Retro|Spective 161: Fatal Fury

[Neon Ignition]

History in Games:
1991 - Fatal Fury: King of Fighters
1992 - Fatal Fury 2
1993 - Fatal Fury Special
1995 - Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory
1995 - Real Bout Fatal Fury
1997 - Real Bout Fatal Fury Special
1998 - Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers
1998 - Real Bout Fatal Fury Special: Dominated Mind
1999 - Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition
1999 - Fatal Fury: 1st Contact
1999 - Garou: Mark of the Wolves

Overview:
For a while Fatal Fury stood as SNK's lead rival to Capcom's Street Fighter series, this franchise offering multi-layered stages to fight on presenting a unique approach to 2D based fighters. As the series progressed SNK introduced a third layer and began to create new games along side well received revisions of existing entries but in seven short years the market moved to 3D and SNK was unable to continue that success, instead it created Garou which is considered by many to be its finest hour. The collapse of the company sank a planned sequel to that title with only the much larger KOF series carrying the characters forward into the next chapter of the companies story.





Where you a fan of the series and which of the titles released was your favourite effort by SNK?

[Asura]

I was a fan of the series from pretty early on.

So a weird thing, I guess, is that I've been a fan of SNK for most of my life, but I've never actually owned a NeoGeo (save for the Pocket consoles). I grew up in a place with a lot of arcades, so my experience with their games primarily came from several places:

1) Playing titles running on arcade machines, like Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting
2) Watching titles like Soccer Brawl & Samurai Shodown on SkyTV's GamesWorld
3) Playing Fatal Fury on a cousin's megadrive

In fact, the first SNK game I ever personally owned was probably King of Fighters '96 on the Saturn.

It's also something I laugh about, because as a kid, I was totally enamoured with Art of Fighting for the longest time, and was convinced it was just superior to Street Fighter II. I'm not gonna lie, there was definitely an "Oh, you like SF2? I also like white bread" attitude here too (I was, like, 10 years old). Cringe.

But I loved the SNK titles, and I honestly didn't get why they weren't a bigger force in gaming, and Fatal Fury was a big part of that. I still remember being at a service station or something similar in France, stuck with nothing to do other than a fistful of francs and a row of SNK arcade titles; honestly was a great afternoon. I think I put most of it into Fatal Fury 2.

Yet, also strangely, my favourite game of the series is one that I know a lot of people don't like - Fatal Fury 3. Mainly because I had a PC version back in the late 90s and played it so much; I loved how the difficulty was just unfair and how you felt awesome when you got the evasion moves wrangled around just right.

To this day, the series ranks highly in my fantasy retro arcade; that being said, it's difficult to extricate my feelings from all the other games in which the characters have featured.

[Leon Retro]

I remember thinking the first Fatal Fury looked good and played reasonably well, but it wasn't a patch on SF2. Then after that... I thought FF Special on the SFC was a great port that really impressed me. During the 32-bit era, Real Bout on the Saturn was really good. Mark of the Wolves on the Dreamcast was something special.

When it comes to the wide range of Neo Geo fighters, I prefer the Samurai Shodown and World Heroes series' over Fatal Fury. With fighting games in general -- I've always been firmly in the Capcom camp when it comes to 2D.

[fuse]

HEY! C'MON C'MON!

[Dogg Thang]

In my opinion, Mark of the Wolves is one of the best fighting games ever made. And for me, the only SNK game that stands equal to the best of Capcom's output. I have enjoyed some of the other Fatal Fury games but, when it comes down to one of them or a King of Fighters game, I'll always go for KoF. Fatal Fury, Wolves aside, feels older and less polished.

But yeah, Mark of the Wolves is incredible. It plays so well and the animation is beautiful.

[Colin]

Pretty much what DT said above goes for me as well, though I do have a soft spot for RB2.

Fighting games aren't a genre I've ever been that fussy about as to be honest I'm not that great at them although I do enjoy them. MOTW's just seemed incredibly accessible to me, which is probably why it's the only fighting game that would be among my desert island gaming list. And it's absolutely gorgeous to look at as well, a real showpiece for the Neo along with the Slug's.

[phillv85]

My oldest memory of the Fatal Fury series isn’t actually one about playing the games at all. I remember as a kid going into Manchester with my dad and seeing a poster in the window of a tiny little shop in the arndale market area. The poster was for Fatal Fury 3, I assumed on the Mega Drive, because I only knew about Mega Drives and Super Nintendo’s from that console generation. I always wondered why I’d never seen it for sale on the Mega Drive anywhere. It must have been one of the import shops in Manchester, and the poster was probably for the Neo Geo version. It took me many years to realise that.

As for playing the games, I don’t really like the first game, 2 or special. It’s at 3 where it kicks into gear (unrelatedly to the above story). I’ve got most of the series across the various Neo Geo platforms, but for me the two stand outs are Mark of the Wolves and Fatal Fury 3. I really need to spend more time with the Real Bout games.

[CAPCOM]

I enjoyed it SNK's real SFII equivalent...

[monel]

For me the closest SNK came to the fun of SF2 was the King of Fighters series. Other games they made were perhaps graphically superior. I don't like every Kof game but the only issue for me is the speed, some are a bit slow.

[Baseley09]

Now we are talking real games.

QQ Why does FFS feel better than FF2. Mystery.

Real Bout Special is the best in the series, Jesus christ the NGCD music is astonishing.

Don't care for Garou much, does look nice in patches. I do wish they had continued making Fatal Fury games instead of KOF obsession.

[Neon Ignition]

My favourite entry is FF2 though Real Bout was great. It has to be on NGCD though, the soundtrack is the absolute best in those versions.

I have a soft spot for the look of FF3 but never enjoyed the gameplay as much whereas Garou... I know it's technically the best but it's always left me cold. There's so much about it that stands it above the other entries but it always felt like a slick but cold, characterless version rather than something that belonged in the series.