Fatal Fury Special

By the end of the 1980's, the arcade industry was seeing its first big downturn in profitability in most developed regions of the world. The games and experiences being released in the arcade were beginning to be more faithfully ported to consumer hardware at this time thanks to the extra horsepower afforded by the 16-bit consoles and new home PC platforms that were available by the beginning of the 1990's. In addition to better home ports of arcade games, home console games were beginning to provide larger, more engaging experiences that just couldn't be produced in the arcade. RPGs, adventure games, strategy games and more were becoming more popular world-wide, and as memory and hardware got cheaper, games at home got bigger and more complex. 

In February of 1991, Capcom released Street Fighter 2 which changed how gamers interacted with each other in game centers by introducing true competitive play driven by precision player control across a cast of diverse and colorful characters. While there were a few fighting games before the release of Street Fighter 2, no game in the genre up to that point moved with the fluidity and grace of Capcom's classic. It upped the ante of what gamers could expect out of arcade-class 2D hardware, and arguably single-handedly saved the flagging arcade industry along side other key publishers like Sega and Namco with their advanced 3D hardware.

The story of how Street Fighter 2 helped to save the arcade industry is well documented, but I mention it here only to drive home the fact that this paradigm shift was not immediate. It took a few years for other developers to catch up with their own fighting games, with development cycles for this type of game taking 4-9 months on average. The only other developer aside from Capcom that was ahead of the curve here was SNK with Takashi Nishiyama developing Fatal Fury at SNK along side the development of Street Fighter 2 at Capcom. 

By September 1993, SNK had developed and launched three new fighting game IP with Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, and finally Samurai Shodown. Fatal Fury had already seen one sequel the prior year and the sequel to Art of Fighting was already underway at SNK's headquarters. After the wildly successful launch of Samurai Shodown earlier in 1993, SNK released their fine-tuned update to Fatal Fury 2 in the form of Fatal Fury Special. 

Fatal Fury Special was met with immediate gamer and critical acclaim upon launch in September of 1993, with critics of the day citing improved gameplay mechanics, the addition of a true combo system, better animation, great new characters and backgrounds, and even more white-knuckle action. Bested only by Super Street Fighter 2 X: Grand Master Challenge (Super Turbo) and Virtua Fighter, Fatal Fury Special was recorded as the third highest grossing arcade game in Japan in 1994 by the publication Game Machine. While SNK games didn't see the wild popularity they enjoyed in Japan elsewhere in the world up to this point, Western gamers were beginning to wake up to SNK's signature approach to fighting games thanks strong releases like Fatal Fury Special and Samurai Shodown that proved quite popular in US and European game centers as well. 

This unprecedented year of success solidified the trajectory of SNK's development cycle throughout the rest of the Neo-Geo's life, all the way to 2004! Fighting games were SNK's forte now, like it or not, and we would see them drop development of some genres entirely while out-sourcing development of many other popular arcade genres to external and second-party studios so internal studios could focus on fighters. In hindsight, this hurt the company as they did not diversify enough to sustain the growth they wanted to gain at the time. Still, throughout the 1990's, you were either an SNK or Capcom fan, and SNK fans had a lot to be excited about beginning in 1993. 

So, now that we have some context, what made Fatal Fury Special such a big deal upon release? Given the massive popularity of Fatal Fury 2, it was only a matter of time before SNK released its follow-up to hungry gamers ready for another bout of Bogard brawling. Team Garou took the strong foundation established by Fatal Fury 2 and fine-tuned the game over the next several months. The end result was one of, if not the largest fighting game released to this point...and gamers ate it up. 

You can think of Fatal Fury Special as "Fatal Fury 2: Season 2." Special introduces 3 new playable characters which return from Fatal Fury 1: Tung Fu Ru, Duck King, and Geese Howard. Being the first "dream match" game by SNK that does not follow a plot line, SNK also included Ryo Sakazaki from their Art of Fighting series as a secret boss (and playable via a cheat in the AES version). This brings the roster to 16 selectable characters and one via a cheat, with no pallet swapped sprites. Thus, Fatal Fury Special had the largest fighting game roster of unique characters to date in 1993.  

Team Garou at SNK introduced a bevy of mechanics upgrades that make Fatal Fury Special play much better than its predecessor. These changes include:

• A reworked physics engine which evened out movement and momentum in jumps, recovery frames, and animation cycles. 

