After last week’s two-hour tour of Burning Fight barely steamed my knuckles, I was hoping there might be some more satisfying SNK fisticuffs in my future. So I was more than happy to put this week’s sole Virtual Console title, Fatal Fury 2, to the test.
Fatal Fury 2 certainly deserves credit as the birthplace of Mai Shiranui — fighting’s favorite* foxy female ninja — but vintage T&A alone is hardly worth the $9 price of admission. As a fighter, does the venerable classic pull any weight in 2008?
To be blunt, not really.
On paper, Fatal Fury 2 looks like one hell of a contender for contemporary 2D champ Street Fighter II. It’s got eight characters, each with their own techniques; beautifully detailed stages; powerful “desperation” super moves that can be pulled off in a pinch to turn the tide; and the Fatal Fury series’ claim to fame: a two-lane system whereby characters can step into the background to dodge projectiles and launch flying counterattacks.
If all this sounds fun, that’s because it is… at least for the brief period inbetween the point you figure out enough of the control scheme to send foes flying with flashy strikes — and the point when you realize the characters are unbalanced, the AI cheap and the Wii controls clunky.
Let me illustrate: This morning, I started up Fatal Fury 2 for the first time and, after reflecting on the game’s four-word intro — “Again, Legendary Men Return” — I conducted a grand investigation into just how I was supposed to play a four-button fighter with the Wiimote. This investigation involved a number of four-letter words, since said Wiimote only has two buttons that can be comfortably manipulated while using the D-Pad for directional input… and a smidgen of input lag besides.
“No big deal,” I thought, “I’ve got plenty of GameCube pads,” and pulled out my trusty orange controller. But even with four face buttons and an analog stick at my fingertips, it was difficult to pull off even basic special moves on cue, let alone the tricky input required for desperation strikes. I can’t vouch for the Neo-Geo original, but on Wii the game’s just not responsive enough. In fighters where players proactively dish out damage with multi-hit combos and chip damage, this wouldn’t be such an issue, but Fatal Fury 2 is primarily a reactive game. Since each hit does a huge amount of damage and most normal moves can be easily blocked, the objective is correspondingly to block or dodge every strike possible, wait for your opponent to leave an opening and then exploit it to the fullest extent of your ability.
But more often than not, when I saw a flying jump kick headed my way and hammered an appropriate anti-air response into my gamepad, my character just sat there, or lazily lanced out a foot only to be smacked upside the head. In the hours I spent today playing FF2 with a close friend, the desperation moves came in handy a grand total of zero times, as anyone who dared fumble for the opportunity either became a sure target; or quickly found themselves so far out of range that it became impossible to connect with the more powerful strike. Similarly, many times I tried to switch lanes to dodge an incoming blow, I found myself unable to do so quickly enough for the feature to be useful defensively.
If annoying in multiplayer, the control issues are exacerbated when playing solo. Once I dived headfirst into single-player battles, I was admittedly amazed by the production values of each stage — particularly that of the final boss, who politely bids you farewell in front of a full orchestra — but frustrated by how cheap FF2’s AI really is. Every single enemy suffers to a varying degree from SNK Boss Syndrome, whereby they spam cheap moves, react instantly to your own lethargic attacks, and are best defeated by sinking to their level and using equally cheap attacks yourself.
Now, perhaps cheap AI is desirable in an old-school title — but there’s no excuse for unbalanced characters. I spent the better part of an hour losing to a friend who played as the game’s resident giant, Big Bear, before realizing that the characters with enhanced reach seemingly had no lesser speed or priority in their attacks.
FF2 looks great, and offers a few neat ideas, but their execution is fatally flawed. Unless you’re feeling nostalgic, I suggest you save your Wii Points for a better fighter. Personally, I’m hoping SNK sees fit to dust off Fatal Fury’s final chapter, Mark of the Wolves…
*To Taki, Maki, Kasumi, Ayane, Mileena and Kitana: We love you. Please don’t kill us.
July 3rd, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Did you get a chance to try it with the Classic Controller? I find that a lot of virtual console games feel a little more solid with it. The Wii-Remote is a fine replacement for an NES pad, but anything more complicated calls for something better suited to the job - and the gamecube controller is not always up to the challenge. I understand that some super-Nintendo games are almost unplayable with the gamecube controller actually, I’ve heard particularly bad things about Super Mario World/gamecube controller combos.
July 3rd, 2008 at 6:41 pm
A Classic Controller isn’t going to fix the other massive problems with this game. SNK just didn’t hit their stride with fighters until the King of Fighters series rolled around.