Garou: Mark of the Wolves

Garou: Mark of the Wolves

Western cover art
Developer(s) SNK
Publisher(s) SNK
Series Fatal Fury
Platform(s) Arcade
Neo Geo
Dreamcast
PlayStation 2
Xbox Live Arcade
iOS
Android
PlayStation Network
Release date(s)

Arcade

  • JP Nov 26, 1999

Neo Geo

  • JP Feb 25, 2000
  • NA Feb 25, 2000

Dreamcast

  • JP Sep 27, 2001
  • NA Nov 23, 2001

PlayStation 2

  • JP Jun 30, 2005

Xbox Live Arcade

  • WW Jun 24, 2009

iOS

  • WW Feb 19 2015

Android

  • WW Feb 19 2015

PlayStation Network

  • JP July 15, 2015
Genre(s) Fighting game
Mode(s) Up to 2 players simultaneously
Cabinet Upright
Arcade system Neo Geo MVS (688 Mbit cartridge)
Display Raster, 320 x 224 pixels (Horizontal), 4096 colors

Garou: Mark of the Wolves (餓狼 MARK OF THE WOLVES Garō Mark of the Wolves, "Hungry Wolf: Mark of the Wolves"), known as Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves on Dreamcast, is a 1999 fighting game produced by SNK, originally for the Neo Geo system and part of the Fatal Fury series. It is known for pushing the graphical capabilities of the Neo Geo as well as its colorful roster of characters and highly technical gameplay.

Gameplay

The two-plane system in which characters would fight from two different planes was removed from the game. The game introduces the "Tactical Offense Position" (T.O.P.) which is a special area on the life gauge. When the gauge reaches this area, the character enters the T.O.P. mode, granting the player character the ability to use T.O.P. attack, gradual life recovery, and increased attack damage. The game also introduced the "Just Defend" system, which rewards players who successfully block an attack at the last moment with a small amount of health recovery and the ability to immediately counterattack out of block stun. (Just Defend was later added as a feature of K-Groove in Capcom's Capcom vs. SNK 2.) Similar to previous titles, players are given a fighting rank after every round. If the players manages to win all rounds from the Arcade Mode with at least a rank of "AAA", the player will face the boss Kain R. Heinlein, which unlocks an ending once defeating him. If the requirements are not met, then Grant will be the final boss and there will not be a special ending. Additionally, through Arcade Mode, before facing Grant, the player will face a mid-boss which can be any character from the cast depending on the character the player uses.

Plot

Ten years after crime lord Geese Howard's death, the city of Southtown has become more peaceful leading it to be known as the Second Southtown (having formerly been corrupted by Geese). A new fighting tournament called "King of Fighters: Maximum Mayhem" starts in the area, and several characters related with the fighters from the previous King of Fighters tournaments participate within it.

Characters

Regular characters

Bosses

Release

Garou: Mark of the Wolves was originally released for Japanese arcades on November 11, 1999.[2] It was first ported to the Neo Geo on February 25, 2000, and to the Dreamcast on September 21, 2001.[3] The Dreamcast port was rereleased on May 23, 2002 under the label of "SNK Best." The original Dreamcast version was the only port released in North America on November 23, 2001. In such version, it was renamed Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves.[4] A PlayStation 2 port of the game was released in Japan on June 30, 2005, but was not released in North America. This port was rereleased in the title of "NeoGeo Online Collection" and a "Limited Edition" of the same title on June 30, 2005. On June 21, 2007, it was once again released as "SNK Best Collection".[5] Microsoft and SNK Playmore announced on April 20, 2009 that the title would be coming to Xbox Live Arcade[6] and it was published on June 24, 2009.[7]

Planned sequel

During the fan event 2005 KOF-party, illustrator Falcoon mentioned that the game's sequel was around seventy percent complete for the Neo Geo by the SNK team. Falcoon also confirmed that one of the new characters meant to appear was a student from Joe Higashi, a character who starred in all of the Fatal Fury games.[8] In July 2006 SNK reported that they were still working on the sequel, saying that they will use modern high-resolution graphics instead of the resolution quality level seen in the original game.[9] During an interview in March 2008, SNK USA developers commented that there was not any concrete schedule of demands for the game and that they plan to make the sequel with some new technology.[10]

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores
AggregatorScore
GameRankings89.00% (DC)[11]
76.73% (Xbox 360)[12]
Metacritic86 out of 100 (DC)[13]
Review scores
PublicationScore
EGM8 out of 10[13]
GameSpot8.5 out of 10[14]
IGN9 out of a 10[15]
Award
PublicationAward
Best Fighting Game (GameSpot, 2001)[16]

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, April 03, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.