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AAH U OKHEY?! This year marks the Fatal Fury series' 25th BUSTAH WOLFin' anniversary!

Tizoc

Member
Cause nobody else was gonna celebrate it
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Images stolenborrowed from HG101 and this cool page

On November 1991, SNK released Fatal Fury, aka Garou Densetsu, to arcades on their Neo Geo arcade hardware, and thus began the Fatal Fury series which would later lead to the ever popular King of Fighters series.
Fatal Fury would mark the start of SNK’s, uncommon at the time, approach to a multi-game connected universe/setting, and it all began with these 3 dudes

And THIS (unPREDICTABO) muthafagga right here.

While it may not be the most popular series ever, it has its fans, and is all in all a very interesting and varied fighting game series.
Fatal Fury can be safely seen as SNK’s flagship title of the time, being the rival to Capcom’s Street Fighter series (although King from Art of Fighting/Ryuko no Ken still stands as SNK’s first FG lady).
Personally I got into the series through Garou: MotW and having experienced the SF3 series some time after 1999, Garou won me over with its fluid animations and bright colorful visuals. My second foray into the series was through Real Bout 2 at an arcade; at the time I was into KoF like many others and playing RB2 was a rude awakening of sorts what with that game playing differently to KoF and over time I got to play the remainder of the series.
To me Fatal Fury ranks among my top 100 VG series of all time, while the games have their issues I still enjoy playing them from time and time and you can see the love and effort SNK had put into each game in the series (Topless Mary notwithstanding).

The Fatal Fury series spans over half a dozen titles, excluding ports, with each having their own play style and systems. I’ll be focusing on the main games in the series and would be excluding some of the handheld titles in the series.

Fatal Fury 1
AKA the ‘spam the Zan’ei-ken game’.
In 1987, Capcom released Street Fighter.

Some of the people who worked on that game would later go on to work at SNK. Fatal Fury is SNK expanding on the concept of SF1 while also aiming to wow the crowd with the visual and technical capabilities of the Neo Geo.

SNK approached Fatal Fury’s presentation as if it were a Kung Fu movie, the game’s plot is simple-
A tournament is held in Southtown called ‘The King of Fighters’, held by Geese Howard CEO of the Geese Conglomerate.
3 martial artists travel to Southtown, the only other city to top Metro City as ‘the most fucked up place to live in America’ for a time (namely the 70s and 80s according to Geesepedia), to participate in the tournament.
One enters for the glory and title of being the best fighter in the world, the other two enter FOR REVENGE.
The 3 martial artists are
Terry Bogard: The greatest & loudest American Engrish speaker to have ever lived, having mastered the ancient martial art skill of blasting chi/energy at ground level, empowered by his mighty vocal chords. Terry enters the tournament to avenge his father’s death who was killed by Geese.

Andy Bogard: Terry’s brother and the most beautiful blue dyed blonde long haired (Italian?) bishi ninja to ever train in Japan. Like Terry, he enters the tournament to avenge their father’s death.

Joe Higashi: A Japanese Muai Thai fighter who befriends the Bogards and is capable of generating mini hurricanes.
The trio are the only playable characters in the game, before getting into the gameplay, let’s take a look at their opponents, being some of the zaniest and wackiest fighters you could only see in a Kung Fu movie.
Hwa Jai is a Muai Thai fighter and rival to Joe. Incapable of matching Joe’s Hurricane generating prowess, he drowned his sorrows in booze, although it was said that he was a heavy drinker long before Joe’s stylish hair, sweet ass and Hurricane Uppers took people’s attention away from him.

Tung Fu Rue is Terry’s master whom he learned martial arts from, known to be a cool old guy and not a perverted turtle hermit. When he loses half his health he will hulk out and proceed to smash his opponents.

Richard Meyers runs the PaoPao Café nightclub, and enters the tournament for the monetary prize and to promote his nightclub. Richard fights using Capoeira making him the first actual capoeira user in a fighting game…even though his animations look really goofy. Still you gotta give SNK credit for TRYING to get all those Capoeira animations to work on the initial NG hardware.

Duck King is the funkiest and grooviest dancer to ever kick ass in parachute pants. He enters the tournament to get money for Duckling support. Supposedly he was ill during the events of Fatal Fury 1 having contracted whatever it was Birdie had during Street Fighter 1.

Michael Max is the game’s designated black boxer. He can do hurricane uppers, but other than that, nobody gives a rat’s ass about this guy and he was quickly forgotten.

Upon defeating all opponents, you face off against the end bosses-
Raiden is a disgraced Australian wrestler who works as one of Geese’s thugs. Oddly enough he is fought at an abandoned amusement park. OK it’s not exactly abandoned but the way it’s colored implies it to me. Raiden’s most common attack is to spit saltpoison at your face, in addition his normal attacks hit like a truck. He’s the toughest opponent to beat in the game up to this point.
Raiden in FF1 has the goofiest stance ever, and while Capcom did try to make it sensible, it wouldn’t be until KoF 13 that said stance was animated properly enough for it to look good.

Billy Kane is the next mid boss that’s fought after Raiden. Billy is Geese’s right hand man, and fights with a bo staff.

Geese Howard is the game’s final boss and is fought at the top of his main headquarters: Geese Tower.
Geese is the first FG character to utilize a counter move; when not spamming Reppukens at your ass, he’ll stand his ground and PREDICTABO-ly catch any physical attack you launch at him (though to be more exact, if you merely JUMP at him he’ll grab you so it’s grab+counter attack).

Once you’ve defeated him he gets punched through the veranda and falls to his death
OR DID HE?!
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Should you fail to defeat Geese, however, he makes you kiss the pavement instead.
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It’s a little interesting to talk about the first Fatal Fury’s gameplay in retrospect now:
One of the biggest elements of Fatal Fury’s gameplay is the 2 lanes system.Various stages consists of 2 Lanes: Foreground and Background, and characters can move between these 2 lanes, though the main purpose of going into the Foreground is to avoid or dodge attacks and to move around safely.
In addition 2 players can either play against each other OR play TOGETHER to beat the game. The latter turns the game into a boss rush beat’em-up style game, esp. with the fact that you can only play as any of the 3 characters.
After defeating an opponent you will get a short screen where Geese comments on the events of the tourney. This is an interesting move from SNK as it helps to flesh out Geese’s character at least for the time. Compare that to SF2 where M. Bison, Balrog, Sagat and Vega are merely bosses you just fight by the end game.

Nowadays playing Fatal Fury 1 is more of a curiosity than anything, a piece of gaming/SNK history to check out. I would put it on the same level as Altered Beast; it’s not an amazing game IMO, but it’s a decent game to play through if you’re looking for something short to pass the time and relive.

The stages in Fatal Fury 1 have good color variations between them and the animations are pretty dynamic despite being simple. This is actually one of the first SNK fighters to feature changing scenery in them such as rain falling only on the Foreground of Tung’s stage, or the stage from morning to dusk to night as the rounds go on. One more thing: take note of a shop with a rather interesting name for it in one of the stages.

Going back to SNK’s unique approach to tieing their games together, their next fighting game, Ryuuko no Ken aka Art of Fighting, also takes place in Southtown but in the late 1970s! Geese would become the boss of AoF2 being his younger chief of police self. In addition Ryo Sakazaki would go on to be a secret character in Fatal Fury Special, albeit having aged from his time in the AoF series.
As a final note, (based) Shinkiro also did a mini comic about Fatal Fury 1, which can be seen here.


