Real Bout Fatal Fury

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Real Bout Fatal Fury
Real Bout Fatal Fury arcade flyer.jpg
Developer(s) SNK
Publisher(s)
SNK
  • PlayStation
Producer(s) Eikichi Kawasaki
Takashi Nishiyama
Designer(s) Takahisa Yariyama
Takashi Tsukamoto
Programmer(s) Tony Oki
Artist(s) Ema Sue
G. Ishidaman
Higashi Pon
Composer(s) Hideki Asanaka
Toshio Shimizu
Series Fatal Fury
Platform(s)
Release
1995
  • Arcade
    • WW: 21 December 1995
    Neo Geo AES
    • JP: 26 January 1996
    • NA: 26 January 1996
    • EU: 26 January 1996
    Neo Geo CD
    • JP: 23 February 1996
    • EU: 23 February 1996
    Saturn
    • JP: 20 September 1996
    PlayStation
    Original release
    • JP: 10 January 1997
    • EU: August 1997
    Re-release
    • JP: 23 July 1998
Genre(s) Fighting
Mode(s)
Arcade system Neo Geo MVS

Real Bout Fatal Fury [lower-alpha 1] is a 1995 fighting game released by SNK for the Neo-Geo arcade and home platforms. It is the fifth installment in the Fatal Fury series, following Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory . Ports of Real Bout were released for the Neo-Geo CD, PlayStation (in Japan and the PAL region) [lower-alpha 2] and the Sega Saturn (in Japan, which requires the Extended RAM cartridge for the system). The game was later included in Fatal Fury Battle Archives Vol. 2, a compilation released for the PlayStation 2. In March 2017, this compilation was re-released in the PlayStation Store on PlayStation 4. [1]

Contents

Plot

After stealing the Jin Scrolls of Immortality, Geese Howard takes control of South Town once again. He hosts a new King of Fighters tournament and invites his arch-nemesis Terry Bogard, to settle their fight once and for all!

Gameplay

Gameplay screenshot showcasing a match between Blue Mary and Mai Shiranui. NEOGEO Real Bout Fatal Fury (Rearu Bauto Garo Densetsu).png
Gameplay screenshot showcasing a match between Blue Mary and Mai Shiranui.

Real Bout changes the play controls from the previous Fatal Fury games, reducing the number of attack buttons from four to three: a standard punch and kick button, a "Strong Attack" button which can be either a stronger punch or kick attack, depending on the character. The game retains the three-plane "oversway" system from Fatal Fury 3 , which features a main lane for fighting, with foreground and background planes used to avoid attacks or leap towards the opponent. A dedicated button is now used to make an "oversway" (or change plane) towards the background or foreground.

Real Bout introduces a Power Gauge, which fills up as the player performs normal or special techniques against their opponent or defend themselves, similar to many super move gauges featured in other fighting games. The Power Gauge allows players to perform one of three types of Special Techniques, depending on the level of the Power Gauge:

Real Bout also introduces stages with ring-outs, a gameplay feature previously introduced in 3D fighting games such as Virtua Fighter , but the out of bounds areas are guarded by barriers. If a fighter's attacks force the opponent to hit a barrier enough times, the barrier is destroyed, and a fighter can win by knocking the opponent out of bounds. [2] The normal chain combo system, including in the mid-air, is similar to that of X-Men: Children of the Atom .

Characters

The game retains the character roster from Fatal Fury 3, with the boss characters (Ryuji Yamazaki, Jin Chonrei and Jin Chonshu) now part of the regular cast. Duck King, Billy Kane and Kim Kaphwan, who were all last featured in Fatal Fury Special , are added to the cast. Series antagonist Geese Howard reprises his role from the original Fatal Fury as the game's final boss. Real Bout was Geese Howard's final appearance in the Fatal Fury storyline, as the game's ending with Terry or Andy depicts the character's demise at the hands of either brother by falling off the roof of his tower, refusing to be saved by them. This was reflected by SNK's tagline for the game, "So long, Geese!" (さらば、ギース, Saraba, Gīsu).

