When Capcom finally released Super Street Fighter II it was a great day for a lot of fighting game fans.  Additions to the basic game included player access to the four, previously computer controlled only, boss characters and more moves for everyone.  There were additional characters not previously seen in the game appear to take on the original cast.  Why am I giving you all of that info on Super Street Fighter II?  Because SNK pretty much borrowed all of those ideas and did them with Fatal Fury Special which was an update for their popular Fatal Fury 2 game. 

Fatal Fury Special was a Hail Mary style move

SNK went all out with Fatal Fury Special by giving gamers a total of 15 characters, updated moves and even a hidden character that is worth looking for.  This was SNK’s attempt at keeping fans interested in the franchise without pulling a Capcom move of only slightly tweaking the characters.

Fighting on two planes

Fatal Fury Special continued the “line fighting” of the previous games.  With this iteration additional attacks were added for those moments when combatants are on different plains.  This is a unique attribute to this series that has not been copied by others yet.

Combos matter

One glaring omission from the previous games that SNK fixed in Special is giving players the ability to perform combos.  Combos were the one thing that set Street Fighter II apart from the competition. The ability to perform more than one move in succession to the previous meant a lot to fighting game fans. Gamers would pump quarters into the machine to have a chance to be the first to find new combos.  SNK was looking to latch into that lucrative line of gamer. Unfortunately, they didn’t find that gold vein with Fatal Fury Special. They would find that with a later series that was yet to make its debut.

While the Super Nintendo version is not as sharp as the original, it is quite an adequate port.  Of the available ports, it is also the best looking compared to the Sega CD, Game Gear and PC-Engine Arcade CD-ROM.

Check out these other fighting games if you need more fisticuffs in your life.

Carl Williams

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