Come on down to Southtown, gonna meet some friends of mine.
Fatal Fury
One of the most famous (or infamous) fighting game series of all time, Fatal Fury (also known by its Japanese name of Garou Densetsu: Legend of the Hungry Wolf) sort of marked SNK finding its calling; releasing a crappy game and gradually molding it into a classic.
Fatal Fury was considered by most to be a Street Fighter rip off. And true, it shares some characteristics with the original SF. Like the way there's a fight going on between two people, and it's controlled by a joystick. And the fact they both just weren't very good. But that's really where the similarities end, as this wolf is its own beast.
On the whole, the main thing that set apart SNK's early fighting games from the rest was an emphasis on storylines. Fatal Fury's backstory is a simple revenge plot, but it works as good enough an excuse to get the then-large-nosed Terry Bogard in the ring with a cast of forgettable thugs and ultimately his father Jeff's murderer, Geese Howard. On his side are his Shiranui Ninjitsu-trained little brother Andy (who is here and in FF2 referred to as being trained in Koppo, the art of bone-breaking), and their friend and comic relief, the Muay Thai kickboxer Joe Higashi. Depending on who you play as, the cutscenes between battles change as Geese anxiously prepares for your arrival. The last obstacle between the Bogards and revenge is Geese's trusted bodyguard and KOF champion, Billy Kane. And his incredibly cheap, unblockable pole vault. Yay.
You read right, King of Fighters champion Billy Kane. You see, King of Fighters was the citywide tournament Geese began for his own morbid amusement in Southtown. So, Fatal Fury was actually KOF '91.
So anyway, Geese's 'legitimate business' career came to a close as he fell from his skyscraper, and everything was just hunky-dory. For a couple of months, anyway.
Unfortunately, in terms of play and execution, Fatal Fury 1 is just... bad. The character illustrations in these early games make everyone look like scary homeless versions of their more famous selves. Granted, the hook-nosed, bloodshot(!) Terry is probably truer to the look of a man who wanders around aimlessly, fighting just to prove his strength. It just doesn't scream 'hero' to me. Of the villains who appear, only Billy and Geese are very memorable, and the fact that I routinely FORGET that goofy-ass Duck King was in the first game doesn't really speak well of the villains' memorability. But still, some traces of charm manage to leak through, apparently enough to merit a franchise. I suspect Terry's character design alone had a hand in it. Down-to-earth, but still unique- and with the Neo-Geo logo embroidered on his cap. "OKAY!"
Then there's the matter of control. This is one of those games where even the usual quarter circle moves are painful to execute, and the computer has no problem whatsoever. On that note, damage levels are ridiculously high. FF's main innovation was to have a revolutionary two-plane fighting stage. I guess that was aimed at everyone who had been clobbered by Hadoukens and wondering why the hell their character didn't simply sidestep- unfortunately, this is implemented rather badly. Some fights end up as two characters just jumping back and forth until one kicks the bucket.
Fatal Fury 2
One might point out that the worldwide KOF tournament presented in Fatal Fury 2 might be analogous to the World Warrior battle seen in Street Fighter II. Unfortunately, FF2 was still a work in progress, as the crappy controls were only tightened up a little. Many of the characters added in addition to the Trio of Garou/Lone Wolves became pretty popular- case in point, Andy's love interest/bane of his existence Mai Shiranui. 'Nuff said.
FF2 introduced 'supers' with its Desperation Moves- when your life meter was flashing red, you could (in theory) pull off a last-ditch mass destruction attack in hopes of taking them down to your level, if not out entirely. The damage levels of the last game were toned down ever so slightly, unfortunately it still only takes two or three Big Bear hugs to get killed.
SNK's remarkable ability to make things up based on existing made up plot elements provides a nice sort of background for this sequel. It turns out Geese was planning to hire the victor of KOF as a bodyguard against his half-brother, the Dark Kaiser of Strolheim, Wolfgang Krauser. So, when Terry defeated Geese, Krauser was curious as to how strong Terry might be, and kicked the crap out of him in their first meeting. Then, he invited him to join in the first worldwide KOF for a chance at a rematch.
While still not quite there, it was definitely an upgrade, and was given a slight makeover with new characters and the title of Fatal Fury Special. Among the newcomers: The bizarre, breakdancing Duck King, and the first 'punk' iteration of Billy.
Fatal Fury 3: Road to Final Victory
This is as good as traditional Fatal Fury gets, and well- it's actually pretty damn good. The focus shifts back to Southtown as several returning characters and some newcomers search for the location of a set of scrolls that belonged to Geese Howard. Scrolls that either contained the secrets of immortality or the secrets of Hakkyokusaken (the secret ancient martial art that a frustrated Geese couldn't master fully and provoked him to murder the two who did- his master and Jeff Bogard.) So anyway, Terry, Andy, Joe, et al. scour the city and vie with the darker forces for control of the stolen scrolls, including the not-suprisingly alive Geese.
