Click on the "core" above to follow us, here is more than just the game
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article only represent the author himself and do not represent the position of the nuclear platform.
With King of Fighters XV just two months away, players are losing their initial enthusiasm for toothpaste-style weekly character trailers (and often breaking changes). The old characters basically follow the "King of Fighters XIV" move module, which has little new ideas; the resurrection and return of the Snake Trio and Ashur and others have feelings, but the heat has faded; the two newcomer sisters Esra and Deloris who appeared on the promotional poster have also appeared in the first two tests... When players think that "King of Fighters XV" will be so flat and sit still and wait for the release, at the just-concluded TGA 2021, the second round of test trailers for "King of Fighters XV" surprised many fans of the series with the "heavy return" of a new character.
The character of "King of Fighters XV" is called Krohnen, but his "other name" has been blurted out by the fans of the series - K9999 (officially pronounced Kay Four-Nine, that is, "K49").
K9999 made his debut in King of Fighters 2001, and a year later, King of Fighters 2002 immediately became his final stage. After that, he almost disappeared from the king of fighters world, making cameo appearances in relatively niche spin-offs, and for a time became a general existence in the black history of the series.
Although SNK does not indicate any substantial connection between Curon and K9999, from the familiar costume color scheme in the trailer, the "can't say it's very similar, only exactly the same" move design, and the unabashed arrogant personality, fans know that "the man" is back.
Since K99999 was deeply hidden by SNK because of the plagiarism of the characters, this not-so-glorious legend has always become the topic of discussion among Fans of the King of Fighters. But after all, it has been exactly 20 years since the release of "King of Fighters 2001", and the ups and downs of K9999's "inside and outside the play" may still be a little strange to new players in the series... Why are old players so looking forward to the return of K9999? Let's start with a little recap of the life of this sad boy.
Who is K9999?
K9999 was born in 2001, when SNK was on the verge of bankruptcy, and many reasons such as the violent turmoil within the company and the change of development teams made the quality of "King of Fighters 2001" worrying; the character Tachibana drawn by new artist Kaoru Nona Nonaka also received bad reviews because of his "self-release" personality style. But even so, the new character K99999 and his teammate Angel in this game have accumulated a certain popularity among fans of the series.
In the context of the "King of Fighters" series "Sound Nest Chapter" (also known as "NESTS Chapter", the plot includes "King of Fighters '99" - "King of Fighters 2001"), the criminal group Sound Nest Company successfully captured Kyo Kusanagi who was seriously injured by the "Battle of the Great Snake Seal" in 1997, and created a large number of clones and reformed human warriors by extracting DNA in an attempt to conquer the world.
Between 1999 and 2000, the organization betrayer K' et al. and General Hadelan's mercenary forces foiled the Sound Nest's phased plans one after another, but never to the point. Under the guise of holding a KOF competition, The Sound Nest continues to refine its own human body modification technology with the data of various fighters. Finally, in 2001, the 9999th "perfect" clone, K9999, was created (this claim comes from the SNK wiki, while the official novel of King of Fighters 2001 describes K9999 as a "failure of over-cloning", and there is a certain discrepancy between the two).
K9999 also has the ability to manipulate flames due to his DNA from Kusanagi Kyo, but his control of the power of flames is not yet mature compared to Kusanagi and K'. K9999's only killer skill is "Scratch it!" And "Smash it!" "Can generate flames," get out of here! "It's just a gas gushing at high temperatures on the ground.
In order to make up for the lack of flame ability, K9999 was given the ability to change his own shape, he can change his hairstyle, clothing (including color), and can turn his right wrist into a drill and cannon; K9999's blue armor worn on his left wrist is used to stabilize his ability to deform and prevent it from getting out of control; his MAX Super Kill will liberate the deformation limit of his left arm, instantly proliferating biological tissue, causing huge physical damage.
K9999 acts with Foxy, Kura and Angel in King of Fighters 2001. The purpose of the squad is to clean up the traitors of the Sound Nest Organization (K'et al.) and all the forces that hinder the organization's actions. But for K99999, the meaning of the battle seems to come only from his almost instinctive dislike of K' and Kusanagi Kyo. Perhaps because of his upbringing, K9999 hated being compared to others, so he had many disputes with the members of the organization.
K9999 is grumpy, moody, dismissive of orders from the organization, and reluctant to cooperate with Falksy, who is a superior, and only gets along well with teammate Angel. In the backstory of the official website, Angel will comfort and encourage K99999 when she is depressed, although the words are more like a child, but she is almost the only person in the series who can communicate with K9999 normally.
After the end of the "King of Fighters 2001" competition, the Sound Nest Company was eventually destroyed by K' and his party, K9999 and Angel also chose to betray after learning about the Sound Nest Organization's transformation experiment on themselves, they took advantage of the chaos to sneak up on Foxy, and then fled the scene in a helicopter, and their whereabouts have been unknown ever since.
