1987, the arcades were booming again with players, and new games coming regularly, competing for the lucrative and resurgent gaming industry. While the majority were adventure action games, or shooters, a new type of video games was making its debut with the release of the 1987 Street Fighter game. Developed by Capcom, this simple, and often underrated game led to the flourishing of the fighting games genre. street Fighter was spearheaded and produced by a young Takashi Nishiyama and hiroshi matsumoto. Nishiyama was not new to the fighting and action games, as he worked on the 1984 Kung Fu master game by Irem, a game that many see as the true first fighting game.
Unlike traditional action games, Street Fighter allowed players to fight one enemy at a time in a 2 round style combat. the addition of the player vs player mode was the first step towards the competitive scene we know today.
Following the modest success of Street Fighter, Takashi Nishiyama left the company and joined a new and emerging software and hardware developer, SNK, previously known as the shin nihon kikakku.
SNK was not new to gaming, the company have made some very successful arcade games in late 70 and early 80’s, like Vanguard and Ikari warriors, and after making profits porting their old games to the then very popular NES system, the company would decide to enter the home and hardware market with a bang as they introduced their new hardware in 1990 known as the Neogeo . the Neogeo was designed as both an arcade system in the form of the neogeo MVS, and as well as a home console in the form of the NeogeoAES. Both hardware used the same components offering, for the first time, the ability to have arcade level graphics and gameplay at home.
With its brand new system now released in the arcades, SNK saw potential in the new 1vs 1 fighting genre, and was willing to bet on this new type of games, that it greenlit a number of projects that would use the idea of vs fighting and even try to evolve it further. Seeing how Nishiyama already proved his skills in this emerging type of games, SNK gave Takashi the greenlight to work on what he envisioned as the spiritual successor to street fighter, and the next step for fighting games: Garou Densetsu, or as we know it in the west Fatal fury
Contrary to what many believe, Fatal Fury was been developed at the same time as Street Fighter 2 at Capcom. In early development the game’s original title was Real Bout, a title that will be used in some of the sequels of the franchise.
Early concept seen ar snk wikia
Wanting to differentiate itself for its competitor Capcom, SNK would push for a detailed story driven franchise, to let their customers invest in the game’s lore and setting.
Fatal fury gave players the ability to select from three distinct characters: Terry bogard, the game’s protagonist, his brother andy, and their best friend, Joe Higashi. Each of these characters come with their unique play style and special moves. And speaking of moves, and unlike the original street fighter, doing this special attacks was made easy, with the intention of letting players throw fireballs, rising tackles, and hurricane uppers almost at will.
The gameplay of Fatal Fury followed the typical formula of street fighter, as it allowed the player to compete against his opponent in best two-out-of-three round matches. The play controls consist of an eight directional joystick and three attack buttons A, B, and C: A for punches, B for kicks and C to throw the opponent. As in the original Street Fighter, each of the playable characters have special techniques that are performed by inputting specific commands and combinations with the joystick and buttons. While as previously mentioned these maneuvers were easier to pull compared to the first street fighter game, The input methods for these special moves were shown to the player during the course of the game, specifically after every bonus round, as opposed to being given in an instruction card in the game’s cabinet. Speaking of Bonus Rounds, after a number of Matches the player enters a mini game mode, called the bonus round, where he will need to win an arm wrestling contest against a machine. The player will need to press the A and B buttons as fast as they can in order to win the contest.
The biggest addition and new aspect that Fatal Fury introduced to the genre, was the inclusion of a two-lane fighting system. The player can jump from one lane to another to avoid projectile attacks or knock their opponent to the other plane. This new mechanic was unheard of, and would become the staple of the series, for better or worse.
Multiplayer mode was a highlight in the first street fighter game, allowing two players to test their skills against each other. For Fatal Fury, Nishiyaama decided to spice things up. When a second player joins during the middle of a fight, instead of postponing the current battle for a match between the two players, the game will make both players team-up against the current CPU opponent in a two-on-one match before their battle takes place.
