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Fatal Fury (1991 video game) - Review

Terry Bogard. That name rings familiar, you say. You might've been triggered by his appearance in Smash. But, maybe you are interested in his past. His poorly translated past...

It is the fabulous(?) year 1991.
Capcom's iconic Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior was dominating at arcades everywhere, with little to no competition. Its success lead to other companies trying to ride the coattails of Street Fighter 2, making rather unimpressive fighting games of relatively poor quality. Of course, most of these games had their insides squeezed out by Capcom's feet... ew...

What must be said about Fatal Fury however, is that it was being developed at the same time as Street Fighter 2... Infact, the director of the original Street Fighter went on to produce Fatal Fury after finishing work on the former... Perhaps that's why this game seems to resemble the original Street Fighter more than that game's sequel.

Fatal Fury, created by our trusty(??) company SNK, saw its first release in arcades in November 1991, when Street Fighter 2 was already out and annihilating the competition. Asssuming it had any to begin with, of course. This game was released on Neo Geo hardware, which allowed games to be as big as 716 megabits of RAM. I think. Fatal Fury, while having a fair share of interesting and innovative ideas, never managed to defeat the almighty Street Fighter 2... Is there a reason for this? Or did the players back then just have bad taste? Reading is your first step to a brighter future, so go ahead and do it.

Story

The story goes like this:
10 years prior to the events of Fatal Fury, local crime lord and professional funnyman Geese Howard murdered a man named Jeff Bogard. 10 years later, Geese holds the "King of Fighters" tournament, located in the fictional South Town. After finding out about the tournament, the late Jeff Bogard's 2 sons, Terry and Andy Bogard, along with their close friend, Joe Higashi participate in it in order to avenge their father and defeat Geese Howard.
I assume breaking into his home and just killing him would be a difficult task. He's a boss, after all.

Rather simple, but fighting games don't necessarily need a compelling story anyways. This game's story does remind me a bit of Street Fighter 2; the villain of that game also did some pretty messed up things and then hosted a tournament, and the playable characters do seek revenge... Basically, what I learned from these games is that you should not be hosting tournaments if you are a wanted crime lord, or else martial artists will come and get your booty.

What I think this game did slightly better than Street Fighter 2 is the story presentation within the game. After every fight, there is a short cutscene of Geese making a few remarks. At first, he just thinks you are a strong fighter, but after beating multiple opponents, he starts to think you're sus odd and tries to get information about you... resulting in him finding out about your true identity!!! He will get angrier and angrier with every fight, until he finally has enough and decides to try and kill you in a battle to the death! Truly dramatic. After having your butt kicked by Geese, the master of Cheese a couple million times, you finally defeat him... And push him off a skyscraper, making him fall to his death!! And the best part is, you don't go to jail for that! And that, my sweeties, was Fatal Fury.

"The prologue of a new legend..."
The game says, as your character is standing on a cliff, looking at the beautiful view. Did I really just spoil the ending? Yes, I did. Are you angry? I'm sorry, but it's not like you were actually going to play this game, right? Well, sorry nonetheless. I hope you can forgive me. Anyways...

Street Fighter 2 didn't really have any cutscenes. You only learn about the story during the endings. Of course, you could argue that Street Fighter 2 doesn't really need cutscenes, given the basic nature of the plot. Still, cutscenes are cool.

When fighting games go the extra mile to incorporate the story into the game itself and not just in something like a manual; that's something I take pleasure in.

Only bad thing about Fatal Fury's story: All playable characters have the same ending... It ends after they stand on the cliff. How unfortunate... Looks like Street Fighter 2 wins in this regard.

Story: 7/10 - Easy to follow and somewhat similar to that of Street Fighter 2, but still effective

Graphix

One thing I must say is that the sprites are very colorful. It is almost always easy to tell what is part of the background and what isn't. The sprites are a reasonable size. This game also takes advantage of scaling graphics, so that's neat. Fonts are unique and easy to see. The HUD during a fight bears some resembling to the HUD of Street Fighter 2, however it is different enough to be considered unique. Also, some projectile sprites are reused by other characters. Character close-ups have an interesting artstyle, but some aren't exactly appealing to look at. The promo-artwork I do like, though...

