Fatal Fury

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Meet the wolves: Andy, Terry and Joe

Are you ok?!

Known in Japan as Garou Densetsu (Legend of the Hungry Wolves), this is a Fighting Game series by SNK that was released for the Neo Geo arcade and home video game systems.

The story of the series is set in the fictional city of Southtown, USA, and starts many years before the events of the first game, when martial artist Jeff Bogard adopts two orphans, whom he names Terry and Andy. Later, crime lord Geese Howard killed Jeff Bogard, an event that young Terry witnesses. Swearing revenge, both brothers start to train, to fight Geese in his "King of Fighters" tournament. Andy leaves to train in Japan and Terry stays in Southtown. Ten years later, in 1991, the brothers and Andy's friend Joe Higashi enter the King of Fighters to avenge their father.

The first game only had three playable characters, and an interesting mechanic in which a second player joining in the middle of a fight would join the first player in double-teaming their present opponent before facing each other. The sequel dropped this mechanic and adopted the World Tournament format used in Street Fighter II, introducing five new playable characters and new bosses. More characters and villains were introduced in subsequent sequels, and the original Big Bad Geese Howard also returned in most of them.

The distinctive characteristic of the series was the ability of the characters to fight in two different planes in most stages, giving them the capability to avoid attacks by moving between planes. This system suffered some changes after the third installment and was dropped altogether for the last game.

Games in the series:

While the last installment of the series appeared in late 1999, many of its characters are still widely popular today and continue to appear in a number of Spin-Off series, most notably The King of Fighters series. More recently, pachi-slot machines with the Fatal Fury theme have been released and there is a crossover game with Fighter's History Dynamite available for mobile phones in Japan.

Two animated TV specials (often mislabeled as OVAs, even though they aired on Japanese TV before getting home video releases) and one animated film were based on the games, all including character designs by Masami Oobari. The TV specials were based on the plots of the first two games. The feature film had an original plot and villains.

