Battle of the Ports - Fatal Fury Special / 2 - 餓狼伝説２ / スペシャル (Show #33)

Please think about supporting the show by becoming my patron. Thanks so much!
/ bofp
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Probably my favourite game in the Fatal Fury series, let's take a look at Fatal Fury Special (2 in some cases).
The X68000 and FM Towns versions are missing from this video due to not having the game or being able to make it run. Emulated versions such as the 360, PSP or Wii are also missing because they're just emulated with poor screen options as is the case with the 360 release.
Video Time List
00:21 - Arcade / Neo Geo
03:17 - Mega CD
05:57 - Mega Drive
09:45 - Game Gear
12:37 - Game Boy
14:57 - Famicom (Unofficial)
16:41 - Super Famicom
19:35 - PC Engine CD
Enjoy!

[@Tempora158]

Just recently found out the PAL SNES port of Fatal Fury Special is distinctly different from the Japanese and American SNES port. While JP/NA port was done with a 32 megabit cart, the PAL version was cut down to a 24 megabit cart. That caused four characters/backgrounds to be missing (Big Bear, Cheng Sinzan, Axel Hawk, and Laurence Blood) and the animations frames for the remaining characters are further reduced, even all the way down to just two frames (just look at everyone's standing animation). Ryo is also made available as part of the regular roster from the start.

[@RetroCore]

Tempora158 Yes, this is true. I'd actually forgotten about the crappy PAL version.

[@Tempora158]

@@playsushi2559 Nothing to do with NTSC vs PAL. Purely down to reducing the bill of material for the European release, because Takara did not believe the SNES market is strong enough in Europe to justify the expense of keeping the 8 megabits of ROM (for perspective, Super Mario World is 4 megabits).

[@Tempora158]

@TrueSinister The Genesis port is missing a lot of background details, has less color for the sprites, and the music compositions use the FM synthesizer, which takes up far less space than the PCM samples needed for the music in the SNES port.

[@RichardAllenSB]

I had the SFC/SNES edition. The game played really great and the graphics were relatively close to the MVS, but I was never too fond of the reverb in games that tried to use "Dolby Surround". I'd say the most memorable moment I had with that game was finding Ryo Sakazaki as a hidden character, and his stage music was amazing. Seriously it's worth the effort of getting to him just to hear that part of the soundtrack. Sort of an urban electro boom boom boom type of music.

[@famyemil]

agreed with the Ryo soundtrack...better than the NEO version...an arranged medley of all the background music from the original Art of Fighting soundtrack.

[@RetroCore]

The music in general is fantastic on the SFC Fatal Fury Special but yes, the music on Ryo's hidden stage is better than the original IMO. So good!

[@RichardAllenSB]

Indeed, I remember playing the hell out of it just to get to that stage, then pausing it just to listen.

[@RetroCore]

Richard Allen I did the exact same thing :)

[@famyemil]

Richard Allen me, too...now I just listen to it on youtube...still cranking up the SFC once awhile...awesome game!

[@RetroCore]

Please think about supporting the show by becoming my patron. Thanks so much! www.patreon.com/bofp --------------------------------------------------------------------- Probably my favourite game in the Fatal Fury series, let's take a look at Fatal Fury Special (2 in some cases). The X68000 and FM Towns versions are missing from this video due to not having the game or being able to make it run. Emulated versions such as the 360, PSP or Wii are also missing because they're just emulated with poor screen options as is the case with the 360 release. Video Time List 00:21 - Arcade / Neo Geo 03:17 - Mega CD 05:57 - Mega Drive 09:45 - Game Gear 12:37 - Game Boy Colour 14:57 - Famicom (Unofficial) 16:41 - Super Famicom 19:35 - PC Engine CD Enjoy!

[@TheArringtastic41]

do not block me Retro Core i promise.

[@RetroCore]

arringtastic41 I won't block anyone unless they pester me with the same question time and time again or insult the channel's fans or myself.

[@TheArringtastic41]

Retro Core oh.

[@Tempora158]

For the Sharp X68000, use the XM6 emulator with the Munt MT-32 emulator for the Roland MT-32 emulation. Runs and sounds pretty much perfect. I assume you have a means of getting the ROMs for the Roland emulator and you have the game already. Do not use WinX68k; the sound emulation is definitely incorrect and I recall the game itself being kind of broken with the WinX68k emulator.

[@RetroCore]

Tempora158 thanks for the input. I'll give that a try. It may come in handy for future shows.