During a fight, every round, the time of date changes. In Round 1, it's day, in Round 2 it's evening, and if you manage to reach Round 3, you will be greeted by the night. Background characters are tinted differently depending on the round aswell. Street Fighter 2 only had one time of date per stage, so this is a nice touch.

The animation in this game is mixed. Most characters are kind of choppy, a few don't even move at all when standing still. Background characters tend to only be a measly 2 frames, making some animations, like dribbling, extremely choppy. Scaling is cool, but scaled-down characters staying that way is a common occurence during gameplay (see below), and it just looks a little strange at times.

When comparing with Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior, this game has the more colorful graphics, but the animations are no match for Capcom's fighting giant. But of course, it's Street Fighter 2. If you forget that that game exists, the graphics aren't all too bad. The problem is that you have to forget that that game exists.

Graphics: 7/10 - Colorful sprites, but the animation leaves something to be desired

Music & Sound

The music in this game is, surprisingly enough, not that bad. Many of the tracks are good, memorable even. My personal favorite is Geese Howard's theme.

Some of the music in this game is also quite unique, using various different instruments. Examples include Richard Meyer, Tung Fu Rue and Hwa Jai's themes. Raiden's theme is also worth a listen; Masahiro Sakurai approves of it.

The sound is a mixed bag... The voice acting is pretty funny, sometimes it's hard to tell what they're even saying. The announcer is alright, and without him, I probably would be pronouncing Billy Kane's name wrong right now... You pronounce it like this: Billy Khan. Thanks, announcer!

As for sound effects... Crickets. They do the job. A problem I have though, is that when you hit someone with a projectile, it doesn't really sound satisfying to me. There's no collision sound. It's even worse when you consider how much damage projectiles do in this game...

Overall, it's alright. When you can tell what they're saying, it sounds much cleaner than in Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior, but most of the time it's average. Sound effects are unremarkable... There's not much else to say about them. The music is catchy, and some themes are just great. Though, some tracks are a bit repetitive.

If you get tired of listening to Guile's theme (somehow), or are just curious, why not take a listen? It's not a masterpiece, but there might be a couple track that catch your attention.

Music & Sound: 6.5/10 - Good music, but the sound effects are mediocre and unremarkable

Characters

Sir, I have bad news... You will not like it... There are only 3 playable characters in this game.
Small reminder that this was released after Capcom put out their big one.
The rest are only controlled by the computer. I'm about to vomit! Badaswdjasdasjdaskdefdladesdfoslftpdef.
...Okay, let's not do that again. To be fair, the playable ones are pretty cool.

How about I introduce them to you?

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Terry Bogard ... The main character, and surprisingly enough, not a complete ripoff of Ryu. I'm pretty sure he's American.
Andy Bogard ... Terry's brother and kung-fu practitioner. Uses some funny tricks, according to Geese. His voice has a weird echo for some reason.
Joe Higashi ... Terry and Andy's friend. He practices Muay Thai. Can summon hurricanes out of nowhere.

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Now that I've introduced them to you, how about we discuss their move lists? Each playable character has 4 special moves, or "death blows". Here is a table with all moves:

You may say "Dang darn, four moves for each character? That's generous!"... Unfortunately, it's not what it looks like. Let me tell you what moves each character has, from top to bottom:

Essentially, each character has the same death blows. The only move that's really unique is Joe Higashi's Machine-Gun Punch, which is similar to Chun-Li's Hyakuretsukyaku, only he punches instead... I hope you could figure that out on your own.

Now to be fair, the moves aren't exactly the same. For example, Terry's Slam Attack makes him jump high straight, while Andy's Sho Ryu Dan has him jump slightly diagonally. Terry's Power Wave is a wave of energy that covers the ground, while Joe's Hurricane Upper is a literal mini-hurricane (rad?), and so on.