Tropes used in Fatal Fury include:
  • Acrofatic: Cheng.
  • Action Girl: Mary, Mai, Xiangfei, Bonne Jenet, Hotaru, Tsugumi Sendoh, etc. Mai Shiranui bounces in and out of the trope, depending of which media we're talking about; however, it's somewhat Justified Trope in that she plays the Damsel in Distress intentionally in order to make Andy appreciate her more.
  • Adaptation Dye Job: Despite being clearly blond in all games, Andy inexplicably appears with sky-blue hair in the first anime special.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: Jamin and Panni in The Motion Picture.
  • Alternate Continuity: While the series initially shared a continuity with the The King of Fighters, Geese's death in Real Bout Fatal Fury and his continued survival in the King of Fighters series pretty much confirmed that they are separate.
  • Anti-Villain: Arguably Wolfgang Krauser; while he seems highly evil natured in battle, he has a very gentle side outside of the battle ring. Kim Kaphwan's ending in Fatal Fury 2 even shows Krauser being reformed by Kim.
  • Arrogant Kung Fu Guy: Gato is the best example out there. The look, the moves, the win quotes... all of it. Laurence Blood and Rick Strowd, too.
  • Attract Mode
  • Authority Equals Asskicking: Geese and the Jin brothers are stronger than their respective subordinates Billy and Yamazaki. Kain R. Heinlein, as well.
    • Slight subversion with the latter, as Kain is more balanced (relatively speaking) than Grant, the true SNK Boss archetype in Mark of the Wolves.
  • Ax Crazy: Freeman. He's a Serial Killer though, so what do you expect? And let's not even get into Ryuji Yamazaki.
  • Back from the Dead: Geese Howard at least twice.
  • Badass: Geese can qualify as this. Capcom vs. SNK Millennium Fight 2000 gives him the line, "I stain my hands, with your blood." (though it gets horribly mangled), and in Capcom vs. SNK 2 Mark of the Millennium, he says, "You cannot escape from death."
  • Big Eater: Li Xiangfei is basically always eating.
  • Bishonen: Andy Bogard, especially his anime incarnation.
  • Blond Guys Are Evil: Subverted; Geese is blond, but so are Andy and Terry. Of course, Kain is blond too, and Rock's blond hair isn't the only thing that's In the Blood...
  • Blood Brothers: Grant and Kain R. Heinlein, who swore an oath of eternal allegiance to each other as children.
  • Blood Knight: Wolfgang Krauser, who hosted the world edition of the tournament. Grant too.
  • Bonus Boss: Ryo Sakazaki from Art of Fighting in Fatal Fury Special. Geese returned as a bonus boss in Real Bout Fatal Fury Special, and Real Bout Fatal Fury 2 had Alfred. Interestingly enough, it was Ryo's guest appearance in Fatal Fury Special that inspired SNK to create The King of Fighters series.
  • Bruce Lee Clone: Averted with Hon Fu, whose actually a Jackie Chan clone. He does have the standard high-pitched Kiais though...
  • Calling Your Attacks: Most characters do it. Avoided by Terry in Garou: Mark of the Wolves, where most of the time, instead of shouting the names of his attacks, he yells things like "Rock you!" and "Kick Bath!", all of which were ported to his The King of Fighters appearances from 2002 on.
    • One exception: Terry has one special attack where he punches you, saying "Are you okay?" and then punches you with his other fist yelling "Buster Wolf!" (the name of the attack).
  • Canon Foreigner: Lily McGwire, Tony, Elsa, Sulia, Laocorn, Panni, Hauer and Jamin all from the anime version.
    • Just to clarify, there's a Lily in the video games, but she's an unrelated character named Lilly Kane, Billy's sister who, like her bro, is a playable character in King of Fighters 2006/Maximum Impact 2. Lily McGwire did make a cameo in the Mexican Pao Pao Cafe stage in King of Fighters '94.
    • The girl who appears to be going out with Terry in his ending Fatal Fury 2 is named Medea, and she was originally his love interest in Gamest's manga adaptation of the first Garou Densetsu. However, she is replaced a generic character in Fatal Fury Special.
  • Canon Immigrant: Many details about Krauser's backstory (such as him killing his father or being related to Geese) became game canon after the movie. There was an attempt to have him commit suicide as well, but that was abandoned. Likewise, in later games, Krauser gained the Gigatech Cyclone move, which was identical to the tornado spin attack he and Terry used in the anime, but neither had used in the game.