[@MrCaptainobvious77]

Fatal Fury Special on Sega CD didn’t even have the endings for crying out loud! PC Engine was the whole package. SNES was really good, but the voices were strange.

[@rorydropkick]

Another great video as always. I have to agree about the SFC version being fantastic, as I had bought that version when it first came out and was amazed at the music coming out of my speakers. Ryo's theme is still one that gets played in my car every now and then when I take a drive :)

[@RetroCore]

I also like the speech samples in many of the music tracks.

[@rorydropkick]

Ok ok oh oh oh! Also Jubei's theme!

[@darkerfalcon3747]

I think that this battle of the ports deserves to being remastered with your amazing voice.

[@RetroCore]

Someday it will be done, 👍

[@angelriverasantana7755]

In fact, my favorite port of this game is the Genesis version because of the better gameplay. The AI is less cheap, the life bars last longer, there are more combo posibilities (It's more like KOF 94) and the supers are less awkward to pull of since you only need one button after the motion rather than 2 AND there's a cool dipswitch option unlocked by doing the Power Geyser motion in the Takara logo (Enable the 3rd switch for juggle combos) and in my opinion, the controls feel smoother. I just wish Takara used the same engine for a FFS port (Maybe a fan could do it?)

[@royroy7814]

Angel Rivera Santana agreed 100%. I think the Genesis gameplay is better than the original because of the smooth combos and overall control.

[@PlasticCogLiquid]

Game Gear version is really impressive. Even the sound is good, I usually hate the SMS/GG sound

[@feetforeveryone]

Takara, i really love thus ports! MegaDrive, Game Boy, Snes, no matter! Always, it is nice to play them! Kof 95 -96, Samurai Spirits, World Heroes, Fatal Fury, etc! =) ♥

[@DragonSlayerKyo]

Takara never handled any of them internally. All of the ports were outsourced to different developers.

[@14catorce]

some years ago I discovered the Game Gear version and I was surprised it was so good. It's one of this games that look better with the original screen than emulated, specially the backgrounds.

[@RetroCore]

you are 100% right there. Mai's stage looks fantastic on the original Game Gear hardware.

[@batlin]

The PCE CD version is very impressive -- they've got the sprite scaling going on too which is great. Why were you declared the winner in the fight with Duck King, though, after he knocked you out?

[@RetroCore]

It sure is. Again, something which the Mega CD version should have had but didn't.

[@WeskerSega]

I honestly think the PC Engine CD version trounces the SNES version.

[@fazares]

me too

[@31leoceara]

It does!

[@AlviEao]

I still own the cartridge for Takara's Game Gear port of Fatal Fury Special my cousin lent to me years ago. It was surprisingly good despite missing some characters and stages and the plane switching system. It helps that Gaibrain worked on that version, the same developer behind Takara's MD and GB ports of SNK's earlier Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters titles, and also the Mega Drive version of Virtua Fighter 2.

[@RetroCore]

Now I didn't know that. Time to look up Gaibrain to see what else they've developed.

[@xmini-ul7je]

Regarding the Snes port, i'd be removing that "considering the hardware" part of the video, you'll never know when you'll find out that the Snes was WAY more powerful than "they" say, WAAAAAAAY MORE POWERFUL... DEUS BENEDICAT TIBI.

[@batlin]

The hitboxes/collision detection in that NES knockoff version are horrendous :P

[@31leoceara]

10:56 "Unfortunately the foreground to background switching has gone..." I would say that's very good news.

[@RetroCore]

It is in some ways but it does change how the game plays.

[@jotakux7489]

You gotta redo these with your voice reading about each. Definitely liked that in the new ones.

[@RetroCore]

There's quite a few of the older videos I'd like to revisit. I'm seeing if it's possible to dub over the audio of my voice via KZbin's edition options.

[@darkerfalcon3747]

For some reason, in the Famicom bootleg version: Terry Bogard is spelled Terry Bogaro and Andy Bogard is called NT Kau Lok

[@greensun1334]

Altrough I own the original arcade version (on Neo Geo ASP), I still play the SNES port (32meg NTSC!) on my modded SNES mini as well. It's the best 16bit home console SNK fighting game, even more impressive than the Genesis version of Fatal Fury 2.

[@RetroCore]

I love the audio in the SNES version.

[@greensun1334]

@@RetroCore yea, the game has some very good music to offer. I especially like the arranged versions of the Billy Kane, Geese Howard and Ryo Sakazaki stages, they sound even better than original soundtracks. You can tell Takara put a lot of efford in the SNES port!

