ACA NEOGEO FATAL FURY 2 - (Kim Kaphwan/Big Bear, Level 3 Difficulty, English Version)
0Fatal Fury 2 (Garou Densetsu 2: The New Battle in Japan) released in 1992. Featuring a cast of new and old characters, although mostly new, and improved graphics and gameplay over the previous title.
After Geese Howard's death from falling from the tower and dying 3 hours later in the hospital, a new sponsor has been working the strings of the The King of Fighters tournament (big surprise there, as this was happening BEFORE The King of Fighters '94. I guess there's no such thing as a sponsorship for a fighting tournament that ISN'T evil). His name happens to be, you guessed it, Wolfgang Krauser. He seeks to meet the champion who was responsible for defeating Geese, which canonically was Terry Bogard. As the tournament progresses where your selected fighter goes on to "Conqer the World" (yes, it's spelled that way in-game), Krauser starts to beat the hell out heavyweights like Michael Max, Hwa Jai, and Richard Meyer. Krauser is out for revenge, and also to prove his might against Geese's killer. Can this madman be stopped?! Let's find out!
Fatal Fury 2 plays pretty much how you'd expect, with the return of our three heroes Terry Bogard, Andy Bogard, and Joe Higashi. In addition, we have an expanded roster who include Big Bear (who was previously Raiden, because he's doing a face-heel turn thing that they do in wrestling), old man Judo master/cookie muncher Jubei Yamada, the beautiful and bouncy kunoichi Mai Shiranui, the portly but wealthy businessman Cheng Sinzan (who trained alongside Jeff Bogard and GeeseHoward, and is a student of Tung Fu Rue), and Kim Kapwhan, a Taekwondo master with a sense of justice and righteousness.
But wait! There's more! We also now have unplayable bosses joining the fray. There's Billy Kane brandishing his pole (not THAT pole, the pole he fights with... yes, the BIG RED POLE), heavyweight boxer Axel Hawk who resembles George Foreman in real life, Spaniard bullfighter Laurence Blood, and lastly the aforementioned crimelord of darkness, Wolfgang Krauser. Fun fact: He's Geese's half-brother! Overexaggerated gasp!
Fatal Fury 2 is a step up from the previous game. Not only being responsible for introducing one of the sexiest female fighters in videogame history, but also marking the return of the two-lane plane system, being able to jump back and forth at will and being able to strategically hit your opponent during a switch. Each character has their own special moveset including super desperation moves which can only be performed when your health is low and lifebar is flashing red. They can be very powerful and can quickly turn the tide of a match.
We also have new stages that go across the world in different countries like Italy, Australia, Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, and the USA. Stages are very colorful and memorable, ranging from a transcontinental railroad, a pier with passing ships, a national park, a boxing ring, the Big Ben clock tower, and Plaza de Toros. The soundtrack is pretty well composed, but combat still somewhat suffers from slight stifness where special moves still need precise inputs to be pulled off. Difficult artifical intelligence is still reigning supreme in these kind of games, so SNK didn't slack off in that department.
I had intended to beat the game with Kim Kaphwan, but things went awry as soon as I got to Axel Hawk. I had to switch to Big Bear since he had the best reach with his jumping D attack (all other character don't have the best of reach) - and ended up ultimately beating the game with him since I didn't have the time and patience to deal with Krauser trying to use Kim.
Another fun fact about Fatal Fury 2 that it still bases itself on the internal BIOS date, so the game still says the year 1925 after you defeat Krauser, making it seem like the game takes place WAY earlier than it actually does - but canonically, Krauser was defeated in 1992. If SNK designed the BIOS to account for going beyond the year 1999, then if you beat the game this year, it WOULD have said 2025 instead of 1925. But hey, who was really futureproofing this sort of thing back then?!
Anyway, I played through this with a massive headache and it was a wonder I got through the game without getting too angry at the CPU difficulty, but it reminds me of why sometimes I dumb it down to Level 1 difficulty instead of trying to trudge through on the default or slightly lower - trying to beat some of these games in less than an hour isn't easy, but it's just to avoid multiple uploads of the same game. Other than that, there's not much to say so I'll just end it here - see you next game!