Fatal Fury 2/Fatal Fury Special
Originally released on December 1992, this sequel to the first Fatal Fury follows in the heels of Street Fighter II…like many other fighters from the era! The original trio return along with 5 other playable fighters, and this game would be the 2nd fighting game from SNK to utilize super moves.

Taking place a year after the first tournament, Wolfgang Krauser, a German Nobleman, hosts a new fighting tournament. He invites the Legendary Wolves in order to see for himself the true might of the man who defeated Geese Howard.

Joining the playable roster this time are
Mai Shiranui, a ninja from Japan who fights with fans and flame powers. Has been trying to get Andy’s dick for years but he’s prob. too much of a gentleman to shallowly fall for her approaches.
Dumbass.
Mai’s physique is modled after 2 Japan Idols: Fumie Hosokawa & Ai Iijima. Mai’s super is a p

Kim Kap Hwan (aka Kim Kafwan, aka Just Kim) is a Tae Kwon Do fighter from South Korea. Long before his never-ending pursuit of championing JUSTICE, all he wanted was to spread the teachings of Tae Kwon Do and be the best family man a man could be.

Cheng Sinzan is a businessman from Taiwan who uses his girth and chi channeling powers to fight his opponents.

Jubei Yagyu is an old Judo fighter who enters the tournament stalking Maito show to the world he can STILL beat the shit out of people by tossing cookies at their faces. He knows Judo and can do atomic drops from a crouching position.

Big Bear is an Australian wrestler with a koala haircut trying to make his comeback by pulling a Face or a Heel, one or the other. SNK brought back Raiden as he tries to redeem himself as Big Bear. Interestingly enough despite looking like he’d be the Zangief/big grappler of the game, he does not have a command grab. He has multiple grab moves performed by pressing a direction+C or D, but an SPD like Gief’s, or even a command throw like Honda’s and T. Hawk’s? Nope not in FF2, he’d get one in FF Special however!
What’s even more interesting is that his super move isn’t a grab either, it’s the Yoga Flame! Maybe SNK wanted him to be the power type fighter but then opted to just make him the FG grappler that just about many other copycats had during the era.

Like the original Street Fighter II and Fatal Fury 1, FF2 has CPU-only opponents and mid bosses. Funnily enough they total 4 characters being the last opponents you face in arcade mode, much like Street Fighter II.

Billy returns and enters the tournament to get revenge on the death of his boss.

Axel Hawk is an obese, way past his prime boxer who may have entered the tournament to fuckbust you up in order to avenge the humiliation, shaming and abrupt disappearance of his student Mike, or whatever his name was. That black boxer dude.

Laurence Blood is a sword wielding matador fighter who works for Krauser. We don’t know what his beef is or what he is trying to get revenge at by entering this tournament. Laurence has an attack that resembles Vega’s Psycho Crusher which he uses in all of his appearances, but his fighting style is overall fashoined after matadors. He is among the few characters in the series that fight with a weapon, namely a sword. Hilariously enough the input for his super in FF2/Special is a reverse Raging Storm where he does 2 quick slahes with his sword in front him (i.e. it has limited range).

Wolfgang Krauser is the world’s greatest black market weapons dealer. His hobbies including drinking fine wine, strangling any of his subordinates when he’s bored, turning fighters he defeats into statues and his pet black pan-
Oh wait wrong character.
Wolfgang Krauser is revealed to be the half brother of Geese and while he couldn’t care less about avenging Geese, he holds the tournament to defeat the man who beat Geese AND show to the world that he is the strongest fighter there is. May or may not have a hobby of chiseling the gravestones of the people he fights while an orchestra plays classic music in his mansion.

Little under a year later, SNK released an updated ver. of FF2 titled Fatal Fury Special (I call it FF 2 Special for the sake of my sanity). In addition to rebalancing some stuff, the game DOUBLED the playable roster, and it would be the first game to feature a guest character from ANOTHER SNK game: Ryo Sakazaki. Various characters also got a few more moves like Big Bear getting a command grab.

In addition to M. Bison, Balrog, Sagat & VegaAxel, Laurence, Billy, and Krauser becoming playable, the game adds in 3 returning characters from Fatal Fury 1


Tung Fu Rue returns as a playable character and keeping with his hulking out from Fatal Fury 1, Tung is able to summon a ghostly giant form of himself for some of his special moves, including the Ancient Chinese Technique of farting a giant muscular ghostly form of one’s self from one’s ass, as well the Secret Chinese Technique of hulking out and doing a spinning lariat while floating through the air.

Duck King must’ve been liked a lot by the team at SNK, or they watched one too many MC Hammer videos and gave him another chance by making him a playable character (Or maybe they just wanted their own Blanka in the game). Duck’s moves are all inspired by dance moves and his super move is a grab where he throws the opponent into the air and he does a break dance spin that damages them as they fall on him.

Geese Howard LIVES. Bearing a scar across his chest from when he was punched out of a 100 story building, he secretly enters the tournament to show to Krauser he can still Reppuken the shit out of people, and reveal his newest deadly technique obtained from long hours of meditating before a pretzel: THE RAGING STORM.
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Ryo Sakazaki is the current Master of the Kyokugen Karate fighting style. Long ago Ryo rode around Southtown on his motorbike beating the shit of people in order to find the whereabouts of his kidnapped sister. After getting mixed up with a young Geese Howard, then chief of the Southtown police, he was last spotted in South America fighting the Incredible Hulk at a graveyard, or so they say.
Ryo serves as the game’s secret boss, following in the footsteps of Mr. Karate from Art of Fighting 1. In fact the Mr. Karate title has been passed onto him and thus he can be seen as Mr. Karate II (Nisei).
Ryo uses the same moves he had in AoF1 with his Ryuko Ranbu being his unblockable Super move.
Ryo’s inclusion in this game is what inspired SNK to make the KoF series.

Graphics-wise, the game’s visuals are improved from Fatal Fury 1, in addition the returning characters got some new animations for their specials, like Terry’s Power Wave.
SNK really went out with the stages in 2 and Special, Tung’s for example starts from a view of the sky and then the camera lowers itself to the main fighting area.
There’s a lot of impressive effort put into the visuals and design of the stages like the moving gears in Billy’s stage, Terry’s train stage going past Mount Rushmore, Andy’s stage having you fight on a long gondola in Italy (for some reason), Just to name a few.

On the gameplay side of things, Supers are performed when your health is flashing red and they can knock off up to half an opponent’s health. The inputs for these supers however are pretty unconventional especially by today’s standards and actually managing to hitting with him is another matter entirely due to their start up being slow meaning you need to really time it depending on the character.
Performing supers while the health bar is flashing red is a mainstay of the FF series excluding Garou MoTW.
The two lane system returns although a few stages don’t have a 2nd lane like Laurence’s stage.
In addition SNK uses the 4 button input commands that KoF is known for here as well: Light Punch, Light Kick, Strong Punch, Strong Kick.
This game introduces Feint Attacks wherein a character will perform the start up animation of a special move but no special move comes out. This feature would remain throughout the later FF games.
 

