King of Fighters 15 is the latest entry in SNK's flagship fighting game franchise, released almost six years after the previous entry. While it's not a household name amongst other franchises like Capcom's Street Fighter, its debut last month received plenty of critical acclaim. Much of the praise for the game has been towards its diverse character roster, implementation of rollback netcode, as well as its team-based gameplay. The momentum for the game seems to be continuing as with the release of DLC Characters and Teams.
The first bundle of DLC for King of Fighters 15 was the introduction of Team Garou, comprised of series veterans who appropriately made their first appearance in Garou: Mark of the Wolves. This team consists of Rock Howard, the son of the infamous crime boss Geese Howard who was raised by Fatal Fury protagonist Terry Bogard, the pirate B. Jenet, and the martial artist Gato. The next DLC Character announced for the game is another character from a previous entry in the franchise, the infamous Omega Rugal.
Omega Rugal made his first appearance in The King of Fighters '95 as an alternate form of another boss character, Rugal Bernstein, and was the final boss of the game and subsequent entries. His infamy stems from the incredibly high difficulty that SNK employs to its boss characters, having moves that inflict high damage, projectile attacks, attacks that have high priority, and AI that can counter a player's input perfectly. These factors make him one of the most difficult fighting game bosses of all time, with the developers at SNK admitting that he is their favorite.
This is Omega Rugal's first appearance in a King of Fighters game in over two decades, with the trailer showing off how his classic moves have been retained. This version of Omega Rugal has been balanced in a more competitive fashion for player usage. Some of these moves include his Genocide Cutter projectile, screen clearing grapple, and even an eye laser super attack.
Omega Rugal's addition as a DLC character for King of Fighters 15 will also provide a brand-new mode for fans, known as the Boss Challenge. This pits players against an even more powerful version of Omega Rugal that promises to be the "CPU from Hell" in line with SNK's other fighting game bosses. Completing this monumental challenge will reward players with the Strange Plateau Stage, as well as Omega Rugal's Omega Armor costume. All of these additions will be coming to the game on April 14 as a free update.
King of Fighters 15 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
