I love me some Fatal Fury. As I was coming of age in the very early 16-bit era and latched onto fighting games immediately, Street Fighter II certainly devoured a great deal of my time and quarters, when I had chances to go to the arcades. I did play Art of Fighting, but as I previously mentioned during my review of that, it was rough by comparison to Street Fighter II.

Capcom's World Warriors snagged my attention from a gameplay perspective, the next SNK fighting game I played had a tremendous influence on me that's been a part of me to this day. Fatal Fury is a more polished 2D fighter than the chunkier Art of Fighting, and it enriches the story surrounding South Town and the legend of the Hungry Wolves that I fell in love with. 

Ironically conceived by the father of Street Fighter, Takashi Nishiyama, Fatal Fury was developed for the Neo Geo arcade hardware around the same time as Capcom's tournament fighter in 1991. The story revolves around the Bogard brothers, Terry and his younger brother Andy, and their good friend Joe Higashi, aiming to avenge the death of their father, Jeff Bogard. Jeff was killed by the vicious slumlord Geese Howard ten years prior, and the three, known colloquially as "The Hungry Wolves", participate in the King of Fighters tournament, which Geese himself runs. As they proceed through the ranks, it becomes apparent to Geese who the Bogard brothers are, and his number one henchman Billy Kane attempts to impede them. After defeating Billy, it's a one-on-one fight with Geese himself. Defeating Geese sends him plummeting from the top of his tower, seemingly to his death.

Fatal Fury was later ported to the Sega Genesis and SNES by Takara, who I thought did a great job of bringing SNK's arcade games to consoles. There's some key differences in the ports, the visuals are bigger and more detailed for the Super Nintendo, while the Sega version has more of the intermittent cut scenes lifted from the arcade. However, the Genesis is also missing the mid-boss matches with Hwa Jai and Billy Kane. Both ports do retain the day-to-night transitions between rounds, I'm a giant mark for that aesthetic touch.

Fatal Fury on Sega's platform retains the series' two lane playing field, and for the Super Nintendo, it's just a straight-up 2D fighter without the depth. But HEY, they added lame bonus stages, like...kicking tires! I can understand these little reflex-based mini-games, but I can't help but wonder who's throwing tires at you on a beach, and why there's enough retention in the sand to cause them to bounce? There's enough fundamental and aesthetic differences to make these experiences pretty unique, but I think I'll take the graphical setbacks on the Genesis, as the gameplay is more faithful to the arcade. The two-lane play field, I always thought was pretty dynamic and made Fatal Fury stand out from many other fighters at the time.

The controls are pretty identical, and they're not too bad, but Fatal Fury follows a different philosophy from Street Fighter II. SFII emphasizes combos, while FF feels more footsies oriented and methodical. The special moves are also a little on the awkward side, the inputs are what you'd expect when you pop a fighting game into your console. SNK games back then sought to probably be a little more different than just utilizing your standard quarter-circle back and forwards. This is the brand that coined the term "pretzel motions", so when you Google movelists for the Fatal Fury games and you see "hold↙, and then ↗+B", it certainly makes you wonder if the SNK staff's equilibrium was off by 25 degrees.

Going back to the two-lane battles, this feature provided a sense of depth to the combat field. You can jump between the background and foreground, or get smacked across, depending on which move hits you. Damn it, I miss this mechanic. It might not be pure footsies, but the dynamic it presents when it comes to playing offense or turtling makes for an experience not found in any other 2D fighter. Old SNK games were great when it came to experimenting. 

The roster may not be full of household names beyond Terry, Andy, Joe, and Geese (I still love Duck King), but the characters of South Town have charm to them, provide and I don't think history has given many of them any due diligence as far as presence in King Of Fighters, as Fatal Fury is a canonically finished storyline. Caporeia master, and owner of South Town hangout spot Pao-Pao Cafe, Richard Meyer still shows up as background or comedy ending fodder in KOF, while poor Michael Max only ever appeared in this game.

In single player, only Terry, Andy, and Joe can be selected. In the SNES version, the only way Player 1 has access to the other fighters is by picking the same character as Player 2, which is pretty lame. I will give Fatal Fury this; while it may not have a great deal of substance in its gameplay, there aren't palette swap fighters. Each character is unique in that regard, and the meta around how projectiles and anti-airing works differentiates itself from what one would come to expect. Tung can transform into a larger version of himself and performs deadly lariats that can drain lots of chip damage. Duck King flies around the field performing cannonballs. Raiden may be a giant lug of a bruiser, but the big man can friggin move, and I swear his flying headbutt/dropkick is the most bullshit free cross-up move I've ever seen. 

This is the game that planted my fondness for SNK fighters, but the first Fatal Fury is technically nothing special to revisit and teeters on playable, yet mediocre. It's not as fast, satisfying, or as deep as the Capcom franchise it aimed to compete with, but it makes up for its dearth of fighting psychology with some pretty compelling story elements. Terry Bogard became one of my favorite video game characters of all time, his design was so appealing, I attempted to make his signature outfit (with trucker hat) for the fourth grade. With Mortal Kombat on everyone's brain, no other classmates knew who I was dressed up as for Halloween.

These home ports are well done and playable enough. If you wish to track the roots of the golden age of fighting games, SNK's Fatal Fury probably serves as the genesis of Neo Geo's influential software omnibus, with Terry serving as the brand's most popular and recognizable character for a period.