ACA NEOGEO GAROU: MARK OF THE WOLVES - (B. Jenet, Level 3 Difficulty, English Version)
0Garou: Mark of the Wolves was released in 1999, and is the eighth entry (and sixth canonical) in the long running Fatal Fury/Garou Densetsu series. This game also had a Dreamcast and a Japanese PlayStation 2 release the latter of which I've owned. It was one of the best of all Fatal Fury games to have been made by SNK and brought some impressive graphical updates such as prerendered 3D models and a more technical take on gameplay not to mention a fresh and balanced roster.
So what's the story here? Well, since Geese Howard's death way back in Real Bout Fatal Fury, Terry had decided to look after Geese's son Rock, and adopted the young boy under his wing. With the seemingly immortal crime lord now wiped out, South Town was finally free of his clutches and some peace finally hit the streets for at least a decade.
Since then, we now have another South Town! Aptly named Second South Town! How original. Guess what elese? Yep, a new tournament is underway called The King of Fighters: Maximum Mayhem. Looks like whoever's in charge is getting more creative name-wise, and it seems this tournament is bringing some brand new faces but yet having old connections to previous combatants.
Our hero and lone wolf Terry Bogard returns to the fray along with Rock Howard, now much older and has become a true martial artist, having a repetoire of his own special moves mixed with Terry and Geese's techniques. For this new KOF, a grand prize is promised to the winner and not only that, Rock is seeking information regarding his deceased mother, Marie Heinlein, and the tournament guarantees that - so if that's not motivation, then what else is?
It seems that the KOF tournament is spearheaded by a man named Kain R. Heinlein. Kain has a best friend named Abel, who becomes known as Grant later on. Kain wants power in order to take control of his own destiny and Grant pledges loyalty towards Kain. Kain obviously is related to Marie Heinlein and knows something regarding her.
Garou: MOTW brings some familiar mechanics, as the standard four button attacks from light/heavy punches and kicks. Gone is any form of plane-switching and stage border ring-outs, so that went the way of the dodo... until the plane-switching returned in City of the Wolves. We also have attack chains and feint moves, and even move canceling, but the most memorable is the Tactical Offensive Position (known as T.O.P.) system.
When selecting a character, you can assign the T.O.P. meter to any of three sections of their life gauge. When the life bar enters this specific section of the T.O.P. meter, you'll gain benefits such as increased damage, slow health regeneration and special T.O.P. attacks which the command differs from character to character. You'll want to take advantage of this mechanic as much as you can before you take enough damage to put you out of the T.O.P. segment for the rest of the match.
Lastly there's the new Just Defense mechanic, which is almost similar to the parry/blocking from Street Fighter III, but more defensive based. If you tap block just as attack hits you, you'll perform a Just Defense allowing you to regain a bit of health and power gauge, reduced blockstun allowing you to recover to counter attack a bit faster, can guard cancel, and not being pushed back keeping you close to your opponent.
We also have brand new roster of characters, including B.Jenet, a beautiful pirate leader, Kim Dong Hwan and Kim Jae Hoon, Kim Kapwhan's sons, Hotaru Futaba, a martial artist searching for her missing brother, and that brother happens to be Gato, a who is hunting down the killer of his mother, who would be his father. We also have Tizoc, a pro wrestler who dons the mask of a griffon, Marco Rodriguez/Khushnood Butt, a practitioner of Kyokugenryu Karate meaning that he is the disciple of Ryo Sakazaki. Continuing on, there's Hokutomaru who is Andy Bogard's apprentice, Kevin Rian, a S.W.A.T. officer who's driven by revenge for the murder of his partner, and Freeman, who is a serial killer who goes after strong opponents - and he was the one who killed Kevin's partner.
Grant is Kain's bodyguard and serves as the second to last boss, and if you manage to get through the game and maintaining AAA fighting ranks and nothing below, you get to fight Kain R. Heinlein as the final boss. Sadly, this did not happen during this playthrough, and I forgot that SNK had a tendency to gatekeep fighting the true last boss and actually getting a proper ending with annoying and unfair preequisites which all seemed to start as far back as Fatal Fury Special. This even carried on until SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos, and even Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. Got to work for that real ending, folks!
Anywho and anyway, that concludes the journey and history of Fatal Fury. So what's next? I might take a break from the fighting series for now and play some other ACA NEOGEO titles. I'll let that be a surprise or two, don't wanna ruin the anticipation. See you next game!