4/5 ★ – Hill417's review of Garou: Mark of the Wolves.

When we talk about legendary fighting game franchise, Fatal Fury is right up there within the pantheon of greats. However every long running series eventually needs to break its own mold and venture into a new direction. For Fatal Fury that would come in the form of “Garou: Mark of the Wolves” that saw drastic changes to the series gameplay and roster, but was it for better or for worse? Let’s look at the plot. It has been ten years since the death of Geese Howard and his son Rock was adopted by Terry Bogard. With Howard’s death that means a brand new King of Fighters tournament is held by a mysterious orchestrator and this host might have answers as to what happened to Rock’s mother. One major standout from previous installments is that this tournament isn’t held in South Town, but rather Second South, which serves as a sister city. Another glaring change is the roster. Because this is ten years into the future there was a strong emphasis of “next generation”, most games would find the balance between the old and the new, but in Garou, Terry is the only returning character while the other thirteen slots are all brand new, some even having connections to previous characters. There is Rock being the adopted son of Terry, Kim Dong Hwan and Kim Jae Hoon are the sons of Kim Kaphwan. Kevin Ryan is “a distant relative of Blue Mary”, Hokutomaru is the student of Andy Bogard, Kushnood Butt (yes that is his name in the western release) is the student of Ryo Sakazaki from The Art of Fighting series. As far as the original characters with no ties to the previous cast: we have Hotaru Futaba, a young martial artist who is searching for her older brother who is hinted at to be Gato, a man out for revenge for the death of his mother and is so mysterious he denies being Hotaru’s sibling. Then there is Freeman a British serial killer who enters the tournament so that he can kill stronger opponents (and all of his special moves are named after heavy metal bands, so he is cool in my books), Tizoc a muscular Luchador who strives to be a hero of justice. Last, but certainly not least, there is B. Jenet, a happy go lucky pirate who got bored of her wealthy and pampered lifestyle and seeks out to find treasure with her crew. To be frank, with the exception of Rock, I wasn’t a fan of the other characters who were related to previous cast members. It does a disservice to them because why would I want to play as Blue Mary’s relative? I would rather be playing as Blue Mary. And I would much rather play as an older Kim Kaphwan instead of his sons. See what I mean here? This would be like if you were playing Mortal Kombat, but instead of Scorpion they put in Scorpion’s third cousin’s neighbor. Ironically enough all of the characters who were completely original (except for Freeman) ended up being playable in future King of Fighters games along with Rock and Terry, so that pretty much shows who was popular and who wasn’t. And before anyone says that KoF is a different timeline and continuity so that the relatives couldn’t show up yet, you aren’t wrong, but the KoF timeline has always been inconsistent with its canon. Rock, B. Jenet, and Gato all have the exact same backstories even though they don’t add up with the rest of the KoF continuity. However I do respect the fact that SNK did take a risk, other than Street Fighter 3 I can’t think of any other fighter game franchises would ignore their established roster. Even if a lot of them didn’t work out. Ok that is enough about the roster, how is the gameplay? It surprisingly is the best it has ever been for Fatal Fury. The combat is way more fluent and faster than previous entries. The two lane system, a series staple, was gone. Making it way more streamlined and consistent. Special attacks and finishing move inputs were drastically overhauled for the better. I no longer had to twist my fingers into a pretzel to pull off complicated combos, but rather down, forward, down forward punch/kick. Much more easier. It’s other defining mechanic is the T.O.P. System. After you select your character a portion of your life bar will be highlighted, you can place it near the upper, middle, or lower region. Once your health reaches the highlighted area you enter a special mode. You can regain a small portion of your health, doubles the damage of your regular attack, and allows you access to exclusive moves that can only be used in that specific time. This turned the tide in my favor on MULTIPLE occasions. Seriously there were multiple times I fought Grant (the sub boss) and looked like I was done for, but I managed to pull off the upset with the T.O.P. System. As far as the visuals go, the sprites and visuals certainly aren’t bad. This is probably the best looking Fatal Fury game that came out, but compared to what else was coming out at the time like Guilty Gear and Street Fighter III: Third Strike, it doesn’t look as impressive as those. Visuals aside, Garou still has extremely tight and fun combat that makes it worth playing.