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| "A banquet of battles does not satisfy the burning appetites if a warrior's soul. A fast of inactivity since the fierce battle of REAL BOUT comes to an end. Now, the lone wolves are hungry to show what they're really made of. The supreme proving ground has been prepared: REAL BOUT SPECIAL begins!" Taken from the manual of Fatal Fury Real Bout Special. Yes, they're at it again. From SNK comes the 6th installment of their Fatal Fury series. By now, anyone who's heard of fighting games has probably heard of Fatal Fury. Even the Japanese animated specials have found their way over to the U.S. It may not be as popular of some other fighting series are, but there's no denying the fact that it has a following. After giving Geese Howard the thrashing of his life in Real Bout, and knocking him of the top of his building (for the second time), the lone wolves decide to turn their attention toward the OTHER Fatal Fury boss: Wolfgang Krauser. Why? Who knows? Returning to the series is the cast from Real Bout, as well as Tung Fu Rue, Cheng Sinzan, Laurence Blood, and Krauser. That makes 19 characters to choose from, the most the series has seen so far. Then there are the secret "EX" characters, alternate versions of Tung, Andy, Mary, and Billy, as well as Geese's avenging spirit in the home version only. That's a hell of a lot of characters to choose from, especially when they all look different. No multi-colored ninjas or a bunch of guys in karate outfits. A few elements have changed since RB. There are more backgrounds, and they no longer have "ring outs", where you can knock opponents over the edge for victory. What you can do, however, is knock your opponent through a barrier, which causes them to be stunned. Also, returning from the first three FF games, are line changes. Players can move in and out of the background to avoid their opponent and dodge moves. It's much, much more tolerable than it was before, since now you can still hit them without chasing them, and even knock them back onto the same line as you. This means you don't have to chase the computer back and forth all through the fight. Of course all the characters have special moves and power moves, and even super power moves when you're really desperate. New to the series are counter moves, called Guard Cancel Attacks. When your power meter at the bottom of the screen flashed H POWER, you can do a designated special move that will counter your opponent's hit. Since some special moves hit several times, this actually comes in handy. The game plays fast, with special moves being easy to pull off and plenty of multi hit combos. All the characters have a fairly large arrangement of moves, and learning them all will take a little time. Thankfully you have a fairly long life bar, so rounds aren't over too quickly. At least not until the "Deadly Attacks" are mastered. All things considered this game feels a lot like the other Fatal Fury games, except the engine has been perfected, and the series is now in it's prime. At this point, they seem to have gone as far as they can with the series. If SNK intends to bring out a 7th Fatal Fury, they had better plan on making some serious changes. While the game is good, the series is getting old. With Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and even Samurai Shodown moving on to the next level, the lone wolves had better get a move on as well, or they're going to be left behind. |
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