Fatal Fury 3, in cast and play, is pretty similar to the Real Bout series (see below.) The plane-shifting aspect of the game is used better, and the controls for special attacks are finally good. (DMs, on the other hand are still hard to do. On purpose, most likely.) The new characters are every bit as stylish and unique as the 'classic' ones, introducing fan favorites like Blue Mary and Ryuji "Card-Carryingly Insane" Yamazaki. Damage is finally at a decent level, but the game manages to stay challenging. The final boss(es) are Chonshu and Chonrei, a pair of identical, evil twins who want the scrolls for themselves. In other words, they're like any other overpowered SNK boss, only really little and hard to hit.
As a useless aside, I really like Hon-Fu, the Hong Kong supercop and transparent Jackie Chan parody. He's sort of the Sherlock to Yamazaki's Moriarty, if Moriarty were a raving sadomasochist and Sherlock were a bumbling police officer who fights with nunchaku because of his amazingly inaccurate skill with a gun.
Real Bout Fatal Fury
At the same time of FF3's release, Real Bout Fatal Fury came out. The Real Bout series were, as far as I'm concerned, SNK's way of saying "You know what? Forget those first two games. This is what we were really trying to do." Real Bout just tickles me. The artwork is much more cartoony and expressive than any of the other SNK fighters, yet not as outlandish as the style changes between Street Fighter II and Alpha.
Okay, so maybe Sokaku's true identity was kind of a shock.
The game is out of canon with the series, despite Real Bout 2's opening calling itself "The Seventh Episode of Fatal Fury." (Which doesn't really add up right unless they were counting FF Special and a couple KOFs.)
All the old characters who were reborn in the new art style also got some personality behind those new looks. A far cry from his original street punk look and subsequent MC Hammer-ish club life, Duck King bobs and dances constantly, all of his new breakdancing moves seem to flow into the Snoopy-like jig. Tung yawns and scratches periodically, and when he does any move that launches him into his 'power self,' his body goes through a Dragon Ball-like bulging. (It doesn't hurt that he looked like Master Roshi form the beginning.) Fat Cheng is even chubbier yet mysteriously agile, and one of my personal favorites, Kim Kaphwan is redrawn and in constant motion, occasionally brushing his hair back out of his face.
There was also a move to make the background more interactive in Real Bout, that was sadly toned down as the series progressed. In the original, you could 'ring out' people by bashing them against an obstacle at the end of the stage repeatedly. After some complaints, Real Bout Special kept the obstacles, only making breaking them dizzy the enemy. And RB2 ditched them entirely, opting for a couple special levels with only one plane of combat. One of the things that really made Real Bout shine was the assignment of the D button to shifting planes. Also, many characters were giving combos and special moves that made the most of the area (Terry's Round Wave seen in KOF was originally conceived so he could hit both planes at once.)
The game also had a great system for combinations, sort of like Killer Instinct's auto-doubles concept, only more dependent on familiarity with the character. Add to this a great super system, which has a classic SNK-style gauge that fills slowly as you rack up/take damage. At about half full, the "H-POWER" activates, enabling combo-interrupting Break Shots and such, when fully charged (S-Power) a super can be executed. And when you're on your red second life bar, you can do unlimited DM's, and the S-Power becomes P-(Potential) Power, or an SDM.
There were two Real Bout-exclusive characters introduced in Real Bout 2, Rick Strowd and Li Xiangfei. One was a Native American boxer whose moves were later ripped and attached to Vanessa's sprite in KOF. The other was a eerily cheerful and violent Chinese waitress who was great in RB2, but sadly her fighting style didn't transfer to her King of Fighters self very effectively. There was also a hidden boss, a barnstormer turned street fighter named Alfred, who pops up occasionally in other games.
So, Fatal Fury wasn't the greatest, but it did set the stage for the rest of SNK's fighting series. Southtown and Geese Howard would play major parts in the background of Art of Fighting as well...
Garou: Mark of the Wolves
Future spinoffs of anything are rarely any good. Street Fighter 2010, Phantom 2040, Rugrats: All Growed Up, Sherlock Holmes in the 20-something Century... You get the point.
Mark of the Wolves manages to buck the trend by not concentrating on the fact it's the future of the world so much as a later point in the life of Terry Bogard. In this version of the tale, Terry has been raising Rock Howard, Geese's orphaned son, in the hopes that if he gives the boy a nice childhood it will make him less likely to fling him off a skyscraper later on. Rock is an interesting fighter as a result; he sort of plays like Terry, with Geese's grabs and counters. Other characters I feel are noteworthy in a self-referential kinda way, include Hokutomaru, Andy's young protege in ninjitsu, sexy pirate girl B. Jenet, who replaces the (presumably sagging at this point) Mai as the fanservice fighter, and Marco Rodriguez, the Kyokugen-ryuu Karate fighter renamed Butt for U.S. release for some ungodly reason. There's also some goofy mexican wrestler in an Aztec mask, and the prerequisite 'dark and psychotic' fighter, Freeman, among others.
