Fatal
Fury Battle Archives Volume 1 for the Playstation 2 collects four of SNK's
classic fighters in one convenient package. While the series has never
held the cachet of Samurai Showdown or King of Fighters, Fatal Fury's
unique multi-plane battle system and tight gameplay mechanics have held up
well. The flawless translations in this compilation accurately mimic the
arcade games, though a lack of significant extras is slightly
disappointing. Still, this is value-priced disc offers plenty of gameplay
for the money.
You can say what you will about the
golden age of fighting games from the mid-to-late 90's, but the games
themselves have held up remarkably well for titles that were accused of
being cookie cutter titles. SNK's fighters are prime examples of series
that haven't been accepted the way they should. Long accused of copying
Capcom's more popular Street Fighter titles, a closer play reveals that
their titles were actually quite innovative for their time. A good place
to start correcting this historical error would be to play Fatal Fury
Battle Archives for the PS2, which shows the series' progression from
somewhat inauspicious beginnings to its apex as an incredibly solid and
entertaining fighting game series. Of course, all of that came much later.
If you play the games on the disc in the order they were originally
released, you'll be able to see how the game evolved over time and the
difference and jump in quality between the games is striking. When you
begin with first game in the series, you'll see that things started off
slowly. The original Fatal Fury wasn't that impressive once you got beyond
its plane system. There were only three playable characters in this
edition and this hurts its replayability significantly. Despite using an
innovative plane system where players could jump back and forth to evade
foes or attack them, it hasn't held up as well as the other games have.
Fatal Fury is still a difficult title to beat in some regards, but the
slower pace and somewhat disappointing presentation hurt the game's appeal
over the long term. Players probably won't be impressed by it's somewhat
dated graphics. The lack of specials and combos is somewhat surprising in
this day and age. The small roster and limited moves lists and lack of
depth makes the first Fatal Fury feel slightly dated now, and this isn't
helped any by the choppy animation and small roster of fighters. The game
itself isn't too bad for its era, providing a somewhat interesting
precursor to its later installments and is enjoyable for a short time.
Fatal Fury wasn't the greatest game that SNK released on the Neo-Geo
hardware, but it was popular and remains surprisingly addictive.
Things
improved dramatically with the release of Fatal Fury 2. Not only were the
graphics much better, with more detailed characters and animation, but the
roster of fighters increased from 3 to more than a dozen playable
characters. This added plenty of balance and depth to the gameplay, while
making things more challenging. The plane movement system was refined as
well, and was less a gimmick and became an integral part of the gameplay.
FF2 also added an array of special abilities for each character, which
added further depth and replay value to the experience overall. Fatal Fury
2 also ditched many of the cornier elements of the first game and was a
much more straightforward title overall. These tweaks made the sequel a
much better game than the first, but SNK wasn't finished refining their
formula. Fatal Fury Special was a refined version of Fatal Fury 2 which
featured even more enhancements. Some of these changes were subtle, such
as move balancing, while others, such as the addition of even more
characters added yet more depth to make this, according to many players,
the best game in the series. It's improvements from the original title
were many and dramatic and made this SNK's finest fighter to date. There's
some debate as to whether FF2 or FF Special is the definitive version of
the franchise, but one thing you need to know is that they are both superb
in many ways, each offering plenty of play value and that legendary SNK
feel that became synonymous with excellent fighting titles.
Sadly, the package doesn't end on that
high of a note, since Fatal Fury 3: Road to Final Victory is often
considered a bit of letdown after the excellence of FF2. Things started in
the right direction, as SNK gave the series a marked facelift, which
resulted in more detailed animations and beautiful backgrounds.
Unfortunately, many of the popular characters from the previous games went
missing and were instead replaced by less appealing characters. The
gameplay itself was nicely refined, and featured a slightly different
combo system, that while harder to use and not as intuitive, gave players
more flexibility. Again, SNK played with the plane system making it feel
less intergral to the gameplay. This made for a more straightforward game
but it gave FF3 less of a personality. You still have some cool special
moves, but the fights seemed rather bland. Making the strategy of this
less important in the third game, something was lost. Overall, the game
wasn't as polished as it could have been and felt rather bland compared to
its predecessors. While you can appreciate its improvements from a
technical standpoint, Fatal Fury 3 just wasn't as enjoyable or fun as it
could have been. It's still a solidly entertaining fighter and stands
strongly on its own, but it just doesn't live up to what it could have
been.
The
package itself is fairly decent, and delivers plenty of action at a value
price. Each game has been emulated flawlessly, right down to the classic
AES boot-up screen and logo. The games load very quickly and there are no
pauses between rounds which keeps the arcade-style flow of each title
intact. Fatal Fury Battle Archives' sole disappointment lies in its lack
of extras. There are no extensive documentaries or artwork to view,
instead you get to swap out the colors of your fighters in the somewhat
lame character edit mode. It's a pretty threadbare selection, but
thankfully the games themselves are solidly entertaining and challenging
after all these years. There's little doubt that Fatal Fury never received
the acclaim from mainstream gamers that it deserved, instead lingering in
the shadow of more popular franchises at the time. Those players who
overlooked the games have finally been given a second chance, and as this
compilation proves, this was a solid franchise that has stood the test of
time.
- Michael Palisano
Grade:
B+
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