Real Bout Fatal Fury 2

"7th episode of Fatal Fury . . .."

When SNK first released Fatal Fury for the Neo-Geo arcade(MVS) system in 1991, it was the only real contender against Capcom's Street Fighter II, gameplay and graphics-wise. SNK continues the tradition by releasing quality game after quality game, such as the King of Fighters Series or The Last Blade Series. In 1998, SNK released the seventh entity of the Fatal Fury series, named ''Real Bout2: The Newcomers''. While the game was not very popular in the arcades, it still earns a place among the gaming greats for its originality and sheer amount of entertainment it offers.

Graphis(9/10)

While it cannot match the visuals of other games like ''Garou:MotW'' or ''Street Fighter3'', Real Bout2 can hold its own, with chracters animated smoothly and filled with detail. The artists at SNK managed to add in incredible amounts of detail in each character by thir facial expressions and backgrounds, sometimes surpassing those of the Street Fighter Alpha Series. Taking advantage of the cartoon-like graphics, the animators add in a touch of humor to their creation, adding in a flavor of originality and a different kind fun unlike the majority of games out there. Where else can you find one of the characters hit himself with his nunchuckas and see him hop around in pain? It is refreshing to see a game where it doe not take itself too seriously (For more detail, see Billy Kane's ending, or even Lawrence blood's). To put it simply, ''Real Bout2'' is to ''Street Fighter Alpha3'' what ''Garou:Mark of the Wolves'' is to ''Street Fighter3:3rd Strike''.

Sound(8/10)

SNK is known for great in-game music, and this is no exception. Every stage has memorable music, enhanced by its clear sound effects that fit into each situation. The only problem I can see is that some of the characters have horrible accents when speaking english, a problem seen within many games but it is not very noticeable within this game. The songs are, for the most part, re-mixes of old Fatal Fury themes, but it is mixed just right so that it's recognizable, yet the music sounds new.

Gameplay(10/10)

This is the meat-and-potatoes of the game, where the controls are simplified without losing their functions. Like the rest of the Real Bout series, the controls are set up so that the A button is 'punch', the B button is 'kick', the C button is 'hard attack', and the D button is 'Line Change'. While it may sound confusing, it's actually more intuitive than the Street Fighters or the King of Fighters. How the combo system differs from the other games is that it's set up so that the chains are already built in, more like the Tekken series than Street Fighter, so that if a character was designed to have a chain combo of A-B-C, it will show new animations within that specified chain if the A-B-C chain was used. But the game system is flexible enough that it allows players to play the system like the more ''traditional'' 2D games, registering in, for instance, a jump kick, two crouching punches, and a special move even if that specified chain combination was not included within the game. The only gripe I could have about the system is that it's sometimes too hard to perform the desperation attacks, but with practice it becomes natural.
The line change has its roots from the first Fatal Fury, emulating a 3D-environment within a 2D game. It has two lines of movement, one in the foreground, and one in the background. While it's not used very often, it allows more breathing space for the players and makes the more offensive player harder to corner the other player. In addition, some stages only allow one line of fighting, so that if your character is pushed/hit into the background, your character will hit the barrier (be it an electrified fence or a traffic accident littered with runaway pigs) and bounce back. To simplify, the gameplay is a mix of 3D chains and 2D combos, a mix of Street Fighter and Tekken.

Summary

Graphics - 9/10
Sound - 8/10
Gameplay - 10/10

Overall - 9/10

Comment
While this game is three years old now, it still screams ''fresh''. With its vibrant colors and humor, as well as almost-perfect gameplay, I have to confess this is my favorite Fatal Fury game as well as one of all time favorite games from SNK. I's a shame that this game did not spend too much time in the arcades and did not get ported over to the consoles.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/05/01, Updated 07/05/01