In the early 90’s the names Terry Bogard, Andy Bogard, Joe Higashi and Mai Shiranui were as well known as Ken and Ryu.
Fatal Fury came off of a game system called Neo Geo which had arcade quality for the home gamer. For it’s time it was considered great and had a price for both the console and games to match. Nintendo had then picked it up and the titles Fatal Fury, Fatal Fury 2 and Fatal Fury Special were born and distributed for the average gamer to afford. From the original to Special the graphics had become cleaner and the play control easier to use. The difficulty had also become in a way easier and the challenge of easy to hard was correct for all skill levels. As the games progressed to the newer systems the graphics and play control got even better and finally Fatal Fury disappeared and the characters went to the series King of Fighters or KOF. KOF had broadened the character selection to include characters from other games such as what Capcom VS SNK 2 had done.

My personal pick for best combo game featuring the most characters and great graphics, sound and play control is Capcom VS SNK 2.

The original Fatal Fury Anime was from Masami Obari who made many Anime’s including the giant robot that combined like Voltron called Gravion.  With beautiful animation for the early 90’s and adult situations–be it violence, drunkenness, nudity or sexual situations.  This short movie shows the paths in which Terry and Andy seek revenge on Geese Howard for the murder of their father–Fatal Fury was a great watch for those who were tired of the censorship and childish shows that were on video at the time.

Following the original was Fatal Fury 2 The New Battle.  This volume gave way to a much cleaner animation and a more well-balanced story.  Terry had lost a fight to Wolfgang Krauser and with the unwanted help of a kid he finds himself after being in a drunken slump–for the rematch.   This movie-short at just 70 minutes introduces the relationship that is found in some of the games between Andy and Mai–it also shows a classic perverted scene between the old man Jubei and Mai, this features Jubei grabbing two handfuls of goodies!

Finishing up the animated series of Fatal Fury is the full length motion picture.  The movie offers a new story that takes away from the games leaving only the cast of characters that are featured in Fatal Fury Special and introducing a group of four new characters just for the movie itself.  Laocorn Gaudeamus with the aid of Jamin, Hauer and Panni are in search of a magical armor.  After collecting all of the pieces Laocorn will become god-like, but at a price.  The animation is just as well perfect, however, in the original VHS version I feel that something is dubbed over in the story in order to give some background on what is supposed to be going on.  Younger guys will enjoy the famous shower scene reminiscent of Chun Li in the Street Fighter movie–featuring Mai.  This movie is unbelievably violent and bloody and features a well-written story, once again–beautiful animation and great music.

I highly recommend just about all the Fatal Fury properties to those into the fighting game genre.  There is a compilation of the original games on the Playstation 2 which are excellent ports for those who want to relive the old days.

The King of Fighters series is very well made and features a plethora of characters, I have the 3D KOF: Maximum Impact and that offers 20 characters and great graphics, there is voice and different challenge levels, the set itself comes with a making of DVD and of course the game itself.

Capcom VS SNK 2 offers a ton of characters and many to unlock, there are rewards for winning such as unlimited energy and many different fighting styles.

Finally, there is Fatal Fury Battle Archives which features the ports of Fatal Fury 1 and 2, special and 3.

The Anime’s are available on DVD as two separate disks, there is one that combines the first two and then the motion picture, (hopefully they are still available!)

Check it out, the series is really impressive!

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