vs Yamazaki is a pretty underrated one.

Hey bro I just got into to SNK Fighting game's and I love it u downloaded all of. The king of fighters arcade games, Samurai shodown, Snk vs capcom svc chaos super ultra but sad can't find a rom. Of Art of fighting series and fatal fury series that work properly

Vice vs Mature: fight to prove who's the strongest Iori: and i took that personality

Nice video

Good countdown. I like the rivalry between Lien vs Duke, Nagase vs. Kula, Mai vs. Nagase, Mignon vs Ninon Luise vs. Jivatma

YASSSSSSSSSSS A NEW VIDEO!!!!!!!!!!

Great list and vid as always but it would’ve been kool if you done an SNK one as a whole not limited to KOF to include SamSho, Fatal Fury, World Heroes, AOF, Last Blade etc you could easily do a top 20!! My list be like 1. Kyo Kusanagi vs Iori Yagami 2. Terry Bogard vs Geese Howard 3. K Dash vs Krizalid 4. Sacred Treasures Team vs New Faces Team/Orochi 5. Ash Crimson vs Saiki 6. Ryo Sakazaki vs Eiji Kisaragi 7. Kula Diamond vs Sylvie Paula Paula 8. Tung Fu Rue vs Chin Gentsai 9. Joe Higashi vs King 10. Rugal Bernstein/Omega Rugal vs Goenitz

Wolfgang?! And why is there is no real controversy with Geese Howard. Ryo was attempting to execute and kill Geese, in AOF2. I think that's pretty serious in our first KOF, the very first King of Fighters. tournament.

Actually no surprise for us for the kyo and lori rivalry. It started from kof95 which didn't really indicate. But, from kof 96 onwards there are always special intros for them.

The movie doesn't count.

poor Chizuru, she is stuck babysitting 2 grown man that cant stop trying to kill each other...

The old rivality between Terry and Geese, and Terry and Ryo, or Terry and Billy, Terry with Andy, Terry and Yamazaki, Terry and Kyo or Terry and Kim.

I like how every other character are friends with their rivals, then you got Iori and Kyo. And then you got Heidern and Rugal

"Angel with the heart of gold" that made me laugh so hard🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

New Shoryu Vid!!!!!!!!

Thanks for this video Shoryu, the Rivalry I'd add is Nagase and Malin...what do you mean they're not in the same game!?!? Ok how about Mignon and Ninon.

The irony is that Angel and Kula will be on the same team in KOFXV

Of course Kyo Kusanagi vs Iori Yagami is on the Number 1 Spot, They're like *"The Rock"* (Kyo) vs *"Stone Cold Steve Austin"* (Iori) of the KOF series.

it just did shatter my expectation

billy and iori would be a great one as well as vice vs literally any old man but specifically saisyu

I am glad you put the rivalry between K' and K9999 in the Honorable Mentions. Their special intros and win quotes in KOF 2001 and 2002 are cool. Too bad we never see more of their rivalry because of obvious reasons Still, the little we saw was awesome. K9999 was like the Iori for K' The manhua adaptation of KOF 2001 explains the reason why K9999 hates K' much better The writers of that manhua did an excellent job introducing K9999

Also forgotten mentions: Kyo vs Benimaru Kyo vs Shingo Kyo vs Rugal Iori vs Billy Chizuru vs Goenitz K' vs Krizalid Ash vs Shen Terry vs Ryo Billy vs Yamazaki Benimaru vs Duo Lon Ralf vs Whip Lin vs Ron

SNK fighting games are awesome, but also very challenging. I had Fatal Fury Special in my phone, but I had to uninstall it because it was just too hard for me, even when I set the difficulty at BEGINNER. I could beat Joe and Cheng, but Tung Fu Rue and Andy were a different story.

Great video! But can you quickly explain the Mature Vs Chizuru rivalry from the honorable mentions?

do fighting games in general next!

Yo ShoryuGame please do a video about your personal top 10 favorite KOF characters, I'm sure I'm not the only one interested to see who you'd pick