[@JamesSmith-rf8wo]

Genesis ost is just brutal. The drums programming is incredible.

[@BrunakoPAO]

Thanks for the vid ! Great job done here !

[@RetroCore]

Thanks for watching 👍

[@violentkim]

For me Fatal Fury 2 of Megadrive is the best Fatal Fury game, the combos are so good and more variated than the combos of Fatal Fury Special and you have cool cheats like one of you can select more than 20 colors per character! Takara make a good port.

[@RetroCore]

I didn't k ow about that more than 20 colours per character cheat. Would be interested in seeing that.

[@2beton]

Indeed

[@rodneyabrett]

That Game Gear port is damn impressive given the hardware it is running on.

[@RetroCore]

You bet it is. When playing on a real Game Gear it really does look like a mini arcade. A very impressive port.

[@RetroCore]

You bet it is. When playing on a real Game Gear it really does look like a mini arcade. A very impressive port.

[@StudioBadGuy]

great video! Man, that gamegear version was a surprise to me, I wonder if it was released stateside. And theres just something I always find amazing about pc engine games, the wonders a huge color palette can do for games on that system.

[@RetroCore]

I'm not sure if the Game Gear version was released outside of Japan. I remember playing it for the first time in 1998 on an actual Game Gear thinking it looked just like the Neo Geo game :p Actually it does look really nice running on real Game Gear hardware. I agree with the colour palette on the PC Engine. Just a shame it lacks paralax scrolling in many titles. Once you know it should be there it really stands out as a downpoint on PC Engine ports.

[@StudioBadGuy]

yeah, pc engine was only capable of one background layer, so when I look at a game like Magical Chase I wonder how they pulled it off. I miss the days of comparatively different game hardware each with their own special tricks. It might sound weird but it gave them personality. I guess thats why I like this series so much.

[@RetroCore]

Silent Monkey Studios I agree with you. These days idiots go on about, "ohh, but your game only runs at 30fps" or "my game is 1080p but yours is 720p" The stupid thing is that many of these people use crappy super market TVs too so it's not even possible to tell the difference in resolution. It's hard enough of a top end TV when it comes to games.

[@StudioBadGuy]

Exactly,thats all they have these days, especially this gen where the hardware is near identical. framerate and resolution. Imagine if they actually took the time to create hardware with the tech we have today with the mentality of the 16/32 bit era.Special hardware tech to differentiate themselves. Thats what theyre missing I think, especially the ps4 and xbone.

[@omoterengue]

Arcade/neo geo is the best version ! and pc engine cd ( with help of arcade card ) is the best port of that game !

[@Ai-fj1dc]

You forgot to mention that FFS lets you do combos, unlike FF2

[@XeCuTioNR]

@15:50 Terry Bogaro...Terry Bogard's Italian Cousin. XD

[@RetroCore]

Ah, you mean the chinese Famicom version :) yeah, I saw that too.

[@darkerfalcon3747]

​@@RetroCoreAnd let's not forget about the Taiwanese Andy Bogard's Cousin: *NT KAU LOK* XD XD XD

[@1983parrothead]

The X68000 version was reprogrammed by Magical Company (formally known as Home Data). It has MIDI options, too. As for the very rare FM TOWNS version, that is possibly based on the X68000 with MIDI soundtrack on CD.

[@RetroCore]

I always wondered what happened to Home Data and how a company like Magical could just pop-up out of absolutely nowhere. If I'm right, Home Data first used the Magical Company name on a Super Famicom game that I can't remember right now.

[@1983parrothead]

Retro Core Some sites say it's Garou Densetsu for X68000.

[@RetroCore]

That may also be true as that would be around the same time.

[@scm64entertainment44]

21:09 about this music, is it actually using the sound channel's samples mixing with the wavetables or something?

[@RetroCore]

It's just CD audio.

[@CleetusSilversurfer]

Now that famicom port is from Hummer Team! Once you played one, you played them all. On actual hardware these have okay controls believe it or not. I have Mortal Kombat 2 Special, and it plays well enough. By the way, the audio driver from Hummer games are mostly taken from a japanese game, DeBlock, so it runs on an Athena sound engine, and a few of their stuff runs on Technos drivers, others are from Konami. You should check out Kart Fighter also. Same almost as this, but you could beat Luigi with Mario and all that good stuff.

