The King of Fighters 2001 is the eighth game in The King of Fighters series, the third and final part of the "Nests Chronicles" story arc, and the first game produced following the closure of the original SNK.
KOF 2001 kept the Striker assist system from the previous two KOF games, but added a new twist to it - the ability to adjust how many Strikers a team could have. While teams in 1999 and 2000 were limited to selecting one teammate as an assist, now teams could have up to 3 assist characters, or none at all.