Fatal Fury from 1991, known in Japan as Garou Densetsu, was SNK's answer to the rising wave of fighting games and at the same time the first entry in a series that became one of the pillars of the genre alongside Street Fighter. The game follows Terry Bogard and his allies Andy Bogard and Joe Higashi in the King of Fighters tournament held in the streets of South Town, where they try to avenge their father's death and defeat the sinister boss Geese Howard. The game was one of the first to introduce a two-plane combat system – players could dodge attacks by moving to the background or foreground of the arena, bringing an entirely new tactical layer to fights unknown from two-dimensional fighting games of the time.
On Neo Geo arcade hardware, the game excelled with large, finely animated characters and striking backgrounds that reflected the atmosphere of city streets, harbors, bars, and nightclubs of an American metropolis. The music had a raw, action-oriented edge matching SNK's aesthetic of the time, and together with fighters' vocal shouts during special attacks it gave the matches a rough, street-tough atmosphere distinct from the more colorful and stylized Capcom.
Fatal Fury was received in its time as a worthy competitor to Street Fighter II and built its own loyal fanbase that stayed with SNK throughout the nineties and beyond. The plane-switching combat system and the emphasis on story background and personal relationships between characters influenced later titles not only from SNK but also from competitors who borrowed similar mechanics. Today the game stands as an important historical milestone showing how quickly the fighting game genre branched into its own distinct directions and visual styles after Street Fighter II's success. Terry Bogard also became one of SNK's most recognizable faces and appeared in later years in titles outside his own series, further confirming the strong impression the first Fatal Fury left already at its arcade debut.
Why play it: For fighting game fans who want to experience how the genre branched out on its own after Street Fighter II, and to meet Terry Bogard in his very first role.
Game 156 of 258 for Arcade