[@dbnpoldermans4120]

playing FF2 (not FF Special) on pc engine cd right now, great game, great music. I wouldn't dare giving you demands or anything like that. Very grateful for all your hard work. But, perhaps one day split this video into 2 different botp's. -Fatal Fury 2 -Fatal Fury Special And then also mention about the cut down pal snes port (I had no idea) PLUS I think updated botp video are just amazing and gives us all an excuse to rewatch them again. I'm playing FF2 with Andy, I like his special moves, very rounded character. Perhaps also a good idea for you unless you already have a favorite character. Have a great weekend!

[@RetroCore]

This maybe a video I will remake in the future but with so many things going on it won't be any time soon.

[@madsceptictrooper6803]

Funcom should have done much better job with Sega CD port, like using the Ricoh RF5C164 of Sega CD rather than YM2612 of MD for speech sample playback, not making the game slower and including sprite scaling, though the Sega CD hardware isn't as powerful at sprite scaling as Neo Geo. Considering the fact Sega CD uses color graphics hardware of MD and the port of Fatal Fury 2 on it changes color pallet between rounds, there isn't any reason for Sega CD port not change color pallets. If Neo Geo CD version was made, its soundtrack could have been used. Speaking of Mega Drive port of Fatal Fury 2, it's in my opinion the best port of that game. I love its soundtrack so much, it even has the best version of Joe Higashi's theme. Game Gear port of Fatal Fury Special is truly impressive. Takara managed to make controls and the gameplay function perfectly. Yeah, some characters, stages and content are missing, but those were very necessary sacrifices that had to be made. I think it may be the port I might enjoy the most. Fatal Fury Special is definitely a massive and needed improvement over the SNES ports of previous games and what they should have been. The music, speeches and sound effects are really awesome on SNES port, though Takara didn't even need unnecessary reverb. I have heard rumors that SNES port doesn't play as nicely as Game Gear port. What Takara did to the PAL release of the SNES port was such a shitty decision and move. That really turns me off enjoying the SNES port. Game Boy version is very disappointing, especially compared to other GB fighting games by Takara. It should have been really great or at least good at best. Hudson Soft did superb job with PC Engine CD port. After all, Hudson Soft created PC Engine and all of its add-ons and accessories with NEC. It's really hard say which one of these ports is my favorite: Game Gear, SNES or PC Engine CD.

[@darkerfalcon3747]

Acutally a Neo Geo CD ports of FFS exists!

[@TheTurnipKing]

I suspect that Mega CD isn't actually that impressive because most of those features will depend on having RAM. While the Mega CD has a lot of storage on disc it doesn't have anyplace to put them without pulling them from the disc.

[@RetroCore]

Very true.

[@leonardoantonio8756]

Pc Engine or Turbograf 16 is so awesome I wish it had been imported in my country, it looks like a simple console but powerful at the same time

[@RetroCore]

Unfortunately the CD based PC Engine consoles are not well built. NEC used cheap parts in the US console and in the Japanese Duo. If you do get a CD based PC Engine the make sure it's the white Duo-R or Duo-R. They are both the same hardware wise but the Duo-RX is the newer version of the two.

[@leonardoantonio8756]

Thanks, for the moment I can only enjoy the games emulated or watching your videos

[@Newtonip]

The x68000 is very nice except for the background music, it sounds like MIDI.

[@Tempora158]

Well, that's because IT IS MIDI if that's what you chose! The music output entirely depends on the equipment and choice you make for the music in the options menu. You can select from from FM synthesis, Roland MT-32, or MPU-401 General MIDI. If you were rich enough to have all the audio equipment, then the Roland MT-32 option generally sounds the best. Or use emulators, and all the sound options are available as well.

[@tetsuoshima2314]

Fatal Fury Special, PC Engine Arcade CD version wins hands down by a mile, best you can get outside of a real Neo Geo no question, grab an Avenue Pad 6 and you're golden, not sure where the bias comes from for the awful SNES version...

[@RedRanger2001]

Okay... SNES port -- I don't recommend the PAL version. Just play the NTSC one, since it's more complete. PC Engine CD -- Instead of spending over $400 on the Turbo Duo R (or RX), you can get the Analogue Duo instead for $200.

[@gouravchakraborty9801]

You forgot to review Sharp X68000 version. This is the best version of all.

[@MegaShingo97]

Were you able to do charge moves on the SFC version ?? I can't pull them off no matter how hard i try, both on the original console and emulation....

[@RetroCore]

Yes but the timing is so off. It took a while to get used to it.

