The original Fatal Fury is one of my most favorite fighting games of all time. Not only is it packed with personality, but the mechanics are solid and it introduced some neat concepts to the genre. Both it and Street Fighter II were in development at the same time, but the latter was the unanimous victor in both sales and mind share. SNK hit the drawing board for their sequel, and unfortunately this time they copied the more popular game. The end result foregoes much of what made the original special, but you have to hand it to the developers for continuing the franchise. Unfortunately what we have here is a blatant Street Fighter II clone (as if there weren’t enough of them) and I’m disappointed with the results. Fortunately, Fatal Fury 2 is one of the better ones available despite not being able to capture the same magic as the original.
The story here follows the exploits of the same trio of heroes, but several years after the original. Geese Howard is presumed dead, but now a new shadowy figure has risen through the ranks. This man, Wolfgang Krauser, is a relative of the former king of fighters and has funded a brand new tournament. The catch this time around is that it’s a worldwide affair thus inviting participants from the far stretches. What this means is that there’s a bigger roster this time around. The original Fatal Fury limited players to just three different characters, but now you have the choice from one of eight. Unfortunately this is where things go askew. The three main protagonists of the previous title return (Terry, Andy, Joe) and even a few former opponents such as Raiden (now called Big Bear) and Billy Kane (still only as a boss). For the most part the new characters are awful. Mai is the token female fighter and has since become a staple of the franchise so I’ll lay off her. Others include Jubei Yamada who is a generic old man, and Kim Kaphwan who is so ordinary he’s almost not worth mentioning. Cheng Sinzan is noteworthy as the only morbidly obese character I’ve ever seen in a fighting game, but that’s not a positive trait. The new bosses Axel Hawk (a boxer) and Laurence Blood (a Spanish matador) just aren’t all that interesting. They’re barely memorable. Thankfully the final boss Wolfgang Krauser is, but he’s hardly a worthy stand-in for the enigma that is Geese Howard.
At its core Fatal Fury 2 is a classically styled fighting game. Unlike the original this title utilizes all four of the face buttons of the controller. A is light punch, B is light kick, C is heavy punch, and D is heavy kick. These each cancel out another, and for close quarters fighting you need to memorize this rock paper scissors system. Each character has up to eight special moves that typically require joystick inputs paired with the face buttons. Most of the special moves require directional sweeps, or quick utilization of opposite directions. Furthermore, like most fighting games, most of the characters come equipped with projectile attacks that are most useful to hit opponents from a distance or to cancel out their own. The dual plane system makes its not so triumphant return here. In the original title only your opponents could change layers on the play field, but now you can by pressing the A and B buttons at the same time. Sure, this is useful for dodging attacks and countering, but unfortunately it leads to you and your opponent chasing each other too often. Jubei’s stage introduces a novel aspect with barriers that obscure your view of the background, but I found this to be mostly annoying. Fatal Fury 2’s big contribution to the genre is the desperation attack. This can only be performed when your life bar is down to one quarter full.
The big problem I have with this release is the fact that it does away with features of the previous game. My favorite element of the original was the fact that, if you’re struggling against an enemy, a friend could join in the fray to turn the tides. That’s long gone here. I really enjoyed the story developments that took place in between matches in the original, but now they’re just limited to the boss fights. They’re also less interesting here. As I already mentioned the roster isn’t nearly as memorable as it was in the original title, and at just eight fighters to choose from it only manages to match Street Fighter II. On the plus side the arenas are much more interesting than before. As I mentioned earlier Jubei’s stage features breakable barriers in the background. Many of the other backgrounds are moving either on a raft/boat or on a train. The final encounter against Krauser actually takes place in a grand hall with orchestra and all. This in my opinion is pretty cool. It just feels to me that SNK was going for something closer to Street Fighter II here, and in turn Fatal Fury 2 loses a lot of the innate charm of the original. It’s a decent clone, but that’s not what I wanted.
The graphics engine has been updated fairly significantly. The characters feature more frames of animation, and in general are more detailed. Their poses have even been altered to further hammer this point in. Everything moves at a silky smooth framerate, and this game is much more colorful than your typical 16-bit title. The only real downgrade, as I mentioned earlier, are the new character designs. By the standards of this generation the sprites are huge. I also mentioned that many of the stages are in motion, and this looks absolutely amazing. The scenery tends to repeat itself, but for the most part these areas of the game are true spectacles. The soundtrack unfortunately isn’t as memorable as the first Fatal Fury. Each stage has its own theme, and they do an excellent job of setting the mood for the various worldwide settings. Unfortunately I’m not such a huge fan of the voice overs. SNK re-did them for even the returning characters, and I prefer the older samples. What I did like is the fact that Krauser has several lines of dialogue for his victory and defeat screens, and these are very well done in the old cheesy way.
I really want to like Fatal Fury 2. The atmosphere is amazing, and the fighting engine is solid (for the most part) but it simply doesn’t hold a candle to its predecessor or Street Fighter II. This is the point in time in which, in my opinion, Fatal Fury lost a lot of its identity. Most of the changes were for the worse, and the character roster is not nearly as memorable. With that said Fatal Fury 2 is still one of the better fighting games of its era. I just can’t stand the constant chasing of the opponent across the two planes. This aspect adds nothing to the experience. Fatal Fury 2 would also be better except for the fact that an expanded version was released not too far from it. The high price of the cartridge simply doesn’t warranty it.