  • Cartwright Curse: Anyone who is Terry's girlfriend in the anime specials and The Motion Picture.
  • City of Adventure: Southtown is where the action of all the games takes place, with the exception of Fatal Fury 2 and Fatal Fury Special, which were about a worldwide tournament. Garou isn't in quite the same place as the previous games, but a neighboring city close enough to be considered an extension of it (it's even called Second Southtown).
  • Combos: From the third game onward.
  • Compilation Rerelease: Fatal Fury Battle Archives Volume 1 (Fatal Fury, Fatal Fury 2, Fatal Fury Special and Fatal Fury 3) and Fatal Fury Battle Archives Volume 2 (Real Bout Fatal Fury, Real Bout Fatal Fury Special, Real Bout Fatal Fury 2), both on the PlayStation 2.
  • Cool Big Sis: Mai is this towards Sulia in The Movie. Hokutomaru seems to view her similarly in Mark of the Wolves.
  • Cute Bruiser: Li Xiangfei, Hotaru Futaba.
  • Cutscene: For all the installments that had a plot.
  • Dance Battler: Duck King, Richard Meyer and Bob Wilson. Duck King implies breakdancing, while Richard and Bob are Capoeiristas.
  • Dark Action Girl: Panni.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Many of Terry's rivals (such as Duck King and Kim) became his friends after he beat them.
  • Demoted to Extra: Everyone from the first game (except for the three heroes, Billy Kane, and Raiden, who undergoes a literal Heel Face Turn to become Big Bear) in Fatal Fury 2, although Tung Fu Rue and Duck King would return as playable characters in Fatal Fury Special (along with Geese, who was presumed dead in Fatal Fury 2). This also happened to Jubei Yamada, Big Bear and Axel Hawk after Fatal Fury Special.
  • Detect Evil: Kim Kaphwan and, apparently, his son Jae Hoon.
  • Difficulty Levels: Up to eight, less for the earliest home versions.
  • Dirty Old Man: Jubei Yamada, who bothers Mai a lot with his antics.
  • Distaff Counterpart: Kevin is basically a male version of Blue Mary. They're actually distant relatives.
  • Distant Finale: All of Mark of the Wolves.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: In one of her supers, Hotaru Futaba straddles her rival and releases a ball of energy as she arches her back and screams. Uhm...
  • The Dragon: Billy Kane, Lawrence Blood, Ryuji Yamakazi, Grant and, in the anime movie, Jamin.
  • Dramatic Deadpan: The announcer in Mark of the Wolves from beginning to end.
  • Dude Looks Like a Lady: Come on, admit it! You thought Jin Chonshu was a girl, when he's actually a boy, didn't you?
  • Executive Suite Fight: Geese Howard likes fighting in his office.
  • Expository Hairstyle Change: Terry changes his clothes and cuts his trademark long hair in Mark of the Wolves.
    • In Garou: Memories of Stray Wolves, it's revealed that other characters missing from Mark of the Wolves have also done the same. Blue Mary has her hair worn much longer, and Duck King no longer has a mohawk or Multicolored Hair.
  • Expy: Geese Howard has a striking resemblance to King, the final boss of The Super Spy (see comparison here). The intro to Fatal Fury 3 may be a reference to it.
    • He also draws comparisons with Aussie from the Jean Claude Van Damme movie Bloodsport.
    • Also, Sokaku seems to be based on a generic enemy [dead link] of Sengoku 2.
  • Face Heel Turn/Heel Face Turn: Raiden is a monster Heel, but when he takes his mask off (and grows a beard), he wrestles as "Big Bear", an all-Australian face, pulling a literal Heel Face Turn.
    • Later games imply that his Heel Face Revolving Door is actually a gimmick and that he's a Face in real life.
    • Rock Howard pulls a Face Heel Turn... in a matter of speaking... it's revealed that not only did he win the tournament in Mark of the Wolves, but tournament host Kain tells him he has information about his mother supposedly being alive. Terry later finds Rock, who tells him he's going with Kain and nothing's gonna change his mind. Instead of being upset, Terry is pleased that Rock is about to forge his own destiny.
  • Fake Difficulty: In Garou: Mark of the Wolves, CPU controlled characters tend to do more damage than the player with the same attacks.
  • Faux Action Girl: Mai in the anime.
  • Five-Man Band: In The Movie:
  • Fixed-Floor Fighting: Combat is possible in either the foreground or the background, but the stage itself is consistent.
  • Foot Focus: Notably, Joe Higashi and Kim, but MOST notably, Mai Shiranui in the Real Bout Fatal Fury series.
