Lost In Translation/King of Fighters 2003, The

The King of Fighters 2003
Manufacturer	SNK Playmore
Released	2003
Control; Method	8-way Joystick; 4 Button(s)
Main CPU	Neo-Geo; 68000 (@ 12.000 MHz); Z80 (@ 4.000 MHz)
Sound CPU	Stereo; YM2610 (@ 8.000 MHz)
Video; Details	Raster (Horizontal); 320 x 224 pixels; 59.19 Hz; 4,096 Palette colours
Screens	1
ROM Info	26 ROMs; 95,748,096 bytes (91.31 MiB)
MAME ID	kof2003 · kf2k3bl · kf2k3bla · kf2k3pl · kf2k3upl

This page is a stub for arcade games that are part of the Lost In Translation series using information based on MAME (version 0.113u2).
For an example of preferred content and layout please refer to Out Run or The Ninja Warriors.

About The Game

The King of Fighters 2003 is a one-on-one fighting arcade video game.

A new edition of the KOF series with 32 selectable fighters plus Evil Kusanagi, Chizuru and Maki Kagura, Adelheid Bernstein and the final boss Mukai.

Additional Technical Information

Players : 2

Control : 8-way Joystick

Buttons : 4

=> [A] Light punch [B] Light kick [C] Strong punch [D] Strong kick

Trivia

Released in November 2003, KOF2k3 represents the latest opus in the series to run on the SNK Neo-Geo MVS hardware.

Two new systems have been adopted : 'Tactical Leader System' which sets up a leader favorably treated in capability in a team and 'Multi-Shift' in which player characters can be changed freely during 3 on 3 battle.

Noteable Characters

Ash Crimson

Unlike the usual KOF hero characters, Ash was designed with the intent to create an 'attractive evil character'. Because the supervising designer created a rough design that fit the desired appearance to a 'T', little was changed for this character's design. Incidentally, the team story quotes casually from Robert Browning's 'Spring Song', but no one on the staff took interest in this (Boo hoo). And the bit about Shanghai Crabs was the original material for the character 'Rojin'.

Duo Long

When speaking of the Flying Brigands, you have quite a collection of especially unique-looking characters, but Duo Long is, unlike those of his ilk so far, an orthodox, handsome character. The model for this character is a certain Romanian vampire and hunter with the same first letter for his name. A subtly embroidered dragon is depicted on the back of Duo Lon's costume, but according to the illustration's supervising designer Falcoon, this character sports a detailed character that follows the steady work of traditional craftsmen with the scales drawn one at a time...

Shen Woo

The first concept for this character was a wild and sexy guy. The development codename for him was 'The Third Man', and along those lines he became Woo Shen, his name 'flip-flopping' to the current name, and the latter moniker seemed to stick. Because Ash has his particular appearance (LAUGH), Shen, no matter how you look at it, appears more like the main character. His character closely resembles certain aspects of Ralf and Yashiro in many ways, so designers toiled to create distinctive moves for this character. According to the supervising designer, 'What knotted my stomach most was the shortness of time we had for development'.

Tizoc

To tell the truth, Raiden was to appear in KOF 2003, but before the characters were finally decided on, Tizoc took his place. Along with the change to KOF 2003's game system, designers were able to create movements heretofore impossible with KOF until now, allowing us to add the style of Tizoc for that very reason. It's unclear whether there were plans or not to introduce Grant from "Garou - Mark of the Wolves" along with Tizoc for a friendly tag team battle. It may not be very well known, but the Japanese name for Tizoc is 'Griffon Mask'. But we felt Tizoc for the English version had a nice ring to it.

Gato

Keeping the demands of the Chinese market in mind, designers included a user of orthodox Chinese boxing in the game to follow our marketing plans and enter the battle with Tizoc from "Garou - Mark of the Wolves". Halfway through the development process, he became the character that was busy getting burned, frozen, and slapped around with a giant metal ball by other characters to experiment with the overhauled program. When Gato appeared, many groundless rumors circulated that 'Hotaru had made a comeback' and other such rumors to the same. Whatever command you enter, be aware that Hotaru Futaba is nowhere to be found in KOF 2003, and Gato is here to stay!

Malin

KOF 2003 saw the absence of Choi Bounge, so why not make a nimble and cute girl character?! And with that sentiment, Malin was born. It took quite an effort to arrive at the initial design for this character, but when we entered the actual work for KOF 2003, the creation of this character was a piece of cake. In the appearance sequence, the supervising designer poured his sincerity into the transformation scene. But the Arcadia magazine realized that she wasn't included in their feature articles and regretted their mistake. If you consider our preferences, designers insisted on the spelling for this character to be 'Malin' and not 'Marin'. This is the humble preference of the supervising designer and a mystery to us all.

