Fatal Fury: SNK's Fighting Game Origin

When Takashi Nishiyama left Capcom in 1990 for arcade rival SNK, he dreamed of making a true spiritual sequel to his popular 1987 arcade hit, Street Fighter. Thus, development on a game called Real Bout began in earnest toward the end of 1990 just as the Neo-Geo platform was getting established in game centers in Japan and North America. The aim of Real Bout was to create a new fighting game IP for SNK that would establish a deep universe of interesting characters, revolving around a mature plotline, that would create SNK's signature cinematic approach to arcade game design.

During the development of Real Bout in February of 1991, Capcom released Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior to game centers across Japan. This seminal release not only marked the beginning of the fighting game craze of the 1990's, but it also changed the conversation around video games entirely. While the story of Street Fighter 2 is another story for another day, the popularity of the game proved to Nishiyama and SNK that they were on the right path with Real Bout.

Late into development the Real Bout placeholder name was dropped in favor of the title Fatal Fury for Western territories and Garou Densetsu (Legend of the Hungry Wolf) for Japan. Despite the title of the game being different in the two main territories, SNK used the Fatal Fury label in tandem with Garou Densetsu in Japan throughout the series' life in much of the marketing material and even in the game manuals. Despite SNK dropping Real Bout from the title, you can see traces of its presence sprinkled throughout the backgrounds in the game due to it being changed so late in development. SNK would revisit this naming convention with their 1995 series reboot Real Bout Fatal Fury which significantly changed the basic gameplay mechanics from prior installments.

When Fatal Fury released in November 1991 it was an instant success in Japan and America. Both critics and gamers fell in love with the Bogard brothers and their loud-mouthed friend Joe Higashi on their path of revenge. Fatal Fury did so well in its first year that it was the 4th overall best selling arcade game in Japan in 1992 behind Street Fighter 2 (both World Warrior and Hyper Fighting) and Captain Commando.

To say Fatal Fury left a lasting impression on game center patrons throughout the 1990's would be an understatement. While the series always played the role of underdog compared to Street Fighter, there is no denying the fact that what Nishiyama and team established during the early days of the Neo-Geo would define SNK for a new generation of gamers. My generation of gamers. 

Fatal Fury establishes the core universe that many SNK characters inhabit that includes the casts from Art of Fighting, The Last Blade, and the Savage Reign series in what I like to call the South Town Cannon. 

The general story of Fatal Fury follows our heroes Terry and Andy Bogard in the early 1990's as they travel back to South Town after years of training to take part in the King of Fighters tournament sponsored by Geese Howard - local crime lord and murderer of Jeff Bogard, Terry and Andy's adoptive father. In their quest for revenge, the Bogard brothers are joined by their friend Joe Higashi who has sworn to help his friends achieve their goal. 

The Main Cast (Playable Characters):

• Terry Bogard: 21 year old mixed martial arts master

• Andy Bogard: 19 year old master of the Shiranui Ninja Arts

• Joe Higashi: 20 year old Muai-Thai Boxing master

Supporting Cast (Non-Playable Characters):

• Geese Howard: South Town crime lord and stalwart antagonist throughout the series

• Billy Kane: Bodyguard of Geese Howard - loyal to a fault

• Raiden: Local South Town pro-wrestling giant and henchmen for Geese Howard

• Tung Fu Ru: Jeff Bogard's sensei and martial arts master

• Duck King: Local rival of Terry Bogard, master dancer turned fighter

• Hawai Jai: Drunken Muai-Thai practitioner and rival of Joe Higashi

• Richard Meyer: Capoeira master and owner of the popular Pao Pao Café

• Michael Max: Local South Town boxer

Despite not being able to select the majority of the cast as your in-game avatar, almost all of the AI controlled opponents appear as playable characters in subsequent Fatal Fury and/or other SNK games. Popular characters like Duck King and Tung Fu Rue make a comeback in 1993's Fatal Fury Special, for example. A fun touch is that most of the AI controlled characters have a sort of gimmick tied to their fight. Hawai Jai, for example, explodes into a drunken fury after drinking a bottle of...something...once 30% of his life is depleted. 