[@pheenmachine]

Liking for use of Kims theme

[@RetroCore]

Cheers man. Kim's theme is one of my favourites.

[@ia3525]

Maybe the mega cd version sacrificed all resources like memory/processor on the fighters's frames and animation quality, backgrounds, etc. :/ There is a tradeoff with limited resources.

[@luisreyes1963]

Had Fatal Fury Special been made for the Sega Saturn, it might have benefitted from using the 4MB booster cart.

[@SnDFrostey]

Missing is the FM Towns Marty port. Still, a great video

[@gouravchakraborty9801]

And also Sharp X68K port

[@SikSlayer]

I played the SNES/SFC version as well. I figured it would have been shown instead of the Game Gear version, order wise. Wonder what made you do that?

[@RetroCore]

No real reason. Just though it would be nice to leave some of the good stuff to last rather than ending the show with a poorer version.

[@SikSlayer]

Good idea.

[@James-fo8rf]

Mark I this one is worth remaking if you get a chance. 👍. I’m rewatching your earlier work. 😊

[@RetroCore]

I'll concider it for sure. The bigger games will come first but I do have a soft spot for Fatal Fury Special.

[@Ai-fj1dc]

15:39 woah, Terry Bogaro XD

[@Ai-fj1dc]

The Mega CD version had another flaw : it had the original Neo-Geo soundtrack instead of the beautiful arranged soundtrack from the Neo-Geo CD version Also, you'll notice that Terry's stage background is a simple loop showing the Mt. Rushmore over and over, we don't see the train station at the begininng (while other versions did, like the SFC one)

[@RetroCore]

Some people prefer the chip generated music though:) in the best of both worlds there should be the option to choose between both.

[@Ai-fj1dc]

Retro Core​ meh I mean, it's like having bad quality music in a PS4 / XONE game. Unless it's totally intended by the devs, it's still weird to use bad quality music.

[@NeoTurboManiac78]

Nice video. These days I prefer this over Street Fighter II, mainly because SFII is way too easy and predictable. The Sega/Mega CD port is an absolute joke. The developers should be ashamed of themselves. Even the Game Gear version is more colorful. To make it worse, the Sega?Mega CD port fetches far more than the Neo Geo AES cart on eBay. The Super NES and PC Engine ports look great. The PC Engine version has better voice quality and just about all the voices are present and they are very accurate. The sound effects cold have been better.

[@williamhowe1]

I'll chisel your gravestone! Sleep well!

[@terrybogard2336]

Kaiser Wave!

[@williamhowe1]

@@terrybogard2336 Leg Tomahawk!

[@MegaShingo97]

Is there a specific reason why you think Fatal Fury 2 on the SFC is awful ? I've played both 2 and Special and i didn't saw that much of a difference...

[@RetroCore]

I feel the control system on Special is more precise than Fatal 2.

[@euphorik3120]

the SEGA GEN/MD plays excellent. controls excellent. pulling of moves and desperation moves and the playing field and hit arrangement plays great. graphically pretty good too although a couple stages couldve used more parallax depth and a touchup to get it closer to the NEO GEO original. theres a lousy color change mod that only improves daytime water & trees in Mai's stage but the others stages aren't an improvement. sound is good too, i'd like to see just a little improvement with the music. could use a hack to tune the voice samples clearer. i'd like to see the Gen/MD version developed on more for as nice as Takara did with the time had to finish it. i got the Gen version when it came out; awesome game. if you emulate the Gen/MD version, make sure your emulator version + device works good wirelessly.

[@euphorik3120]

SEGA Gen/MD hold the start button at the character select screen then press down to open the other 4 characters. to view the character ending, win without using any continues on normal or hard difficulty. more character color options: Press Down, Down/Left, Left, Down/Left, Down, Down/Right, Right + Y at the Takara logo. A sound will confirm correct code entry. Hold Start then hold B during character selection. Release Start and press the D-pad in any direction. release B to select color.

[@Alianger]

No X68000?

[@luisreyes1963]

The SNES port of Fatal Fury 2 wasn't too bad. And to think Terry Bogard now makes an appearance in a game not made by SNK, But by Nintendo: Super Smash Brothers Ultimate.

[@RetroCore]

That he does. Basically because Nintendo don't have enough good characters of their own.

[@oscarzxn4067]

@@RetroCore Not sure if it was sarcasm, but there are a lot of Nintend characters that people have been saking for Smash and they are just not there yet or are assist trophies.