Maki Kagura

If the younger sister Chizuru Kagura is the stork, the elder sister Maki Kagura's name comes from the tortoise (storks live a thousand years, but tortoises live 10,000). The background story for these two twins comes from KOF '96, but with their appearance in KOF 2003, some designers suggested Maki's hair be shortened to distinguish her from her kid sister. She appears in KOF 2003 as she always does (Her bangs are slightly different, however, so people who have confidence in their powers of observation, beware!). For the location test of KOF 2003, many players who defeated Chizuru were vanquished by the awesome elder sister Maki. So the fate of players was often decided with the appearance of Maki-you just don't mess around with this character!

Adelheid

To widen the worldview of KOF with the desire to add a separate story to the main tale, designers added this character devised as a set with her kid sister Rose. Designers think many picked up on this, but Adelheid is a common female name among Swiss and Germans, and is the name from which the diminutive of Heidi's derives. In the Adelheid stage of KOF 2003, the soundtrack begins with Chopin's 'Revolutionary Etude', but including something like this on the NEO-GEO system required a huge amount of memory which overwhelmed the voice data of other characters. Designers believe it was worth it, but producers may have dissed the supervising designers of other characters in the process.

Rose

If Hinako was the modern, unconventional 'na?f', Rose is the classic 'sophisticate' character. She has an overpowering sense of pride and high-handedness. She's also selfish and moody. If things don't go her way, watch out! But she's a real babe and not only that, she's rich! (Laugh). The voice actor for Rose also worked on Malin and Maki Kagura. Because she had a tough schedule providing the voice for three characters in one day, she was really put through a tough trial. The staff regrets this and gives their thanks from the bottom of the ocean.

Mukai

With the belief that a fighting game boss 'must be easy to understand', designers adopted the 'ability to fossilize' to give impact to Mukai's presence. Designers then matched the design of this character to this ability. So as far as the procedure of development is concerned, Mukai was quite an unorthodox creation. The concept and design came off without a hitch, but arriving at his name was a difficult process. He's among the first of the KOF series boss characters who would be graced with the Japanese honorific of '-san'.

Leona, Ralph and Clark are playable characters in the Foma 90x Series Mobile Phones game 'Metal Slug Survivors'.

Scitron Digital Content released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (The King of Fighters 2003 Original Sound Trax - SCDC-00337) on 24/04/2004.

Hacks of this game are known as :

"The King of Fighters 2004 Plus".
"The King of Fighters 2004 Ultra Plus".

Tips and tricks

Play as Evil Kusanagi

Hold Down, then rotate control stick clockwise to Upleft then rotate counter-clockwise to Upright, then press any button.

Play as Chizuru and Maki

Hold Up, then rotate control stick counter-clockwise to Upright then rotate clockwise to Downleft, then press any button.

Final Bosses

To fight Adelheid, defeat Kusanagi (the mid-boss) without using a Desperation Move as your final hit that KOs him. To fight Chizuru/Maki followed by Mukai, defeat Kusanagi (the mid-boss) using a Desperation Move as your final hit that KOs him.

Game Endings

There are different endings for beating either Adelheid or Mukai. You can also see an extended ending for a non-Team-Edit team when you beat Mukai. Here are the teams with extended endings (the order the characters are selected does not matter) :

Ash, Duo Lon, Shen
Terry, Joe, Tizoc
Ryo, Robert, Yuri
Kim, Chang, Jhun
Leona, Ralf, Clark
Gato, Yamazaki, Billy
King, Mary, Mai
Shingo, Benimaru, Daimon
Athena, Hinkao, Malin
K', Maxima, Whip
Kyo, Iori, Chizuru
Kyo, Benimaru, Daimon (picture only after staff roll)
Mai, King, Yuri (picture only after staff roll)

Series

The King of Fighters '94 (1994)
The King of Fighters '95 (1995)
The King of Fighters '96 (1996)
The King of Fighters '97 (1997)
The King of Fighters '98 - The Slugfest (1998)
The King of Fighters '99 - Millennium Battle (1999)
The King of Fighters 2000 (2000)
The King of Fighters 2001 (2001)
The King of Fighters 2002 - Challenge to Ultimate Battle (2002)
The King of Fighters 2003 (2003)
The King of Fighters NeoWave (2004)
The King of Fighters Maximum Impact (2004, Sony PlayStation 2)
The King of Fighters XI (2005)
The King of Fighters Maximum Impact 2 / The King of Fighters 2006 (2006, Sony PlayStation 2)
The King of Fighters Maximum Impact - Regulation A (2007)
The King of Fighters '98 - Ultimate Match (2008)
The King of Fighters XII (2009)