While the game offered only 3 characters to choose from, playing the arcade mode, will pits you against 7 unplayable warriors:
Richard Meyer, a capoeira master originally from Brazil, Richard makes his daily living in South Town as the manager of the restaurant Pao Pao Cafe. He competes in the King of Fighters tournament in order to make his capoiera style known to the world.
Michael Max, a pro boxer who was once considered a strong contender for the title of Worldwide Heavyweight Champion. However, he left the boxing circuit to seek real combat and participate in the King of Fighters tournament, feeling that professional boxing was a mere sport protected by rules.
Duck King, a dancer/fighter that Possesses incredible talent when it comes to brawling and street dancing, Duck King once challenged Terry Bogard to a street fight and lost. He trained himself in order to surpass Terry and hopes to do so at the King Of Fighters tournament. Duck uses a unique fighting style which includes rhythmical dance-like movements and attacks.
Tung Fu Rue: an elderly martial arts master from China who developed his own fighting style based on Bajiquan known as the Holy Fist of Eight Ways (Hakkyokuseiken). In the past, he trained Terry and Andy’s adoptive father, Jeff Bogard, and his nemesis Geese Howard (as well as another ffatal fury character Cheng Sinzan which will be introduced in the sequel). Tung helped raise the Bogard brothers for a while after Jeff was killed by Geese and now participates in the King of Fighters tournament with the objective to defeat Geese. He can transform his body into steel and draw out great power using a deadly secret technique known only to himself.
Hwa Jai (ホア・ジャイ, Hoa Jai) is the first of three opponents the player faces before the final match against Geese Howard. A former Muay Thai champion once nicknamed “The Hero of Muay Thai” (ムエタイの英雄, Muetai no Eiyū), Jai once fought against Joe Higashi in the past and lost, causing him to lose his title. Seeking to defeat Joe, he became a more reckless and dangerous fighter. After being banned from competing in the Muay Thai circuit, his brutal talent was noted by Geese Howard, who hired him to serve as one of his bodyguards and a participant in the King of Fighters tournament. His special technique, the Dragon Kick, was developed to compete with Joe’s Tiger Kick. He also gains additional strength by drinking a sort of Super Drink, which thrown at him by one of Geese’s men when he is in danger.
Raiden (ライデン, Raiden the second of the final four computer-controlled opponents in the single-player mode. He was once a popular wrestler until he was betrayed by his tag partner during a match (a character later revealed to be Big Bombarder from the SNK wrestling game 3 Count Bout). This incident transformed him completely. Not satisfied with venting his frustration in the ring, he enters the King of Fighters tournament as a masked fighter, acting as one of Geese’s body guards.
Billy Kane a British orphan who grew up in the street. Billy moved to South Town and thanks to his street fight abilities quickly caught the eye of Geese howard who made him his right hand man. He uses a santestukon as a weapon.
Once all these fighters are defeated, the player will have to face the powerful Geese Howard himself, in an outstanding setting that goes hand in hand with the game’s story.
Storywise the game takes place in the fictional city of South Town usa. A city full of corruption, and one that is under the control of a powerful crime lord, Geese Howard. Before becoming the most ruthless man of South Town, Geese trained with the legendary Master tung fu rue along with another student Jeff Bogard. Mastering the art of hakkyoukuseiken, both Geese and jeff were ready to learn the last secret technique of the their school. But seeing how Geese could be a danger, with his temper, ego, and evil intent, Tung decided to only teach the hidden move to Jeff, giving Geese a reason to despise the old master as well as his sparring partner Jeff Bogard. Years would pass after geese leaving the dojo, Jeff Bogard will adopt 2 orphan kids Terry and Andy. Jeff would not only give these kids, his love and family name, but also his knowledge of the Hakkyoukuseiken. In the meantime, Gees eHoward was making a name for himself in the underworld, gaining power and control over the economically fragile south town. In one fateful day, Geese would finally decide to extact his revenge, and challenges Jeff in the middle of the street and in front of his children to a final battle. Even though Jeff was a master of haakyoukeisekn, he was no match for a now more powerful Geese howard. Defeated by his old friend, Jeff Bogard succumbed to his wound and lost his life in front of his children’s eyes. Knowing that they are no match for Geese, Terry and Andy decided to each take a different path and train in martial arts only to meet 10 years later to have their revenge on the murderous geese howard. Terry sought his father’s old master Tung Fu Rue, while Andy travelled to Japoan to learned kenpoken from another great master. 10 years have passed, and two brothers along with Andy’s new friend the muy thai champion Joe Hgashi are back to south town, just in time for geese to announce a new tournament: The King Of Fighters. The trio decide to enter the competition in hopes of reaching the finals and defeating geese once and for all.