By the way, the death blows do a respectable amount of damage, especially the projectiles: They destroy 1/3 of the lifebar!! ...Actually, there is a reason for this: As you progress through the game, you "learn" the commands for new death blows (though you never learn the command for the quick rush attack. I'm not kidding!). You learn one move every two fights, and the projectile is the last move you "learn"... But, you see, you don't actually learn them for real; you are only told the commands for the death blows. Essentially, right from the start of the game, you have access to the amazing projectile! Your opponents will be crying in their graves... Just don't spam it, OK? Chances are it won't work very well. Unless you're Andy.

The cool thing about Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior characters is that not all characters had the same moves; yes, some characters had similar moves (Blanka and E. Honda), but most of the time they were original. I must give some credit to Fatal Fury for giving characters four moves, as Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior generally only had two moves per character (Save Ryu and Ken), but I think I still prefer that game's moves over this game.
Also, Zan Ei Ken is OP. Like for real. If you ever play this game, go spam that move. It'll do wonders.

Moving on from the playable characters, how about I introduce you to the CPU-only characters? I hope you don't mind... I don't want you to groan. Loudly, anyways.

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Richard Meyer ... Capoeira dancer. Able to move on his hands. I have to give him props for having a normal sounding name.
Michael Max ... The worst Balrog clone in history. He must've watched Joe train at one point, because he too can summon hurricanes out of thin air. I can't even remember how he looked like right now. The best thing about him is his theme.
Tung Fu Rue ... Master Roshi but green. He can transform into a super buff senior who can throw super powerful Hi Sho Kens in both directions. Oh, and he can fly like a helicopter. Cute.
Duck King ... His name sounds like something out of One Piece. His death blows don't have much to do with ducks, unfortunately. To be fair, not having him throw rubber duckies at his opponents probably was a good idea.
Hwa Jai ... Bald Muay Thai boxer, and Joe's rival. When low on health, he drinks chili to become extra powerful. It is during this state that he can use his Dragon Kick, which you can easily avoid by ducking. Bam!
Raiden ... Thick wrestler. Sometimes misspelled as "Riden" in the game. Has the amazing ability to puke whenever he wants... Actually, I don't think that's puke. His theme is pretty good, but something about his idle animation seems strange.
Billy Kane ... Annoying brat who wields a rod. His death blows have absurd range, but if you can get close enough to him, you can throw him to death. That's how I beat him, anyways.
Geese Howard ... Everyone's favorite weaboo. Acts somewhat childish, but he is brutal in battle. His death blows are to be feared!

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Basically, half of the characters in this game suck. It doesn't help that there is only one ending for all characters, meaning nobody has a real chance to show personality outside winquotes... And judging by the winquotes, I assume Joe Higashi is a villain? "Sleep forever! Ha,ha!" Pretty mean thing to say, Joe.

Characters: 6/10 - Bland characters, alright move lists

Gameplay

Now, this is where we come to the crux of the matter: How is the gameplay? Is it fluid or stiff? Are there combos? Let's find out.

First off, it must be said that compared to the original Street Fighter, this game feels like drinking choccy milk.
But, does it hold up to that game's sequel? The answer is, not quite.

The gameplay in general feels clunky; something as simple as a punch or a kick is fairly slow; even the death blows are somewhat clunky. As a result, matches can be somewhat uninteresting.

This game uses only 3 out of the 4 Neo Geo buttons: A to punch, B to kick. If you are close enough to your opponent, you can press the C button to throw them. The D button is just there to collect dust, and is never used.

The game plays like a typical traditional fighting game: It's a best-of-3 match between you and your opponent. However, there is a major addition that turns this game upside down... But what is it? Well, remember when I was talking about scaling in the Graphics Section? Well, this is where it comes into play:

I introduce to you, Sidestepping!

