Read more about Rugal Bernstein at: Wikipedia

Official Site: SNK

is a video game character created by SNK. First introduced in The King of Fighters '94, he is a recurring boss in the The King of Fighters series fighting game series. As the host of the tournaments from The King of Fighters '94 and 95, Rugal plans to turn all the competitors from the tournament into stone statues as part of his collection. Despite his death in 95, Rugal is still featured in following The King of Fighters titles which do not contain a storyline (nicknamed "Dream Matches"). He has also been featured in the SNK Vs. Capcom as a boss character.

His character has also appeared in other media related to The King of Fighters franchise, including comics adaptations and will appear in the upcoming The King of Fighters live-action film. As the first boss character from The King of Fighters, the SNK staff created him to be one of the most difficult characters to defeat. His Omega Rugal form from 95 has been noted by the staff to be their favorite boss to the point they added him the Dream Matches titles. Publications for video games and other media have provided praise and criticism for Rugal's character.

The concept for making Rugal in The King of Fighters '94 was to make "the mightiest (most violent) and most evil boss character ever". Despite the difficulties in defeating him, Rugal has become the boss character with the biggest number of appearances in The King of Fighters series as he has been liked by players and developers. Due to his multiple "deaths" in the series, developers have joked with him, adding to his official profile that his hobby is resurrection. Flagship director, Toyohisa Tanabe, states that his fighting style was created to emphasize Rugal's strength as the series' first boss character. He also comments "going a bit overboard" with his Genocide Cutter technique damage ratio in The King of Fighters '94. His Dead-End Screamer special move was originally a technique in which Rugal breaks the neck of his opponent and crushes it. However, it was seen as lacking drama, so it evolved into a move in which he breaks his victim's neck, crushes the victim, and then further spins the victim around to do more damage, striking a pose at the end of the move.

Rugal stands tall and weighs . In the SNK Vs. Capcom video games, he is featured in his formal clothes in both his common and God form. Original drafts from Rugal showed his character using black glasses and having several wires connected from his chest to his hands. His Omega form appearance had chains along his pants and tattoos on his chest, one of which being a tiger.

CBUB Match Record: