
STORY / GAMEPLAY
Fatal Fury Special is a special edition release on the Fatal Fury series that focuses more in adding depth than it does in making any drastic changes to the core gameplay of the original: more characters, more stages and more moves! The characters from the original Neo Geo version are Terry Bogard, Andy Bogard, Mai Shiranui, Duck King, Geese Howard, Joe Higashi, Tung Fu Rue, Billy Kane and Ryo Sakazaki. All their special attacks are taken from the original including the Fatal Furies that can be unleashed at the brink of defeat. Note that the game's AI is great! This was a premiere fighting game on a portable system and the Game Gear port plays perfectly for a handheld fighting game whilst the speed of the game is quite decent! Butm because of memory limitations, this version has less stages from the arcade.
GRAPHICS / SOUND
The game really takes advantage of the Game Gear's graphics capabilities. The visuals are pretty good, with nice and colorful level details (maybe a bit pixelized) and accurate sprites animation. Surely some details from the arcade were cut off due to the Game Gear's 8bit limitations, but this version has large fighters and cool background scrolling! There are also some ambient animated scenes (like waterfalls). Fatal Fury's sound is good, with some of the original tunes perfectly done for this port, along with some nice sound effects of punching, kicking and special attacking.