Tizoc

Member
Fatal Fury 3
SNK beat Capcom to the punch 2 years earlier by releasing an actual third entry in their mainline fighting game series. However Fatal Fury 3 (released in March 1995) is a real oddball in the series, because it seemed SNK just threw everything in a blender and hoped nobody would notice they didn’t know what the heck they wanted the game to be or play like.
Taking place in 1995, wanted criminal Ryuji Yamazaki was spotted in Southtown smuggling some Ancient Chinese Relics and historical items and what have you. Geese takes notice of this and pursues Yamazaki as he has in his possession an ancient Chinese scroll that grants immortality; one can’t risk trying to survive a fall from a 100 story building a SECOND time.
Terry and co. get wind of this and fight their way through Southtown in order to find Yamazaki and the scrolls before Geese does.

In reality the game’s plot involves some ancient scrolls that Yamazaki brings to Southtown which can only grant immortality after a fierce martial arts fight occurs. Also the Jin bros. are actually possessed by the spirits of their ancient ancestors who are linked to the scrolls, and everybody’s going around Southtown fighting each other until they find Yamazaki at a train graveyard, and honestly this story is so whack it kind of links into how FF3 is such a patchwork of gameplay concepts.

Before I get to the characters I feel like mentioning just how much of an oddball this game is.
This game was released months before KoF 95, and where KoF 95 refined KoF 94’s elements, FF3’s gameplay aimed to expand on the concepts from FF2. However SNK seemed to just throw everything in a blender gameplay wise in the hopes that something will work out.
First off the game has three lanes: The main lane, bottom lane and back lane. You can move intbetween all 3 and there are even special animations for if you defeat an enemy with an attack that’d send them towards the screen! Furthermore there are some special animations if you defeat an opponent in a stage such as them falling into the water in the background or hitting the chandelier in Mary’s stage.
Personally I don’t really see what good comes from having a 3rd lane as it added nothing to the gameplay. From a stylistic point of view it is interesting to see a character’s back towards the character giving the notion of the game being in pseudo-3D, but all in all it feels like a novelty gimmick of sorts.
Secondly, the game has chain combos; chain combos debuted in Capcom fighters on CPS2 in 1994 and SNK thought to add it into the game. However there is no Hit counter and for the most part one wouldn’t know they existed unless they looked up a guide.
Super moves return as well and function like they did in the previous game, but now you can also perform a Hidden Super move. These Hidden supers can be performed once in a match, but to first UNLOCK them you must press all 4 buttons+Start when the GO! Sign appears on screen. This’ll turn the color of the character’s name to green meaning the Hidden Super can be used.
It doesn’t end there though, each character has a UNIQUE method AND set up for their Hidden super to be performed. For example, Joe’s Hidden super can only be performed if you are far away from your opponent, Terry’s is performed after a short chain combo, and HonFu’s can only be performed when the timer shows an odd number at which point do a back dash then input the super.
These Hidden supers may sound fine from a single player perspective but when it comes to versus it just feels silly and unneeded effort.
SNK had ideas for the gameplay but they couldn’t decide on how to implement them and just left them in. Which is a shame because the game has some impressive visuals and animations. It’s like the graphics were done first while the gameplay was being thought out.
Speaking of the graphics, SNK made new animations and visuals for the entire cast and game from the ground up. The overall presentation and stages of the game are pretty cool though like the Aquarium and Monsetary stages.
If you can look past the weird gameplay elements of FF3, you’ll find it to be a decent charming game with one of the looniest translations on the Neo Geo (and you thought SamSho 2 was bizarre).

Fatal Fury 3 has a smaller roster than its predecessor game, which rather hurt it esp. with King of Fighters 95 right around the corner and having a bigger roster.

Joining Terry, Andy, Joe, Mai and Geese are 5 new characters
Blue Mary is a police officer investigating and chasing after Yamazaki. She is based on Android 18 from Dragon Ball Z and has a pet dog called Anton.

HonFu is Jackie Chan’s long lost twin brother and is chasing after Yamazaki. He wields a nunchuck which he uses to do fiery Shoryukens with.

Franco Bash is what happens when Mario eats one too many Mushrooms. He is a giant blue overalls wearing kickboxer who works at the Southtown Airport, and has no indoor voice.

Bob Wilson works at the newly opened PaoPao Café 2 and is Michael Meyers student. Realizing that properly animating a Capoeira fighters stance was still 2 years away, they decided to give him the dullest fighting stance ever.

Sokaku is a Japanese monk who travels to Southtown in search of the ancient scrolls that are in Yamazaki’s possession. Sokaku’s moves are pretty interesting as they involve projection of demonic hands, Raiden/Raijin and Fuujin and sending out mini Sokakus to go all Harvest on the opponent.

The game features 3 bosses:
Ryuji Yamazaki is a ruthless criminal who likes to bitch slap people and drag their faces on the ground.
Although he’s known for being psychotic, his FF sprite & animations doesn’t really convey that, and it’d be the KoF games that let people know of his manic psychopathic nature.
Yamazaki is the first of the bosses fought by the end of the game.

Jin Chonshu is the final boss that is fought after defeating Yamazaki. He resembles Gohan from the Namek Saga, and is voiced by Usopp. Fortunately doesn’t go Super Saiyan or reach God status.
Turns out Chonshu is really inhabited by the soul/spirit of an ancient Chinese warrior or something and he wants to use the scrolls to be freed from the childish physique he’s been stuck in for centuries.

VegetaJinChonrei is the TRUE Final boss of Fatal Fury 3. He is Chonshu’s twin brother and is compelled to revive his ancestor’s spirit. He is also voiced by Usopp.

A few extra things to note about Fatal Fury 3 is that it introduced Terry’s pet monkey, Ukee. In Terry’s beach stage, Ukee will turn on the boom box in the background that plays Terry’s FF3 theme Big Shot. Ukee will also jump happily if Terry wins the round. In addition Billy’s sister Lilly shows up in Joe’s ending indicating they’re in a relationship/dating. Lilly would become a playable character in KoF MI2 a decade later.
One neat addition in the game is that there’s dialog inbetween matches and this happens for every character in the game. Considering this game’s absurd Engrish it leads to some weird but hilarious lines in standard SNK Engrishy fashion.
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FF3’s stages have some nice effort put into them but one that really stands out is Geese’s:
In the first round Geese’s stage looks like it’s in a crater of some sorts, there are Japanese war god statues and the American flag on the far end of the level. In addition the track that plays in the first round against Geese is titled https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4Ec9EVQ6q8]”It’s Geese!” being a departure from his previous themes. However once Round 2 starts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uchoj7Z2Cwo]we not only get his awesome theme playing BUT THE BACKGROUND IS ENGULFED IN FLAMES!
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Speaking of Geese, one really should give SNK credit for that kickass intro

For all of FF3’s faults you gotta hand it to SNK for all the work they put into the game’s visuals and style.
Also according to Tomokazu Sugita, Anton is in heat during the events of FF3 and likely gives it to Mary during her victory animation which would explain why she exclaims ‘Yaah!’ when he jumps at her.

Real Bout Fatal Fury
Originally released on Dec. 1995 to arcades, this game is kind of like SNK’s answer to the Street Fighter Zero/Alpha series. While it doesn’t feature any new characters, it makes the 3 FF3 bosses playable and adds Duck, Kim Kap Hwan and Billy to the roster. In addition considering it released in the SAME year as FF3, it does lend to the notion that THIS is what FF3 was intended to play as. Matter of fact the game is a SEQUEL to FF3, taking place after FF3.

Following the events of Fatal Fury 3, Geese decides to destroy what Jin scrolls he got his hands on. Seems he had an epiphany and realized immortality is too small for him (which is to say nothing of a certain crimson clad Dictator, assuming he ever was a Dictator). He holds a new tournament just to remind people he is still the boss.