To put more emphasis on the story, SNK decided to publish a free mini comic explaining the lore of the game, The comic weas drawn by famed artist Shinkiro. This same type of promotional material would also be used for SNK’s other fighting game series, Ryuko no ken, also known as Art of fighting.
Fatal Fury was released in the arcades on November 1991, 8 months after the release of the behemoth street fighter II. Besides not offering many playable characters as its competitor, Fatal Fury received mainly positive reviews, as the first fighting game of the brand new neogeo gaming arcade and home system. According to Japan’s Game machine magazine, by January 1992, Fatal fury was considered the third most successful arcade unit of the year. The game was also met with positive reviews when it reached the us in 1992, as it received 5 out of 5 score from Gamepro. The main reason for the game’s massive success compared to sf2, was how the players resonated with the character’s deep stories and serious personalities. The first fatal fury game would receive couple of ports outside of the neogeo family in the form of a Super Nintendo version, and Genesis version, and even a sharp x6800 port.
The Super NES version of Fatal Fury, published by Takara, a toy company turned game publisher and one that would go on to port multiple snk titles to the home version. Developed by Nova, fatal fury 1 on the snes was published in Japan in 1992 and in North America during the following year. This version discards the two-lane system in favor of a more conventional one lane plane. The two-on-one battles are gone and the arm wrestling bonus rounds are replaced by new bonus rounds involving the main character punching flying tires. In the game’s Versus Mode, all of the CPU-controlled characters are playable, but only on the second player’s side. Players could also pick the same main character (in an alternate color) which was not possible in the arcade version.
The Mega Drive/Genesis version was released in 1993, published by Sega in Japan and by Takara in North America. This version removes the characters of Hwa Jai and Billy Kane from the roster, having them only appear background cameos. Instead, the player faces against the other two main characters during the course of the single-player mode. This version allowed both players to play as the CPU-controlled characters in the game’s Versus Mode (with Geese Howard also available via a cheat code).
An X68000 version produced by Mahou Kabushikigaisha (Magical Company) was released in Japan only on May 21, 1993. This version was almost an identical copy of he neo geo version.
As a way to cross promote it’s new fighting game series, SNK teamed up with Fui TV to produce a TV special based on the story of Fatal Fury. This 45min long anime would use the talent of famed director, artist and producer Masami obari. Masami san was in charge of designing the characters for the anime as well as plotting the story of the movie. Released in 1993 on Fuji TV, the anime was a modest success and did help make terry a memorable character in the minds of its targeted audience. The anime followed the story of the game almost perfectly, as SNK was strictly involved in the scripting process, and wanted this first tv experience to be as close to canon as possible.
All the characters for the first game made an appearance in the anime, with some restricted as cameos. A brand new character, Lilly Mc guire, was created for the tv special to serve as Terry’s love interest. Masami Obari’s original plan was to have a lilly be Billy kane ‘sisste, however, after deliberations, SNK decided to not have Lilly as Billy’s sister in the anime. Coincidentally enough, Billy Kane, would later get a sister in the series canon that also happen to have her name be lilly.
While the Fatal fury series would later get a number of Manga adptations, the first game would only see a very loose manga version months after the game’s release, in the obscure and odd Bon Bon garou series. written and illustrated by Yuji Hasoi. Although his comics only follow the first three games, the author’s goal for the manga was “anything goes” with little continuity made with the series’s original story. As such, the comics have gained a cult status with the Japanese fandom for its irrational script and nonsensical plot.
With a successful release of the the first game, the garou densetcu series was destined for bigger, better, and more known sequels, as Fatal Fury King Of Fighters will prove to be the beginning of SNK’s fighting genre dominance.
