Fatal Fury Special

Is it possible to 7 cram a 200+meg, 24-bit, 16-character, arcade-special fightfest into a four-meg cart on an eight-bit handheld contraption with a three-inch screen? Not exactly.

But you can come close. Takara does probably the best job possible in porting Fatal Fury Special from the Neo-Geo to the Game Gear.

Portable Furies

FF Special packs in nine characters, including Ryo Sakazaki from Art of Fighting. Amazingly, Ryo is a fully playable character, with no code required. Also on the menu are Terry Bogard, Andy Bogard.Joe Higashi, Mai Shiranui, Tung Fu Rue, Duck King, Billy Kane, and the boss, Geese Howard.

Don't expect much true graphical resemblance to the arcade version. The sprite size is pretty small, and the backgrounds are pale no-parallax reflections of the original. By Gear standards, what you see is pretty good, but that's all you get.

If you liked Ryo's taunt "Arora Rora" or Terry's good ol' "Allow me," you'll have to intone them yourself. FF has no voice, but the background music is decent.

Fatal Thumbs

The Special difference about this game, which can't be found in any other handheld fighter, is stellar game play. Yes, Virginia, there is a semblance of a combo system. Despite a little lag, the moves are fairly ' consistent and responsive.

Many of the extra elements you never thought you'd see in a handheld fighter are incorporated into FF Special. For example, now you can get some powerful attacks to double- or triple-hit when you're in close. Uppercuts are invincible at certain points. And all of the coin-op special moves are included -even the death moves!

Pick of the Utter

It's hard to find a good fighting game on the Game Gear, simply because it's just not feasible for most of the popular games that die-hard fight fans crave. FF Special is probably the best attempt so far, and it proves that just because a game is small, it doesn't have to play like molasses.

Put 15 of the baddest brawlers in one 32-meg game, and you have a game that could have been one of the year's best. So what happened?

Hunky Bogards

To begin with, the game's premise is weak. Two brawling brothers known as the Bogards are looking for a fight. They've brought along a bunch of other fighters who are also looking for some knuckle-dusting. Unfortunately, they didn't bring along the things they most needed: the enhancements from the Neo∙Geo version.

The tricky control chalks up another problem on the scorecard, especially for Fatal fanatics familiar with the four- button Neo∙Geo layout. You can assign buttons, making most moves fairly easy to execute if you're used to rumbling a la Street Fighter.

Augmenting the standard punches and kicks, however, are a series of special moves such as Mai's Dragon Fire and Terry's Rising Knuckle, which are fun to watch but often difficult to do in succession. Be happy if you perform them three times in one round.

Included, too, are secret moves that wipe out your opponent when things look bad for you. These moves, which are activated when you're near death, are the game's cheesy way of evening out things between players of varying skill levels.

Small, Dark, And Fur(r)y

The graphics leave you hungry. Small sprites and missing frames of animation really play down the SNES's graphical capabilities. The backgrounds aren't as special as they were in Fatal Fury 2, and the whole game gives you a disappointing sense of "seen it, fought it." The annoying background/foreground jumping that made it hard to follow the action in the original FFS was also left in.

The sounds jam a little harder than the sights, but not by much. The hard-driving Fatal Fury music is here once again, and the game's generous voice and sound effects sufficiently pump up your fighting spirit.

The Late Show

Perhaps the biggest problem with Fatal Fury Special is that the game took so long to come out. Newer, more sophisticated fighters are already on their way, overshadowing anything Special about this game. Only Fury fans will want to own this brawler-just for Special sentimental reasons.

The popular fighting game originally for the Neo-Geo, Fatal Fury Special, is now being brought over to the Sega CD! Although it is not complete, it shows the playability and good control that made the Neo version so much fun to play. All of your favorite characters should be in the finished version. Terry, Joe and Andy are back, as are the rest of the characters from Fatal Fury 2. Duck King, Tung Fu Ru and the late(?) Geese Howard make their return from the original Fatal Fury, rounding off the total to a cool 15 characters! Or maybe 16, if Ryo happens to be around...

THE GOOD

The playability, if you don't already have a six-button controller, get one for this game. It really helps!

THE BAD

The limitations of the Sega CD. Colors? Eh. Sharp graphics? Not really.

THE UGLY

Beating the crud out of your opponent, only to have him (or her) pull off a fatal move. Argh!

Here's the second... no, third installment of the Fatal Fury saga and guess what? It's just like the first two! While this may be major fun for some people, most are gonna find this to be yesterday's news. You can flip a coin on this we, but we'd pass on it.

Here's the second... no, third installment of the fatal Fury saga and guess what? It's just like the first two! While this may be major fun for some people, most are gonna find this to be yesterday's news. You can flip a coin on this we, but we'd pass an it.

Here's the second... no, third installment of the Fatal Fury saga and guess what? It's just like the first two! While this may be major fun for some people, most are gonna find this to be yesterday's news. You can flip a coin on this one, but we'd pass on it.

Here's the second... no, third installment of the fatal Fury saga and guess what? It's just like the first two! While this may be major fun for some people, most are gonna find this to be yesterday's news. You can flip a coin on this we, but we'd pass on it.

Bogard Cult Strikes Back!

Fatal Fury fans, unite and be glad! This here little disk packs in all the characters from Fatal Fury Special. Oh yes, the Bogard brothers are back, and hell's coming with them! Does that sound too good to be true? Well just wait, 'cuz there's more!

As you might well imagine, the Sega CD version of this cult wonder delivers vastly improved sound and music, as well as some kicking backgrounds (there's always something moving somewhere - try not to let it distract you). And as if that weren't enough, we'd swear they managed to squeeze some extra color out of that Genesis palette, 'cuz it looks nearly as good as Fatal Fury has ever looked on any system.

So, does this sound good enough for you? Well, belly on up to the counter, folks. This one might be going fast.

The action and intensity of the first two Fatal Fury games comes to a head with Fatal Fury Special. "Special" lets players not only play as the Bosses, but it also introduces some of the older characters from the first game. Duck King, Tung Fu Ru and Geese Howard are back, plus all can be controlled by the player. They have all new background stages, and the levels from Fatal Fury 2 have been improved upon. The endings are different, plus each character has something to say before the fight, depending on who you are up against. Fatal Fury Special plays, sounds, and looks good. A game worth getting.

Now you can play as any of the awesome boss characters, as well as Tung Fu Ru, Duck King, and the fearsome throw-boy Geese Howard. Each of these characters has a special "death move." We printed the other characters, but you must find these! Are you good enough?

Yes, it s finally being made for the Super NES! And it's just a matter of time before it will hit American shores.

The whole Fatal Fury series is excellent, and this upgrade to Fatal Fury 2 is the best yet. The translation to the Super NES is very precise regarding the moves and the graphics of the stages. With Dolby Surround Sound added into this already awesome game, the voices, attack sounds, and especially the background music come to life. There's more! Remember Geese Howard, Duck King, and Tung Fu Rue from the older versions? Well, now you can choose them as a regular fighter against the other 12 characters. With the game play speedup, the movements of the characters are much faster and you can do attack moves and combos with more precise timing. Consider this one of the best fighting games of the year. Too awesome!