Wii

Fatal Fury Special

Genre: Fighting
Publisher: D4 Enterprise

Release Date(s): US: 2010-03-01

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Fatal Fury Special Review

by Lucas M. Thomas - IGN.com | 09 March 2010 12:00

After a year-long hiatus, the Neo Geo returns to the Virtual Console.

It's been over a year. The Virtual Console went without a new Neo Geo release in America for over a year -- the entire 12 months of 2009 were skipped over with zero fresh additions to the emulated SNK lineup. No new Metal Slugs, no new anything. That's a long while to wait. But the wait came to an end for NG fans last week, when the silence was finally broken by the release of what is, admittedly, a pretty solid way to announce the system's return to the spotlight -- Fatal Fury Special. This is a one-on-one fighting game from the SNK series that rivaled Capcom's domination of the genre in the early '90s, and, in addition to being a part of one of SNK's best fighting series, it's also one of the strongest individual installments within the Fatal Fury franchise. Fatal Fury Special isn't an entirely standalone sequel, but instead builds on the foundation of Fatal Fury 2 -- like Super Street Fighter IV is doing for the "ordinary" Street Fighter IV and countless other fighting games have done throughout the years, this is a special edition release that focuses more on adding depth than it does on making any drastic changes to the core gameplay. And that depth arrives in expected areas -- more characters, more stages and more moves.

Slight difference in weight class.

The increase in characters is the easiest addition to spot, as the first Fatal Fury had only three heroes you could choose to play as and Fatal Fury 2 had eight, but Special doubles 2's total all the way up to 16. The new roster positions are filled by 2's previously unplayable boss characters, and then those four are complimented by three returning fighters from the first Fatal Fury tournament. My favorite addition? Duck King, the mohawked, hoodie-wearing dance fighter. And then there's a hidden character from the Art of Fighting series, too. All of these fresh faces arrive with either entirely new or visually remixed stages to fight in -- some levels are completely unique to Special, while many of the returning ones from 2 have new effects mixed in, like a shifting time of day. Sometimes it's morning, sometimes it's night, sometimes it's high noon. Special keeps you guessing. And, lastly, the more moves. Fatal Fury Special doesn't drastically change the established movesets of the fighters from Fatal Fury 2 -- again, just as Super Street Fighter IV isn't going to totally alter the way Ryu, Ken or Chun Li play -- but there are tweaks and additions added to nearly everyone's repertoires. The game's also a bit quicker overall, making it easier to pull off combos against your opponents -- a more satisfying flow of fighting. And that's what Fatal Fury Special comes down to -- satisfying fighting. Picking up the controller, handing the second one to your friend, and then beating him down is a blast in this game. The little touches that it throws in, like the ability to jump and roll between a foreground and background plane of action, add to the action and help separate Special from competing VC choices like the myriad different classic Street Fighters also on sale in the Wii Shop, and even other Neo Geo releases like Samurai Shodown II. It's easy to recommend this one, even at its slightly steeper price of 900 Wii Points. One final word of caution before wrapping up, though, about controller compatibility. When this game went live last Monday a few vocal fans made the rounds on the Internet, claiming it was a broken build because of its odd mapping of buttons to the GameCube Controller. Well, that's not anything new. There have been tons of VC games that the Cube pad has not matched up well with, and I don't think that should be held against Fatal Fury Special here. Besides, the Wii's been on the market for three and a half years now -- if you haven't yet upgraded to even a single Classic Controller to use with these VC releases, I don't have a lot of sympathy for you. Special plays beautifully with the Classic, so the majority of you out there shouldn't have anything to worry about.

Closing Comments
So, that's all been a bunch of words to say what you should have expected from the start -- that Fatal Fury Special, as a special edition of Fatal Fury 2, pretty much makes Fatal Fury 2 obsolete in the Wii Shop now. Perhaps that's the reason why the Neo Geo system took a break from Virtual Console releases all last year -- it gave the games that had already been released a bit of breathing room to sell, without being trumped by their later, superior sequels. Well, time's up, old games. The Neo's back, and it's time to buy again.

Supplied by IGN.com

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