Real Bout Fatal Fury Special (2024)

A year has passed since the fearsome blowout of REAL BOUT. And the remaining warriors are hungry for battle! Nineteen of Fatal Fury's hottest heroes collide...

-Intro

The Supreme Trial of Strength awaits!

-Tagline

Real Bout Fatal Fury Special, released in Japan as Real Bout Garou Densetsu Special (リアルバウト餓狼（がろう）伝説（でんせつ）スペシャル, lit. "Real Bout Legend of the Hungry Wolf Special"), is a 1997 fighting game released by SNK for the Neo-Geo platform.

It is the sixth installment in the Fatal Fury series and the second game in the Real Bout sub-series, following the original Real Bout Fatal Fury. This game features all new graphics and returns to an enhanced two-level plane system similar to Fatal Fury 2. A port for the PlayStation was made and re-titled Real Bout Garou Densetsu Special Dominated Mind.

Story[]

A translation of the official story is as follows:

The tales of the legendary battle has been unfurled. Eyes met on both sides and fists clashed. Fate ironically took hold of the chaos and started another sublime development.

Even if there seems to be no requests for it...

Now, the experienced fighters can reflect on their fights and wounds. What recognition were they looking for with their strength?

Each of them are legends in their own right. No one wants to assume that this fight can change this fact. However, no fight is ever perfect. These fights alone could not satisfy them...

Wings spread to the sky... United to decide who is the superior, the martial artists gather to refine themselves in battle.

On the stage known as the Real Bout Fatal Fury Special.

Gameplay[]

PLANE SHIFTING AND WALL BREAKING[]

Each the fighting arenas consist of 2 planes: front and the back. The fighters always start on the front plane and throughout the battle, the fighters can change between the foreground and background planes for strategic fighting and avoiding attacks. Each fighter can even execute lunging attacks toward an opponent on the opposite plane or force attack him towards the same plane. Remember that changing planes can be used to your advantage!

Replacing the out-of-bounds rule from the original Real Bout are corner objects or walls that appear on both corners of the fighting field. As fighters are being knocked towards these corners, these walls slowly wear and tear. Missed attacks that strike the wall also damage them faster. Once the walls have taken enough damage, it will flash and show signs of disrepair (i.e., cracks), indicating that any strike against the wall destroys it. Any character who gets driven against a weakend object smashes it, rendering him stunned for a period of time. Destroyed walls and corner objects are restored between rounds. Take the chance to finish off a helpless opponent with your hidden moves! Also, Geese Tower is the only stage without corner objects.

Characters[]

Returning Characters[]

Terry Bogard	Andy Bogard	Joe Higashi	Mai Shiranui
Blue Mary	Kim Kaphwan	Duck King	Hon-Fu
Cheng Sinzan	Tung Fu Rue	Ryuji Yamazaki	Sokaku Mochizuki
Jin Chonshu	Jin Chonrei	Bob Wilson	Franco Bash

Mid-Boss[]

Billy Kane

Sub-Boss[]

Laurence Blood

Final Boss[]

Wolfgang Krauser

Hidden Boss[]

Nightmare Geese - in a hidden Nightmare Match

Alternate Characters[]

Shadow Andy

EX Blue Mary

EX Billy Kane

??? EX Tung Fu Rue

GameBoy Exclusive Character[]

• Iori Yagami

Stages[]

Note: When the fight overcomes the borders of the stages, the fighter breakssome elements of the stages.This occurs when one of the fighters gets stunned.

Warning: The sight of some stages can cause epilepsy.

Normal Stages[]

• USA — Terry, Mary & Duck: The Malibu Beach, in the American state of California. The fight takes next to a beach house. Next to the house is a boat and surf shop, complete with surf boards, piers, a yacht, palm trees, sailboards. In some rounds, a fat man can be seen sleeping in other yacht.
  • Changes: In the 1st round, day; in the 2nd round, sunset, from the 3rd round, night.
  • Intro: The shining sun descends onto the arena.
  • Right Wall: A set of coconut trees can be broken. When the wall collapses, the trees will break and fall over, causing a coconut crab to flee the scene, while a coconut will fly up and land on the fighter's head, dizzying them.
  • Left Wall: The yacht the older man owns can be dented, causing him to wake up and shout at the fighters. When the wall collapses, the yacht will tip over and so will the older man, causing a paint can to land and dizzy the fighter.

• Japan — Andy, Mai & Sokaku: The Matsumoto Castle. The fight takes place in the moat of the castle, near the main bridge to the castle's main grounds. The fight takes place at night under a full moon. stone stairs andsakura trees.
  • Changes: in the two first rounds, night; from the 3rd round, day.
  • Intro: Sakura petals fall onto a black background, before the scene fades in.
  • Right Wall: Mysteriously, the wall when broken leaks gold light from the cracks, enticing what could be inside the wall. When broken, the wall reveals an ancient keep of gold and treasure, apparently from the old daimyo of the castle who used it to hide his wealth from taxation and thieves.
  • Left Wall: A massive long lived sakura tree decorated with shide and shimenawa to designate it as a holy tree, though it is now hollow and has seen better days. When the wall takes damage, the tree will tip over, until the wall breaks, when the tree will be totally uprooted and tip over.

• Brazil — Joe, Franco & Bob: The Amazon Forest. The fight takes next to the Amazon River, which can be seen a boat, a waterfall, trees, vegetation, a shack, a hammock and a jaguar.
  • Changes: in the 1st round, day and a rainbow; in the 2nd round, sunset; from the 3rd round, night.
  • Intro: A rushing speedscape of green and light, as the camera zooms into a flash of white and reveals the main bout.
  • Right Wall: A tall and massive stone jaguar totem statue. When taken damage, the totem will be knocked off base, while water spurts out from the base's cracks. When the totem is broken, the water will burst out into a geyser, hard enough to launch the broken totem's head into the foreground.
  • Left Wall: A residential hut. When broken, the hut will take damage to where its walls break, ruining it. When the wall breaks, the hut's front will be totally demolished, revealing the interior.

