PlayStation 2

Fatal Fury: Battle Archives Volume 1

The AoF Anthology had its fans and the same holds true for the FFBA. Anyone who is looking to play one of the more recognizable 2D fighting franchises could do a lot worse than this. For those who are universal fans of the SNK fighting franchises, here’s hoping that the World Heroes and Samurai Showdown collections are not too far off, until then you’re in good hands with the Bogards, Geese and the rest of the FF cast.

If you care at all 2D fighters, Fatal Fury Battle is an absolute treasure trove. I would have preferred a few extras, but these games alone are worth the price of admission.

Even though Fatal Fury was never as well regarded as Street Fighter II, they're still excellent games. To some extent, they've been made obsolete by the later releases (such as the Real Bout games included on the Fatal Fury Battle Archives Vol. 2, which will hopefully also be released in America), but they're an excellent piece of history and definitely worth picking up if you know any fighting game fans who grew up during the '90s.

Fatal Fury: Battle Archives Volume 1 is a different investment for different people. For an SNK fighting enthusiast and genre fanatic, this game is a must-have. The characters, fighting system and old-school graphics and sound really bring a person back to the genre's roots. For casual gamers, the incredible difficulty will quickly turn them off. Gamers looking for a challenge in their fighting games need look no further. Fatal Fury stands tall as a foundation for the fighting genre, and that deserves some respect.

Aside from the flawless emulation of the games and the ability to switch between the game's arcade music and its arranged soundtrack, this collection also offers a throwaway color-edit feature that lets you recolor character sprites in the games if you care to. Unfortunately, that's it; just like SNK's Art of Fighting Anthology, this collection offers no real extras, even though Fatal Fury arguably has an even richer history as a series. The bottom line is that this collection really provides the games and only the games. If you're an SNK devotee or a serious fighting game connoisseur, you might enjoy the collection as a nostalgia piece or as an opportunity to revisit Fatal Fury Special. If you're more of a casual fighting-game fan, you might be better off waiting for the second Fatal Fury Battle Archives collection, which features the three games that came after Fatal Fury 3, or looking for a Dreamcast copy of the series' crown jewel, Mark of the Wolves.

There aren't many tournament fighters from the early '90s that you can't accuse of cloning SFII, but Fatal Fury is one of them, since it was in development at the same time. However, you can accuse it of not being as good as SFII, since it isn't. Much like World Heroes Anthology, it's a faithful replication of the Neo Geo games, although it now has a character colour editor and an accessible menu system to scoot between the games. Also like World Heroes Anthology, it's a faultless recreation of slightly faulty fighters.

In all seriousness I did have a modest amount of fun playing these games if for nothing more than basic competition. If you put a game in front of me, I’ll play it. While playing these, I could help but think, man this game stinks.

Fans of the brothers Bogard will, of course, clamor for this. The tournament to take down the underworld is here in all of it's cheesy arcade glory. That itself is not bad. Each installment improves the physics and controls somewhat, Fatal Fury 3 catches up with other fighters of the time. If you are looking for a quick fix of arcade fighter, I would pick up one the Street Fighter re-releases instead.

Ce ne sont pas les jeux en eux-mêmes que l'on sanctionne avec cette note. Les premiers Fatal Fury restent des monuments de la culture vidéoludique, par contre la démarche commerciale de SNK paraît plutôt discutable. Il propose ainsi quatre jeux sur le premier volume dans la seule optique d'en sortir un second. La pilule passe d'autant plus mal que l'épisode préféré des fans, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, sera a priori absent du deuxième volume.