King of Fighters '94 [Arcade] - play as 1st form Rugal

This is a playthrough using 1st form Rugal in the Arcade version of King of Fighters '94. Read on below for more information...

Rugal Bernstein is the end boss of the game, and he comes in 2 forms. His 1st form has him with his jacket on, and is the weaker version of him.

He is an unplayable character on both the NeoGeo MVS and AES versions of the game.

EXTRA: 1st form Rugal can use his panther as an assist for when he is dizzied. This is something not that many people will have seen, and you can see it demonstrated in the video starting around 21:03.

===== ABOUT RUGAL IN KOF94 =====

Rugal is an arms/weapons dealer who operates abroad his aircraft carrier called the Black Noah. He is an influential man and feared throughout the political and fighting world. Those who oppose Rugal would be defeated and slain by him, and he would have their bodies preserved in liquid metal to add to his trophy room. He has a pet panther called Rodem, which accompanies him and is seen in the background plane area (where the non-active team members stand) in gameplay.

One of his eyes is bionic, which was the result of Leopold Goenitz blinding him in that eye with a single strike when Rugal was younger.

===== GAMEPLAY =====

Rugal Bernstein is the staple KOF boss. When SNK designed him, it seems that they wanted someone who was somewhat a mix of Geese Howard and Wolfgang Krauser, judging by the fact that he has the Reppuken and Kaiser Wave special moves... he is physically also of a similar size to Krauser as well.

1st form Rugal does not have any special moves, instead he just has basics/normals. These basics however, have good range and seem to be of high priority so it makes him pretty powerful. It should be noted that his standing Heavy Punch (it can hit twice) inflicts chip damage if blocked.

===== ADDITIONAL INFORMATION =====

---- He actually has a 2nd colour palette, despite being an unplayable character.

---- He does not have have a charging power up animation. If he use it, he just disappears. You can actually use this to avoid opponent attacks funnily enough.

---- He does not have a knockdown strike. If you try to use it, you'll hear the sound but he won't do anything.

---- As mentioned earlier, if he is dizzied, he can use his panther as an assist. You can see this demonstrated starting around 21:03 in the video.

---- In single-player mode, if you reach the last stage (against Rugal) with him, the game will lock and reset after the cut-scene of Mature inviting you in. This is because he has no "story" programmed in. You CAN skip this cut-scene to progress though.

---- If you manage to beat the game with him, he uses the Brazil team's (Ikari Warriors Team) ending.

---- On the character select screen, after selecting Rugal, you can pick from his 1st form or 2nd form to start with. You can do this in the order select screen.

---- If you select 1st form Rugal, you obviously get 2nd form Rugal as well in your "team". So if your first 1st-form-Rugal gets defeated, then 2nd-form-Rugal will come in.

---- If you lose using 1st form Rugal, you will get the cut-scene of him saying he will fight at full strength before 2nd form Rugal comes in.

---- He can operate on the Continue screen. If the player presses Start to continue, he has some wrong animations though.

---- Both forms of him are the only characters in the game to have a unique music theme on the winning screen.

===== ABOUT KOF94 =====

This is first game of the KOF series... even though it is a completely different game, it is sometimes considered as the follow-up game after Fatal Fury Special. The game is said to have been inspired by Fatal Fury Special after the popularity of Ryo as a hidden character in it.

As a versus fighting game, the more unique feature about KOF94 is the fact that players get teams of 3 fighters, operating in a turns-based system rather than tag-team. Matches are won after all three fighters in a team are defeated. One could say that this was SNK testing the waters with this idea... which of course turned out to be a massive success.