Garou Densetsu Special (Fatal Fury Special)

~ FATAL FURY SPECIAL ~

SNK / Hudson Soft

Arcade CD-ROM

1994

Well, I'm not the biggest fan of Fatal Fury 2, so I knew this game wouldn't blow me away or anything. If nothing else, it proved reliable, as the things I like about it are the same things I like about 2:

Incredible graphics. If you're looking for the "ARCADE EXPERIENCE" on your PCE, this is your game.

The music is pretty good, especially in Terry's stage.

Mai.

As far as improvements in this update go, it's obviously nice to have more characters to play as, and some interesting match-ups arise...

...but I didn't find 2's cast all that appealing to begin with, and the "new" stars are just as hit-or-miss as the original set. Geese Howard is awesome; other bums, not so much...

And while many people have commented on how much more tolerable the loading times are here than in 2, I really don't have a problem with them in 2 anyway. (Art of Fighting had the loathing-worthy loading times, in my experiences.)

Special is pretty much the same story as 2 for me: not the greatest gameplay with little distinct about it aside from a pointless two-plane system. The consensus seems to be that this is the best of the PCE's Neo Geo ports, but I prefer both Art of Fighting and World Heroes 2. In fact, I rate quite a few other PCE fighting games higher than this one, with Asuka 120%, Kabuki Ittouryoudan, and Street Fighter II' CE among them.