By even the early 90's, SNK and their Neo Geo hardware was already an arcade staple. They also had a series of influential franchises under their belt that saw some success throughout the 1980's. After Capcom revolutionized fighting games with the smash success of Street Fighter II in 1991, SNK would develop and release Fatal Fury later that same year. SNK experimented greatly with various mechanics to differentiate itself from Capcom's tournament fighter in Fatal Fury 2 and Fatal Fury Special, including expanding elements used in their other 2D fighting series Samurai Shodown and Art of Fighting. 

The King of Fighters concept began as a brawler involving the Fatal Fury and Art Of Fighting characters before being reformatted into a 3-team fighting game that would later add characters from Ikari Warriors (Ralf Jones and Clark Still) and the arcade game Psycho Soldier (Sie Kensou, Chin Gentsai, and Athena Asamiya, the latter grew to become one of SNK's mascot personalities). The rest of the roster consists of original characters, lead by a new protagonist in Kyo Kusanagi, who SNK created to appeal to a younger audience, while the Art of Fighting Team (Ryo Sakazaki, Takuma Sakazaki, Robert Garcia) and Fatal Fury Team fighters (Terry Bogard, Andy Bogard, and Joe Higashi) are there to cater to long-time fans. The Women's Fighters Team (Mai Shiranui, former damsel in distress Yuri Sakazaki, and King) is comprised of characters from both respective fighters, more than doubling Capcom's roster of World Warriors by this point.

King Of Fighters 94's distinct trait is having a large roster of characters who sport unique fighting styles, so there's little in the way of clone or copy fighters. The combat is fast and responsive, there's also a good deal of depth that would lay the groundwork for the future of King of Fighters and things they would experiment as time goes on, such as the ability to sidestep attacks. If you're more familiar with any iteration of Street Fighter II and wanted to delve into KOF, the base rules and fundamentals are worlds different. Projectiles have different priority, making zoning not quite as easy. Fireballs in KOF work better as pokes and applying mid-range pressure. Anti-airing takes getting used to, as King of Fighters has short hops and high jumps along with normal jump-ins. 

KOF 94 does suffer from some severe balance issues. Team Ikari Warriors, Ralf and Clark, have inescapable infinite capabilities with their command grabs, and Heidern has a ToD combo ("Touch of Death", generally referred to a combo that can kill if one confirm lands). Terry Bogard and Ryo can deal massive damage with their rangey normals. Heavy D has a lightning fast projectile with very good recovery and one of the quickest anti-air special attacks. The philosophy of King of Fighters has been to make the characters as strong as possible and scale them back. There aren't many characters who play bad, but there's a lot of really strong fighters who can tip the tide of a fight very quickly. Buuut, if you're playing on a casual level, there's little to draw concern. The odds of running into someone who can exploit many of these tactics are likely miniscule.

Neo Geo's sprites are so beloved, many fans wish the company still used them today. The graphics are bright and colorful, and thanks to the Neo Geo's 330 megabit ROM size, each stage packed a ton of background animations along with the high frame count of the fighters. If you were familiar with the rosters of Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, and Metal Slug, you could keep your eyes on the backgrounds for cameos from characters like Cheng Sinzan, Duck King, Big Bear, and Jubei Yamada. 

Impact flashes and energy bursts from Desperation Moves, which can be executed when your POW gauge is full or anytime your health bar is flashing red, are incredibly satisfying to land, as long as you know how to do them. The button inputs are pretty unorthodox. There's never a shortage of objects to stare at in KOF 94, this game was visually impressive in arcades. 

Once you've cleared the other teams, you then are graced with the boss Rugal Bernstein. And while it wouldn't be until years later when it would get REALLY out of hand, the fight with Rugal can be brutal. The term "SNK Boss Syndrome" came into being because of the company's reputation for near impossible boss fights that, despite being thee-on-one, feel like a daunting task just to do even the slightest damage to them. Rugal's attacks have armor, frames of invincibility, does a heavy amount of chip damage, and his punish game is on point. The frightening thing, he's even harder in King of Fighters 95. Even MORE terrifying, future bosses like Orochi, Krizalid, and Goenitz can destroy you with higher degrees of suffering to the point that SNK included a roulette of choices to make the fights easier, like reducing their health or decreasing their damage output.

King Of Fighters 94 is pretty primitive by franchise standards, but it's still fundamentally sound. The visuals are classic, the music is still very good, perhaps the only setback is how inputs for special attacks feel very aged and a little counterintuitive. It's less than $9USD on pretty much all digital storefronts nowadays in the Arcade Classics line, if you want a pretty cheap blast from the past.