The player cannot use Heat Mode when the life gauge is low. The player will return to normal after getting hit by the opponent or by pressing Heat Mode button again to deactivate it, and the player must wait until you lose a round to activate it again. Heat Mode will cause the character to blink red and increase their offensive strength, with the side effect being that the character's health will begin to drain.

In addition to the standard four attack buttons used in the previous games, a fifth button is now added which is used to activate the Heat Mode.

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

The game 's graphics consist of 2D character sprites overlaid over polygonal 3D backgrounds (similar to the 3D stages featured in the console versions of previous games in the series such as the Dreamcast versions of KOF '98 and KOF '99). The game reverts to the 3-character elimination system from KOF '94 to KOF '98, ignoring gameplay features from later games such as the 'Striker' system used from KOF '99 through KOF 2001 and tag team system in KOF 2003.