Real Bout Special

Disclaimer 1: If you're new to the series, the Fatal Fury games follow this path: Fatal Fury, Fatal Fury 2, Fatal Fury Special, Fatal Fury 3, Real Bout 1, Real Bout Special, Real Bout 2, Garou: Mark of the Wolves. This is why Real Bout 2 is most commonly compared to Real Bout Speical rather than the first game in the Real Bout sub-series.

Disclaimer 2: Read my Real Bout review before reading this.

1996 was a big year for fighting game fans. What with the likes of Street Fighter Alpha 2 and X-Men Vs Street Fighter from Capcom, and SNK's Samurai Shodown 4, King of Fighters 96, and Real Bout Special (technically January 1997), fighting game fans had a lot to be excited about. Because the arcades were flooded with fighting games by this point, only the best of the best stood out from the crowd and Capcom and SNK were at the height of their game. By this point both companies had a clear trajectory of releases and they each had more than a few established series under their belt. For SNK, their King of Fighters series was quickly becoming their go-to franchise despite being one of their newest. But even though Fatal Fury was beginning to wain in overall popularity, SNK wasn't about to forget their flagship franchise.

Released 13 months after Real Bout Fatal Fury, Real Bout Special was an arcade smash hit on release, being the most popular arcade game in Japan in March 1997 according to Amusement Machine. Further publications put it in the top three most popular games for 1997 overall. It sold very well on both AES and Neo CD, and even the Saturn port saw healthy sales. Fatal Fury was back in a big way, and the gaming world was taking notice. On top of healthy sales, Real Bout Special was also very well received by fans and critics who praised the updated gameplay and gorgeous new character sprites and art direction. 

Real Bout Special (RBS) was a redefinition of the series that rebooted the graphics and retooled the gameplay into something fresh, fast, fun, and a little wacky. This new approach led to (mostly) brand new character sprites across the board that were more anime inspired than past entries, a completely new musical score, and updates to the general mechanics produced in 1995's Real Bout that are more in-line with the fast action seen in Capcom's Darkstalkers series. RBS is one of those rare games that expertly straddles the line of being approachable to newcomers, but deep enough to satisfy hardcore fighting game and SNK fans. It's an excellent jumping on point for gamers new to the Neo-Geo as it embodies the strengths of the hardware with very little if any drawbacks. Just like 1993's Fatal Fury Special before it, Real Bout Special is one of the most "Neo-Geo games that ever did Neo-Geo."

Real Bout Special is a "dream match" game with no set storyline. See, the Fatal Fury storyline finally met its end with the death of Geese Howard at the conclusion of 1995's Real Bout. Rather than create a new storyline for the series, SNK decided to do a greatest hits where they brought back the entire cast from Real Bout and added a few more fan favorite characters missing since 1993's Fatal Fury Special. Despite not having a story to pull things together, the characters in the game all had years of lore built up by this point so SNK leaned in on those established relationships in pre and post-fight dialog and animation sequences. Even without a story, there was still plenty of interplay between characters and lots of inside jokes for long-time fans. 

Real Bout Special uses the same button layout as Real Bout: the A, B, and C buttons are punch, kick, and heavy respectively, with the "heavy" button being a punch or kick depending on the action/character. For example, down and heavy attack is usually a sweep kick, but standing heavy can be a punch or kick depending on the character's move set. All characters also received many more command normals (hold a direction and press an action button) that can be used mid-combo or even to launch into special combo strings.

The biggest update Team Garou made to the game engine is how the player utilizes the line-sway mechanic. More akin to 1993's Fatal Fury Special, RBS allows the player to play in the foreground or background plane rather than just temporarily sway into the foreground and background plane like in the first Real Bout game. This was a big deal because this change led to brand-new ways to utilize the two-plane system given the overall rework in other game mechanics. 

• Pressing the D button makes you switch planes.

• While on an alternate plane than the opponent, players can jump, block, move left or right, and use their special moves.

• Pressing the A or B buttons while on an alternate plane performs a line cross attack where you jump back into your opponent's plane with either a punch or kick.

• Pressing forward+C while on an alternate plane will produce an attack that forces the opponent into your plane upon impact even if they block the attack (the block will be successful, but they will still be forced to switch planes).

• Each character has at least one special attack that hits across both planes, like Terry's Round Wave.

Like in Real Bout, players can press the D button in the air to change the direction their character is facing. This mechanic can be especially useful when you score a hard knockdown and want to go for a cross-up situation to create what's called a "vortex." Because this mechanic makes cross-up options much more deliberate than in most other fighting games, expert use of it is paramount to beating the game at higher difficulty levels and in high-level competitive play. This handy mechanic was also carried over to Real Bout 2 a year later.

To speed up the gameplay over Real Bout, more chain combos were added per character and are now easier to perform. Almost all characters have some form of ABC combo that can end a few ways. 

• You can usually 2-in-one into a special move at the end of a chain (a few character exceptions)

• You can press forward and C instead of just C to knock the opponent into the other line.

• If you do the line cross option, when the character is in the other plane you can then quickly press back and C to knock them back into your plane THEN continue the combo. 

• Basically, a simple combo string with Terry works like this: A (punch), B (kick), forward+C (push opponent in to the other plane), back+C (pull the opponent back into your plane) xx Crack Shot. There are more complex combos, but most characters can do this general combo and is a good string to help you wrap your head around the rest of the mechanics.

All in all, the combo system is super flexible, and is the most fun the classic Fatal Fury series has ever been. SNK toned things down quite a bit in Real Bout 2 a year later, but we'll get to that in a separate review. 

All characters have two life bars: the yellow bar, and the flashing red bar when the yellow bar has been depleted. The life bar is similar to prior Fatal Fury games in that your bar flashes red when you are close to being KO'ed. This mechanic is now dedicated to an entire second life bar rather than just the tail end of one. Due to this, all moves and specials in the game generally deal more overall damage than in prior games without making bouts last longer.

The power meter from Real Bout returns, and continues the three main functions: S-Power allows you to do a desperation move, P-Power allows you to do a super desperation move but only when your life bar is flashing red, and H-Power let's you perform a Break-Shot (essentially an Alpha-Counter) that uses half of your power meter. When you have a flashing red life bar you can do your S-Power desperation move at any time.

Finally, movement options are varied, but not quite as robust as a King of Fighters game. The entire cast can do a short dash by a double tap forward, back dash by double tapping back, a full jump, or a short hop. There are no super jumps and the "dodge" mechanic is the line-sway. Still, many tactics from KOF that include the hop mechanic work well here adding to the fast action and ultra aggressive gameplay. This is one fast fighting game and approaching it like Street Fighter or even past Fatal Fury games will leave you quickly KO'ed by even a moderately skilled opponent. 

At 20 total fighters (including Geese -hidden-, who wears a halo because he's technically dead), there isn't a lack of choice. SNK even brought back a few fan favorite characters like Chang Sinzan and Tung Fu Ru (but no Big Bear!?). If that wasn't enough, players can access an EX version of a few characters that change up their special moves, some normals, and in some cases even their idle animations. EX characters are only available in the MVS version of the game by default by way of a code on the character select screen. If your AES console is equipped with a Unibios chip, you can switch the system to MVS mode and play the EX characters that way. Geese can be unlocked with a code on the AES version only.

The characters' move sets are the craziest the series has ever seen. Bigger and more bombastic than any prior entry, RBS is a joy to play because so many more options were added per character. For example: Joe's heavy Hurricane Upper has three consecutive waves, and Mai has a crazy 12-hit rekka not seen in any other game. That's just the tip of the iceberg. In this jaded gamer's opinion, these are the most fun versions of the Fatal Fury characters across the entire series and gives the game a somewhat wacky vibe due to the huge combo strings and crazy special moves. 

The Presentation got a HUGE upgrade over prior entries, and when placed next to Real Bout 1 the game looks like it was developed on an entirely different console. Backgrounds are all completely new and are absolutely beautiful pieces of pixel art. Each stage also has an introduction that opens up prior to a match to introduce the player to the arena. And rather than carry over the ring outs from Real Bout 1, each stage now has barriers on either end that have to be broken before a special, stage-specific animation happens that dizzies the opponent. Some of these are hysterical, like the Panda in China that gets madder and madder the more you knock your opponent into the bamboo tree he's eating. Once the barrier is broken, it not only dizzies the opponent, but it also opens up a bit more arena space that can be used even after a round has ended. It's good stuff filled with personality. There are other fighting games, both classic and modern, that use this type of stage extension with the earliest example I can think of being Taito's 1994 fighter Kaiser Knuckle on their F3 hardware and more recently with Capcom's 2016 Street Fighter V.