Well, it's not really sidestepping per say... Let's call it sidejumping instead. Basically, during a match, there are two planes you can battle in: The front, and the back. Both opponents start the match in the front plane, but under certain circumstances, you can SWITCH to the different plane by jumping! You can even attack your opponent while switching planes by pressing A or B.

The only problem? Well, regarding the circumstances... You cannot sidejump on your own; you have to wait until either the opponent sidejumps themselves or either you or they land a super strong hit. This means the sidejumping mechanic is quite limited when only human players are playing... And even with CPU players, it's still not very intriguing. As a result, this mechanic feels somewhat clunky and unrefined, and the scaled down graphics don't help much, either.

One can't fault SNK for trying to innovate, though. While it was very much unrefined, it definitely was unique. The sidejumping mechanic would be later improved upon in the sequel, Fatal Fury 2.

Speaking of innovations, a slightly less notable innovation is the ability to choose your first opponent when you start a new game. Upon choosing your character, you can choose between 4 opponents: Richard Meyer, Michael Max, Duck King and Tung Fu Rue, in that order. Who you choose as your first opponent changes the order of opponents you fight afterwards, so if you choose Richard Meyer, you will fight Michael Max next, but if you choose Michael Max, you'll fight someone else next instead. After fighting the first 4 opponents however, you will be forced to face the next 4 opponents in a set order: Hwa Jai, Raiden, Billy Kane and finally, Geese Howard.

This innovation is pretty neat. Later SNK fighting games, like Fatal Fury 2 (duh) would also have this feature.

Now, let us discuss the multiplayer features. In the game, two players can fight against eachother, like in Street Fighter 2 and (hopefully) every other fighting game ever. However, there is a very interesting innovation regarding multiplayer: The ability to fight a CPU with two players simultaneously. Yes, you heard that right. The two players can work together in order to defeat the enemy, which can be quite helpful in harder difficulties. I don't think I've seen this way of playing in another fighting game ever again, most likely because it makes the game too easy... And it makes the "heroes" of this game look like cowards. Especially when both fight someone like Tung Fu Rue. I get that he's a martial arts master, but atleast be fair to an old man, jeez... (Unless he likes it, of course)

Oh, and regarding the character selection screen, the thing is, well... Two players cannot play the same character. This is especially bad when you consider that there are only THREE playable characters... While Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior also had this problem, atleast there were enough other characters to choose from. Here, it's just not good.

Lastly, I must say that this game lacks in the bonus game department. Every two matches, you play the only bonus game in the game... In it, you must mash A as hard as you can and defeat the virtual buff man on the arcade screen... Personally, I prefer smashing cars. That doesn't destroy my hand (unless I use Chun-Li), unlike this bonus game.

Unfortunately, while innovations are always great, what matters the most is the gameplay... and Fatal Fury does not really deliver in this regard. It is certainly better than the gameplay of the original Street Fighter, but considering Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior was already out months ago, this game simply cannot compare with that game.

Gameplay: 5/10 - The innovations do not save the slow, clunky gameplay

I'll be honest with you: There's not much reason to play this game, aside from the music and the fact that this is the game Terry had his debut in. Everything the original Street Fighter did, this game does better (minus bonus games), and everything this game does, Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior did better.

It's probably best for you not expecting to play a fast-paced, competitive fighting game. If you really want to play a Fatal Fury game as introduction, buy Fatal Fury Special instead. Only one character is unplayable, and it's generally more fun to play. I probably wouldn't call it one of the best Neo Geo fighting games, though.

But fun was indeed inside this arcade package. I did have a little bit of fun playing. Granted, Geese needs to stop throwing me to death, but it felt beatable. Maybe I had fun because I was playing on the easiest difficulty... I'd rather not find out about Geese on Level 8...

I think I have said I all can say about this game. Buy this at your own rik, or just go with a better fighting game instead. I hope you somewhat enjoyed this to some extent.
I'll see you in my dreams.

Score: 6.5/10

- Above Average -