  • Fragile Speedster: Mai, Hokutomaru.
  • Gainaxing: Mai Shiranui.
    • Or Jiggle Physics if you like: Mai was the first video game character to do it. Blue Mary fit into this trope for a couple of Fatal Fury games.
  • Game-Breaking Injury: Terry Bogard injures his ankle right before being asked to fight Kim Kaphwan and was unable to use any sort of kicking attacks. He managed to come out on top. However, his fight against Krauser did not go as well and his injured legs played a major factor in this loss.
    • Andy also.
  • Genki Girl: Li Xianfei.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: Gato and Sokaku both have some very bad scars. Neither gets any explanation, and neither is definitively good or evil.
  • Go Out with a Smile: Maniacal grin and laugh, actually: Geese sees his death as the last slap in Terry's face, and he lets it show as he falls.
  • Gratuitous English: Terry Bogard. He's TV Trope's God of it.
  • Guest Fighter: Ryo Sakazaki (of Art of Fighting fame) as a hidden final boss in Fatal Fury Special. Alfred the Pilot was technically created to be the main character of Dominated Mind (a remixed PlayStation port of Real Bout Fatal Fury Special), but most people outside Japan know him for his appearance as a secret final boss in Real Bout Fatal Fury 2.
  • Hard Work Hardly Works: Kim Dong Hwan never practices, and basically made up all his moves himself, but is on par with his dedicated, disciplined brother Jae Hoon in skill and power.
    • The same applies to the Bogard Bros.: Andy trained his butt off to learn Ninjutsu and Koppoken, while Terry was an ordinary street brawler who made up his own moves and hardly trains. Guess which one is the better fighter.
  • Hello, Nurse!: Mai Shiranui is some sort of this in the games, as evidenced by the comments of some male characters, but it's more evident in the anime series. In contrast, the also very attractive Blue Mary attracts more attention because of her job.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Sulia and later Laocorn, in the movie.
  • Highly-Visible Ninja: Mai Shiranui battles in a bright red and white outfit; Andy's worse, since his outfit is mostly white, and he doesn't even tie his long blond hair back or anything. Hokutomaru's... okay. He's more a Highly Audible Ninja, given how loud and obnoxious he is.
  • Hot-Blooded: Kim Kaphwan is a prime example. His son Kim Jae Hoon has tried to follow his example as much as possible... oh, and he's also got the literal fire powers, as well.
  • Hot Dad: Kim, again. Specially in the movie. Also, his Fatal Fury Special intros/win poses AND ending have young Jae Hoon and Dong Hwan hanging out with their dad. Aaaawwwww.
  • Hot Mom: Kim's wife Myeng Swuk; lampshaded in the movie, when Joe tries to flirt with her until Mai reminds him that she's married.
  • I Don't Know Mortal Kombat: Demonstrated in the movie: Terry sucks at fighting games, but his life is one.
  • I Know Madden Kombat: Terry's Power Dunk is said to be modified after a basketball move.
  • Image Song: While not quite to the extent of The King of Fighters, quite a few characters get their own songs, such as Kong Kuwata (the seiyuu of Geese) fittingly singing "Devotion: The Sunset Sky", the song that plays during the credits of Real Bout Fatal Fury. Perhaps the zaniest and best example would be "Dance de Peace!", which involves Duck King leading Terry, Blue Mary, Mai and Xiangfei in rap while Yamazaki randomly intrudes and screams at them for not including him in the festivities. Each respective character part even incorporates parts of their past themes.
  • Immortality: The entire premise of Fatal Fury 3. Geese is rumored to have this after those events since he got the Jin scrolls.
  • Intimate Healing: Sulia gives this to an injured Terry in The Motion Picture, stripping to her bra and panties to ensure full body contact and then turning on her healing powers.
  • Kaizo Trap: White from the PlayStation port of Real Bout Fatal Fury Special (known as Dominated Mind). Beat him, and BE DAMNED READY to dodge his cane laser.
    • Or jump over it.
  • Ki Attacks: Pretty much everyone.
  • Kikuko Inoue: Femme Fatale Lily McGuire and Tony's Hot Mom Elsa in the anime.
  • Knife Nut: Ryuji Yamazaki, and Freeman, sort of.
  • Kotono Mitsuishi: Seiyuu of Mai in the Fatal Fury anime.
  • Leitmotif: Geese Howard's theme, from game to game. So far, he's had a kiss, soy sauce, a stiff neck, a nightmare and now mustard.