Real Bout 1 is a vast improvement from Fatal Fury 3 gameplay-wise, for one thing it added in a Super Meter and included Guard Cancels.
The super meter at the bottom of the screen fills up as you attack your opponent. When it is half full you can perform a guard cancel that depletes half the bar. When it fills up you can perform a super move (S. Power), however the meter will begin to deplete over time so as not to give the player too much of an advantage. Guard Cancels are still possible while the meter is filled however and as long as there is enough energy in the meter one can still perform super moves.
The life bar has also been changed: it now consists of 2 layers. You start the game with a full health bar in yellow, once that is gone the health bar will start flashing red indicating you have under 50% health left. For as long as your health bar is flashing you can perform an unlimited number of S. Power supers.
However if the meter is full and your health is flashing you can perform a more powerful super move and one that can be comboed into! It kind of feels like World Heroes Perfect somewhat huh?
The game has 3 attack buttons: Punch, Kick and Strong Attack. The 4th button is centered around the Lane system allowing you to switch between them. The game keeps the 3 lane system from FF3 too.
Going a little further into the gameplay, some supers can be combed into like HonFu’s S. Power while others cannot be combed into like Terry’s Power Geyser. For the most part P. Power supers can be combed into as I’ve stated prior.
In addition various characters got more moves; Terry regained his Rising Tackle for example which he didn’t have in FF3. HonFu now has more moves where he uses his nuchuck, and he gets what is perhaps my fav. Special move in a fighting game: Hon will crouch and kick the opponent if it connects, an animation will occur where the opponent will attack HonFu but HonFu will parry all the hits and then perform an attack back at them! In later games it becomes a quick combo but in 3, it’s just a kick :p What makes this move even better is that it has a DIFFERENT attack animation if it hits an airbourne opponent!
It should be noted that this is the game where Kim got his gi with the Korean flag and his ‘back to the player’ stance.
Of note is that there are fewer stages than in FF3: Sound Beach, Metro Station, a mall, Southtown Bay and Geese’s stage atop Geese Tower. The Metro station stage changes by the final match in that there are no spectators as in the prior matches.
The main arcade mode has you fight 12 opponents before Geese; 3 are fought in each of the 4 stages.
One curious addition to this game is the ‘Out of Bounds’ system. In RB1, the corners of the fighting stage can be destroyed if an opponent is hit or blocks attacks while at them. After some time the corner breaks and if the opponent goes into the area behind this broken corner they will be ‘Out of Bounds’ and get KOed. The broken corner will remain in that state until the end of match and remains broken as the rounds go on! This can work either to your favour or against as simply WALKING or back dashing to a broken corner can lead to you losing the round! There are however some interesting animations in certain Out of Bounds areas like Joe standing and laughing on the elevator on the right side of the mall stage if goes Out of Bounds. Also Mary coming out of the water topless in certain Out of Bound areas.
Chain combos are prevalent in the game as well, although some cannot be canceled or combo-ed off of like the generic ABC chain. SNK would however refine this in the next games.
All this streamlining helped make RB1 a much better game that its predecessor, although the Out of Bounds system should’ve been scrapped IMO. I should note that one interesting callback to Fatal Fury 1 is that after defeating 3 opponents, you get a short cut scene featuring Geese as he comments or monitors your character’s progression in the tourney he’s holding.
This game introduces Duck’s most well known design being the black, blue and yellow jacket and dual colored Mohawk. His pet ducks also get featured further in the Real Bout series going so far so as to be used for his super moves!
Canonically this is the game in which Geese straight up and actually dies; Terry faces him and after Triple Geyser-ing his ass, Geese is sent crashing out of the building. Terry rushes to save him but Geese is too prideful for his assistance-
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Real Bout Fatal Fury Special

Released on January 1997 to Arcades, RBS is the 2nd game in the RB series and features an all new graphics engine.
The gameplay is once again refined from the previous game, and you can fight in EITHER the Front or Back Lanes (the 3rd lane is removed). The game adds in Krauser, Laurence, Cheng and Tung from FF2, in addition Tung, Billy, Mary and Andy have EX versions of themselves with altered moves. Geese is the only character that wasn’t made playable since he died at the conclusion of RB1….so instead they made Geese a secret boss called Nightmare Geese! Also Franco got REAL buff and is wearing orange overalls for some reason.
RBS doesn’t exactly have a story and mostly follows the characters going about doing their own thing after the events of RB1.
One interesting element of RBS is the announcer; he’s a somewhat chatty, friendly fellow, ready to psyche you up when the time comes, and even greets you when you are at the character select screen!
SNK once again beat Capcom by a mere year by having a more talkative announcer.
The graphics have once again undergone an overhaul, everything is much more colorful than in RB1 and various new animations were given to characters like HonFu spinning his nunchuck as part of his neutral stance.
One neat addition in the game is that each character has a unique intro for their stage:
Tung’s stage has everything in white and then the screen moves to the center of the tage with the two fighters and as Tung ends his intro animation color is introduced back in.
The Hong Kong stage starts with an overhead look at the sky as a plane passes by and then the camera moves down to show a bustling market place where the fight will take place.
Billy is the mid boss in the game and in his stage a white sheet has Billy’s signature written on it as his theme plays and then we get a flash to the fighting area where Billy plays on a guitar, smashes it and then grabs his bo staff to start fighting.
Krauser’s stage begins with a woman walking by as his theme starts playing, after a flash of light the fighting stage comes into clearer view, Krauser takes off his awesome cape and the battle begins.
It is simple things like these that bring a fresh vibe and charm to the game and make it stand out, and it shows SNK using these new graphics and presentation to the fullest.

Gameplay-wise, Out of Bounds have been removed, but the corners of the stage can still be broken. If a character is hit when the corner breaks, they’ll be stunned leaving them open for a combo! Here are some examples of combos that can cause an instant stun-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76FRZwnK-Bo
The chain combo system has been refined and now much of the cast have a cancelable chain combo into specials or Supers being A, B, Fwd+C, Back+C, which I personally don’t like.

There’s not much to add to RB Special, but it has a charm all of its own and it is fun to mess around in from time to time. Special mention should be given to the game’s intro which has Terry panting after getting a beating from Krauser who is then shown as a cool hulking shadowy figure.
One final note is that this is the game where Geese gets the non-cage Raging Storm which IMO is waaaaay better looking than the overused FF2 Special ver.
geeses8.png


Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers
Released on March 1998, RB2 introduces 2 new characters and makes Geese a default character with an easier input for his Raging Storm!
Before getting more into the game, I gotta say SNK released some great games in 1998: Last Blade 2, King of Fighters ’98 and RB2 to be precise. Must’ve been great to have been around at that time playing such arcade hits. More than that however, 1998 marked SNK releasing four Fatal Fury/Garou Densetsu games in the same year!

Real Bout 2 introduces 2 new characters:
Vanessa is a red haired private investigator and a proficient bo-
Oops wrong character again.
Rick is a Native American boxer who wanders around looking for fighters to battle against and become stronger. I personally like Rick’s design and movelist and he is one of the more combo-y characters in the game.

Li Xiangfei is a young woman who practices Chinese martial arts and lives in Southtown. Like Rick, she seeks out other fighters to test her might against.

