the character's true identity. Universo Nintendo originally thought the DLC character would be an alternative version of Ash Crimson and was surprised by the revelation. The website said Miss X's second form is possibly the most humiliating version because the character is wearing a t-shirt of his rival Kyo. Nevertheless, the character's movements were thought to be similar to those of the original Iori and thus long-time gamers would easily play as Miss X. Den of Geek found the comic SVC Chaos ridiculous because as Iori commits suicide to follow the deceased Kyo to the Underworld. Popularity Iori has been very popular with video gamers. In Gamests 1996 Heroes Collection, Iori was ranked second in the poll Best Character from 1996. In an issue from 1997, Iori was voted as the staff's favorite character, claiming first place over fifty other characters. He received the same rank on Neo Geo Freak's website with 3,792 votes. In a 2005 poll conducted by SNK-Playmore USA, he was voted the fans' eighth-favorite character with 145 votes. Merchandising based on Iori, including figurines, key-chains and puzzles, has been released. Two scale figures based on Iori's original form and his XIV look have also been released. A replica of his KOF XIV coat was produced for merchandising. In the book Gaming Cultures and Place in Asia-Pacific, Iori was regarded as one of the most popular video game characters in Hong Kong from the mid 1990s onward alongside Kyo, Mai and others, to the point of overshadowing the Street Fighter characters, which were also well-known. The developers of KOF noted that Kyo and Iori were very popular in Korea, which led to their immediate inclusion is The King of Fighters 2001 which was the first game in the series that was not developed by the original company. In 2018, Iori was voted as the seventh-most-popular Neo Geo character. To choose the cover for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 ports of KOF XII, Ignition Entertainment started a survey on May 4, 2009, in which users of their forum could vote for one of two covers they wanted to see in the game. While both covers feature multiple characters, one uses Kyo in the center and the other Iori. When the two surveys ended, Ignition started two new ones that asked people to vote between the previous winners and the Japanese covers from the game for both consoles.