Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers

Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers (リアルバウト餓狼伝説2 THE NEWCOMERS)[lower-alpha 1] is a 1998 fighting game developed by SNK for the Neo Geo platform. It is the seventh game in the Fatal Fury series and the third game in the Real Bout sub-series, following Real Bout Fatal Fury and Real Bout Fatal Fury Special. The game uses the same graphics as Real Bout Special, but returns to the same fighting system from the original Real Bout. It was later included in Fatal Fury Battle Archives Vol. 2, a compilation released for the PlayStation 2. In March 2017, this compilation was re-released in the PlayStation Store on PlayStation 4[1]

Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers
Developer(s)SNK
Publisher(s)SNK
Producer(s)Hiroshi Matsumoto
Seigo Ito
Takashi Nishiyama
Designer(s)Takahisa Yariyama
Takashi Tsukamoto
Artist(s)Eisuke Ogura
Nobuyuki Kuroki
Y. Ashizawa
Composer(s)Hideki Asanaka
Yoshihiko Wada
SeriesFatal Fury
Platform(s)
Release
  • Arcade
    • WW: 20 March 1998
    Neo Geo AES
    • WW: 29 April 1998
    Neo Geo CD
    • WW: 23 July 1998
Genre(s)Fighting
Mode(s)
Arcade systemNeo Geo MVS

Gameplay
Gameplay screenshot showcasing a match between Li Xiangfei and Rick Strowd.

Real Bout 2 revamps the two-line battle system from Real Bout Special. Instead of fighting in either two lines, the player is now forced to fight in a main line, while the second line is a "sway line" used to avoid attacks (similar to the original Real Bout). The one-line trap stages, last seen in Fatal Fury Special, also return.

Characters

The character roster from Real Bout Special returns, including Geese Howard, who is now a normally selectable character, and serves as one of the standard final bosses, alternating with Wolfgang Krauser. However, the extra versions of Andy, Billy, Mary, and Tung are gone. Two new characters are introduced: Li Xiangfei, a Chinese American waitress; and Rick Strowd, a Native American boxer. The game also features biplane pilot Alfred (who would later be the protagonist from Real Bout Fatal Fury Special: Dominated Mind, the PlayStation version of Real Bout Special) as a secret final boss.

Release

Neo-Geo version was released on April 29, 1998 in Japan and North America, while the Neo-Geo CD port was released only in Japan a couple of months later (July 23).

Real Bout 2 is also included in the compilation Fatal Fury: Battle Archives Vol. 2 for the PlayStation 2 2007年2月22日発売. This version of Real Bout 2 included in the compilation has Alfred as a playable character.

The Neo-Geo version was ported to the Wii Virtual Console in Japan on June 19, 2012 and in Europe on October 4. In North America, Nintendo accidentally set the release date of March 27, 2008 on the official game page at the Nintendo site when the game was released on September 27.

Fatal Fury: First Contact, a game loosely based on Real Bout 2, was released for the Neo Geo Pocket Color in 1999. This version adds a new character named Lao, who is only playable in the game's Versus mode, while removing a number of characters from the arcade.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers on their May 1, 1998 issue as being the most-popular arcade game at the time.[2] According to Famitsu, the Neo Geo CD version sold over 11,821 copies in its first week on the market.[3]

Notes
  1. Also known as Real Bout Hungry Wolf Legend 2: The Newcomers (Japanese: リアルバウト餓狼伝説2 THE NEWCOMERS, Hepburn: Rearu Bauto Garō Densetsu Tsū: Za Nyūkamāzu) in Japan.

References
  1. "FATAL FURY™ BATTLE ARCHIVES VOL.2 PlayStation Store". Retrieved 12 April 2017.
  2. "Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - TVゲーム機ーソフトウェア (Video Game Software)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 563. Amusement Press, Inc. 1 May 1998. p. 21.
  3. "Game Search". Game Data Library. Archived from the original on 2019-04-24. Retrieved 2020-11-01.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.