In addition to these two characters, the game features 2 interesting characters.
Alfred Airhawk is a secret boss who can be played as by hacking the game, but being an SNK boss character he is overpowered.
Alfred is a young man who was inspired by Terry’s prior adventures and likes to fly planes.
https://giant.gfycat.com/SpanishShabbyAustraliancurlew.webm https://giant.gfycat.com/IckyFatherlyGossamerwingedbutterfly.webm
Lao is a big hulking brute who gets his ass handed to him by Rick and Xiangfei during the game’s intros.
He would become a playable character in the Neo Geo Pocket Real Bout game and eventually joins B. Jenet as a member of her Lillien Knights.
pXWVVBX.gif


RB2 changes up various things from its predecessor. First off there is the Lane system wherein SNK decided to revert it back to Real Bout 1 style meaning you can’t fight in the back lane. Some stages only have 1 lane and performing an attack that would force an opponent to the 2nd lane would cause them to rebound back and be juggled letting you follow up with a combo!

RB2 removes the 4 hit cancelable chain, instead various characters can do A, B, Dwn-Fwd+C or similar variants, to launch the opponent and follow with a combo. Most characters now have unique chains for them as well (although this was apparent in RBS as well).

Performing a P. Power super will have the screen freeze like most other games when a super is performed now as well.
A few characters were greatly changed up from RBS: Mary’s movelist has been cut down, however if she performs her P. Power move, which is a power up super she gains access to more special moves as well as finishers for some of her special moves.
Cheng has less combos he can benefit from, and his normals and special moves function in such a way that he relies on pressuring the opponent to deal damage (his P. Power sucks too).
Some of Duck King’s special moves have been altered, and interestingly enough, you can do his S. Power grab with a 270/360 motion.

Many supers in the game can be performed by entering Fwd, HCF+BC and this includes Geese’s Raging Storm! This universal input isn’t a bad thing as each character’s movelist is varied enough that super input isn’t a big deal.

I personally found the visuals in RB2 much cleaner and smoother than in RBS and even though 2 characters share the same stage, the stage changes depending on the character that is being played. For example Tung and Kim Kap Hwan share the same stage. If Tung is one of the characters then the stage will be set at sunset and there won’t be people in the background as opposed to if Kim Kap Hwan is one of the characters.

Oddly enough RB2 feels kind of rushed: After choosing your characters the game will show their portraits and then go straight to the stage with the announcer yelling ‘Round 1! Fight!’, no intros or anything. After winning a round, there won’t be a character victory animation, just the announcer going straight to announcing the next round is starting.

There are time-over animations and if you win by a time over you WILL see your character perform a victory pose. Otherwise winning a match will have the character do a victory pose.

When playing in single player arcade mode, you go STRAIGHT to the next match after defeating an opponent; no victory screen or quotes what so ever! There are victory quotes if you play versus however.

I should note that RB2’s story is like RBS as it follows what each character has been doing since the events of RB1. Some of the endings are kinda funny like Krauser’s, while others show you what characters have been up to like Chonshu and Chonrei training with Kim Kap Hwan and Tung respectively. White even appears in one of the endings!

Real Bout 2 is seen as the pinnacle of the RB series, it is overall a solid fighter and each character plays differently enough from each other for one to find a style that suits them. Just don’t expect any grapplers here despite a few characters having grab moves.
 

Tizoc

Member
Real Bout Fatal Fury Special: Dominated Mind
Released on June 1998 exclusively to the Playstation in Japan only, this game uses Real Bout Special as its base and alters a few things up. Before getting to the gameplay stuff we gotta address the fact that Misami Obari (well I THINK it’s Misami Obari, art kind of resmelbes his despite the female characters looking more normal than usual) contributed to the game: RBS DM has anime cutscenes with such as anime intro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oCXUsnHPPs
and anime endings.
The character select screen has been changed and it even includes Geese with a halo on his head to indicate that he is dead.
dominatedmind-05.png

The game features only 1 new character who is the final boss but can be played via hacking.
White is a young man who is rather psychotic but has an appreciation for classic music such as Ludwig von Be-
*sigh*
White is a crime lord who has made Southtown his new base of operations. He had attacked Alfred’s hometown which is what has spurn Alfred to go chase him down, and brainwashed Billy to do his bidding.
White is the final opponent fought in arcade mode, and has the usual overpowerd SNK boss BS. His most BS move however is that when he is beaten in the final round he’ll get up and fire a single low shot at you that if you don’t jump over, instantly KOs and you lose the round as well.
White’s theme is The Devil’s Pleasure Palace and his stage is pretty trippy
dominatedmind-10.png


Gameplay-wise DM changes up various things from RBS, the game it is based on.
First off the 2 lane system is removed, to make up for it characters have unlockable secret super moves such as Cheng re-creating the ending from the Street Fighter II animated movie as one of his supers
https://fat.gfycat.com/FancyNastyJuliabutterfly.webm
…and Terry gets his ‘OH MY SHIT! GEYSER!’ super in this game with the animation mixing his Power Charge, Power Dunk and Triple Geyser animations.
In addition various characters’ movelists were altered from RBS, and Alfred is made a playable a playable character along with Geese.
The game also features a gallery mode and upon release came with a fan disk that featured various fanart and cosplay of the series.

Fatal Fury: First Contact
cover-firstcontact.jpg

Released in 1999 for the Neo Geo Pocket, this is a chibified version of Real Bout 2.
Being on a 2 button handheld, don’t expect some stuff from the RB games to transition into here (namely the lane system, but apparently the usual meter usage are still in there…so I guess a few things didn’t make it in to be more accurate), however it is a rather solid fighter in its own right from what I’ve read.
While I haven’t played it myself, the game has both Lao and Alfred as playable characters though only in Versus mode.
firstcontact-02.png
firstcontact-01.png


Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition
SNK weren’t going to sit by and let Capcom get away with releasing a 2.5D fighter, so in 1999, they Released Wild Ambition on the Hyper Neo Geo 64 and later ported to the PSOne in the same year!
Story-wise Wild Ambition is a retelling of Fatal Fury 1. It features 2 kickass intros:
One is Geese practicing and performing the Thunder Break (beating Gouki’s KKZ in 3S by a scant few months, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBOfYUg0v14
…and another which shows in PSOne era CGI how a Young Geese killed Jeff Bogard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaTKeO-75To
For PSOne era CGI, they are pretty good especially by SNK standards IMO.
The game features a mishmash of characters from the series, along with 2 new characters.
hqdefault.jpg

Returning characters include: Terry, Andy, Mai, Joe, Kim Kap Hwan, Raiden, Billy, Geese & Yamazaki in the arcade ver. Of the game.
In the PSOne version, Mr. Karate (Ryo) and Duck King are unlockable characters.

Tsugumi Sendo is a Japanese high school exchange student who likes wrestling and fights using shoot wrestling moves.
Tsugumi could be seen like a mix of Sakura and R. Mika but minus the fanservice.

Touji Sakata is an old man who, for whatever reason, decided to spend his golden years in Southtown. He is a formidable fighter despite his size and uses his fan as if it were a sword to make slashes with.

Raiden finally returns as a playable character after a 5 year absence. SNK’s attempts at making him the Zangief of SNK/FF haven’t really been successful IMO, esp. with Clark being THE SNK grappler in many player’s eyes. Non the less SNK decided to give Raiden another chance, he uses similar moves to his FF2 Special ver. With the Salt spray being a special move instead of a super. He has 2 grab moves which do look rather cool but their animation is pretty slow. I would’ve liked to see how these 2 grab supers would’ve looked like in modern games, but IMO his KoF XII and XIII grabs are cool looking still. Funnily enough his stance in WA, while pretty uninteresting, makes him look like a standing bear.