The only character that, to my knowledge, never shows up again even as a cameo in other games is Michael Max. Oddly enough, his voice clips and general move set were used to create the character Axel Hawk in the second Fatal Fury game...a character that aside from Fatal Fury 2 and Special also never saw the light of day in subsequent games as a playable character or in a cameo appearance. 

A key feature of SNK fighting games that began here with Fatal Fury are the use of cutscenes sprinkled throughout your journey from opponent to opponent. After each match you are treated to a small dialog scene with a pixel art still of Geese getting more furious at the player's character with every win. After the player knocks out Geese's bodyguard Billy Kane, the victory scene that plays out is cut short and the player is thrust to the top of Geese tower to face the big-boss himself. If you loose to Geese, another small scene plays out where he kicks the player's character off the edge of the skyscraper and you see them dropping hundreds of feet toward the ground as the clock counts down to zero on the Continue Screen. It's all great stuff, and SNK's mastery of weaving in engaging storyline beats between matches got better with every release. No other arcade rival leaned into the storyline of their fighting games like classic SNK, which is a big reason why they stand out to so many fans. 

The defining mechanic of the Fatal Fury series up through the seventh entry is the line-sway system that allows the players to move across a dedicated foreground and background plane of the arena. While each game in the series continued to evolve this mechanic, this first iteration is little more than a gimmick the player has no control over. Rather, only the AI controlled opponent can push the player into the other plane, and the player can only chase the opponent from plane to plane with no way for them to freely switch between lines like in subsequent games in the series. What's more, there are stages where there is no second plane for the AI to use due to crowds of people huddled around the arena watching the fight. Richard Meyer's Pao Pao Cafe stage is unique among the other backgrounds for also including a pole he can hang from that dangles from the ceiling - an idea that would be revisited and expounded upon in SNK's 1995 fighter Savage Reign - also part of the South Town Cannon.

With only a punch, kick, and throw button, Fatal Fury is not the most complex game you’ve ever played. There are no true combos to speak of, so special moves are the focus of the gameplay. While controller motions are similar to Street Fighter, the inputs are extremely strict making consistent use of your most damaging moves somewhat frustrating. That's kind of the point, though. Because of the high-damage output of all special moves, if they were too easy to pull off it would take some of the challenge away from the game. 

Like most early Neo-Geo games, Fatal Fury is entirely too hard for its own good and is a test of patience rather than skill. Playing two player doesn’t alleviate this much as you fight with each other rather than against each other. As this is a story of revenge, you cannot pit Terry, Andy, or Joe against one another in single player mode. Rather, when both players press start you can choose to fight Vs each other for a single match to see who will continue on in the story mode, or play tag-team co-op style against an opponent in a "dramatic battle" - or two vs one. This is the game where the idea of the dramatic battle was created that was later popularized by Capcom in Street Fighter Alpha some four years later. Once the dramatic battle is over, though, both players must then battle it out to see who moves forward in the single player mode.

To help ease the difficulty, the AI is programmed to not defend after getting up from a knock down for a few frames. This means that you can do a special move that lands on AI opponent's hit-box just as they're getting up for a guaranteed hit. If your special also has knock-down properties, like Terry's Burn Knuckle, you can do this over and over again, cheesing your way to a 1cc victory on any difficulty. This sounds easy - but the exceedingly strict inputs keep this from being a consistent way to cheat your way to the end of the game. 

Bonus stages were a mainstay of early arcade games, and SNK leaned into this trope for many of their early fighting games. Fatal Fury is no exception as the player is treated to an increasingly difficult arm-wrestling mini game where you must mash on the punch button to overpower the AI. While the first round isn't too difficult, the second and third rounds are nigh impossible without a turbo function. After each bonus stage, you are treated to a screen that shows you a special move that is unique to your character and how to perform the controller motion to pull it off. Thankfully you do not have to earn these special moves though beating the bonus stages and are there just to inform the player.

There are a few controller motions for special moves that are different depending on the region, but so far as I'm aware this is the only game where this is the case. Terry's Crack Shoot kick special move is performed differently in the US than in the Japanese version, but both variants are coded on the cartridge due to regional differences being dictated by the MVS/AES bios chip and not individually programmed MASK ROMs on the cartridge. 

