Fatal Fury: First Contact
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Product Summary
Platform: NEOGEO Pocket ColorVideo Game Reviews of Fatal Fury: First Contact
Customer Review: RISING TACO!
Summary: 4 Stars
Most fighting game fans love SNK's King of Fighters. But before that, there was Fatal Fury: basically the same game, but with different characters and more basic moves. Fatal Fury was a pretty cool game when it debuted, but it got even better as it picked up the pace in the later installments. Granted, Fatal Fury is nowhere near as popular as King of Fighters (tough it still holds its own), and for me, the action isn't as intense, but you gotta hand it to SNK for releasing a new Fatal Fury game for the NeoGeo Pocket Color a few years back. Sure, the system was doomed, being released at the same time as the Pokemon phenom, but this was an instant classic, and something the GameBoy Color wouldn't get: a good fighting game.
If you've never played a Fatal Fury game before, that doesn't matter. The NGPC version tosses out a story mode and goes straight into the fights. Aside from vs mode, the main game lets you pick your character and throws you right into the action. Terry, Andy, Joe, Mai, Xiang Fei, Rick, Billy Kane, Geese, Krauser, Kim and Yamazaki are at your disposal. For the most part, it doesn't matter who you pick...though Andy, Joe and Geese have some pretty cheap moves. You fight through a couple of opponents before taking on the boss of the Fatal Fury games: Geese. After that, it's over, and you're encouraged to try out the other characters. It doesn't sound like much, but fighting games are addicting, and you'll want to try out some of the characters who you thought looked stupid but turned around and took you out in 10 seconds. Gameplay is simple- the A and B buttons do the attacks, two versions of each depending on how hard you press either one, and using the control stick in different movements along with an attack button results in various special attacks. From Terry's Rising Tackle (which sounds like "Rising Taco" when he says it in the console versions) to Mai's fan throws, there's a lot of special moves that all come in handy. Some are upward attacks, others send you flying to the other side of the screen, and some are of course, fireball type attacks. And then there's Billy Kane, whose attacks are all just plain cheap in general and will take you out in like 4 hits if you walk into them. Vs mode is self-explanitory: link up your NGPC with a friend's and fight to your heart's desire. You even get an extra character in this mode to use.
The graphics look great for "just" a handheld fighting game. The sprites are basically chibi versions of their adult forms, and it works. Terry and Yamazaki in particular. Surprisingly, the animations aren't as stiff as you'd expect, though it takes characters a moment to get back up once knocked down for some reason. Backgrounds look A LOT like how they do in the big brother versions of Fatal Fury. The train tracks, arenas, streets, everything's here. As for the sound, it's alright. You won't remember any of the tracks after you stop playing. I know that I haven't, and I've had this game since June. Sadly, there are no voices for the special moves. I would've loved to hear "RISING TACO!" on a handheld from a chibi Terry. And sound effects are pretty simple too. As in "SWISH!" for spin kicks and simple crashing sounds for punches contacting. But, as with the graphics, they work.
There isn't that much replay to this game, especially since hardly anyone has a NGPC any more. So you'll most likely be stuck with the single player mode. But it'll quench your thirst for a good fighting game when you're on the go. Even in this age of the DS and PSP, neither has a worth while fighter, and neither has a good enough d-pad/control stick to pull off some of the moves.
Description of Fatal Fury: First Contact
The popular Fatal Fury fighting game franchise is a welcome addition to the software-starved NEOGEO system. Eleven familiar fighters return to duke it out street style in this game, which allows you to go head-to-head against your friends via a pocket link cable (sold separately). Although Fatal Fury clearly is inspired by Japanese anime (note the abundance of wildly colored hair and giant eyes), it also has a strong American flavor in style and design. This game works more or less like other fighting games--pick a character and then fight your way using fast button punching and multiple special moves. However, Fatal Fury offers much less in the way of a plot than similar fighting games for the NEOGEO, such as King of Fighters and Samurai Shodown.You see much less of the personality of your fighter--although each fighter does tend to have innovative moves and intriguing fighting props, such as killer fans. We found the learning curve for this game to be less steep than in other fighting games, which makes it easier to plow through and see all the hidden goodies. --Carrie Bell
Pros:
- A nice combination of cool characters and good fighting options
- Moves are easy to pick up
- Fair amount of female fighters
- Little background information on the history or traits of these fighters
- Music is repetitive
Action Games
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