  • Love Freak: Kim Kaphwan because Justice Will Prevail and Evil Is Unforgivable!
  • Love Makes You Evil: Two examples from the movie: Panni follows Laocorn because she is in love with him; Hauer is obsessed with stealing Mai from Andy. In Garou, Kain's love for his sister Marie, and his despair over her apparent death is basically what turned him... and Rock, apparently.
  • Love Redeems: Lily, who worked as Geese's sort-of lady in waiting until she met Terry. And ultimately, Redemption Equals Death.
  • Magnum Opus: Mark of the Wolves serves as this for not only the Fatal Fury series, but (in the eyes of both fighting game enthusiasts and critics) SNK as a whole.
  • The Man Behind the Man: Kain R. Heinlein in Garou: Mark of the Wolves.
  • Martial Pacifist: Kim Kaphwan, Jae Hoon, Hotaru Futaba.
    • The latter is a tragic example, as Hotaru fights to find her brother (heavily implied to be Gato) and reunite her family, but she either falls short or he acts like a major Jerkass to her.
  • Mighty Glacier: Raiden/Big Bear, Franco Bash and Tizoc aka Griffon Mask.
  • Mirror Match: For all the sequels. In some games, the characters even have special phrases for their alter egos, and in Geese's case, his double appears in Billy's Real Bout Fatal Fury ending as an impostor.
  • Mondegreen:
    • Mai Shiranui's win quote is "Nippon ichi!" (roughly translated as "Japan is number one!"), but many fans thought she was saying "Me bouncy!" which, given her attributes, is certainly an understandable mistake.
    • Terry's "burn knuckle" quote sounds a lot like "Barnacle!".
  • Ms. Fanservice: Mai Shiranui has always been like this, but never as much in the Fatal Fury games as in the anime or the Spin-Off games, where Flanderization did its job. Blue Mary and Bonne Jenet are also fanservicey, but not reaching this extreme.
    • B. Jenet probably does count, however, given Mai's absence in Mark of the Wolves.
  • Mysterious Waif: Sulia from the movie.
  • Ninja: Mai Shiranui, and later Hokutomaru, also part of the Shiranui clan. Oh, and Andy.
  • No Koreans in Japan: Averted hard: Kim's school of taekwondo has been represented in every game in the series except the original, as well as nearly every game that borrows characters from the series. Then again, most of these series doesn't take place in Japan, averting something else too... most of the time.
  • Nonstandard Game Over: Lose to Geese in the first game, and out the window you go!
  • Normally I Would Be Dead Now: Geese, again.
  • Numbered Sequels: Sort of: Fatal Fury 2, Fatal Fury 3 and Real Bout 2, are the second, fourth and seventh games in the series, respectively...
  • Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: Except for Fatal Fury 2 and Fatal Fury 3, all of them: Dominated Mind probably takes the cake for the most oddly-named one thanks to having enough words to qualify as a Word Salad Title.
  • Elderly Sensei: Tung Fu Rue, who can become tremendously large and muscular.
  • Ominous Latin Chanting: Wolfgang Krauser's "Dies Irae".
  • Paper Fan of Doom: Mai Shiranui.
  • Parental Abandonment: Gato and Hotaru's father, who briefly returns in Gato's Garou ending just to knock him senseless and call him worthless.
    • And blind him.
    • Rock was also subjected to this by Geese, but Rock hates him for other reasons as well.
    • In the second anime special, Geese himself was revealed to have been abandoned together with his mother by his father Rudolph Krauser, and went to get revenge. His half-brother Wolfgang kicked the crap out of him.
  • Phrase Catcher: "Geese..."
  • Player Versus Player: As in all Fighting Games.
  • Playing with Fire: Mai, Jae Hoon and Kevin.
  • Promotion to Parent: Terry adopting Rock.
  • Psycho for Hire: Ryuji Yamazaki, Freeman, etc.
  • Punny Name: "Geese Howard" was probably meant to be a play on Howard the Duck (Howard the Geese).
  • Rank Inflation: The system introduced by Fatal Fury 3 and kept until the end of the series.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Subversion: the red-eyed Rock Howard may be Geese Howard's son, but he rolls with Terry and his crew, and is one of the main characters in Mark of the Wolves.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Terry and Andy are the main Red and Blue (respectively). The Kim brothers from Garou also fit (Jae Hoon is the collected and disciplined Blue while Dong Hwan is the over-confident and arrogant Red).
  • Ryu and Ken: Kim Dong Hwan and Kim Jae Hoon, as well as the Jin Brothers.
