The King of Fighters 2003: Tag-Team Fighting Game

The King of Fighters 2003 is a 2D head-to-head fighting game where players control teams of three characters and swap them in and out mid-match. Released by SNK Playmore in 2003, it marked the seventh entry in the main King of Fighters series and the first to fully replace the traditional round-based team format with a tag-team system.

The shift was a big one. Earlier KOF titles had players burn through their three fighters one at a time, each elimination locking in the next character. KOF 2003 broke that rule. Now players could tag teammates in during combat, chain attacks across characters, and rethink how a match flowed from second to second.

Gameplay and Tag System

Each match still pits two teams of three against each other, but the active fighter can be switched out at almost any moment—during combos, after blocking, or just to escape pressure. Tagging costs a small piece of the Power Gauge, so players have to weigh when a swap is worth it.

The Power Gauge fills up through attacking and taking hits. It can be spent on Super Special Moves, defensive tag-ins, or the new Leader Super Special Moves, which only one designated leader per team can unleash. Picking who leads the team matters. Some characters have devastating leader supers, others bring more value as backup.

Guard Cancel rolls and counters return from earlier entries, but the addition of cross-character combo potential gives KOF 2003 a different rhythm. Matches feel less like three duels stitched together and more like a single fluid fight with rotating fighters.

Story and Setting

The plot picks up after KOF 2001 and 2002, continuing the long-running Ash Crimson saga. A mysterious young fighter named Ash Crimson enters the tournament with his own agenda, and his presence sets up the next several years of KOF storylines. Chizuru Kagura, one of the three keepers of the Yata Mirror sealing the Orochi power, comes under attack. Ash is at the center of it.

This game kicked off what fans call the “Tales of Ash” arc, which wrapped up years later in KOF XIII.

Characters and Roster

The roster includes returning fan favorites like Kyo Kusanagi, Iori Yagami, Terry Bogard, Mai Shiranui, and Ryo Sakazaki, along with new faces. Ash Crimson, Shen Woo, and Duo Lon debut here as the new protagonist team. Other newcomers include Malin and Adelheid Bernstein, the son of series antagonist Rugal.

Several classic teams come back with familiar lineups—the Fatal Fury team, the Art of Fighting team, the Women Fighters team, and the Ikari Warriors. Mr. Big returns after a long absence. Hidden bosses Mukai and Adelheid round out the harder unlockables.

Reception and Legacy

Reception was mixed at launch. Some longtime players liked the tag system and the fresh direction. Others felt the game ran rougher than past entries and missed the elimination-style format that had defined KOF for years. The visuals reused a lot of sprite work from earlier games, which drew criticism too.

Still, KOF 2003 holds an important spot in the series. It introduced Ash Crimson, redefined team mechanics, and pushed the franchise into new storytelling territory. Later games refined what 2003 started.

The game was released on the Neo Geo arcade hardware and later ported to PlayStation 2 and Xbox as part of various compilations.

Game Controls

• Directional buttons – Move character
• A – Light punch
• B – Light kick
• C – Heavy punch
• D – Heavy kick
• A+B – Roll / evade
• B+C – Tag in next teammate
• C+D – Heavy attack / CD blowback

Characters

The new characters added to the roster (between originals and of other franchises) are:

	Ash Crimson, a mysterious young man and leader of the new “Hero Team” (with quotation marks), is the new protagonist of the series. He enters in the KOF tournament with unknown intentions.
	Duo Lon, one of the members of the “Hero Team”, is an ninja assassin who is part of the Hizoku clan, and is son of Ron, the traitor of the clan. He decides to hunt him.
	Shen Woo, the last member of the “Hero Team”, is a street boxer raised in Shanghai. Like Duo Lon, he enters the tournament at the invitation of Ash.
	Tizoc (A.K.A. The Griffon Mask), from Garou: Mark of The Wolves, is the new member of the Fatal Fury Team. He enters to the KOF tournament in order to gain his passion for the ring and to hopefully find the mystery man who defeated him.
	Gato, another character from MOTW. He enters the KOF tournament at the request of Geese Howard and to prevent his probable sister, Hotaru Futaba, from being harmed.
	Malin, member of the High School Girls Team, is an enigmatic Japanese girl from an unknown organization that specializes in gathering intelligence.
	Kusanagi, the mid-boss of the game, is other creation of Chizuru. He also appears in the two versions of KOF 2002 (non-canonical games) as an experiment of NESTS cartel.
	Maki Kagura, one of the sub-bosses of the game, is the dead elder twin sister of Chizuru Kagura. She appears in the tournament as an illusion created by the Mirror of Yata, the clan’s artifact.
	Adelheid Bernstein, one of the final bosses of the game, is Rugal Bernstein’s son and one of the tournament’s hosts, who lives with his sister Rose Bernstein in the Sky Noah, one of the old homes of his father.
	Mukai, the true final boss of the game, is one of the members of an organization known as Those from the Past. He is ordered to not directly intervene with this tournament, only making an appearance to test the winning team to see if they will survive “the new age”.