Very much a 'visual' game, Mark of the Wolves has some of the smoothest animation and graphics of any SNK title. The characters are, in general, well-designed and attractive. Rock is particularly interesting, with his red and white windbreaker, unruly blonde hair, and red eyes. The 'new Terry' has a set of weird new voice bites, and has completely abandoned his old costume in favor of a leather flight jacket. He also has his hair down for once.
The super system in MotW is interesting as well, featuring the ability to set which part of your life meter will serve as 'the red' for terms of executing DM/SDMs. So, say you fancy yourself an expert and want to totally wail on the unfortunate novice attempting to chew on the corner of the Dreamcast pad, just set your meter as close to full as it'll go, so you don't have to wait until your health goes dangerously low. Actually, if I can compare it against any other fighting game, it kind of reminds me of a fusion between Guilty Gear XX and Art of Fighting 3.
The story has to deal with Rock's search for his mother. This eventually leads him into a battle with Kain Heinlein, who turns out to be his uncle. Not to spoil anything, but we learn that Rock is willing to betray his guardian for the chance to learn more about his past...
Rock Howard appears in Terry's victory pose in KOF 01 and 02, as a little kid. "Stand up!"
King of Fighters Side Notes
Since Fatal Fury technically introduced the event, there's always a 'Fatal Fury' team in some form or another in every KOF game. In '94, Terry, Joe and Andy formed the Italian team for some reason. They stayed together like that until the 'striker rule' crap started in '99, and Mai invited herself on the team. In 2000 and 2001, Blue Mary took Mai's spot, pissing her off.
Many KOF fighters hail from Fatal Fury continuity; the Bosses Team of '96 teamed Geese and Krauser up with AOF's Mr. Big. Li Xiangfei is from RBFF2. Yamazaki, Billy and Mary form a special team on occasion. The Another Strikers from 2000 are chock full of semi-hidden Fatal Fury cast, including Joe's secondary: DUCK KING.
One of the 'big deal' story notes regarding KOF '00 was the return to (and ultimately destruction of) Southtown, the original game's setting. But where is this fictional city? West Coast. Somewhere on the West Coast.
Terry's hat has the Neo-Geo logo in Fatal Fury. He trades it for a cap that has the Fatal Fury logo on it in KOF. In the Fatal Fury OAVs and movie, it just has a steel plate bolted to the front.
In KOF '98, Joe teases King (a fellow Muay Thai kickboxer) with his championship belt.
In KOF '99, whenever confronted by another Fatal Fury character, Xiangfei points and yells "Makenai yo!" <I won't be beaten!> as a reference to her RBFF origin.
Reflections: Fatal Fury Anime
Produced by Masami 'DUR I LIKE BOOBS' Obari, the anime version Fatal Fury did something truly shocking: It was watchable. Not just watchable, dare I say, good. Though he takes certain liberties with character design, the characters are depicted in a way faithful to their originals, yet still allowing for a storyline. They somehow found a way to have them scream out attack names and whatnot without seeming ridiculously out of place.
Fatal Fury 1 and 2 follow the game's stories fairly accurately, and keep it moving. They did add a gratuitous love interest in the form of one Lily MacGuire, who mainly exists to die tragically and leave a skeleton in Terry's closet. The subplot with the little kid who helps Terry get back on his feet after a crushing defeat by Krauser actually comes off as entertaining and not simple trite. The only thing I don't like so much is Krauser's metamorphosis from a hulking German man with a moustache into a lithe, pretty man wearing comically huge armor.
Possibly the best of them all, Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture eschews the series entirely and tells a new story about Laocorn, a prettyboy who wants to assemble some magic armor and become a god of war. His perpetually sad eyed sister Sulia escapes and meets up with Terry and the gang and enlists their help in finding and defeating her twin; and since she was kind, had blue hair, and was in love with Terry, she ends up sacrificing herself to weaken her brother enough to be beaten. Big explosion, Terry throws hat over his shoulder (without yelling 'okay!'), laughable j-rock song plays. It's really a great adventure film, as they all split up and search out the pieces all over the world, and find that Hakkyokusaken was depicted in the ancient frescoes they find of the battle to seal the god of war away all those years ago. Tons of characters show up in cameo, from Kim Kaphwan's battle with the brainwashed Cheng Zinzan at the party, to the brief scene where Billy gives a report to Geese in hiding. Even Duck King shows his goofy face.
!!!
In the early stages of Fatal Fury 2, there was going to be a male ninja master. After a few revisions, this became the kunoichi we know and love as Mai Shiranui.
Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition(PSX)
If you think stiff, unnatural 3-D characters are wild and ambitious, you'd probably agree with that title, as this was SNK's sole attempt to remake the series... IN EYE POPPING 3-D. Unfortunately, the only eyes popped were undoubtedly gouged in an attempt to hide from the sheer badness on display.
Another 'out of canon' game, Wild Ambition was ostensibly, a retooled Real Bout. The line-change system was replaced by a sidestep function that would violently shift the floor while keping the background in place.
I hear Alfred the aviator is in this one, too.
