King of Fighters' 94 introduces the series' signature 3-man team system, instead of a simple one-on-one two round fight system a player chooses a team of three characters then determines the order to play them before a fight, each fight consisting of up to 5 rounds and each round ending when one of the two fighters is knocked out, the remaining fighter stays and faces the opponent's next character, a fight is won when one of the two players loses the last of their three fighters. This system has remained constant throughout the series (and modes with a similar system have been used since in such games as Tekken and Soul series). The major difference between this and other KoF titles is that players can only choose from pre-set teams of three instead of being able to build their own team from the whole cast.
Rugal Bernstein is an incredibly rich and notorious arms and drugs trafficker, as well as an incredibly skilled and ruthless fighter has become bored with the lack of competition, so decides to host a new King of Fighters tournament. The King of Fighters tournament was previously held by Geese Howard in Art of Fighting 2 and the first Fatal Fury and by Wolfgang Krauser in Fatal Fury 2, the game's ending reveals that Rugal has apparently fought and bested both characters in the past.
Rugal has his secretary (later revealed to be the assassin Mature) travel to eight destinations around the world and invite them to his new tournament, unlike previous tournaments this new King of Fighters is a team tournament, eight teams enter representing England, America, Brazil, Korea, Japan, Mexico, Italy and China with the Japan Team later known as the Hero Team, made up of Kyo Kusanagi, Goro Daimon and Benimaru Nikaido, being the canonical winners (all teams win if the arcade/story mode is completed with that team).