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Real Bout Fatal Fury on their February 1, 1996 issue as being the fourth most-popular arcade game at the time. [6] According to Famitsu , both the AES and Neo Geo CD version sold over 22,750 and 63.091 copies in their first week on the market respectively. [7]

Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the Neo Geo AES version their "Game of the Month" award. Their four reviewers applauded the pits, the overhauled personality of the characters, the high end graphics, and the humor. Andrew Baran described the game as "intense, both in speed and pyrotechnics". [3] Major Mike of GamePro deemed it a major improvement over Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory , citing the greater effectiveness of the characters Bob and Mary, the more refined combo system, and the inclusion of moves which were taken out of the previous game. He criticized the reduction from four action buttons to three, the reuse of Geese Howard as the final boss, and the music ("ranges from banal rock to obnoxious drek"), but concluded that "with its emphasis on gameplay, this is one of the best Fatal Fury games ever". [8] A reviewer for Next Generation echoed this sentiment: "The characters from the Fatal Fury series are all here and their moves have all been balanced to make this one of the best Fatal Fury titles ever". He characterized the game as a refinement drawn from the countless hours SNK had spent making 2D fighting games. [4] While they derided the game's lack of originality, particularly its similarity to the previous installment Fatal Fury 3, Maximum assessed it as "a well-rounded and entertaining fighting title". They particularly approved of the oversway system, the barriers preventing easy ring outs, the balanced difficulty of the one-player mode, and the two-player battles. [5]

Notes

  1. ↑ Known in Japan as Real Bout Garō Densetsu (Japanese: リアルバウト餓狼伝説, Hepburn: Rearu Bauto Garō Densetsu, lit. Real Bout Hungry Wolf Legend).
  2. ↑ An American version was advertised alongside the PlayStation ports of Samurai Shodown III and The King of Fighters '95 , but was never released.

Related Research Articles

<i>Fatal Fury</i> Video game series

Fatal Fury, known as Garō Densetsu in Japan, is a fighting game series developed by SNK for the Neo Geo system.

<i>Art of Fighting</i> Video game series

Art of Fighting is a fighting video game trilogy that were released for the Neo Geo platform in the early 1990s. It was the second fighting game franchise created by SNK, following the Fatal Fury series and is set in the same fictional universe as a prequel to the Fatal Fury series. The original Art of Fighting was released in 1992, followed by two sequels: Art of Fighting 2 in 1994 and Art of Fighting 3: The Path of the Warrior in 1996.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terry Bogard</span> Fictional character

Terry Bogard is a fictional character created by SNK as the protagonist of their Fatal Fury series. Introduced in Fatal Fury: King of Fighters in 1991, he is an American fighter who enters the worldwide "The King of Fighters" tournaments to combat his father's murderer, Geese Howard. Following Geese's defeat, Terry becomes the guardian of Geese's son Rock Howard. He is also a regular character in the crossover video game series The King of Fighters, where he continues participating in tournaments. He has also been a guest character in other games, including the Capcom vs. SNK series, Arika’s Fighting EX Layer and Nintendo's crossover fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. In addition to video games, Terry has appeared in anime films based on Fatal Fury, and manga serialized in Comic Bom Bom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geese Howard</span> Fictional character

Geese Howard is a fictional boss character and the main villain in SNK's Fatal Fury fighting game series. Debuting in Fatal Fury: King of Fighters, Geese is the local crime boss of the fictional city of South Town. Geese created and hosts a fighting tournament named "The King of Fighters", in which he faces the brothers Terry and Andy Bogard who want to take revenge for their father's death. After several tournaments in the Fatal Fury series, Geese is killed by Terry in Real Bout Fatal Fury. However, he appears in following games without storyline as a "ghost" named Nightmare Geese. Geese has also appeared in other SNK's games such as The King of Fighters games, in which he seeks to get the power from the creature Orochi and often sends teams representing him. His young self makes an appearance in the second Art of Fighting game as the final boss character. He also appears as downloadable content in Bandai Namco's fighting game Tekken 7.

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<i>Fatal Fury 2</i> 1992 video game

Fatal Fury 2, known as Garō Densetsu 2: Aratanaru Tatakai in Japan, is a 1992 fighting video game released by SNK for the Neo Geo arcade and home platforms, and later ported to several other home systems. It is the sequel to Fatal Fury: King of Fighters (1991) and the second game in the Fatal Fury franchise. Its updated version, Fatal Fury Special, was released in 1993.

