Fatal Fury Special

"Ladies & Gentleman it is my pleasure to present to you upon what is SNK's answer to "Super Street Fighter II" when it comes to the SNES."

The Fatal Fury series has had a pretty long & known renowned history upon the Arcades and the underground famous Neo-Geo console. However the history is not that great in the more mainstream consoles that just about everyone knows well in the early 90's. Oh sure some of them did turn out pretty well like Fatal Fury 2 for the SNES. But still it seemed that playing Fatal Fury is at its best when if your lucky to find a FF game in a arcade and/or even luckier to find a Neo-Geo FF game alongside a Neo-Geo itself as well. Granted they were mostly indirectly reprogrammed by Takara for the more mainstream consoles. (For those whom don't know who Takara are they were one of the companies behind the creation of the 1980's phenomenon that is Transformers. Not too mention the creator of the flop that is the Transformers game for the NES err… Famicom. Not too mention the creator of anime such as Beyblade and the like.) However those with a not-so famed history have had their golden exceptions and the FF series on the mainstream consoles is no different. And this underlooked little gem of a 2-D fighter is definitely one of them. Heck to be perfectly honest I find this to be on par with the best fighters on the system. Heck its one of the best “big mesh of certain past fighters” fighting game ever made as well.

This game is like a big mesh of the 1st two Fatal Fury games into one, normally that would sound like this game would be just one big rehash. On the contrary it actually increases the strengths both aforementioned predecessors had and significantly lower their weaknesses as well. You can play as just about all the characters from both versions, good portion of them have improved in their gameplay structure, their all selectable right from the start as well. Control is a lot smoother, Graphics have a bit more polish, not too mention the overall presentation is nicely polished as well to. (Not too mention upon on how characters there were once easily known as being awfully cheap are a lot more easy reasonable to deal with.) It is however not utterly devoid of flaw either as the music is still about average at best for starters. And for some odd reason a few characters are missing in this title. (Namely the original Brazilian Capoeira fighter Richard Meyer… The rather Balrog-like boxer Michael Max & last but not least the other Muay Thai fighter namely Hwa Jai.) And alike Super Street Fighter II did it actually introduce any new characters? Actually no except that it had an appearance of a certain character from the Art of Fighting series which I won't spoil upon whom it is…

The great thing about the gameplay in this title is that it's a very nice mixture of innovation and keeping what worked beforehand intact. Concepts such as “Plane jumping” (going from the front section of the stage to the background, even though not all stages are like that) are kept intact. The overall gameplay structure of certain Fatal Fury one characters such as Duck King and Tung Fu Rue are very nicely revamped. Win quotes and endings are pretty good as well but nothing truly special. (There are also bonus games but they are pretty much the same as FF2 and not much better.) It also has a nice sense of complexity and depth yet never too frustratingly hard to pull off. Which is all things considered is quite a considerably rare treat of a feat for this genre. While it has the traditional Single and Vs. player modes it has one mode that's still quite unique even to this day namely the “Countdown” mode. Just what IS this “Count-down” mode you speak of? Simple ever wonder what if you mix the now traditional modes “Time Trial” and “Survival” mode into one? You'll get this my fellow gamer for in which you'll have to beat as many foes as you can in only about 3 minutes. It's a very good test to see how fast and efficient you can go through the many battles one will face in this game.

Overall this is easily one of the better fighters from SNK in general and one of the best fighting games on the SNES period. Despite on how nicely even the gameplay is and smooth control the challenge can still be high even in easy mode. (Oh sure its no Ninja Gaiden hard or anything like that but still…) Luckily while the game can be considerably hard at least its not out of overly cheap tactics this time. And while this game is not seemingly universally hated its actually has been deemed a bad port before. This actually kind of surprised me to be perfectly honest. Oh sure I can tell that there were an awful lot of alterations in the original Fatal Fury game. (Then again in retrospection just about anyone could tell.) But this never really gave me the feel of a bad port at all to be honest. Though to look at things at a positive side this might definitely get folks into looking for this game in the arcades and/or getting its Neo-Geo counterpart with respective console. This is very much recommended for fans of course but hey even more casual gamers might be able to get into this rather easy to get into game. “Fatal Fury Special” is not as easy to find as its predecessors and costs a bit more but its so much more worthwhile. I mean I'd actually recommend this over certain modern “all the past fighters of a certain fighting game series in one” titles such as Street Fighter II Anniversary Edition and Tekken Tag Tournament. Oh sure those games weren't bad but still… While I'm well aware that the SNES wasn't the only remotely mainstream console from the early 90's that had this game I will say this… This wonderful game is definitely one of the reasons why the SNES is such an exceptional console even for games of its genre. (And several others but those are another stories for another day.)

+ Easily one of the best games of its genre in the SNES. (And for the most part in general for the genre.)
+ Wonderfully improved gameplay that never feels too cheap and easy to get into which gives it an extra feel of good polish
+ Really smooth control with pretty decent graphics
+ Countdown mode is a very nice little addition and gives it a little extra bit of polish
+ Great alternative for those whom have no access to its Arcade or Neo-Geo counterpart.
- Not ALL of the characters from the first 2 games are here
- Despite the improved gameplay and control the game can still feel a bit too hard
- Music is still about average at best.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/04/05