Fatal Fury 2

When the fighting-game war raged in the mid-nineties, SNK with its Fatal Fury 2 showed that it had something to offer even beyond the hallowed Neo Geo arcade cabinets. And on the PC Engine, the darling of the hearts of all who swore by CD-ROM and juicy conversions in Japan, this game was a small miracle of both technology and ambition.

Fatal Fury 2 stands on what set the series apart from the competition: a two-plane combat system in which characters could move between the foreground and background of the arena. This gave matches a spatiality that few fighting games offered at the time. The player learned not only the timing of strikes and special moves but also when to dodge into the second plane and avoid a series of blows. The roster introduced new fighters such as Mai Shiranui, who over the years became one of the iconic characters of the entire fighting-game genre.

SNK was a studio that lived and breathed arcades and Neo Geo hardware, and Fatal Fury (Garou Densetsu in Japan) was its answer to the Street Fighter phenomenon. The second installment pushed everything further: more characters, more elaborate animations, a more distinctive soundtrack. For the PC Engine platform, adored in Japan for its ability to convert arcade hits for the home, this was a title that demonstrated just how far NEC's console could go.

Culturally, Fatal Fury was important because it built an extensive universe of characters whose fates intertwined across installments and the later King of Fighters series. Terry Bogard, the main hero in the red cap, became one of the most recognizable faces of SNK ever. What began as a story of the Bogard brothers' revenge grew into one of the backbone brands of Japanese fighting games.

Playing Fatal Fury 2 today means touching an era when the genre was still taking shape and every new installment moved the rules along. It is a rawer, tougher experience than the later polished series, but it is precisely in that directness that its charm lies. The two-plane combat remains pleasantly fresh even for players used to modern fighting games.

Why play it: For a taste of a classic SNK fighting game from the era when the genre was still defining itself, and for the unconventional combat system across two planes of the arena.