Ryo returns in WA as Mr. Karate (Nisei), beating Hot Ryu 15 years with the awesome bod and beard, but a lot of gamers a bunch of mainstream shallow tools so they never appreciated his badass design and sadly neither has SNK. One of Mr. Karate’s coolest moves is that he can do a Haoh Sho-ko-ken in the air although it fires straight ahead instead of being like Gouki’s Super Air Fireball.

Duck King’s design is based off his FF2 look in Wild Ambition and the animation for his Break Dance grab super is pretty good.

From a visual stand point Wild Ambition doesn’t look that bad, and the animations while nice do feel somewhat outdated. It doesn’t help when various supers and attacks are rather slow just for SNK to show off the characters’ body movements and actions, although some of them are pretty impressive like Xinagfei’s drunk move (which you can have her walk drunk INFINITLY if you want). The characters do have some good expressions on their faces during certain actions though.

Gameplay-wise though, the game uses the same input as the Real Bout series: Punch (A), Kick (B), Strong Attack (C) and Sidestep/Roll (D). The game being in 3D, SNK wanted to show off that off by having the character roll up or down to dodge attacks but the game is strictly 2D still. Matter of fact you can just play this game without ever using the D button and it wouldn’t be any different.
Chain combos are in the game though the most prevalent one is mashing the C button 3 times and then comboing into a super or special move. Most characters can do this for an easy combo.
One of the most infamous elements of Wild Ambition, at least on the PSOne is the Inputs. It’s like you can’t do a Power Geyser motion to save your ass (which doesn’t help when the Feint move command is pressing a direction along with B+C which various supers use those 2 buttons for their input). Apparently inputting slowly works fine but that becomes irritating when you play any other fighter where inputting motions in a quick usual manner (and take it from someone who has play dozens of fighters, one could play dozens of different fighting games back to back and their inputs flow quite similarly) doesn’t transition well in this game.
The game’s meter system is a bit weird: if you take damage it depletes and if it empties while taking damage you’ll be dizzied. When the meter is full you can press A+B+C to perform an attack that can stun the opponent and it even functions as a combo breaker apparently.
Supers function much like in previous FF games although P. Power supers (called Overdrives in WA) are performed when the meter is full; you can just spam S. Powers when the life bar is in the red. It’s rather funny that SNK gave Terry a Shin Shoryuken-like animation for the ‘OH MY SHIT! GEYSER!Heat-up Geyser, but Terry’s Triple Geyser looks pretty cool in this game.
I’m rather curious on how the PSOne ver. Compares to the HNG64 ver., maybe a certain series dedicated to analyzing games from the past few decades could help shed some light on it *wink wink*

Garou: Mark of the Wolves
Originally released on Nov. 1999, this would be the last fighting game in the Fatal Fury series.
I’ve gone waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay in depth on this game in this thread, so give it a read afterwards if you would!

 
…and yeah that’s all the primary Fatal Fury fighting games, excluding ports consoles and handhelds.
A history spanning around 10 or so games, each with their own play style, visual presentation and charm. It may not be perfect, but there’s something to like about each game even if their core gameplay is flawed.
If you want to experience this series, consider tracking down the PS2 compilation releases as the 2nd collection, that has the RB games, features a training mode to try out much of the game’s moves and combos.
Humblebundle.com has been releasing various SNK/Neo Geo games which you can play on your emulator of choice, and among them is Real Bout 2.

The anime adaptations
Back in the 90s SNK licensed their main titles, Fatal Fury, AoF and SamSho so they’d have anime adaptations based on the games. Masami Obari contributed to all 3 Fatal Fury animated features. Obari would be infamous for his overly sexualized female characters and seeing as Mai is a part of the series well…
Let me just say that Masami’s art has not aged well for me. Has not aged well at all.
The first animated FF feature/OVA is a loose retelling of Fatal Fury 1 with a love interest for Terry
(who dies)
, Joe being voiced by an actual martial artist for an authentic experience (which didn’t work out as well as they’d hoped) and Andy with blue hair.
ffova1-9.jpg


The 2nd animated FF feature/OVA is a loose retelling of Fatal Fury 2/Special.
cover-anime2vhsj.jpg

After the events of Fatal Fury 1, Geese’s half brother, a bishonen parading in awesome 80s/90s anime pauldrons who says his name is Wolfgang Krauser, kicks Terry’s ass. Terry spends the remainder of the OVA depressed and drunk, which is honestly the main reason to watch this OVA imo.
Eventually Mai gets kidnapped by Laurence, gets her top shredded and then Terry wakes the fuck up and fights Krauser again and beats his ass proving he is the top fighter in the world.
Also Geese is alive and is sulking in cave meditating over a pretzel.
Oh yeah and Joe got a new proper anime seiyuu and Andy died his hair blonde.
The first two OVAs were bundled together in Japan with a umm interesting cover (goddamnit Obari…)

The 3rd and final Fatal Fury animated feature is longer than its predecessors and is somewhat of an original plot which is like a mix of Indiana Jones and Kung Fu/Martial Arts movie.

The movie’s plot goes that some dude finds an ancient artifact that can help him achieve godhood or some shit and the dude’s sister, Sulia while looking for someone to help her stop her brother runs into Terry and co. and they decide to help her out and take down the villain and his band of goons.
Features Joe in a speedo
Mai wearing a shirt that reads MILK (I’ll let you look for that by yourself)
Nakoruru dimension hopping
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Jubei Yagyu living the good life
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And Geese does the Raging Storm
https://zippy.gfycat.com/DimSpiffyGlassfrog.webm

While this movie is generally seen as the best of the 3, I just CANNOT get over Obari’s art style here, it’s a turn off for me. I’ve read that it is getting a re-release in the US by Discotek so keep an eye for that one if you have a region free bluray.

Oh and Shinkiro made some artwork of the movie, maybe SNK intended to adapt it into a game or it was mere promo material?

The music
You can praise Street Fighter and KoF’s soundtracks all you want, but the FF series has some fanatsic music all its own.
While Fatal Fury 1 may not have many memorable tracks, it is the game which introduced Geese’s most known theme and you can listen to some of its variances here.
Fatal Fury 2/Special inroduced Terry’s upbeat train theme (Kurikinton) which Capcom used in CvSNK 1. Andy’s theme is oddly titled Pasta and has a very Italian tune to it. Joe’s theme has a tribal feel to it and it would be re-used in his later appearances in the games. Mai’s theme has Japanese insturments used in it, though in later games her theme gets changed up for something more upbeat and lighter. Jubei’s theme is simply titled Jubei (and Jubei is even said in it!). Big Bear’s theme sounds like an actual wrestler intro. Much like how Guile’s theme is the anthem of America, Kim Kap Hwan’s ‘Let’s go to Seoul!’ theme may as well be South Korea’s anthem, it’s pretty fast paced and brings out Kim’s enthusiam and dedication to Tae Kwon Do and wanting to kick your face in. Cheng’s theme sounds very Asian and it would be re-used in later appearances in the FF games as well. Billy gets London March in this game and would be his theme in later games. London March is a rock-styled theme and as better audio hardware is used in later games the theme really manages to stand out. Axel Hawk has a theme too…which I’ve got nothing to say about. Laurence’s theme sounds pretyt Matador-y and may as well be Balrog’s theme if the two ever switched them. Krauser’s theme is Requiem in D minor K-626 with the vocals sounding like Krauser’s captured Satan. Duck King’s theme is one that would totally fit in a dance club. Tung’s theme is rather decent here but later games would make it sound even more majestic. You can just tell that Tung’s theme just exudes of the majesticy of China. Geese is given Soy Sauce and his theme sounds more badass than in FF1, and will continue to be so in games to come. I got nothing about Ryo’s theme but it has a lot of zeroes.

