The first ever 3D King of Fighters title, even though SNK had made attempts in the past with similar games like Garou Densetsu: Wild Ambition (1999) and Samurai Supirittsu shinsho kenkaku ibunroku: yomigaerishi soko no yaiba (1999).
According to the costume designer and character designer, Falcoon, Clark's alternate costume was created because he felt Clark's military garb clashed horribly with his wrestling moveset.
Some of the motion capture animation for the female characters was done by a man due to the occasional absence of the female motion actor.
Many of the characters' alternate costumes feature "cameos" of other SNK characters including:
- Kyo has his new outfit from The King of Fighters 2003 (2003) in addition to his classic school uniform from older KoF titles.
- Terry has his Garou: Mark of the Wolves outfit in addition to his classic outfit.
- Seth's alternate outfit is a tribute to the classic King of Fighters and Art of Fighting character, Mr. Big.
- One of Rock Howard's alternate outfits is based on Awakened Kaede from the Last Blade Series.
- Ryo's alternate costume is based of his appearance in an obscure 3D fighter called Buriki One where he had a very similar appearance.
- Ryo also has an unlockable costume based of the character Haohmaru from the Samurai Spirits series (the voice actor for Ryo, Masaki Usui, also provides the voice for Haohmaru).
- Maxima's Rigging Model makes him appear as King Lion, a character from an SNK fighter called Kizuna Encounter.
- Ralf's second costume is a reference to the classic SNK title Ikari (1986) (and NOT the Street Fighter character Alex, like some believe).
- Yuri and Ryo's rigging models give them a Tengu mask as worn by their father Mr. Karate (aka Takuma Sakazaki) in Ryûko no Ken (1992) and SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom (2003).