• Expanded line-sway system with new options for low to the ground line-change attacks which are activated with the light buttons or high-flying line-change attacks that are activated with the heavy buttons. Clean hits can now open up combo opportunities for potential big damage. 

  • • For the light button switch actions, if you leave the stick neutral you will home in on the opponent. You can also use the control stick to throttle the light button switch attacks so they land ambiguously, creating some interesting mix-ups that you can only perform with this mechanic. 

• While additional moves were added for some characters, all characters had their special move and normal move properties changed completely so all combatants feel familiar but fresh at the same time. 

• Normal move properties were changed considerably. 

  • • Normal move recovery frames were made interruptible, which had the effect of introducing deliberate combos like in Street Fighter 2. In effect, players can interrupt the final frames of some inputs in order to two-in-one into another move. 

      • • Players can link light attacks into other light attacks, light attacks into heavy attacks, and two-in-one into light special attacks out of most heavy normals. 

    • Airborne light attacks now stay active the duration of your jump no matter how early you press the button which can make for some interesting airborne pokes you don't encounter in most games. 

    • Other changes to normals and specials were generally on a per-character basis.

Despite critics of the day largely panning the line-sway system as a gimmick, this mechanic is the crux of the gameplan in Fatal Fury Special. Take time to master the ins and outs of pursuing opponents who recklessly switch planes, or take advantage of mixing up your attack trajectory against opponents who are unfamiliar with the mechanic. Once you get two players of a similar skill level who utilize all the mechanics in the game in a match, Fatal Fury Special really opens up and morphs into one of the most innovative and fast moving fighting games of the early 90's era. There's a lot to unpack here, and during my 30 year journey with this game I can attest that most gamers (including competitive players I've seen who pick this game up on a whim) do not use all the mechanics effectively which leads to boring and drawn out matches. 

Even though there were a bevy of positive changes and updates, Fatal Fury Special still had some kinks in the formula. For one, the AI is terrifically challenging, as was SNK tradition. AI characters can perform frame-perfect counters to your every move on any difficulty and they have no restrictions on special moves; like charging. As with Fatal Fury 2, some special moves and normals push the opponent too far out on block which makes punishing opponent mistakes quite hard. Throws also do a ridiculous amount of damage given how generous the frame window is, and command throws have obscene range that the AI will abuse to its advantage in those "perfect frame" situations I just mentioned. Still, these are relatively small gripes as the overall fighting engine SNK built here is excellent and the AI woes can be somewhat forgiven due to this being an arcade game designed to eat a player's money. 

Not to be outdone, the artists and designers were also busy updating all aspects of the visual and sound design along side the mechanics and gameplay. All characters received numerous tweaks to their sprite data including new and/or replaced animations for certain moves and poses to increase their impact, and general tweaks to animation timing to match the new physics model. New characters were drawn to match the established art style; although, characters like Duck King and Ryo have a more fluid animation than most other characters which makes them standout a bit.

In addition to the generous updates to the character sprite work, existing backgrounds were all updated with new color pallets and details. Each of the new characters received their own background as well, with Duck King's dance club being the standout star of the show. The staggering amount of individual animations, flashing lights, and small details make that background an absolute work of art and one of the most iconic fighting game backgrounds ever created. What's more, the backgrounds here, no matter how busy, never get in the way of the fighting action. Fatal Fury Special is one good looking game. 

The game looks good and plays great, but how does it sound? Even better than Fatal Fury 2! Of course the new characters received their own unique themes with iconic tracks like Duck King's "Duck Duck Dub" and Tung Fu Ru's theme "How Can There Be 40,000 Years of Chinese History," but all existing music also saw an update. Additional instrumentation was added to many tracks, as well as replaced samples here and there that added further richness to the music on order. The soundtrack is spectacular in the arcade, and the Neo CD arrangements are also excellent in their own right even if they change the tone of some of the tracks a bit. Each soundtrack has a slightly different flavor, but both present the sound designers and musicians at SNK at the top of their game. 

Good player feedback is at the heart of a well-made fighting game, and Fatal Fury Special's overall sound design is phenominal. Every smack, punch, and slap has a sharp "crack" to it, and blocked hits have a low bass tone that you can also feel shake your bones. These excellent impact effects are coupled by a fantastic cast of voice actors that bring life and personality to the characters. The amount of voice samples on display here are well above what you'll find from any other fighting game of the day. 