Make no mistake, though, Fatal Fury is not and was not really planned to be a competitive fighting game despite having a truncated versus battle mode. Rather, it is single player in nature and set up. It wouldn't be until the second game where true competitive play was incorporated due to being developed in the shadow of Street Fighter 2 rather than in tandem with it.

For an early Neo-Geo game at only 55 megs, Fatal Fury has a surprising amount of animation and variety in attacks. Being the grand-daddy of SNK fighting games (I don't count Street Smart), it is not surprising that it feels dated and stiff in comparison with subsequent releases. The moment to moment gameplay in Fatal Fury feels loose, with some oddly drawn key frames of animation and a “squishiness” on hit due to there being no hit-stops, sprite shaking, or impact effects. The hit boxes (which are invisible boxes on character sprites that another sprite can interact with) are also awkwardly placed, making precise judgments for attacks almost impossible to judge consistently when married with the aforementioned absence of player feedback mechanisms in place. While Fatal Fury doesn't "feel" as good to play as Street Fighter 2, some would argue that it looks better than Capcom's game. With its highly detailed sprite work, generous use of bright primary colors, and more unique recorded voices than Capcom's game, Fatal Fury made a big impact in arcades with its visual and sound design alone. 

SNK's sound team also came into their own in this game creating a rich tapestry of soundscapes and memorable tunes that would be reprised throughout the series. Geese Howard's theme is one of the most iconic character themes in fighting game history, for example, and Raiden's excellent hard guitar riffs would be revisited in the second game with better sound samples and a more fleshed out melody. Even the more ambient tracks like in the Pao Pao Café have layered vocal chants and unique instrumentation that really sell the setting. I don't consider this first Fatal Fury's soundtrack to be "great," but it set the stage for the excellent music that SNK would eventually become known for...among other things.

Fatal Fury is not a bad game, but it is a fighting game that was developed concurrently with Street Fighter 2. Without the latter game’s influence in this early release, Fatal Fury is harder to play in the modern era where as the vanilla release of Street Fighter 2 still feels great to play even though it's filled with glitches and bugs. While SNK would quickly move on to create a more pleasing sequel in 1992 (along with the introduction of the Art of Fighting series), Fatal Fury shows the humble beginnings of SNK cutting their teeth on what they would eventually be renown for, innovative fighting game development. 

Is Fatal Fury worth the price of admission on Neo-Geo hardware? Yes and no. A complete AES copy will run between $100-$150 USD in today’s market for a complete Japanese release, so it is one of the less expensive Neo-Geo games. A US release, which has some truly abysmal box art, will run you no less than $150 in 2023. MVS and Neo CD versions are plentiful and quite cheap comparatively at less than $50 each. 

Fatal Fury did well enough in the arcade to warrant numerous ports to home consoles of the day, so of course the Super Nintendo/Famicom and Sega's Mega Drive (Genesis) received decent ports published by Takara. The SNES port is generally considered to be the better of the two, and even includes a "street fight" mode - basically this a 1:1 versus mode that allows you to select from the entire roster of fighters rather than just Terry, Andy, and Joe. This makes the SNES port the one to own for curiosity's sake even if you have the Neo original. There were also ports to a few Japanese PC's at the time, like the expensive but powerful Sharp X68000 which produced nigh-accurate ports of some early Neo-Geo and even Capcom CPS games due to using a similar architecture based on the Motorola 68000 16-bit processor. 

Additionally, you can pick up the Fatal Fury Battle Archives compilation on Playstation 2 which includes the first four games in the series. These are true ports, so they play arcade perfect and all include their Neo CD arranged soundtracks as an option. 

Fatal Fury is more of a curio of the bygone days of early Neo-Geo development and less of a timeless gem that you will pick up and play over and over again like Fatal Fury Special (which is a generously updated version of Fatal Fury 2). If you want to give it a shot as a general curiosity, download the Arcade Archives release for $8, or play it on an emulator. If you’re looking for a complete Fatal Fury set on AES, the price won’t set you back too much, but you’ll want to focus on getting the better games in the series first as the value of this game plateaued long ago and hasn't moved much over the last half a decade or so. If you do get a copy, I recommend the Japanese version – it is not only cheaper but has some of the most incredible box art you'll ever see on a video game.