Note 1: With the end of Striker System, the return of the formation of trios and the implementation of the Tag Battle system, the new team formations are the following:

	A new “Hero Team” enters in the tournament, and it is formed by the mysterious young man Ash Crimson, the Hizoku clan ninja and Ron’s son Duo Lon and the Chinese street fighter Shen Woo. They enter after Ash’s invitation, whose intentions are unknown for the tournament and his teammates.
	The pro wrestler and luchador Tizoc takes over Andy Bogard’s place in the Fatal Fury Team. Terry’s brother was training his new student, Hokutomaru. The Muai Thay champion Joe Higashi remains with the team.
	The Art of Fighting Team remains with its second classic formation, made in The King of Fighters ’96.
	The Commander Heidern leaves the Ikari Warriors Team, passing the leadership back to the Colonel Ralf Jones. Leona Heidern, his adoptive daughter, continues to be the frontline soldier of the team.
	The secret agent Blue Mary joins with the owner bar King and the kunoichi Mai Shiranui of the Women Fighters Team to investigate the movements of the secret group Those from the Past. She returns to the team after 4 years.
	The Taekwondo master Jhun Hoon replaces Choi Bounge in the Korea Justice Team after being left out of the last canonical tournament for breaking his arm. The former butcher and outlaw was unable to enter in the tournament for the first time.
	The criminals Ryuji Yamazaki and Billy Kane reunite again after four tournaments off at the new request of the crime boss Geese Howard (Billy’s boss), and form the new Outlaw Team, together with the wanderer Gato, who fills Mary’s entry for this team.
	The model Benimaru Nikaido, the Judo master Goro Daimon and Kusanagi clan’s disciple Shingo Yabuki form the new Japan Team after Kyo Kusanagi’s left of the team. Benimaru replaces Kyo as the team’s leader.
	The J-pop idol Athena Asamiya leaves the Psycho Soldier Team for a while, and forms the new High School Girls Team, with the sumo student Hinako Shijou and the secret agent Malin.
	The K’ Team remains with the same formation as the previous game, becoming canonical in this game.
	Kyo Kusanagi, Iori Yagami, and Chizuru Kagura, the Three Sacred Treasures Team, appear alone in this tournament, and Chizuru is, again, the host of KOF, along with the Bernstein siblings.

Note 2: About both Sub-Bosses and Final Bosses, there are some considerations:

• The Sub-Bosses are exclusive to the True Ending, and fights together as a team.

• The Final Bosses are NPCs in Arcade mode as Maki Kagura, and Hidden unlockable in Home Consoles.

Note 3: Some parenthetical citations are sometimes Japanese team names, sometimes shortened team names.

Official Team Roster

“Hero Team” (A.K.A. Ash Team or “Protagonist Team”)

Ash Crimson

Duo Lon

Shen Woo

Fatal Fury Team (A.K.A. Garou Densetsu Team)

Terry Bogard

Joe Higashi

Tizoc (The Griffon Mask)

Art of Fighting Team or Ryūko no Ken Team (A.K.A. Kyokugenryu Team)

Ryo Sakazaki

Robert Garcia

Yuri Sakazaki

Ikari Warriors Team (A.K.A. Ikari Team)

Leona Heidern

Ralf Jones

Clark Still

Women Fighters Team

King

Mai Shiranui

Blue Mary

Korea Justice Team (A.K.A. Kim Team)

Kim Kaphwan

Chang Koehan

Jhun Hoon

Outlaw Team

Ryuji Yamazaki

Billy Kane

Gato

Japan Team (A.K.A. New Benimaru Team)

Benimaru Nikaido

Goro Daimon

Shingo Yabuki

High School Girls Team (A.K.A. Athena Team)

Athena Asamiya

Hinako Shijo

Malin

K’ Team

K’

Maxima

Whip

Single Entry Fighters

Kyo Kusanagi

Iori Yagami

Mid-Boss

Kusanagi (Hidden in Arcade version)

Sub-Bosses

Chizuru Kagura (Hidden in Arcade version)

Maki Kagura (NPC in Arcade version)

Final Bosses

Note: Unlike prior games, there are multiple different Final Bosses. Depending on how the fight against Kusanagi went, the player will face off against two different Bosses.

Final Boss	Conditions
Adelheid Bernstein (Alternative Ending Boss)	Failed to reach the requirements.
Mukai (True Ending Boss)	Defeat Kusanagi with a Super Special Move, a Leader Super Special Move or a Multi-Shift Attack (but not the tag-in auto attack).

Special Edit Teams

Three Sacred Treasures Team

Kyo Kusanagi

Iori Yagami

Chizuru Kagura

Original/Classic Japan Team (A.K.A. Orochi Saga Hero Team)

Kyo Kusanagi

Benimaru Nikaido

Goro Daimon

KOF ’94 Women Fighters Team (A.K.A. Classic Women Fighters Team)

King

Mai Shiranui

Yuri Sakazaki

NPC Characters

Rose Bernstein

Botan

Kogoro Daimon

As always, remember to have fun!

How to Play