<i>Fatal Fury Special</i> 1993 video game

Fatal Fury Special, known as Garō Densetsu Special in Japan, is a 1993 fighting game developed and published by SNK and originally released for the Neo Geo arcade and home platforms. It is an updated version of 1992's Fatal Fury 2, introducing several changes to the gameplay system while expanding the available character roster.

<i>Garou: Mark of the Wolves</i> 1999 video game

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<i>Real Bout Fatal Fury Special</i> 1997 fighting game by SNK

Real Bout Fatal Fury Special is a 1997 fighting game released by SNK for the Neo Geo platform. It is the sixth installment in the Fatal Fury series and the second game in the Real Bout sub-series, following the original Real Bout Fatal Fury. Real Bout Fatal Fury Special features all new graphics and returns to the two-level plane system from Fatal Fury 2. The game was later included in Fatal Fury Battle Archives Vol. 2, a compilation released for the PlayStation 2. In March 2017, this compilation was re-released in the PlayStation Store on the PlayStation 4.

<i>Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition</i> 1999 video game

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<i>Fatal Fury: King of Fighters</i> 1991 video game

Fatal Fury: King of Fighters, known as Garō Densetsu: Shukumei no Tatakai in Japan, is a 1991 head-to-head fighting game released by SNK for the Neo Geo arcade and home platforms. Fatal Fury was SNK's first fighting game for the Neo Geo system and served as the inaugural game in their Fatal Fury series, as well as the first game to depict the fictional "King of Fighters" tournament, which became the basis for the later The King of Fighters games.

<i>The King of Fighters 94</i> 1994 video game

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<i>Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory</i> 1995 video game

Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory is a 1995 head-to-head fighting game released by SNK for the Neo-Geo arcade and home platforms. It is the fourth game in the Fatal Fury series after Fatal Fury Special. Console versions of Fatal Fury 3 were released for the Neo Geo CD, Sega Saturn, Windows-based computers and on the Wii Virtual Console. The game is also included in the compilation Fatal Fury Battle Archives Volume 1 for the PlayStation 2.

<i>Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers</i> 1998 video game

Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers is a 1998 fighting game developed by SNK for the Neo Geo platform. It is the seventh game in the Fatal Fury series, the fifth mainline entry in the series, and the third game in the Real Bout sub-series, following Real Bout Fatal Fury and Real Bout Fatal Fury Special. The game uses the same graphics as Real Bout Special, but returns to the same fighting system from the original Real Bout.

<i>Neo Geo Battle Coliseum</i> 2005 video game

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Characters of the <i>Fatal Fury</i> series Fictional character

The following is a list of video game characters featured in the Fatal Fury fighting game series developed by SNK. The series consists of the original Fatal Fury, Fatal Fury 2, Fatal Fury Special, Fatal Fury 3, Real Bout Fatal Fury, Real Bout Fatal Fury Special, Real Bout Fatal Fury 2, Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition, and Garou: Mark of the Wolves.

Nobuyuki Kuroki is a Japanese game designer working for SNK. He did art for several Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury games and took a bigger role in The King of Fighters XIV and Samurai Shodown.

References

  1. ↑ "FATAL FURY™ BATTLE ARCHIVES VOL.2 PlayStation Store" . Retrieved 12 April 2017.
  2. ↑ "Coming Soon: Real Bout Fatal Fury". Sega Saturn Magazine . No. 13. Emap International Limited. November 1996. pp. 18–20.
  3. 1 2 "Review Crew: Real Bout Fatal Fury". Electronic Gaming Monthly . No. 80. Ziff Davis. March 1996. p. 28.
  4. 1 2 "Real Bout Fatal Fury". Next Generation . No. 17. Imagine Media. May 1996. p. 94.
  5. 1 2 "Maximum Reviews: Real Bout Fatal Fury". Maximum: The Video Game Magazine (4). Emap International Limited: 154. March 1996.
  6. ↑ "Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - TVゲーム機ーソフトウェア (Video Game Software)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 511. Amusement Press, Inc. 1 February 1996. p. 21.
  7. ↑ "Game Search". Game Data Library. Archived from the original on 2019-04-24. Retrieved 2020-11-01.
  8. ↑ "ProReview: Real Bout Fatal Fury". GamePro . No. 91. IDG. April 1996. p. 84.
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