Developer: Takara Publisher: Takara Release: 04/94 Genre: Fighting
As a fan of Neo Geo games in the arcade I looked forward to the first SNES and Genesis ports. There was no way in hell I would ever get the $600 to buy a Neo Geo at the time so I had to make do with the “lesser” versions. Unfortunately Takara’s first efforts were dire. The less said about the SNES version of Fatal Fury the better. However in the span of a year the quality would improve dramatically. Fatal Fury 2 was one of the first in their second wave and is a solid conversion of a great arcade game.
With the death of Geese Howard a new shadowy figure sponsors the King of Fighters tournament. But now instead of confining it to South Town the tournament is now worldwide. No one knows who has organized the tournament this time but one by one he has been making his way through the participants of the original battle in search of Geese Howard’s killer….
Whether it was intentional or not Fatal Fury 2 takes after Street Fighter 2 with its international combatants. The original trio of Terry, Andy, and Joe are joined by fan favorite Mai Shiranui and Jubei from Japan, Kim Kaphwan from Korea, and Cheng Shinzan from China. Raiden has turned a new leaf and returns as Big Bear also. The game also follows Capcom’s game as it has four bosses after you defeat your fellow competitors. If you are going to copy might as well copy from the best.
Structure aside Fatal Fury 2 makes many mechanical changes that improve gameplay and give it a unique feel. The game makes use of four buttons now for light and strong punches and kicks, something that would carry over to most SNK fighters from this point forward. You can back dash to avoid attacks by double tapping backward and like Art of Fighting you can execute a desperation attack when low on health. Pulling these off is a crap shoot as the button inputs for these moves is downright absurd. I have only done it once or twice and they were complete accidents.
The biggest change is making plane switching an active part of gameplay. In the first game it felt random as to when you would switch planes. Now you can manually do so by pressing light punch + kick. Heavy attacks will also knock your opponent to a different plane as well. On the SNES you can set this to its own button which is very cool. You can switch to either evade attacks like fireballs; slower characters like Big Bear benefit from this. But you can also launch attacks from separate planes as well. Certain mechanics like jumping and dashing are not available and if you are on different planes any attack will make you switch back, keeping the flow of the match going. Certain backgrounds have hazards like running bulls and electrified fences to damage opponents with a well-timed attack. Kudos to SNK for making this annoying mechanic relevant.
Those who remember the SNES port of the first game will remember the difficulty in performing special moves. Takara has fixed that issue thankfully and you can focus on the gameplay. Fatal Fury is a more methodical game than Street Fighter, focusing more on heavy hits than combos. They still exist to a degree but not to the extent of Capcom’s title. The plane system and its subtleties make the game more aggressive and I like that. But the one unavoidable fact is that Fatal Fury 2 released after Street Fighter 2 Turbo and the slower pace is noticeable. It is kind of hard to appreciate the nuances of the game once you have experienced the blistering pace of that title. But that is my personal preference.
Fatal Fury 2 was the second game in SNK’s 100 Mega Shock series and was a massive technical improvement over the original. With its massive sprites and backgrounds brimming with activity it was one of the better looking games that year. The SNES port is very good and makes smart cuts here and there to preserve the look and sound of the arcade game. The sprites are smaller and some background elements are missing but as a whole it looks great. The music is a different story however. The music tracks have been recomposed and while they sound similar the quality is not that great. Similarly many voice samples are missing and the ones that are present sound muffled. IT is better than their first effort but showed that there was still room for improvement.
In Closing
Fatal Fury 2 is a good port of the arcade game and a solid addition to the SNES fighting library. Takara washed the stink of the first game away and created a solid alternative to Street Fighter 2. While the game is good however I would still recommend Fatal Fury Special as it is everything this should have been and more.
