It was ported to the PlayStation 2 and Xbox,[b] and was released on both consoles in North America in a two-in-one bundle with the preceding game in the series, The King of Fighters 2002.

Taking place two years after the events of The King of Fighters 2001, a new KOF tournament has been announced, being sponsored by an unknown patron whose identity becomes a matter of public interest in the country.

The tournament establishes a new set of rules, including the Multi-Shift System that enables fighters to tag out at any given time and the competition itself, consisting of both veterans and newcomers once again takes place and being shown around the world.

[2] The game was the debut work of Falcoon in a main KOF though he had experience with spin-offs and the crossover SVC Chaos: SNK VS Capcom.

[3] As the first chapter of a new story arc, Ash was designed as an "attractive evil character", in contrast to previous King of Fighters heroes.

One of them is a traitorous teenager with no sense of ethics, and the other is a thug that the yakuza would avoid and an assassin possessed by a vengeful spirit, so there is no room for friendship to be born there.

[6] Similar to the NESTS arc that put former heroes Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami on return despite SNK's intiial idea to remove them, the "Ash arc" and the Maximum Impact games were written to depcit Ash as a puppeter who manipulates Kyo and Iori at the same time, most notably in the original net animation Another Day.

[16] In July 2004, ComicsOne licensed the series with its first volume tying the release of a new video game and kept publishing it after their transition to DrMaster.

[21] Eurogamer was negative believing, previous SNK fighting game like The King of Fighters 2002 offered a better cast and that the new gameplay system would confuse newcomers.

[22] GameType lamented most characters retained their classic outfits with few exceptions like Terry Bogard, Kyo Kusanagi, and Robert Garcia.

[23] HardcoreGaming101 believed the new gameplay features, cast and artwork were interesting but the sequel, The King of Fighters XI, easily fixed most of its issues.

[25] GameZone agreed, criticizing the fewer amount of playable character but still praised the fast paced team system that makes combat more enjoyable.

They still addressed SNK's lack of commitment to improve the visuals for several games but still retain the same quality of the original arcade version.

[26] Meristation said that while the game needs improvement, the fighting system is still enjoyable, criticizing how defeating Kusanagi in a different manner leads to a different ending as Adehlheid's route which comes across as frustrating as it does not develop the characters.

[27] Destructoid still enjoyed the gameplay, as it made it the fastest KOF game from its time and praised the variation of playable characters such as the new protagonist Ash Crimson.