    • Joe and Hwa count, for all of one game. In a sense, Rock could also be considered as the Ken to his father Geese.
  • Save the Villain: Terry tries and fails in Real Bout Fatal Fury.
  • Secret Character: Real Bout Fatal Fury Special had the EX characters: alternate versions of some characters that had different special moves and personality, almost as an Evil Twin (inverted with Billy, who instead has a Good Twin). Bonus Boss characters were playable in the home versions. Additionally, bosses Grant and Kain are playable with a code in Garou.
  • Sequel Hook: The Motion Picture pulls one. Geese, the Big Bad of the first special, and a villain in hiding in the second, is seen training diligently in a secluded forest in order to enact his revenge on Terry. Billy Kane interrupts his training session just as Geese pulls off a Raging Storm.
  • Ship Tease: While Mai and Andy's situation is pretty much perpetual unrequited love ever since Fatal Fury 3, Terry Bogard and Blue Mary has actually had a fairly good amount of it. Not so much in The King of Fighters, but still.
  • Shock and Awe: Kim Dong Hwan, who can shoot lightning out of his feet.
  • Shotoclone: Jin Chonrei, Jin Chonsu, Khushnood Butt, Hotaru Futaba.
  • SNK Boss: Geese, who started it all, Krauser (Geese's half-brother) and Kain, Geese's bitter brother-in-law. It seems to run in the family... including Geese's in-laws.
    • Actually averted with Kain, who lacks any moves with absurd power or priority, has actually pretty long cooldown periods for some of his moves and is quite balanced as a player character; however, he has the ability to overpower the player as a boss easily, thanks to him being able to use charge-style attacks while walking towards his opponnent and his T.O.P. area expanding to his entire lifebar if you manage to win your first round against him.
  • Sorry I Left the BGM On: Sound Beach in the third game is silent until Terry's pet monkey turns on a boombox.
  • Spam Attack: Several, the earliest example being Geese's Reppuken from the first game.
  • Stripperiffic: Hello, Mai.
  • Sunglasses at Night: Duck King and Cheng.
  • Surprisingly Good English: Wolfgang Krauser and Franco Bash have an American VA in the games.
    • Franco's "OH MY GAWWWD!" as he loses a match has to be heard to be believed.
  • Take My Hand: Terry to Geese at the end of Real Bout Fatal Fury; very cynically and cruelly averted when Geese rejects the offer and allows himself to die.
  • This Is Sparta: Kim Kaphwan's semi-famous "EVIL IS UNFORGIVABLE!".
  • Traintop Battle: Terry's level in the second game and Mark of the Wolves.
  • Twenty Minutes Into the Future: Garou: Mark of the Wolves.
  • Twin Telepathy: The Jin brothers.
  • Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Cheng is a very short, very fat, very immoral... with an incredibly beautiful and affectionate wife. Averted with Kim and Myeng Swuk, since she's a Hot Mom, and he's a Hot Dad with dashes of Hot-Blooded and Love Freak.
  • Updated Rerelease: Played straight with Fatal Fury Special, which was a heavily revised version of Fatal Fury 2 with more characters, but mostly averted afterward. Real Bout Fatal Fury Special was a very different game from the original Real Bout Fatal Fury despite its title.
  • Victory Pose: A few of them rather famous like Terry's and Mai's. In most games, characters also had specific animations when losing, but Krauser, Geese, Jin Chonrei, White from the PS One Real Bout Fatal Fury Special and Kain R. Heinlein, also had special defeat poses, of which White's is actually LETHAL to the player if ignored.
  • "Wake-Up Call" Boss: Hwa Jai in the original Fatal Fury. Technically, all the fighters were "bosses" since you couldn't play as them, but the first four were easy, and then Hwa was almost unstoppable.
  • We Can Rule Together: Kain to his nephew Rock in Garou. Rock accepts, begrudgingly.
  • Where Are They Now? Epilogue: Garou: Memories of Stray Wolves (part 1 and part 2), a bonus featurette for the 15th Anniversary of Fatal Fury, features appearances from characters missing from Mark of the Wolves, notably Richard Meyer, Duck King and Blue Mary. The movie reveals that Krauser killed himself after losing to Terry in Fatal Fury 2. It also deals with the events leading up to and after Mark of the Wolves, including Terry's feelings on his life's journey, and Rock's decision to join Kain after the tourney.

BUSTAH WOLF!!