It’s strange to look back on a time when SNK wasn’t known for its fighting games. This developer used to be fairly flexible as they were once known for their shooters, and they even created the awesome action RPG Crystalis. Their venture into fighting games all began with a 1991 game called Fatal Fury. While some will argue that SNK simply copied Capcom’s Street Fighter II evidence suggests that their similarities are just a coincidence. Fatal Fury premiered on SNK’s own hardware and received a home release on every popular system at the time. Unfortunately the Neo Geo version is the only one worth its mettle because it’s the only port handled directly by SNK. I’m here today to tell you why it’s one of the most underrated fighting games of all time.
Fatal Fury focuses around three protagonists (Terry Bogard, his brother Andy, and friend Joe Higashi) who enter a King of Fighters tournament. Their objective is to get revenge on its sponsor the evil Geese Howard who killed Terry/Andy’s father ten years earlier. As any of the three protagonists you must fight your way through seven different fighters and finally face off against Geese who serves as the final boss. What’s cool is the fact that after completing specific matches the Mr. Howard himself will comment on your progress.
This puts more emphasis on the story than in most fighting games which is interesting. Now let’s move on to gameplay. Fatal Fury is a fairly typical one-on-one fighting game. After selecting your character you play through consecutive matches as you and an opponent exchange punches, kicks, and special moves in an effort to whittle down each other’s life bars. The overall winner is decided as the best two out of three, and losing will cost you a credit which will allow you to continue and repeat the match once more.
The only big drawback to this game becomes apparent immediately. You can only play as three different characters; the aforementioned protagonists. This makes for a tiny roster, and is extremely limited even by the standards of its time. Additionally the characters aren’t particularly different from one another. The moves across the board tend to have similar attack patterns, and all move at about the same speed. It’s a little disappointing to be sure, but Fatal Fury makes up for this limitation in other ways.
The first of these is a ‘plane system.’ You and your enemy can move back and forth between a foreground and background two dimensional plane. It’s interesting for sure, but a little clunky in execution. Jumping between the planes is awkward and leaves you open for attack even when you’re performing a flying kick. There’s no button set to this. You can’t actually move between the two planes on your own. You can only chase your enemy to the other one. This means that it’s an advantage for only your enemy. Sometimes it forces you to chase your foe repeatedly just by pressing the attack button. I realize that this was supposed to be the unique feature Fatal Fury brought to the table. It’s just not a very good one, to be frank. Some of the stages lack this feature which is nice.
One aspect of Fatal Fury that I absolutely love is the characters. While Terry, Andy, and Joe don’t feature a lot of personality the opponents you face are really unique. A few are throwaways such as Richard Meyer (although some of his Capoeira based moves are very interesting) and Michael Max, but the rest are all extremely memorable. Tung Fu Rue is a feeble old man who, after taking a few hits, transforms into a hulking mass of muscle that can take you out in just a few punches. Duck King fights with dance based moves, Hwa Jai uses drunken Muy Thai techniques, Raiden is a gigantic wrestler, and Billy Kane is a patriotic Brit that uses his giant stick to beat you down.
The fights feel surprisingly dynamic, and I loved how different the characters are from one another. They also have a ton of personality. Raiden’s animations make me laugh whenever I face against him, and Duck King is almost as goofy. Nothing quite beats out the first time you face against Geese Howard and realize he can catch you mid air and throw you for a ton of damage. This encounter suffers from what many have dubbed “SNK boss syndrome” wherein the fight is just plain unfair. I still don’t know how I eventually managed to defeat him.
Where this game really shines is in its multiplayer mode. Two players can go head to head in the traditional style, but you can also cooperate with each other against a computer opponent in the main game which is just awesome. The second player can jump in at any time, and both players can work together to take down any opponent. It’s a really cool feature because if player 1 is struggling at any time a little help can turn the tides in a major way. This has a few drawbacks however. The first of these is the fact that both players can hurt each other.
It can be tough for both players to get on opposite sides of an enemy (especially huge ones like Raiden) and you’ll probably find yourselves damaging each other on a frequent basis. The other problem is the fact that after defeating the opponent both players must face off and only the winner can proceed in the main game. It would be nice if you could co-op through the entire story mode, but you have to waste a continue every time the second player wants to jump in which is kind of annoying.
The graphics are a definite step above most 16-bit titles thanks to the more powerful hardware of the Neo Geo. Characters are quite large on-screen, and feature a significant number of frames for every single animation. The sprites are large which gives the game a blocky look, but in my opinion it actually improves the art style. The stages also look really nice. Each area features a ton of background detail, and most have a lot of animation going on. One of the more interesting features of this game is the fact that stages change appearance between matches. Time passes in between each bout, and the graphics reflect this in some interesting ways.
Tung Fu Rue’s stage for example features pouring rain in the second round which is a really cool effect. Some may consider the goofy early 90s style characters and portraits an eyesore, but I think it adds a lot of personality. It all looks really nice, and it wasn’t until the Alpha series that Street Fighter was able to surpass the original Fatal Fury in terms of graphics which is quite impressive.
This game’s soundtrack has a ton of personality. The simple bleeps and blips of the hardware do an absolutely wonderful job of impersonating real world instruments. The screeching guitar effects of Raiden’s stage sound absolutely magnificent, and the heavily Asian influenced themes of Tung Fu Rue and Richard Meyer are quite impressive as well. Though the music brings back memories of the early 90s it all sounds really good, and I enjoy the soundtrack a great deal.
Where this game gets extra kudos is in its voice over work. Characters will shout out their attacks as you perform them, and these sound downright hilarious because everything is grossly mispronounced with some pretty thick ‘Engrish.’ I’ll never get tired of hearing Terry Bogard shout “barning knaku!” or “powah waif!” It’s extremely entertaining and adds loads of personality to this game. The audio is very well done although some may find it annoying and outdated. That’s half the charm though.
Fatal Fury is often overlooked because of its meager three character roster. While that is in fact a pretty big drawback the game actually has a lot to offer. In a sea of Street Fighter II copycats it’s interesting to see a fighting game from this time take different approaches. The co-op multiplayer is the single best feature. The entire game oozes personality, and I’m one of the few people that actually prefers this title to Street Fighter II. It just has more personality in my opinion. The original Fatal Fury is worth owning the expensive Neo Geo system by itself.