Moving onto Fatal Fury 3, SNK redid the themes for some of the cast: Terry’s new theme is called Big Shot, in conrtast to his FF2 theme which was mainly upbeat, Big Shot sounds very rock/guitar inspired. Andy’s theme is Thunderous Wave and sounds more dour and omnious for some reason, I don’t really think it fits him but it’s a decent track otherwise. Mai’s theme is more melanchonic in this game for some reason. Joe’s theme is a Taste of Crocodile which sounds pretty wild and weird. Franco’s theme White Franco gives off the vibe of a serious climatic battle of sorts. Mary’s theme is titled Kiss me and sounds ominous as well totally unbefitting her when compared to her later themes, guess SNK wanted her to be some femme fatale early on? Bob’s theme sounds very…Bob. For some reason HonFu’s theme reminds me of industrial rock, but it really brings out his Supercop persona. Sokaku’s theme envokes his mysterious wandering warrior monk vibe and the tribulations he goes through. Geese’s awesome duo of themes deservers mention once again for how awesome they are, they really sound like boss themes. I think it’s the insturments used for the original arcade rendetion but I am not feeling Yamazaki’s theme in FF3. Chonshu’s theme is ‘The first from Pandora’s Box’ and sounds pretty mysterious and omnious invoking the mysticism behind the Jins. Chonrei’s theme is titled Pandora’s Box ‘Mist’ and sounds more ‘final climatic battle’-like, heck it’s practically a final boss jrpg theme if it were in any other game.

Real Bout 1 would use the same tracks from FF3 for the most part for the returning characters. Duck King’s theme gets some unintelligable lyrics in it and is more upbeat now. Duck’s RB1 theme would be re-used in the later games as well. Kim’s theme is a pretty slick guitar riff with a more stern tune to it titled ‘Seoul Town’. Billy gets a new theme titled NDR which has a nice build up, but it feels more tame compared to the thrash of his London March theme.

Real Bout Special has my fav. Tracks in the series. Terry’s theme is titled Kurito Forever which has a saxaphone and is pretty upbeat, a rather nice remix of his FF2 theme. Andy gets Thunderous Waves again and I still feel like it doesn’t fit him, he was never the studious martial artists to me. Joe’s theme mixes his FF2 and 3 themes into one dynamic and hotblooded theme befitting of Joe’s personality. Mai’s theme is more graceful sounding now and then goes into a rather light uplifting tune. Sokaku’s theme has some Japanese insturment sounds in it and mixes it with rock for a more exciting ver. Of his FF3 theme. Bob’s theme still sounds like Bob. HonFu’s theme has now been hyped up to 11 and it is among my fav. Tracks in the series, yes even the clicky sounds. Mary gets her more recognizable theme Blue Mary’s Blues which even got a music video for it! Franco’s theme, Goli-Rock, sounds like the culimination of his hard training and buffing and him about to stomp your face to the ground. Yamazaki’s theme has a very Yakuza/Triad vibe to it. Chonshu and Chonrei share the same theme which is a more regal ver and less villainous variation of their FF3 themes. It’s pretty dramatic sounding and pretty good IMO. Duck’s theme is similar to his FF3 although he seems to yell Bullsheet at the start. Kim’s theme is titled ‘It’s Seoul’ and is a serious sounding theme. Billy’s London March sounds more thrashy here and has some lyrics in it and overall is a fantastic rendition. Tung’s theme now sounds fucking majestic. Cheng’s theme is a variation of his original FF2 theme and sounds pretty good. Laurence’s theme is titled ‘Bulls and Sport’, and sounds very Spanish in tune befitting his character. Krauser’s theme sounds like something straight from a tragic opera story. Fantastic theme all around. Nightmare Geese’s theme stays on winning.

Real Bout 2’s themes are the same as the character’s themes in RBS.
Rick’s theme has some nice strings used in it early on, but otherwise gives off the vibe of an aspiring fighter. Xiangfei’s theme sounds like an interesting throwback to ChunLi’s Zero 2 theme. Alfred’s theme starts out pretty calm before going into a louder upbeat chipper tune.

Wild Ambition gives many of the cast completely new tracks with a few being based on their older themes, and personally I don’t care for much of them, but some that stand out are Terry’s (which is used in the KoF NESTS Saga), Kim’s and Geese’s.

Due to word limit I’m just gonna let you lads look up the themes on YT or whatever :V
What I WILL do however is link to the Garou Densetsu symphonic tracks which, yes, include a symphonic ver. of Geese's theme
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7B84D57720BAA5BB

Artwork
One cannot get enough good old Shinkiro art and sketches in their lives. What’s great about some of these art pieces is how much character SNK and Shinkiro wanted to evoke from the cast and you can see that in some of these artwork. A new artbook collecting Shinkiro’s early SNK work would be terrific if it ever gets made.
Some images were gotten from this page
http://www.taringa.net/posts/juegos...nkiro-El-Mejor-ilustrador-de-Videojuegos.html
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So yeah in closing hope this thread got you interested in the FF series and a big thank you to SNK for making this wonderful series. I likely missed writing about certain stuff mainly as I was rushing to get this thing written up, but if you want to read up more on Fatal Fury series give HG101’s articles a read
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/fatalfury/fatalfury.htm
Thanks for reading!
 
I'm kind of scared to post, but the warning is gone now and it looks like everything is done. This is amazing and I can't wait to read through everything.
 

Tizoc

Member
I'm kind of scared to post, but the warning is gone now and it looks like everything is done. This is amazing and I can't wait to read through everything.

Yup y'all can post now! Let me know of any errors in the text and I'll muster the strength to fix it eventually ^^;
 

Fersis

It is illegal to Tag Fish in Tag Fishing Sanctuaries by law 38.36 of the GAF Wildlife Act
Got dang what a thread! Love to Tizoc as always!

My first experience with the series was with FF2 on Sega Genesis, it was hella cool :3

WHERES GAROU?!?!?!?!
 

Ferrio

Banned
Certainly they existed. Those blinded by ambition. Those consumed with vengeance, but here they do not exist. Only winners, and losers here. For here the mighty rule.
 

TreIII

Member
Great topic, Tizoc. Never disappoints.

Fatal Fury on Genesis with a few friends back in second grade was fun, but fooling around with Fatal Fury Special a year or so later was what really helped make me aware of SNK, Terry and pals. And of course, seeing the Movie on Sci-Fi channel waaaay back in the day was a treat.
 

kunonabi

Member
My favorite SNK series to this day. Played the original in the arcades followed by the snes port of FFS a ton as a kid.

Played a bit of FF3 at these local anime meetings since we had this guy that would always bring his Saturn and Dreamcast consoles with a ton of games for everyone to play. I didn't care for it at all though.

My favorite game has to be RBFFS. Everything about that game just clicked for me.

Of course Garou is THE masterpiece and a far better game than SFIII:3S could ever dream of being.

I need to sit down and go through some FF art because this stuff is excellent.