Staff

Executive Producer: Eikichi Kawasaki

Producer: Kazuya Hirata

Programmers: Teruki's Dad; Narutaki; Cyber Kondo; M. Usk; Bok Mannami; Pierrot; Muracchi

Demo Designers: Pasta; Ogura; Asuka

Director: Sayuri

Planners: M. Ruyun; Daizen; Aka (lv60); Ama-Sama; T. Mieno; Ukyao; Bea; Woo Cc

Music & Sound Designers: Tate Norio; Yasumasa Yamada; Masahiko Hataya

Bug Checkers: Kiyomatu@Teacher; Masaru; Wakatora; Sousukematsumoto; Momonga; Minaru; DGD; Iwao Futatsu; C>B; Watanabe Ug; Anotherkonishime; Kaz

Illustrator: Falcoon

Special Assist: Toshi Kita Maz; K-Natsui (Nuts)

Promotion: Akito K.; Yuzuko

Voice Actors

Ash: Sounosuke Nagashiro

Duo Lon: Tsunehito Maruo

Shen: Kouji Suizu

Terry & Kim: Satoshi Hashimoto

Joe: Nobuyuki Hiyama

Tizoc: Hikaru Hanada

Ryo & Daimon: Masaki Usui

Robert: Mantaro Koichi

Yuri: Kaori Horie

Chang: Hiroyuki Arita

Jhun: Kazuya Ichijo

Leona: Masae Yumi

Ralf & Benimaru: Monster Maetsuka

Clark: Yoshinori Shima

Gato & Yamazaki: Koji Ishii

Billy: Atsushi Yamanishi (as Seijiro)

King & Mary: Harumi Ikoma

Mai: Akoya Sogi

Shingo & Announcement: Takehito Koyasu

Athena: Haruna Ikezawa

Hinako: Ayako Kawasumi

Malin, Maki & Rose: Kazuyo Inosako

K': Yuuki Matsuda

Maxima: Katsuyuki Konishi

Whip: Shiho Kikuchi

Kyo: Masahiro Nonaka

Iori: Kunihiko Yasui

Chizuru: Yukiko Sugawa

Kusanagi: Mitsuo Iwata

Adelheid: Tetsuya Tanaka

Mukai: Toshihiro Shigetsuka

Back Designers

Before Gate & Steam Locomotive: Matsumusi

Town: Guttyon

Desert & Boss: Pusuke

Seaside, Sky Noah & Cave: Nobuyuki Kobayashi (as Kobayashi)

Hunting Time: H. Y.

Bleed: Y. Hirakawa

Front Designers

Duo Lon & Maxima: C.A.C. Yamakasi

Tizoc, Ryo & Yamazaki: Kamada

Adelheid, Ralf & Clark: ----------------

K' & Mukai: It

Athena & Whip: Ryoko Tanaka

Kyo, Leona & Mary: Reiko Masuyama

Malin & Jhun: Maiko Mishiro

Benimaru, Daimon, Iori, Kim, Hinako, Shingo & Ash: Aco Yamaoka

Billy, Mai & Duo Lon: Atsuko

Robert & Yamazaki: Tamaguchi Ritsu

Malin, Joe & Chang: Cinderella Lisa

Ash & Kusanagi: S.K.

Gato, Terry & Yuri: Taku & Takukko

Shen & King: Mae

Chizuru: Tairou

Maki: Mustang

Cabinet and Artwork

Neo-Geo arcade cabinet.

Ports

Consoles: Sony PlayStation 2 (2004); Microsoft XBOX (2005); Sony PlayStation 2 (2005, "The King of Fighters 2002 & 2003"); Microsoft XBOX (2005, "The King of Fighters 2002 & 2003")

Soundtrack Releases

Album Name	Catalogue No.	Released	Publisher	Comments
The King of Fighters 2003 Arrange Tracks Consumer Version	SCDC-00386^[1]	2004-11-17	Scitron Digital Content	CD version.
The King of Fighters 2003 Original Sound Tracks	SCDC-00337^[2]	2004-03-24	Scitron Digital Content	CD version.
KOF 15th Anniversary Special Soundtrack	N/A^[3]	2009-07-30	SNK Playmore	CD version.

References

The contents of this page are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
The sources used include MAME (version 0.113u2) and history.dat (revision 1.28 - 2008-10-18).
Please see http://www.arcade-history.com for credits.

[1] The King of Fighters 2003 Arrange Tracks Consumer Version (CD) at the VGMdb

[2] The King of Fighters 2003 Original Sound Tracks (CD) at the VGMdb

[3] KOF 15th Anniversary Special Soundtrack (CD) at the VGMdb

[1]

[2]

[3]