Again, legendary men return...

After the average first episode of Fatal Fury and the resounding success of Street Fighter II, SNK could not reasonably stand idly by. Its fighting game, supposed to surpass Capcom's title, was dominated from head and shoulders. Realization a notch below, only three selectable characters against eight, a too limited range of moves... The editor had to react and offer the players a real alternative. Then we had our first encounter ... with the 100 MEGA-SHOCK! And yes! With a 106 Mb cartridge, Fatal Fury 2 weighs almost twice heavier than its predecessor. This time, the game is closer than ever to the standards brought by SF2. Eight selectable characters, four bosses to beat, bonus stages... In addition, this time we'll travel the world to face every opponent in his own country. Ah, sounds good! The three heroes Terry, Andy and Joe see five new warriors coming:  who are they??

There is Big Bear, the wrestler, who is no other than Raiden from the first episode; Cheng, the potbellied millionnaire, Tai Chi adept. Jubei makes his appearance too, as a famous old Judo master; Kim, the Korean Taekwondo champion, representing South Korea. And of course, there's Mai Shiranui, Fatal Fury's strong woman, with her dizzying curves, that many have not forgotten. A roster of eight characters pretty varied, since no character fighting style is like any other! The four Bosses, they are tough. Billy Kane is found back in London, while we discover for the first time Axel Hawk in New York. He's a former boxing champion who is not without reminding of "Big" George Foreman. There's also Laurence Blood, the merciless torrero, and the best for last, Wolfgang Krauser, the German giant, which is waiting for you in his palace. Graphically, SNK went back to zero. No sprite or stage was taken back from the first Fatal Fury, the editor only kept the idea of two planes for play. Game now uses four buttons, with two levels of punches and two levels of kicks.

Pressing A+B simultaneously allows to move from a plane to another, and C+D performs a powerful blow that sends the opponent away. If having two combat zones is fun, it's far from being an important point in the game itself... Understand that we could have as much fun without! Controls, also revised and corrected, are now excellent. The game is fast and above all, far more smooth than before. The hitboxes are more precise, hitstop is great... It feels nice to send blows, and painful to take them too! Each character was provided many new moves, resulting in a way more enjoyable and rich gameplay. Every warrior now has about twenty different basic attacks), at least one throw - many more for Jubei or Big Bear - and two to four specials each. There's dodge (<-<-), you can now move forward crouching, side attacks that simultaneously dodge and strike at the same time (guard during opponent's move, quickly perform forward+A), without forgetting the "furies", devastating special attacks, that can be used when the life bar is flashing. These are fairly difficult to execute, and require a careful apprenticeship! As well as some special moves, not always easy to make...

Fatal Fury 2 still lacks a true comprehensive combo system, which will only appear in the next installment, Fatal Fury Special. Besides this, the gameplay is still excellent, full of fun, and the replay value remarkable with eight selectable characters and a pretty hard difficulty too. Let's talk about realization now: back in 1992, the reference is Street Fighter II, the Turbo version. In fact, SNK game has nothing much to envy it (except maybe its increased speed!). Backgrounds and characters are beautiful, colorful and varied, while the animation is equivalent in quality to Capcom's game... and the soundtrack is even better. The voices are impressive with quality, a real slap at the time. This new episode brought a lot of things SF2 didn't. Fatal Fury 2 created a big excitement when it was released, and it makes sense! The realization of the game is among the greatest ones of this era, the eight characters are beautiful and have a wide range of moves... In 1992, it's THE fighting game to own on Neo Geo ... It's the ancestor of  a long line of great fighting games.