Did you know?

Origin of the Psycho Soldiers
Athena Asamiya and Sie Kensou first appeared as players 1 and 2 in the 1987 arcade game Psycho Soldier, a side scrolling shooter similar to Capcom's earlier SonSon. The iconic Psycho Soldier theme often heard in KOF also originated here, complete with vocals, extremely novel for the time.

Athena and Sie both appear in their original arcade outfits in KOF XII.
Sky Stage Heroes
In January 2010, SNK Playmore released a vertical shooter game in arcades called KOF Sky Stage. Playable characters included Kyo Kusanagi, Iori Yagami, Terry Bogard, Mai Shiranui, Athena Asamiya, and Kula Diamond. Sky Stage was later released for Xbox LIVE Arcade.

An enhanced version of Sky Stage, Neo Geo Heroes: Ultimate Shooting for PSP, added an additional story revolving around Dr. Brown from World Heroes, and introduced characters Marco Rossi, Akari Ichijo, Iroha, and a female A.S.O. from Alpha Mission
Japan's Next J-Pop Idol
One of @char=athena_kof@'s King of Fighters '97 intros dons an outfit similarly worn to that of the famous Chisato Moritaka, one of the most popular female Japanese Pop idols to emerge out of the late 1980's and mid 1990's, which whom to this day still has a very strong following of devoted fans in Japan.

The likeness of both along with the outrageous number of costumes worn by both women, it was obvious that SNK wanted to pay a great homage to Chisato by giving none other than SNK’s fictional pop star her push, and thus by the NESTS Saga her official given nickname became known as "The Psychic-Powered Idol".