|
Fatal Fury 2
|
|
|
|
|
Publisher Region Released Unknown JP ??/??/1993 |
|
Your Account Options
You currently have no privileges related to this game profile because you are not signed into an HonestGamers account. Please log in, or click to register for a free user account.
|
More Reviews by Zigfried
|
|
 |
One Chance (PC)
One Chance is a bad game for obvious reasons. The graphics are poor, the music is repetitive, the guy walks slowly, the story is silly, player interactio... |
 |
Canabalt (PC)
I view people who subscribe to the holy book of Canabalt the same way that Orson Scott Card intended readers to view Xenocide's Qing-Jao: as obses... |
 |
Splatterhouse (PlayStation 3)
Once upon a time, all this blood and nudity would have been daring. I remember gasping in awe when playing the originals . . . of course, those were marketed t... |
 |
Rad Mobile (Arcade) I remember drooling over magazine screenshots for Rad Mobile, known back in 1991 as "that 32-bit arcade game WHOA MOMMA". I remember actually playing |
 |
Super Sprint (Arcade)
Most players will quickly realize the true nature of the deceptive diagonal path and avoid it. True racing experts will keep trying -- and failing -- until the... |
|
Best X68000 Games
|
|
|
Staff and the community have not yet contributed enough reviews for games on this platform to justify a chart. Once multiple reviews for one or more games have been reviewed, you can check back here to see which X68000 games have been most favorably reviewed on the site.
|
|
|
Looking for a good read?
Check out a selection from our database of more than 8000 reviews! ratking has weighed in on Metal Gear Solid for the PlayStation and figures it rates 9.6 out of 10. What do you think? Read the review, then be sure to leave feedback or chime in with one of your own! |
Systems > X68000 > F > Fatal Fury 2 > Staff Review
Sign up for a free user account and you can leave feedback for this review or even submit a game review of your own!
Review by Zigfried
October 24, 2004
SNK's original
Fatal Fury, with its storybook tale of three heroic champions against the Southtown gangs of Geese Howard, paled in comparison to Capcom's eight selectable World Warriors. For Fatal Fury 2, SNK followed Capcom's lead -- eight powerful fighters against four evil bosses, culminating in an epic battle against the German warlord Wolfgang Krauser.
That sounds pretty cool, and the game was cool. Who wouldn't want to control lone wolf Terry Bogard on a quest to topple a ruthless opponent? Believe it or not, some people didn't. This time, those people had seven other options. They could play as ninja girl Mai Shiranui, spinning across the screen with her Deadly Ninja Bees attack or hurling butterfly fans. They could don the robe of Jubei Yamada, the spry (and short) Japanese Judo master, who performs spinning piledrivers that would school even the mighty Zangief. And then there's the Hong Kong tycoon Cheng Sin Zan, a portly character who attacks others with his massive gut. With returning favorite Billy Kane still in the mix, FF2 sported a roster that shamed the first and out-styled Street Fighter's by-then tired crew.
Unfortunately, the limited gameplay didn't offer much variety. Each character had their three or four special attacks and a limited number of combinations. No reversals, no counters, no parries, no rush combinations, no guard cancels. This simplicity was sufficient in the genre's infancy, but it's unacceptable today. Furthermore, the animation -- in every version -- is stilted and herky-jerk, falling beneath the quality of any major fighting game released within the last ten years.
On the other hand, the backgrounds stunned gamers with their detail and animation. Sure, Chun Li's stage from Street Fighter had some kid riding a bicycle. Well, Lawrence Blood's stage had an entire herd of bulls stampeding through the Spanish colosseum! The battle against Mai takes place on an enormous wooden raft, floating along a deeply-parallaxed river with enormous Japanese sculptures passing by in the background.
Magical Company's port
Like the majority of arcade-to-X68000 ports, Magical Company's rendition of Fatal Fury 2 keeps the graphics and gameplay intact. The bright colors put Sega's version to shame, and the high resolution mocks the Super Nintendo's effort. Then again, the X68000 version weighed in at 6 times the size of these other ports, so it wasn't ever fair in the first place.
And that's the port's first problem. It's spread across six disks, meaning there's a lot of floppy-swapping considering the X68000 only has two disk drives.
Select Terry, then select Mai as your opponent.
TERRY? versus MAI? booms the computer's crystal-clear voice.
"Insert Disk E in drive 1."
Load. Load. Load.
"Insert Disk D in drive 1."
Load. Load. Load.
Then the battle begins! If you're defeated and choose to continue with a different character... get the disks out again, because you'll be swapping a few more times. This problem can be cured by purchasing a hard disk, but an X68000 HD is, and always was, a luxury item.
Optional MIDI devices were another luxury, but not a necessity. Keep in mind, this isn't like the old Soundblaster/internal-speaker days of US computers. The X68000's basic sound chip crushed the capabilities of its primitive US counterparts. Although most similar to the Genesis, the X68k offered more channels and greater range. Even without a MIDI device, this version of Fatal Fury 2 sports the absolute best music to be found outside of the Neo-CD, topping even the original arcade game. Plug in the MT32 or SC-55 for an even cooler remix. Although I hate the character, I'm a sucker for Cheng's energetic music.
That's the port's only advantage over the original. Anyone who's ever tried playing the old PC version of Street Fighter 2 knows you can't control anything with a keyboard, so Magical Company included a really nice and sturdy four-button control pad with the game, copying the Super Nintendo's colorful button layout. Unfortunately, the two kick buttons are on top and the two punch buttons are on bottom, going against the precedent set by every single other fighting game ever released. And the buttons can't be remapped, so you're stuck with that layout.
It doesn't matter how fluid and responsive the directional pad is if you're always hitting the kick button when you want to punch someone.
The final verdict
For its day, Fatal Fury 2 offered more diversity and better visuals than anything else of its type. Today, the combatants animate choppily but the backgrounds -- such as Jubei's Japanese garden which can be destroyed piece by piece -- still impress. Unfortunately, the X68000 version's loading times and unnatural controller setup just aren't worth the trouble. If you desperately need Fatal Fury 2 in your collection, stick with the original Neo-Geo game.
//Zig
|
|
|
|
You can click the tabs on the above bar to choose whether you wish to read comments from visitors who have posted on Facebook, or from registered site users who have left feedback on the forums. Please leave a comment of your own if you have anything to say!
|
|
|
Info |
Help |
Privacy Policy |
Contact |
Advertise
|
© 1998-2012 HonestGamers None of the material contained within this site--from reviews, guides, cheats and editorials to message board posts--may be reproduced in any conceivable fashion without permission from the author(s) of said material. This site is not sponsored or endorsed by Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Microsoft, or any other such party. Fatal Fury 2 is a registered trademark of its copyright holder. This site makes no claim to Fatal Fury 2, its characters, screenshots, artwork, music, or any intellectual property contained within. Opinions expressed on this site do not necessarily represent the opinion of site staff or sponsors. |
