The King of Fighters Neowave is a 2D competitive fighting game produced by SNK Playmore and released as a coin-operated arcade game for Sammy's Atomiswave hardware in 2004. It was the first game SNK Playmore produced for the Atomiswave. An offshoot of The King of Fighters series, it is not counted in the main series numbering. The character artwork was done by Tomokazu Nakano (of Power Instinct fame).

Like KOF '98 and KOF 2002, Neowave has no actual storyline, but is instead a "Dream Match" which gathers numerous characters from various past KOF games, regardless of their status in the overarching storyline. The character roster of the arcade version is similar to the Neo Geo version of KOF 2002, with a few differences in the team placement. The KOF 2000 Team and the KOF 2001 Team are eliminated from the lineup, and a Mixed Team is introduced, composed of Saisyu Kusanagi, Kula Diamond, and Shingo Yabuki. King replaces May Lee in the Women Fighters Team, while Jhun Hoon replaces Kim Kaphwan in the Korean Team. Kim, along with Vanessa and Ramon, are still featured in the arcade version as hidden characters, along with the Orochi versions of the KOF '97 New Faces Team. Geese Howard appears in the game as the main boss character, with this incarnation of the character being based on his younger self from Art of Fighting 2.

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. 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).

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