Most returning characters from Real Bout were completely redrawn with even larger, more detailed sprite work, and many more frames of animation. The characters that were added in Real Bout did not get a full update for RBS, but a few extra frames of animation were added and colors and move sets were changed to match the new visual and gameplay style. Some characters, like Bob Wilson, retain their general sprite work from Fatal Fury 3, but that's the exception here. The overall color pallet was also updated to be much brighter than before, lending an overall anime vibe matching the 2D game art style of the day. Post and pre-fight character art is super detailed, and looks like it comes straight out of an SNK produced anime. Overall, Real Bout Special is a stunning game to behold, and a true work of art whether you're in the ring or out.

Along with the presentation, the music was also completely redone with mostly higher-energy remixes of classic tracks. A few standout tracks were re-used from Real Bout, but were rearranged to fit better with the tone of RBS, like Kim's theme. There are also a few new tracks that better fit the characters' personalities - Blue Mary and Mai are key examples of this. Voices were completely redone, and all characters have more quips than ever before. All characters have three different win poses, and multiple characters have before fight animation sequences that are unique when fighting other characters with whom they share close relationship (like Andy and Mai). RBS also includes the most unique announcer in fighting game history, edging out even the overly enthusiastic announcer from Street Fighter Alpha 3. You just gotta hear this guy, he's nuts. I must also mention the incredible sound effects - they are the crunchiest you'll ever hear. Each clean hit sounds like a mini-explosion. It's just all so good.

Real Bout Special is my personal favorite in the series next to 1993's Fatal Fury Special (for a variety of nostalgic reasons), and as such I have over 25 years of wonderful memories playing this masterpiece. It's an excellent video game and is easy to pick up and have some fun with even if you're not too into fighting games. Like all fighters, though, playing against a skilled opponent in this game will quickly overwhelm you due to the incredibly fast action and crazy special moves. But take about a week to practice up a bit and you'll find you can hang just fine with the Hungry Wolf (Terry Bogard) and the rest of the gang. 

Prices in the modern market hold pretty steady at around $350 for a complete Japanese AES copy on the low end, but Ebay sellers will try to charge $450 plus. While the game is worth every penny, if going the AES route make sure you're patient and don't pay over $350. The US AES variant is obscenely expensive, as is tradition in our modern age, and a CIB copy can be had for a staggering $10k or more!!! On Neo CD the game can be had for less than $60 but comes encumbered with the long load times and weird character art on the loading screen. There are a few cool CD bonus extras, though, like the music video Blue Mary's Blues when you beat the arcade mode. The MVS is the cheapest route as you can get the game for around $50 bucks. 

Real Bout Special was also ported to the Sega Saturn, which uses the Saturn's 1mb RAM expansion cartridge. While it's not arcade perfect, it's damn close and virtually just as good as the Neo CD version. You can also get the modern Arcade Archives release for $8 or check out the Playstation 2 release of Fatal Fury Battle Archives 2 which is still available for download on the Playstation Store and works great on your Playstation 4 or 5! This collection has the three Real Bout games, and each game is a true port so this is a very solid set loaded with extras.

As an aside: The Playstation 1 has a version of RBS called Real Bout Special: Dominated Mind. That said, it is less of a port and more of its own thing. SNK simplified the line-sway mechanic, added Alfred from Real Bout 2 as a playable character (he was a hidden boss in that game), included a nifty fully animated intro, changed a variety of mechanics and moves, and gave the game a storyline and new villain (White). This game in no way replaces vanilla Real Bout Special, but it is a pretty cheap import that any curious SNK and Fatal Fury fan should check out. Sadly, it never got a US release and to this day has never seen a port to any other console. It's a pretty decent 2D fighter in its own right as well - and one of the better 2D fighters on the Playstation 1. I can't stress enough, though, Dominated Mind is *NOT* Real Bout Special. They are very different games mechanically - much like the PS1 port of Marvel Vs. Capcom to the Arcade/Dreamcast versions.

Bottom line - if you get one Fatal Fury game on the AES, get Fatal Fury Special. If you get two Fatal Fury games, also get Real Bout Special. Both games take the general gameplay of the two games that preceded it and perfects it. All the Fatal Fury games stand tall in their own right, but the two "Special" games really hold their own and are looked back on fondly in the fighting game community as two of the strongest fighters of their era. 

That said, there are fans who enjoy the look of RBS, but like the gameplay of RB better - for them, SNK made Real Bout 2 in 1998. Check out that review for more info on one of the more divisive but excellent games in the series.