Favorite characters:

Andy
Geese
Cheng
B.Jenet
Sokaku
Xiang Fei
 

Galdelico

Member
I'll just wait for the next page, so I don't bemire Shinkiro's god-tier work, but - just for fun - I'm doing a little series of redesign/sketches of some Garou characters, imagining they're for an hypothetical sequel of Mark of the Wolves.
If you're interested, I'll be very glad to share. :)
 

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
Amazing thread.

ZN95yBF.png


KoF and FF are separate timelines, right?
 

stn

Member
Amazing post, OP! Still got my copy of FF2 for SNES, had some amazing times with it back in the day. I know people still play most of the games on Fightcade/GGPO. I need to get on that.
 
Great thread.

My actual favorite title in the series is Real Bout Special. I'm more of a casual fighting game fan and I find the first three FF games to clunky, difficult and hard to really get into.

Haven't played Wild Ambition at all. Really need to find it and give it a try.

Edit: Really cool you mentioned the anime OVAs. For the longest time, that was the only way I really knew the characters until I played CvS2.
 

Tizoc

Member
Great thread.

My actual favorite title in the series is Real Bout Special. I'm more of a casual fighting game fan and I find the first three FF games to clunky, difficult and hard to really get into.

Haven't played Wild Ambition at all. Really need to find it and give it a try.

Edit: Really cool you mentioned the anime OVAs. For the longest time, that was the only way I really knew the characters until I played CvS2.
I forgot to mention that shinkiro made art based on if not for the 3rd anime movie
Will update that later when I get home :v
 

Raitaro

Member
Awesome thread (again) Tizoc! (The first reply post should have been the Orson Welles slow clap if you ask me.)

Always loved this series, though I never managed to really get into the older games due to not being near any arcades or having no access to any Neo Geo's. The most I played was the SNES port I think, but even that was enough to take it seriously as a rival to SF.

I have to admit that despite really, really liking the characters, art, atmosphere, general gameplay, (unparalleled) presentation and world building etc. etc., I never could see the lane system as anything but a bit hokey / gimmicky in terms of how it looks (especially the characters punching or kicking into the background or foreground) and feels when using it.

Because of these reasons, the first Fatal Fury game I ever really managed to get into was Garou on the Dreamcast, which I'd only put behind 3rd Strike in terms of best 2D fighting games. It's incredible. Just imagine how great the planned, more refined and content-rich Garou 2 could have been...

Some random thoughts, to close off:

- The anime are better than they should be considering their completely separate plot lines and non-canonical art, especially the first movie, and I can't help but love them. "Can you feel the storm? It's coming!" I love the sappy but still cool credits song to the first movie as well.
- Terry Bogard might be my favorite fighting game character of all time. Had him as my desktop wallpaper for years from a RB2 piece of art. Wish he'd make a guest appearance in SFV actually.
- Geese is an awesome villain. As is Krauser for that matter, with his German organ stage.
- If SNK manages to complete the cancelled Garou 2 with its original sprites and intended new characters, stages and moves, but perhaps even partially redrawn (with sprites) Wild Guns Reloaded style to enable native wide screen, that would be one of my dream games come true.
- While I appreciate KOF, it really feels high time SNK revisits Fatal Fury. To me, that has always been the purest fighting game series they've made.
- Compared to SF, what always struck me about FF is the sheer amount of special moves a character can have without seemingly being OP. Terry in particular has so many that it feels you can get around by just use special moves.

Happy anniversary FF/Garou, hope you'll be "OK" for many more years!
 

Zerojul

Member
Great thread, thanks for doing this. That's far more and much better than whatever SNK will ever care to do.
Hard to believe 25 years have gone by since my first hurricane uppers :p
 

LordCiego

Member
Hey C'mon C'mon! Great Thread.

Fatal Fury its my favourite fighting game series and the game I like the ost is Real Bout Fatal Fury Special, soo many hours lost in it.

The best part of Fatal Fury its the "mundane charm" and the atention to the world and the characters, all very charismatic. I dont know, if I had to put it into words this could be a long ass post as the fisrt one!
 

Galdelico

Member
The best part of Fatal Fury its the "mundane charm" and the atention to the world and the characters, all very charismatic. I dont know, if I had to put it into words this could be a long ass post as the fisrt one!

Brilliant post, totally agree. That's one thing I always loved about the series, and its overall design. Absolutely unique and pretty much unmatched (I can only think of Guilty Gear, but even if it gives me similar vibes, they're not as strong).
 
What a thread!

FF has never been my favourite SNK series, but a few of the games I hold in high esteem and I played a lot of 1,2 and Garou in the arcades at the time. To my shame, as a kid I always hated Shinkiro's artwork. I think I used to regard it as not anime enough or something. Now, I love it and adore the artwork he did for SNK games where we see the characters sitting on the beach or at fancy cocktail parties etc. Absolutely brilliant.
 

petran79

Banned
One of the most underrated fighters. Never saw it In our local arcades. Fortunately they had AOF, World Heroes and Samurai Shodown

A well deseved write up!

Of course Garou is THE masterpiece and a far better game than SFIII:3S could ever dream of being.

I need to sit down and go through some FF art because this stuff is excellent.

Favorite characters:

Andy
Geese
Cheng
B.Jenet
Sokaku
Xiang Fei

One felt SNK watched more martial arts movie than Capcom while creating characters
 
I remember playing KoF 95 on PS1 back in '97 or so and loving the charm it had - despite the horrific in between round loading.
The stage in Greece, where they'd fight in ankle deep water and then seeing Terrys hat flow along it when he won, was adorable.

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Vlaphor

Member
Personally, I love the hell out of Obari's art style and his version of Mai from the FF Motion Picture will always be the main, official version for me. Bought the movie several times (VHS, VHS Triple Pack, Laserdisc, DVD, New DVD Transfer), and I just bought a blu-ray drive on my computer so I could watch the FF Motion Picture Blu-Ray in it's highest possible quality.
 

Jimrpg

Member
Meant to post the other day. Great thread!

Fatal Fury was a huge influence for me as a gamer back in the day. We had a NES at home (which we sold after about 5 years), and a Mega Drive, I always wanted a SNES though. Our Mega Drive was an asian one, and we lived in Australia, meaning we could only oogle at the games at the local Kmart. So during this time, we played lots of PC Games and Arcade games, but you couldn't get any decent fighters on PC. The best at the time was One Must Fall 2097 (and Sango Fighters).

Our local shopping mall had one arcade machine, a Neo Geo which we both played and watched others play. This Neo Geo had Art of Fighting, Windjammers, Blue's Journey and World Heroes. But Art of Fighting was the business. I loved that to death.

The arcade further down the road also had a Neo Geo machine, this one with Fatal Fury which I also greatly enjoyed.

I didn't play Fatal Fury 2 as much, for some reason that felt significantly harder (maybe different machines had different difficulty settings), and I stood no chance on any of the Real Bout games, but I really enjoyed both Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting more than any other Neo Geo games.
 
AMAZING thread. Thanks so much for this, you made my day! :)

I have a special place in my heart for Fatal Fury 2. Received it as a present on the Genesis back in the day and played the shit out of it. All the music is still quite fresh in my mind (Billy Kane!). I remember the game also had an auto battle mode where you could pit the CPU against another CPU and just watch. I remember just putting that on and watching them fight each other to pass time.
 
Fatal Fury series has so much personality and work put into them too bad they get bogged down by gimmicky mechanics. Fatal Fury Special is still the GOAT fighting game. Meet me on fightcade, motherfuckers.
 
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