Fatal Fury Special is the most Neo-Geo game that ever did Neo-Geo. This game is a celebration of not just Fatal Fury, but of SNK themselves. It symbolizes a true turning point for the company - one that would cause them great success, great failure, and ultimately new found strength in the competitive fighting game community once again in 2022. Fatal Fury Special is a milestone game for SNK and for fighting games in general. Like Street Fighter 2, Fatal Fury Special is still a joy to revisit today. The methodical battles, focus on strong footsies and positioning with the 2-line system, and excellent presentation coalesce into a package that is fun for anyone to pick up and play. It is the very definition of timeless classic.

Due to being wildly popular in the arcade, SNK produced a plethora of AES copies which have kept prices way down in the current market despite just about everyone who owns an AES having this game in their libraries. Prices in the current market for a good condition, complete Japanese edition are less than $80 with the US version commanding a slightly higher price around $200 or so. The MVS version and even the Neo CD versions can be had for under $30. You can also check out this classic on multiple emulators and collections, or the fantastic Hamster Arcade Archives series for USD $8 on most modern platforms. 

Fatal Fury Special received a number of ports of varying quality across most major platforms of the early 1990's. Developed by Takara, the Super Famicom release is a close approximation of the Neo original with excellent character sprites and backgrounds that retain most of their detail (albeit with paired back animation). Like many Super Nintendo games, there is a fair amount of reverb in the voice overs that may be due to the inclusion of Dolby Surround. The soundtrack on this version is wild, though, with 100% unique arrangements not found anywhere else. This is more than just trying to feign the Neo original's sound, these are wildly different mixes in some cases. Worth a listen to for sure. That said, there were a litany of bugs and control issues with the original Japanese release which saw some fixes in the US release. Personally, this is the version of the game I grew up with until I got the Neo original in 1998, so I have a fair amount of nostalgia here.

The PC Engine Super CD Rom with Arcade Card (phew) also saw a decent port developed by Hudson. Personally, I have not ever played this version but it is reported to have some control issues with special move inputs. It also includes a rather unique spin on the soundtrack as well you can find on YouTube for a listen. While not as wild as the SNES release, the Redbook audio on the CD is closer to the cartridge OST with higher quality instruments and samples than the arrangements SNK made for the official Neo CD release. The Arcade Card on the PC Engine release allows the characters to retain most of their animation, but there were a litany of changes and omissions to background details. Still, this port is well loved in the community for its accuracy and incredible graphics for what is essentially an 8-bit system.

There were a couple of Sega ports, but curiously the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive did not get a proper port this time around. Rather, the Sega CD got the 16-bit port by developer Funcom. This port is middling at best with horrible voice samples and heavily edited backgrounds that omit most of the interesting details and animation. Duck King's stage in particular was hit hard. This is a shame as the characters themselves look great and the port plays decently overall. It also includes the MVS original soundtrack via Redbook audio, so that's at least a nice touch. The other Sega port was to the Game Gear. Sorry Master System fans, no port there. Still, the Game Gear release is better than it has any right to be with smooth gameplay and excellent sound. While it's missing a number of characters and the line-sway system is removed entirely, this is one hell of a fighting game and is easily the best on Sega's 8-bit hardware by a very wide margin. Excellent port considering the hardware.

Finally, the very expensive X68000 computer and the FM Towns got ports and each are quite good. The X68000 version is very close to arcade perfect, which is not surprising given similarities in architecture and that many Neo games were actually programmed on this very PC in those early days! The FM Towns ports is also purportedly quite good, but I have not seen much of this release other than knowing it exists. 

As an aside, ports are a weird thing these days in our modern world of 2022. Believe it or not, some of these ports mentioned are MORE expensive than sourcing a Japanese AES cartridge complete in box! Aside from that, modern emulation is nigh-perfect for these old pieces of arcade hardware. Basically, there really is no reason to play an 8, 16, or 32 bit port of any of these games given the wide availability of modern emulation solutions (both fully legal and questionably legal) that play essentially perfect versions. 

For you aspiring Neo-Geo collectors, though, Fatal Fury Special is an essential part of your collection. Hell, I'd say it should be your day one purchase with your console - whether that be AES, MVS, or CD. Even if you don't like fighting games, I highly recommend giving it a shot - especially if you have a buddy or two to play with.