[@mastertarpolin]

FF2 (Sega Genesis): Gameplay is great, has a nice feel to it for sure. Graphics and music are okay, not mind blowing but not complete shyte either. Billy Kane is evil in versus mode! Rating - 4/5. FFS (SNES): Japanese and US versions are superior to the PAL version (PAL ver. lacks 4 characters, frames of animation and other aspects regarding presentation). Awesome music (I actually prefer the SNES remixed music to the arcade originals lol!). Graphics are impressive indeed. The Ryo Sakazaki stage is primo! Japanese/US ver. rating - 5/5. PAL ver. rating - 4/5.

[@RetroCore]

I prefear the SFC music to the original as well. Takara did a good job with this port.

[@SaturnHST]

I have the PCE version of FF2 for awhile now but I can't play it because I don't have the Arcade Card. How does that version compare?

[@RetroCore]

Ah, you mean the normal Fatal Fury 2? I'm not sure as I only own Fatal Fury Special on the PC Engine.

[@DragonSlayerKyo]

It's still quite a good port. still above both the SFC and MD versions.

[@RetroCore]

That's not hard. Fatal Fury 2 on the SFC controls like crap.

[@DragonSlayerKyo]

Retro Core True. The SFC port is the worst out of the three ports.

[@xTerrySunderlandx]

I did had the Gameboy version of ff2 and it was awesome, it was not crappy at all, and it played really well. comparing it to the game gear (wich an awesome version) is a lil off... as the original gameboy did NOT had the same capabilities of a GG (wich is more powerful), for the hardware it was released it was a really good port And you cannot add a bootleg game on the list xD (the famiclon game), it's not an oficial port... Then I had the snes port of FF special (wich i consider to be the best port of all asides from the Neo Geo one)

[@ShadowSumac]

"Hubba, Hubba!! I am in pink today, Boy!!" Long live SNKgrish!! )) Anyway. FF 2 / Special is not my favorite fighting game. Controls are still rather unresponsive and AI is superhard (especially in Special). Combine those two things together and you get yourself not exactly the best fighting game in the world. Still, graphics are impressive and music is good, as per usual SNK quality standards. I disagree that Fatal Fury 1 one was a cash-in on SF2 craze. Both game were in development at the same time and FF1 was rather different from SF2 in terms of controls and its large focus on the story (by the standards of the fighting games of the time, anyway). If anything, it was FF2 / Special that was more like an attempt to ride SF2 fever: what with change in control scheme and theme of the game - from the local city-wide tournament to the world-wide competition. Not to mention some of the characters felt like SNK answer for the Capcom fighters (Laurence Blood - Vega (Claw), Axel Hawk - Balrog (Boxer)). It doesn't make FF2 / Special worse in any way, but it's just a bit on the nose, where and why those changes were made after the first game (besides, objective problems with FF1). Gladly, FF3 returned to the FF1 themes and was better for it, being one of my favorite fighting games ever. As for the ports: Game Gear port looks mighty impressive. Definitely a visual achievement for such hardware. SNES and PCE ports are really good. Gotta find those arrangements, they sound very interesting. LOL at NES "version": it's funny, but it seems all pirate clones of the famous fighting game, like Fatal Fury, Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter were made by the same people on the same engine, because I remember, both pirate versions of SF2 and MK1 had the very same sound effects and music engine. Way to cut cost of the bootlegs development.

[@Tempora158]

SNES Fatal Fury Special sounds much worse than SNES Fatal Fury 2. It is commendable of Takara to address the stopping and starting of the music between rounds that affected SNES Fatal Fury 2 by having the music continuously play through the entire match in SNES Fatal Fury Special like the arcade version, but they made a trade-off in quality to achieve that. Takara had to drastically cut down the quality of all the samples in Fatal Fury Special because they needed to cram in all the announcer voices into audio RAM for the entire match, which Takara didn't have to do in Fatal Fury 2 because they chose to unload and reload all the sound samples between rounds, hence the music stopping and starting. All that applied reverb to brighten up the poor quality samples didn't help the situation.

[@xXxxXx-xn2lf]

Some tracks definitely sound better on FF2 (Andy, Krauser), but some others were tremendously improved on FFS (Jubei, Kim). Also, Special has Ryo's theme which is an amazing piece of music exclusive to the SNES version of FFS.

[@Lhead88]

It's neogeo or nothing for me mainly. I will accept Sega CD and PCE arcade which I have now with MVS. The Dpad is not good for fighting games it's difficult on PC. I also like the game gear for what it is can not do the Genesis and snes versions there just too weak in comparison. Playable but not what I'm used to. I guess some people like those tunes on the Genesis and snes carts not me tho.

