Fatal Fury (NEO GEO Collection) Review

Fatal Fury was the first fighting game to be established on the Neo Geo system and was created by SNK back in 1991. Set in a fictional American town known as South Town, local crime boss, Geese Howard has set up a tournament known as, “The King of Fighters.” Ten years prior to the tournament, Geese Howard murders his martial arts rival, Jeff Bogard. Now Terry and Andy Bogard seek revenge for their father’s death and aspire to win the tournament, fighting alongside Muay Thai fighter, Joe Higashi.

Is Fatal Fury still dealing smooth punches and keeping up with its predecessors? Or after twenty years, is it just inevitable that this game is starting to show its wrinkles?

HOT

Presentation
The actual interface for the Neo Geo port is well presented and is appeasing to the eyes. Fatal Fury includes a manual that shows you all the basic rules and controls, visually attractive images of the characters you play and fight, along with more than adequate biographies that let you know who and what type of fighter they are, and a brief synopsis of the story to let you know what’s going on in the world of Fatal Fury. Although, under Andy Bogard’s bio it eloquently describes him as being a “master of the punch” and I’ve yet to understand what that means? You’re even given an option to save your fights and later replay them for watch through the option screen, which is a great added feature.

Graphics and Detail
The characters are vibrant and the artwork that goes with them is well done. Keeping in mind this was made in the early 90’s the graphics look great and the backgrounds are full of life and colour, with crowds of people cheering you on a Hawaiian beach typesetting in one level. One character in particular, Tung Fu Rue, shows being turned from an old man into a hulk-like figure, ripping through his clothing, and turning into a regular muscle-bound monster. Tung Fu Rue’s stage also progressively has the weather worsen each round you fight against him, going from cloudy to stormy weather, which can make you appreciate the fine detail that they managed to add to their levels. The cut scenes are a nice touch, although the dialogue, shoddy as it is, can at times take away from how beautiful the actual graphics are.

NOT

Limited Character Selection/Moves
Sadly, Fatal Fury’s limited selection of “hero’s” is extremely disappointing as you can only choose from the three initial characters; Terry Bogard, Andy Bogard, and Joe Higashi. What makes things worse though is that the game labels these three as being the protagonists of the story, but the manual makes Joe sound as if he has no real relevancy to the story. We understand that Terry and Andy are avenging their father, but why is Joe there? It begs the question, why can’t you play as some of the other computer players? Even in multiplayer you’re doomed to fight with the same three players over and over. Comparatively, Street Fighter 2 that also was released the same year had over 8 playable characters to choose from, so there really is no excuse for such a small selection. This type of limitation creates a monotony that is not easily overlooked. With only a selection of five special moves per character that can at times be a hassle to pull off, the interest can fade rather quickly.

Dull Characters
The computer characters are so far from creative and at times just plain odd, that it’s rather forgettable. Even the names are uninspiring and make you wonder what the developers were thinking. Characters like Richard Myers who’s as plain as his name and Raiden who’s your stereotypical Mexican wrestler, show a grossly unimaginative side to Fatal Fury. There’s just very little character and personality with these fighters making fights rather unmemorable. When you say Sub-Zero, you know instantly who is being spoken about: when you say Richard Myers, are you talking about that guy from accounting in your building?

Clunky Controls
The bane of Fatal Fury lies solely on its inability to be responsive and it makes an already challenging game, plain unfair. There are times when you go to do a jump kick and the kick is done way to early, landing you defenseless in front of your enemy. Doing the same action can sometimes land the perfect kick and makes gameplay far too inconsistent. Not to mention the fact that certain levels consist of two lines (foreground and background) that you can go back and forth from. Now, this seems like a good idea in retrospect, until you learn that only the computer player is allowed to move back and forth between these lines. You can only move to these lines when the computer player has, so he can dodge your attacks by switching lines, but you aren’t allowed to. Blocking at times proved to be ineffectual, especially against Tung Fu Rue, who does a spin kick that always manages to hit you whether you block or not. The fluidity problems of Fatal Fury’s gameplay were a frustrating nightmare that most games at that point had surpassed by then.

Online Problems
Trying on many separate occasions, there were only two times where the network successfully connected me to another player. When the battle started there was so much lag for both battles that it couldn’t even recognize my inputs. Pressing the punch button took the game more than a couple of seconds to even comprehend what was going on. Afterwards, the game disconnected me each time and after many unsuccessful attempts to connect through matchmaking, I’m forced to say this is another disappointing failure for the Neo Geo port.

VERDICT

Fatal Fury at a whopping regular price of $8.99 is not worth the money or the time invested. With Street Fighter being released that same year and Mortal Kombat being released in 1992; Fatal Fury has no excuse for its poor execution. This arcade style fighting game has not aged well and with only nostalgia going for this elderly fighter, Fatal Fury is not worth the blistered fingers over.