underappreciated game from the "sf2 clone" days, not especially well-balanced as you might expect but good enough that it still has a decent scene in japan! this game has that oldschool flavor of neutral i like with some really crunchy buttons and high damage. the combos, while very tricky compared to something like SF2HF, are incredibly satisfying once you figure them out. lane system is pretty silly and ultimately vestigial, but it's still surprising how well-thought out it is. saying this both for FFS and its earlier iteration in FF2, but i feel like the roster goes underappreciated, tons of strange and interesting guys as well as beloved SNK mainstays. i personally love big bear and axel hawk a lot, and for kim and mai's first appearances it's a little crazy how they basically appeared from thin air, playstyle fully-formed.

if south town was real i would go there every summer it seems like the coolest place in america

As fighting game sequels go, Fatal Fury 2 was certainly an improvement over what was given to us in the original Fatal Fury, but nothing more than that. It managed to increase the roster, give us plenty of new moves, and new opponents to take on, but other than that, it was more or less another standard SNK fighting game, one that wasn’t all that special, but one that was still fun enough to kick ass in for a bit. However, this wouldn’t be the only time we would hear from this particular installment in the Fatal Fury franchise. Sometime after that game would release, I guess SNK figured that a little more could be done to enhance the formula of the game, and since they felt they hadn’t stolen enough from Street Fighter II yet, they went ahead and decided to make their own update to Fatal Fury 2 to try to make it better. So, less than a year after Fatal Fury 2 got released, we would then get the update to that game in the form of Fatal Fury Special.

It has been quite a while since I had played Fatal Fury 2, so jumping back into it here with this updated version was pretty weird, not gonna lie, but I was looking forward to it. I was curious as to what kind of changes would be made to the base game, and since this is the only updated version that Fatal Fury 2 got (THANK GOD), it was interesting to see what exactly SNK thought the definitive version of the game should offer. Well, as it turns out, it would offer… not that much, really. Don’t get me wrong, it is still Fatal Fury 2 through and through, which makes it a pretty good fighter, and this is definitely the best version of the game, but as an update on its own, I can’t say it is anything more than just simply being good. It does add several additions, but not enough to where I would say it was the best thing to happen to the original game.

Fundamentally, most of the game looks and feels the exact same as before. The graphical style is still the same, many of the animations are still the same, the music is still the same, and the gameplay remains practically unchanged. That kinda sucks, but hey, I guess it is best to not tamper with your system to avoid breaking it. In terms of the fighting, it has seen somewhat of an improvement, with a faster speed, new combos, and the ability to now combine attacks together, and trust me, when you get into these matches, you will feel the changes. Whether or not it is you dishing out the attacks or the opponent dishing them out on you (most likely the latter), you will feel that difference. Although, admittedly, when compared to the original game, there isn’t really too much of a change between the two. If you were to play the two games back to back, you can notice that Special is SLIGHTLY faster, and you can dish out more pain, but there isn’t really much else going for the fundamentals.

However, in terms of the characters, that’s a whole different story. The base game already had eight playable characters, which was quite a lot for a fighting game at the time, but now, we have a whopping 15 characters to choose from, which is insane for a fighting game from 1993! Not only are all of the eight original characters still here, but we can now play as not only the four AI-controlled opponents from the base game, but also three returning characters from the original Fatal Fury, which consist of Tung Fu Rue, Duck King, and Geese Howard. In addition, if you manage to get through the entire game without losing once, you are able to now access a secret match against Ryo Sakazaki, the main protagonist of Art of Fighting, and you can even play as him in the home versions of the game. Rest assured, even if this update falls flat in terms of updating the base gameplay, it manages to deliver plenty and then some in terms of the roster, making for the second biggest roster that has been seen from an SNK fighter at the time,

Unfortunately though, if additional characters don’t really excite you, then there isn’t much more that Fatal Fury Special has to offer. It is basically just more Fatal Fury 2 at the end of the day, and your enjoyment of this update would primarily stem from how much you enjoyed the base game. It is still has fighting game syndrome/SNK syndrome written all over it, and while it does manage to play better then the original game, it doesn’t really feel like much of a leap in quality to really say that you should seek it out as soon as possible. With that being said though, if you did enjoy Fatal Fury 2, then this is the definitive version of it, and it can still be as fun as the original game managed to be, especially with good friends to play it with.

Overall, despite a lack of change in the gameplay or any reason to exist, Fatal Fury Special is definitely the best version of Fatal Fury 2 you can play, having plenty of different characters to play as and face off against, and it still manages to keep the spirit of the original game burning bright all the way through. I would definitely recommend it for those who loved the original Fatal Fury 2, as well as those who are a fan of this series or fighting games in general, because while it isn’t one of the best out there, it can still provide more then enough ass-kickings to keep you entertained for a good while. And hey, if there is one more positive thing I can say about this game at the end of the day… it's that the voice acting is hilarious. Seriously, if you haven't heard it yet, listen to some of it. You'll get a laugh out of it.

Update #4

I know shoot em ups have a bad reputation regarding games being considered as art, but I think fighting games, especially those from Japan, come close in being quite similar to each other, also not having the capability to present themselves as an epic experience (think Ikaruga or Silpheed's cinematic flair) and most of them falling into cliché animesque art style, characters and story, and often having an excuse to introduce fan service, like here which has a final match against a characther from another fighting game. I don't care about your pandering, do your own thing, game!

That said, the final match being against a wealthy man who put an orchestra playing in the background of his palace is pretty damn charismathic and unique