"Allow Me!"
Written: Mar 29 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good character selection,solid game engine,Geese's theme
Cons: taunting,Lane system isn't perfect
The Bottom Line: Better than most 16-Bit fighters,FFS isn't anywhere near perfect, but it's still a good game that fighting fans will enjoy.
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| flash-hammer's Full Review: Fatal Fury Special for Super Nintendo |
While often thought of as a rip-off of Capcom's Streetfighter 2, SNK's Fatal Fury was actually in development at the same time, and was simply released amongst the waves of SF2-clones, including some by SNK. The game wasn't terrible, and had decent ports to both the Sega Genesis/Megadrive and the Super Nintendo, but I have to admit that I was slightly taken aback when I discovered that the game had proven successful to not only warrant a sequel, but an entire series, and spin-off.
Fatal Fury 2 was basically a Streetfighter 2 rip-off. It featured 8 playable characters, one female, and 4 unplayable bosses, who included a character from the first game,a boxer and a matador, sound familiar?
The reason FF2 got away with it more than other games, is because it's engine was actually decent and pretty fun to play, with the series' infamous 'Lane' system working a bit better now than it did in the first game.
About a year or so later, SNK further copied Capcom, by having Fatal Fury Special hit the shelves. This is basically FF2, but upgraded, ala Streetfighter 2: Turbo. The 4 bosses from FF2 are now playable, as well as characters from the first game that didn't make the sequel being added.
This brings the roster up to 15, with players being able to choose from the 8 standard fighters, Terry Bogard, Andy Bogard,Mai Shiranui,Jubei Yamada,Kim Kaphwan,Big Bear,Joe Higashi and Cheng Shinzan, as well as the 4 bosses, Billy Kane, Axel Hawk, Laurence Blood and Wolfgang Krauser, and even FF1's Tung Fu Rue,Duck King and the legendary Geese Howard. Also in there to unlock, in a nice move, is the star of SNK's other fighting game series, The Art of Fighting, Ryo Sakazaki, so the roster is technically 16.
You have to wonder why poor old Hwa Jai,Michael Max and Richard Meyer didn't make the cut though...
Apart from new stages for the new fighters, this is the only changes made to the game from FF2, so if you own FF2, this is what you are missing out on, because these are the only differences.
There are a few modes of play in the game, it should be noted that my copy is Japanese, so the names of the modes are probably different in US and PAL versions, because I don't really see your average Western gamer accepting Arcade mode being called 'Gameplay', or the game's unique mode being dubbed 'Licence Mode' (actually that just doesn't make sense at all).
As I say, in your average game, Gameplay mode would be called Arcade Mode, where you pick a fighter, fight your way through the ten normal opponents,Kane,Hawk and Blood, before fighting Geese then Krauser, and if you meet the specifications Ryo. Inbetween fights there is dialogue exchanged between fighters, but seeing as my version is Japanese, I can't read them (although I downloaded the Rom in English, and learned I was missing out on such thought provoking winquotes as "Wubba Wubba!Im in the Pink today!"), and upon completion a short ending screen.
Also in there is your standard 2-Player Versus mode, your basic Options, and Licence Mode. So what is this fabled mode then? it's pretty unique actually, I was expecting just Survival Mode, but what it is, is a mode where you have 3 Minutes, to see how many enemies you can beat. So while it is an alternate version of Survival Mode, it's nice to see Takara did put some work into the home port of the game.
So what of the actual game itself? it plays quite well actually, somewhere inbetween the first game and SF2 in terms of quality. The 'Lane' system removed from the SNES port of the first game appears here, where fighters battle between 2 lanes, being able to dodge attacks by going into the other lane. While this sounds like a good idea, it can grow annoying, especially when pressing any attack button causes you to jump lanes when your opponent is in the other, often leading to you getting hit by accident. However, the system is workable, especially seeing as the collision detection has been sorted out. Special moves are performed in the standard Streetfighter fashion, charges and circular D-Pad motions, and the game deserves credit for having none of the fighters clones of each other, even resisting the urge to give the Bogard brothers remotely similar move-sets.
Oh, I should probably say my usual bit here, the game is a 2D 1-on-1 fighter where the idea is to deplete the opponent's health bar using a variety of attacks, and win the best out of 3 rounds.
In general, the gameplay and engine of the game are pretty good, especially for the time, and this is probably one of the best fighting games on the SNES that doesn't belong to one of the 'Big 2' franchises. If I do have one complaint other than the lanes, it's the jumping, which feels a bit too floaty at times, and this can grow a little annoying, but in general, it's pretty damn fun to play, especially if you can get someone to fight against on 2 Player.
Graphically, the game is good enough for '94, but you certainly won't be taken aback by the quality of the sprites and animation. The fighters all have fairly large and well animated sprites, they just don't exactly break any ground, and don't exactly challenge today's 2D fighters.
I do have to say I like the backgrounds though, Andy's is on a boat going through venice, and in the backgrounds, you can see various game characters on the streets(even if this does cause some problems - how can Terry be on the street and fighting on the boat at the same time?), it's a cool stage, as is the always nice Geese Tower, and Krauser's castle hall is pretty awesome as well.
The sound is decent, nothing more, nothing less. Most of the music is cool enough while you are playing, but as always, only one theme sticks out, and that of course is the uber-cool Geese Howard theme. The voices, which basically just shout the names of the moves, are decent, but rarely seem to be saying what they should. 'Power Wave' isn't what comes out of Terry's mouth when he performs the move, bizarrely, he shouts "allow me!".
Controls actually suit the SNES pad pretty well, because there are only 4 attacks. Light and Hard Punch are assigned to Y and X, with Light and Heavy Kick going to B and A respectively. L performs an attack that knocks the enemy into the other Lane, and R dodges you into the lane.
As I say, there are no real layout issues that can be found, and the response is a lot better than in the first game's SNES port, but the controls aren't perfect. For a start, the SNES D-Pad is too small, and only 4-pointed. Another fault is that the pointless taunt function is performed in a manner I don't know, but it's far too close to a Quarter-Circle-Forward+Punch, because on a few occasions I tried to perform a Power Wave with Terry and ended up taunting by mistake, opening myself up for an attack. When I played this with my Arcade Stick, the problem was resolved, but the SNES pad and it's D-Pad just aren't good for this sort of stuff.
While it's far from being perfect, or a 5-Star game, I feel Fatal Fury Special probably deserves these 4-Stars Im awarding it. It's an above average 16-Bit fighting game, and definitely one of the best that you probably haven't heard of. It may not be a competitor for any of Capcom's Streetfighter games on the console, but given a choice between it and Primal Rage or Pit Fighter, I would be opting for Takara's port of this game any day of the week, and I actually do play the game quite a bit on it's own accord, but that's partially down to my fandom of the characters and the Fatal Fury series. If you are into retro-games, especially fighters, I would recommend Fatal Fury Special, it isn't perfect, but it's certainly a fun fighting game, and up there with some of the better 16-Bit fighters.
Other Fatal Fury Reviews
Fatal Fury for Sega Genesis
Fatal Fury for Super Nintendo
Real Bout Fatal Fury for PlayStation
Related Reviews
King of Fighters: Dream Match 1999 for Dreamcast
Recommended:
Yes
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flash-hammer
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