Adelheid Bernstein

Adelheid
''King of Fighters series character
File:Adelheild.jpg Adelheid in The King Of Fighters 2003
First game	King of Fighters 2003

Adelheid Bernstein (Adel for short) is a boss character from The King of Fighters 2003 and XI. He, along with his younger sister, Rose, are the only known children of Rugal Bernstein.

History

Adelheid and his sister Rose reside on an airship called "Sky Noah". In KoF 2003, he would challenge fighters there at the behest of his sister, Rose.

Unlike his father Rugal Bernstein, he is an honourable fighter, who exhibits good sportsmanship, as demonstrated when he is defeated in KoF 2003. He has many techniques from Rugal's arsenal, and even wears battle clothes which are similar to Rugal's, except that they are dark-green from top to bottom, and don't include a jacket. As of KoF XI, Adelheid decides to enter the King of Fighters tournament as a single fighter.

Gameplay

Adelheid retains several of his father's moves, although they have been renamed and reworked. The most dramatic examples of this reworking are Rugal's God Press and Genocide Cutter attacks, which Adelheid can only perform as DMs. In addition, Adelheid has several kick combinations which aid in his combos and mixup game. In KoF 2003, despite being less difficult to defeat than his father, he was still considered to suffer from SNK Boss Syndrome, however, in KoF XI, several radical changes were made to balance the character.

His SNK Boss Syndrome is somewhat lessened with the reworking of several of his moves, making him quite an easy mid-boss in comparison not only to his KoF 2003 incarnation, but also to the other mid-bosses in the game. He is further balanced as a player character, as he is made to take more damage than other characters when played as. His special move inputs, which were unusually easy in KoF 2003, were made more difficult, the inputs becoming more similar to Rugal's original moves.

He is mainly played as a rushing character, his projectile and command grab, as well as fairly simple but damaging combos making for an extremely powerful pressure game, and his Genocide Cutter DM more than ample for any anti-air that may be necessary. Adelheid also has two LDMs, both essentially the same, but performed with opposite inputs. One version has more invincibility, but brings Rose onscreen, making Adelheid incapable of performing another LDM until she has left.

Adel is not playable in KOF 2003 without altering the game's dip switches; as a result, he has no personal ending. (However he is unlockable in the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions of the game.) He reappears in KoF XI as a mid-boss and can be selected as a normal character in the arcade version of the game after being unlocked. Furthermore, unlike the other unlockable characters in the game, Adel has his own ending (regardless of whom he is teamed with, unlike other characters). Since he is available in the Arcade version of the game, there is some controversy as to whether he should be considered legal to play in tournaments.

Trivia

• Adelheid makes a cameo appearance with Rose in The King of Fighters: Maximum Impact 2 in the Fleur-de-Lis stage. They appear as they first did in The King of Fighters 2003, with their arms locked and Rose's arm held high in the air.