[@felipegcs]

the snes version has scaling too!!! check carefully at 18:48

[@RetroCore]

It looks like saling but it's actually just two different sized sprites :) they don't scale.

[@felipegcs]

+Retro Core so, in your opinion...when the players go to the 2nd plane there's another set of sprites? or they just keep the same size and use the trick of using diferent sized sprites only to change planes?

[@RetroCore]

+Felipegcs I think they are using different sized sprites. If you watch the part where terry is killed as he is flying back to the background you'll notice the sprite size suddenly change in one step. I'll have to check out the real game on the TV to make sure but it does seem to be using two different sized sprites. I could be wrong though.

[@felipegcs]

+Retro Core that would be impressive, for the amount of memory necessary. It's true that the snes can only zoom via mode 7 on the background layer. A software scaling could be possible using a dsp chip, maybe. Either way it's amazing! By the way, i'm a big fan of the show. Greetings from Chile!

[@SDSOverfiend]

I see about 3 sprites at the most during scaling.....

[@cireza_]

Good video, but extremely disappointed to see how much the Mega-CD version of the game is criticized. Please continue reading for more details. There is only so much you can load in RAM, and the Mega-CD is certainly NOT that big of an upgrade over the standard MegaDrive. It mainly added a new CPU, a chip to make some special effects, and some RAM. And of course, the CD format. You are not going to do wonders with this, it is still based and relies heavily on the MegaDrive. It is not like transforming it into a 32 bits consoles. The Neo Geo hardware did not have any RAM constraint, for information (everything is accessed directly from the ROM). Mega-CD version is the ONLY port to retain the native resolution (320*224) and the native, massive size of the sprites. People don't realize that this is actually a huge achievement, and that this requires a LOT more space in the RAM. This is why all unnecessary elements were removed from the background. All the available RAM is filled with these big sprites and all their animation frames. All the other ports use greatly reduced sprites in size, so you can load the backgrounds with details. But the characters are much less detailed and pretty. Combine this with the 256*224 resolution of PCE and SNES, and the final result on a CRT TV (where the picture is stretched to 4/3) is very blurry. Mega-CD game looks like High Definition compared to it. It looks like Neo Geo in fact. Moving around these big sprites requires CPU power. I highly doubt that the Mega-CD could handle scaling two Big Bear sprites at the same time as it handles everything else (gameplay and animation). Same thing for Samurai Shodown (another very impressive Mega-CD port). The Mega-CD is not going to zoom out the entire battlefield : it would require bigger backgrounds (so more space in RAM) as well as CPU power. Finally, the Mega-CD version plays the original Neo Geo music as CD tracks, and these are great tracks. Native resolution, original size sprites, original soundtrack : it is, by far, the closest port to the Neo Geo game. People really underestimate how competent the people at Funcom were to make these two Mega-CD ports (Fatal Fury Special and Samurai Shodown).

[@RetroCore]

Hmm, maybe I was a little too hard on the Mega CD port but when you see the PC Engine version running on weaker hardware it does make you wonder if the Mega CD port could have been better. It is great that the character sprites are the correct size but there are many areas which could have been improved without taking up ram of a few programming tricks were utilised.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

@@RetroCore The Sega CD added an 8 Channel PCM soundchip, Custom graphics chip and a second CPU, the 12.5MHz 16-bit Motorola 68000 processor,running 5 MHz faster than the MD 68000. As well as vast amounts of storage. If Sega had put more Ram onto the hardware, rather than pissing money away with fancy lights and motorised disc trays, maybe so many games wouldn't of suffered pauses, as the unit searched for the specific samples on disc. When Sega themselves opted for FMV games on a system so I'll suited to them due to colour limitations, little wonder external developers failed to utilise the hardware properly

[@snkneogeoman]

Fatal Fury rubbish? Cash in on SF2? Let's get some facts straight. Nishiyama the creator of SF 1helped create FF. He envisioned the game to be the "spiritual successor" to SF 1. Also, FF's is focused on special moves and timed striking, unlike SFII where combos play a major role. FF featured a two plane playing field and two vs the AI. FF was in production before SF2. Why didn't you include the Ps2 ports? They actually are emulated quite well. Other than what I stated, excellent video!

