Thanks to Terry being in Smash, everyone's talking about Fatal Fury and SNK in a way that I really haven't witnessed maybe ever in my lifetime, so it's had me thinking about the series too. Figured I'd revisit everything that's on Switch, since it's mostly all there and the current sale commemorating Terrymania is in effect too. So:
Fatal Fury: King of Fighters - Character of choice: Terry
It's pretty scary how fully-formed the SNK fighting game concept feels, right from the start. An emphasis on setting, narrative that informs the action, the setpiece drama inherent to the flourishes and mechanics... I think it's what ultimately sets the wider line apart from the competition, in how easy it is to buy into the dramatics and characters. I love checking in with Geese's ongoing tantrums inbetween rounds, and I love when losing against him sends the player diving down the skyscraper, waiting for a life-saving credit. Billy is another highlight for the henchman who keeps throwing him replacement staves every time he misplaces his.
Fatal Fury 2 - Character of choice: Mai
Huge leap in the feel of play, for thinking the controls through and allowing more active ways to interact with the lane-switching system. This is where that expression really materializes to its utmost for me, especially in stages like Jubei's where you can smash through the screens dividing the lines, from either side, or continue fighting behind them partly obscured. Mai's stage allows her to use a special move only available there, rebounding off of the flagpoles in the environment, while Kim's stage places passing motorcyclists in harm's way if you manage to bump into them during the action. The liveliness of the stages isn't just expressed in their raw visuals (which are great), but how they interact as spaces for the action themselves. It's the closest any fighting game, especially of the era, has really come to embodying an interactive martial arts flick for me. Even the mechanical additions like the desperation moves work in such a way that prioritize maximum dramatic appeal than playing up the consideration for "balance."
This is also where one of the shining stars of fighting and video game bossdom makes his debut, and do I love Wolfgang Krauser more than anything. Unlike Geese, whose presence in the first game is as a sort of buffoonish overlord, Krauser only starts making his presence known more than halfway through the story--as an unknown menace tearing through the cast of the previous game, looking for the player. When met face to face, it's in a setting mixing grand opulence and hearty competition--all this man really wants is a challenge; there's no criminal cruelty or dark designs in his presentation and behaviour. What really immortalizes Krauser is the characterization he's granted through his voice acting, before and after rounds. "I'll chisel your gravestone! Sleep well!", "You were good! You fought well!" and "You were perfect! I met... my match!" are a full and satisfying arc all on their own, complemented by his mannerisms and vocal delivery, and there's nothing I can think of to improve on it. Geese was a milestone in big boss presence, and it's all the better he was immediately improved upon.
Fatal Fury Special - Character of choice: Krauser
Special's nature as a revision of the previous game mostly leaves one with the particulars to grapple with, of which there are enough to consider both uniquely satisfying experiences despite sharing so much between them. The addition of Fatal Fury originals--including Geese, and more importantly, Duck King--into the roster balloons up the arcade sequence into a veritable epic: we're talking fifteen sequential fights, and if you manage to get through all that without losing a round, there's the ultimate dream match challenger to contend with in the form of Art of Fighting's Ryo Sakazaki. It might be too much, even, but the nature of the game mechanics at this time render most rounds as extremely short encounters, where damage values are racked up high, and combos aren't prioritized as a tactical essential. It's much more about the fundamentals of movement in a way that's easier for beginners to understand, and more palatable for sustained play when execution isn't the end-all of every scenario. Fighting games aren't really designed like this anymore, unless it's something specifically positioning itself as a throwback, or an outlier with years of precedent powering it like Samurai Shodown. Special ends this era of Fatal Fury, and it does it with confidence.
Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory - Character of choice: Blue Mary
A complete aesthetic and mechanical overhaul of the series, Fatal Fury 3 is rough in the ways radical revamps can be and full of fresh creativity in others. The change to one main lane and two supplementary evasive lanes doesn't go over so well with me--the lane-switching in the previous games worked as a dramatic amplifier to the action, with monumental leaps between the planes, and was interstitial in nature. Here, you're expected to dive in and out constantly, with snappy maneuvers that are rooted to the ground and so lack the cumbersome majesty of the previous incarnation. It's fussy in ways that subtracts from the flow with micro-pauses aplenty, and drags matches on in an unsatisfying manner. Those are where the gripes mostly end, as Fatal Fury 3's visual splendor cannot be ignored. The super-saturation that's characterized the series so far is met with animation quality and colour palette choices that demand to be absorbed frame by individual frame. I don't really think of the criticisms related to play with this one--I just recall the places it took me through, and am content.