Man-made plagiarism storm
Among the many characters in the "King of Fighters" series with very different styles, K9999 is still very special. In the midst of the madness, there is a mixture of morbidity, and under the arrogance, it is gloomy. When the back and forth were panned, they took the steps that the six relatives did not recognize, and at the moment of releasing the killing move, there was a bold and unruly madness. K9999 is popular among players, and in a 2005 poll conducted by SNKPLAYMORE USA, K9999 ranked seventh among the most popular characters among fans (incidentally, his teammate Angel ranked third). However, the outstanding popularity did not bring better appearance treatment to K99999, and the original sin of "artificial plagiarism" doomed him to tragedy for 20 years after his birth from the beginning.
K9999's character is deeply borrowed from the main character of the anime "Akira", Tetsuo Shima, and not to mention the extremely unstable mental state, the red cape worn when he appeared on the pose, etc., every move and every line of K9999 can find a completely consistent contrast in the relevant clips of Tetsuo Shima. Not only that, SNK even went so far as to invite Tetsuo Shima's voice actor, Makoto Sasaki, to record the voice of K9999. In addition to the character background and styling, the similarity between K9999 and Tetsuo Shima has far exceeded the limits of "tribute", and this act has not informed Katsuyo Otomo, the creator of "Akira", in advance, and did not seek copyright from the original anime.
Katsuyo Otomo has repeatedly protested against SNK's "plagiarism", although it did not rise to legal disputes, but after "King of Fighters 2002", SNK did consciously remove K99999 from the series stage. The official re-tuning of part of the plot of the Sound Nest chapter, leaving only Angel alone in the betrayer who escaped the Sound Nest in "King of Fighters 2001"; the "Encyclopedia of the Characters of the King of Fighters" published in 2009 also left only a thin black silhouette of K9999; in the remake of "King of Fighters 2002", "King of Fighters 2002UM", K9999 was completely replaced by the new character Nameless, becoming the only character missing the game in the "King of Fighters XIV"; "King of Fighters XIV" The works of art from the past included in the gallery mode also have no trace of K9999...
Treatment after being banned...
Krispy Kaiser, SNK's community manager, also mentioned in a 2019 fan interaction that there is an unwritten rule within SNK: in a non-descriptive context (the so-called descriptive context such as "K9999 replaced by Nameless"), "he" will not be mentioned again in any SNK game title.
However, nearly 20 years after K9999 disappeared, SNK "without warning" pulled him out of black history...
The man came back and became even more murderous to Matt
Some players will think that Curon is a combination of K9999 and Nameless, but whether it is his blue hair (although it has been long, it also kills Matt), the iconic blue armor, the similarity of the moves (Nameless needs to remove the glove of his left arm when releasing the flames, which is completely different from Curron), or the deliberate bad attitude against K' and Kusanagi Kyo in the trailer, Curon is obviously more human than Nameless.
On the other hand, as early as the official manga "THE KING OF FIGHTERS~A NEW BEGINNING~" of "King of Fighters XIV", the remnants of the Sound Nest Organization have once again launched action. They collected fragments of the cloak of Ignatis (the ultimate boss of King of Fighters 2001, the leader of the Sound Nest) in an attempt to use this as a beacon to find Ignatis's resurrection factor from the dimensional rift.
In order to exacerbate the generation of rifts in space-time, The Sound Nest once brainwashed Angel and Kura, and the new characters Nelson and Sylvie, who debuted in the game, were also used as pawns in sound nests' evil plan. Although Ignes's resurrection plan was eventually once again contained by Kyo Kusanagi, K', the Super Power Team, and Hadiland's mercenary organization, the manga also mentions that the Sound Nest Remnants have long since split into multiple forces and are still likely to resurrect. It goes without saying that Curon, who appeared in "King of Fighters XV", may also be related to related events.
Interestingly, after the trailer was announced, Krispy Kaiser posted a dynamic on social media that reads "I had to let this lie last for many years..." as if to hint at the past (or black history)" about K9999's hacked history. In fact, there is another reason, which undoubtedly adds more mysteries to Curon's true identity...
Speaking of "The King of Fighters", it is true that I still can't get around the feelings
I don't have the confidence to call myself a big fan of the King of Fighters series, but I do love the wonderful backstories and the variety of group portrait characters in the King of Fighters world. To this day, I still have a collection of emulators from the King of Fighters series on the hard drive that must be installed...
When I was a child, because I couldn't read Japanese and couldn't read the plot of the cutscenes, I could only use the Hong Kong comic version of "King of Fighters" as the only way to understand the character story, and the life and death bond between K9999 and Angel in the "King of Fighters 2001" /"King of Fighters 2002" comics was also particularly impressive to me (now that I think about it, it is actually quite bloody... ）。
Angel in the Hong Kong comic version of "King of Fighters 2001" died after the outbreak of the X virus, and K9999 sank into the sea with it after all thoughts were lost...
Looking back, a full 20 years have passed, and whether Curon will be K9999 himself or another substitute for black history after all, it is really emotional to see this character reappear in some form in the latest game in the series.
The development of the "King of Fighters" series in recent years is not satisfactory, and after the uneven IP derivative works and series 3D, the tragic technical performance has made this former fighting king frequently timid. But for me personally, since SNK can still remember this old guy from 20 years ago, I am certainly willing to make up another ticket for the simulator player from 20 years ago.
If only SNK could be reckless... If it is directly confirmed that Curon is K9999, this ticket is even more worth it...
Due to the revision of the WeChat public account
If you like it, please take a look
This way you won't miss our pushes
:-)