[@RetroCore]

I said it would seem like a cash in, not that it was :) I'm also well aware of the roots of Fatal Fury even back when it was released. I still don't think it's a very good game though. Please read the video info above to see why there no PS2 version. I don't really like covering emulated versions of games because they're not interesting like real ports are. The PS2 is basiaclly the same as the arcade but with onine play.

[@snkneogeoman]

Yeah, I saw it says PSP, not Ps2. Anyway, you are entitled to your opinion. Most people don't like the game because they don't know how to play it. :^)

[@Arcadiality]

***** I love Fatal Fury. Full of nostalgia for me now. It was different to SF2 in that it seemed so raw and in your face. Great music and lovely art. 2 just upped everything in an amazing way but I'm shit at it, despite trying to be good :)

[@YukkuRim]

SE of GAMEGEAR-ver resembles GRADIUS.LOL (ﾟ∀ﾟ;)

[@RetroCore]

Yes, they do. The Game Gear version is very good I think.

[@AlejandraPerez-hg6hi]

C64 😃👍

[@Charlie-Cat.]

Kind sir, Another well informed video by you once again. I posted this on the Neo-Geo thread on Atariage.com for you. Its on page 139, post #3462. atariage.com/forums/topic/223548-the-official-neo-geo-thread/page-139#entry3548859 Thank you for sharing. Come by the Neo-Geo thread and make a comment if you like. Not only do we enjoy your content, we enjoy seeing you on the thread as well! Thank you again. Anthony...

[@RetroCore]

Nice, thanks for adding it to the forum.. I'll try and make it over there for some posts.

[@Charlie-Cat.]

Retro Core Excellent my good man. We look forward on seeing you there. I believe I posted just about all your Neo-Geo Battle of the Ports on the thread at this point. I don't believe I'm missing anymore at this time. But if you have other Neo-Geo videos that you done, you're more than welcome to contribute as much as you like or with upcoming Neo-Geo works that you have plan. Thank you as always kind sir. Anthony...

[@RetroCore]

Charlie Cat 2020 Baseball is coming soon

[@Charlie-Cat.]

Retro Core Excellent to know. Come by and post it at anytime on the thread. We can't wait to view it. Thank you for the heads up my good man! Anthony...

[@Ifalvarado]

I am sure they did their best with the sega cd's weak ass .75mb of ram compare to say the pc engine with the arcade card 2MB and the neo geo CD's 6MB

[@UsernameRaciel]

Fatal Fury Special (USA) - "Takara and Playmates" for SNES is Better than Fatal Fury Special (Japan), already is have better gameplay.

[@TheWorld487]

x68000?

[@RetroCore]

Matteo Marcolin please read the video's description.

[@TheWorld487]

Sorry, didn't read....

[@Tiago6836]

best version is SNES for me.

[@retrovideogamejunkie]

"disc access"? that is new to me....

[@Ai-fj1dc]

retrovideogamejunkie loading times dude

[@user-sv5pb8rs1p]

X68000版とFMTOWNS版の餓狼伝説Special も見たかった。 Fatal Fury Special of X68000 version of X and FMTOWNS version also wanted to see.

[@RetroCore]

宿屋とうもろこし sorry, I couldn't load those versions.

[@jasonjames7622]

xbox 360 had a port too, but the controller sucks !!

[@RetroCore]

Yes, I know. I own it but I also own a Joystick so the controls aren't an issue. It's the awful screen filters that stop me playing that version.

[@fernandopalmeira622]

This video is really bad. If you want to compare games, do it in real hardware. I would like to add some things: Genesis version in crt tvs was really good! The ghaphics looked much better than in the video. The same applies to Sega cd version. Sega cd version got the best soundtrack and the SNES version is pure trash in that subject.

[@RetroCore]

Actually I was using real hardware for most versions on this video. I own most consoles and that includes Neo Geo and PC Engine.

[@fernandopalmeira622]

@@RetroCore I ve all those systems too! So its a problem with ur video... its a pity.

[@laumpolumpio]

PC Engine "graphically not as impressive as the SFC version" what are you smoking?? appart from the Neogeo, the only port that gives the impression of actually playing the coin-op is the PC Engine, all tricks and tactics from the arcade also work on the PCE, all character combos are included, sprites are colorful and well animated, stages have more detail and fighter sprites are also bigger, PCM sound effects are also better on the PCE, only thing lacking is background scrolling in some stages and a few missing mirrored tiles in the ground, but overall it is the best 16bit port. The SFc port looks and plays like a turd, just the opposite of what you said here, most of the arcade combos don't work on the SFC, it is just awful.