The King of Fighters Neowave (KOF Neowave, or KOF NW) is a 2004 2D fighting game produced by SNK Playmore as their first coin-operated arcade game for Sammy's Atomiswave hardware.

Compared to usual The King of Fighters games, Neowave received a lukewarm critical reception.

With the change of hardware from Neo Geo to Atomiswave, the number of buttons is now increased to five.

The PlayStation 2 version of the game brings back five characters from KOF 2002: Seth, May Lee, Angel, the Kusanagi clone, and Omega Rugal (with K9999 being the only character from KOF 2002 missing in this version).

After The King of Fighters 2003, SNK Playmore looked for newer substitute platforms for future development.

The Atomiswave, a cartridge-based multi-arcade system like the Neo-Geo and based on Sega's Dreamcast hardware, with which SNK was already familiar, was an obvious candidate.

Rather than commit a new major game blindly, SNK instead chose to "test the waters" with a remix of The King of Fighters 2002, tweaking the game's systems; reskinning the game with high-resolution backgrounds, character art, and interface elements to take advantage of the more advanced hardware; and removing characters originating with the Eolith-developed KOF2001 and KOF2002, replacing them with other SNK-originated characters.

Reviewers noted the updated graphics and traditionally solid mechanics, and were pleased with online play in the console versions.

Charles Onyett wrote for IGN, "Sure it's got updated graphics, a few different styles of play, and a huge roster of fighters, but it does little to entice any non-KoF fans into the mix, something this genre desperately needs."