Page 1 - Intro/Character Roster
Page 2 - Fatal Fury
Page 3 - Fatal Fury 2
Page 4 - Fatal Fury Special
Page 5 - Fatal Fury 3
Page 6 - Real Bout Fatal Fury
Page 7 - Real Bout Fatal Fury Special
Page 8 - Real Bout Dominated Mind
Page 9 - Real Bout Fatal Fury Special 2 / First Contact
Page 10 - Wild Ambition
Page 11 - Garou: Mark of the Wolves
Page 12 - Anime
Fatal Fury 2 / Garou Densetsu 2: Aratanaru Tatakai - Neo Geo / Neo Geo CD / Genesis / SNES / Playstation 2 / X68000 (1992)
American Neo Geo Cover |
Japanese Neo Geo Cover |
PC Engine CD Cover |
A few new techniques have been introduced into the series with this
installment. Like in SNK's Art of Fighting before it, FF2 allows you to
execute a desperation move whenever your health bar is flashing. In a
first for the fighting game genre, you can back hop by quickly double
tapping back. In yet another genre first, you can crawl forward by
holding the joystick in the down-forward position. These techniques show that
while SNK was deliberately imitating SF2, they were also intent on
further refining its existing formula. What this all results in is a
higher level of control of your character than you have in most fighters and
a greater level of options available to you while not actually
attacking, blocking, or being hit.
People often dismiss plane switching in the Fatal Fury series as being
nothing more than a novelty. While this is essentially true about the
original, it was made more relevant in Fatal Fury 2 and onward. You have
been given the ability to switch planes whenever you like by pushing
the A and B buttons at once. Since you couldn't execute the technique at
will in the original, it only lead to needlessly chasing your opponent
around, but this time it's obviously intended to serve as a means of
evasion. It's pretty effective in this respect and will allow you to
effortlessly dodge fireballs or any other attacks, and to take a very
careful defensive approach to fighting. While not quite as beneficial, you
can also knock your opponent to the other plane by pushing both the C
and D buttons at once. While on the opposite plane from your opponent,
you can't jump or back dash, and pushing any attack button will make
your character jump straight at them and attack. This prevents the plane
switching system from slowing down matches by discouraging players from
staying on opposite planes and avoiding each other. Also, if correctly
timed, you can attack your opponent while they are in the process of
switching planes and get in a hit before they are able to defend
themselves.
Other than plane switching, what really defines the difference between
Fatal Fury 2 and Street Fighter 2 is in the feel of the two games and
the nuances in how they are played. The difference between these two
games is essentially the difference between their two developers' fighters
in general. Fatal Fury 2 is more reactive and Street Fighter 2 is
more combo oriented. This is a fairly minor physical difference, but these
subtleties result in your needing to adapt different strategies and
playing styles than what you would in SFII. Control responsiveness is
absolutely impeccable in both of course, but as always, the game physics
are slightly different and which of the two is better is going to come
down to which feels more intuitive to each player. Fatal Fury 2 also feels a bit slower, even when compared to the original Street Fighter 2. In particular, the jumping speed isn't nearly as fast.
Fatal Fury 2's presentation has been massively improved upon from its
predecessor in every possible way. Each character sprite has been
completely redrawn and looks much better than in the predecessor. The
backgrounds are each fantastically designed and were easily the best looking
in the genre at the time this game was released. The scenery will still
have minor changes in later rounds as the fight progresses through
later periods of the day, but each background is much busier and much more
detailed than any of the backgrounds in the original game. Cheng's
level depicts a brightly lit view of Hong Kong with a slow moving ferry
floating along the water in the immediate background. Mai's level is set
on a raft floating down a river, and Terry's is set on a train car
quickly moving along the tracks past Mount Rushmore. Jubei's level is the
best of all. A set of large framed paintings separate its two planes. If
either character switches planes they will break apart to reveal a
meticulously detailed garden. Andy's level is set on a boat floating down a
canal in Italy with The Leaning Tower of Pisa visible in the
background, along with Terry and Mia standing along the edge of the canal.
Amusingly, if you play this level with either of the two characters, they
will still be visible in the background.
Fatal Fury 2 did relatively well in the arcades and was ported to most
of the major consoles at that time. The Genesis and SNES versions, ported by again Takara, are certainly not graphically perfect, and they don't have perfect game
physics either. Both of these ports are generally considered crap by fans,
but they really aren't all bad. If judged on their own, both of them,
especially the port for SNES, play reasonably well. However, the best port was for the PC Engine CD, ported by Hudson and requiring the system's arcade card. It looks better and plays smoother than either of the home ports, and it includes a completely new arranged soundtrack different from SNK's version for the Neo CD release. As with all CD ports though, the load times are pretty annoying. Years later, it was ported to Playstation 2 as part of the compilation Garou Densetsu/Fatal Fury Battle Archives 1, and is practically arcade perfect.
A port was released for Gameboy by Takara called Nettou Garou Densetsu 2, which lacks plane switching, has completely redrawn graphics with SD character sprites, so-so music, no voices (little speech bubbles appear above characters whenever they execute a move) and very different game physics. There's a ton of crippling slowdown, so the game is only just barely playable. However, it does have every character
and move from the arcade game.
MP3s Download here
Fire Dragon God - Mai Shiranui
Fatal Fury 2 (Neo Geo)
Fatal Fury 2 (Neo Geo)
Fatal Fury 2 (Neo Geo)
Fatal Fury 2 (Neo Geo)
Fatal Fury 2 (Neo Geo)
Fatal Fury 2 (Neo Geo)
Fatal Fury 2 (Neo Geo)
Fatal Fury 2 (Neo Geo)
Comparison Screenshots
While the original Fatal Fury resembled Street Fighter II because it
was based on the same source, Fatal Fury 2 (subtitled "Aratanaru Tatakai" or "The New Battle) is definitely a blatant clone. The plane switching has been retained, and the three playable
characters from the original are back with five others (Cheng Sinzan,
Jubei Yamada, Big Bear, and fan favorites Mai Shiranui and Kim Kaphwan) and
four non-playable boss characters (Billy Kane and three original
characters - Axel Hawk, Laurence Blood, and Wolfgang Krauser). With Geese
Howard believed to be dead, he's absent from the game this time. Instead,
Fatal Fury 2 tells the tale of an international King of Fighters
tournament organized by a man named Wolfgang Krauser. The controls have been
made more conventional so that you have two buttons for kicks and two
for punches. Everything from the size of the character roster to the
combo system to the international theme screams SF2. However, it
transcends being a mere clone and actually ends up being a pretty decent game.
Let's Go to Seoul - Kim Kaphwan
Raiden the Hero - Big Bear