• China — Tung & Chonrei:The Chinese province of Hubei. The fight takes in the Xiling Gorge and next to the Yangtze River. Can be seen bamboos, mountains, a panda,wooden beams,lumberjack items and a furnace.
  • Changes: in the 1st round, day; in the 2nd round, sunset; from the 3rd round, night.
  • Intro: In black and white, an upclose shot of a bamboo forest lit with sunlight, before the camera pans right onto the fighters, mimicking an old kung fu movie. As the camera stops, the chroma turns to color.
  • Left Wall: A natural cave turned into a pottery kiln. When the wall takes damage, the cracks will burst out fire. When the wall is destroyed, all of the fire will be extinguished and the inside of the kiln can be entered.
  • Right Wall: A bamboo grove inlet, where a panda bear is eating bamboo. When the wall takes damage, the panda bear will be annoyed with the fight distracting it from its meal. When the bamboo breaks, the panda's anger will have it lash out with its claws in rage, before it leaves to a less busy place.

• Hong Kong — Cheng, Hon & Yamazaki: The Central District. The fight takes next to the train tracks. Can be seen outdoors, a woodenstructure a barber shop and egg, pork and chicken meat shops, besides people cheering. Similiar to Pai Long's stage in AOF 2, and a similiar version can be seen in KOF '98 UM.
  • Changes: in the 1st round, day; in the 2nd round, sunset; from the 3rd round, night.
  • Intro: An upward skyshot of a commercial airline plane flying above the city, before the camera pans down into the streets below.
  • Right Wall: A butcher's shop and stall, where the vendor is selling cooked whole pig pork wholesale. When the wall breaks, the butcher shop's entire front will be demolished, before a cooked pig's head will land onto the fighter, dizzying them.
  • Left Wall: An outdoor vegetable shop and stall, where the vendor is watching the fight. The shop's pride, a large sign, will take damage when the wall takes damage. When the wall is broken, the sign will be totally demolished while the vendor's produce spills over, with a head of cabbage landing on the fighter, dizzying them.

• South Korea — Kim & Chonshu: The Changdeokgung Palace, in Seoul. This place is used by Kim and his students for training. Can be seenthem training or watching the fight. Also can be seen the flag of South Korea.
  • Changes: in the 1st round, day; in the 2nd round, sunset; from the 3rd round; winter.
  • Intro: A close up shot of the flag of South Korea fluttering strongly with fierce but stable winds, before the flag moves out of the way.
  • Right and Left Walls: Massive wooden training dummies used by Kim's students in their training. They will eventually take damage to where they will split apart, and when broken, will crack apart and topple over by their base.

Boss Stages[]

• USA — Billy: Billy Kane's personal music studio. A rock band set up, including drums, guitars, and sound equipment are in the background (including bass drums with Billy's name), the flag of England,clothes drying on improvised clotheslines (reference to his habit of liking clean clothes), scaffolds filled with stage lights, soundboxes, posters with the expression NO SMOKINGand giant screens showing thehost fighter and the word FIRE (one of his skills with the staff). The most notable aspect of the stage is a hawk in the floor, which is revealed in Geese's stage to be Geese Tower's penthouse.
  • Changes: The lights and overall chroma of the stage changes. Significantly, the "night" version of the stage turns orange, indicating that morning or evening is on the way.
  • Intro: A stage light illuminates a sheet held up like a screen. The light's interior is then traced in cursive to spell out Billy, before the screen flashes out to the fight's main location.
  • Right and Left Walls: Both walls are stacked grids old CRT styled TVs showing music videos of Billy's band playing music and speakers. When they take damage, their screens flash Billy clenching and wrenched in pain. When the walls take damage, their screens will break and the overall wall of TVs are smashed up beyond repair. When the walls are broken, the fighter landing into them is electrified with the damaged equipment and totals the wall, dizzying them.

• Germany — Laurence & Krauser: A new version of the Stroheim Castle. The fight takes in an open air balcony. Can be seen the castle, shrubs, stairs and a symbol on the floor, besides an other castle in the background. Laurence fights in the day version of the stage, and Krauser fights in thenight version.
  • Changes: in the day version, in the 1st round, day; in the 2nd round, sunset; from the 3rd round; the other castle disappears; in the night version, the forest turns more darker each round and begins to rain.
  • Note: In the day version, in the left, can be seen a mural with a stuffed bull's head; in the night version, a pyrelit.
  • Intro - Laurence: A beautiful rose appears in the middle of the screen. With flashing swipes, the sides of the rose are trimmed of their petals to make them slimmer, before the screen turns white and reveals the arena.
  • Intro - Krauser: A skyward shot of Krauser's castle towers and keep, illuminated with a flash of lighting into the dark sky. As the camera slowly pans down, a mystifying beautiful woman walks into shot, where in cue with the music, begins singing the choir verses of Lacrimosa.

• Geese Tower: In this version of the famous stage, can be seen candles, statues of Asian and American cultures, pillars and Chinese lanterns. Associated with Nightmare Geese.
  • Intro: Fading into view, three sets of Japanese screen doors, elaborately painted with scenes of samurai and fighting, are encountered as the camera pans in closer, while they seize for a split second before opening. As the final door opens into the arena, pitch black darkness awaits behind the last entrance, before both fighters and the background are illuminated as the fires of the lighting features alight into view.
  • Right and Left Walls: "Traditional" fighting game "walls".

Reception[]

In Japan, Game Machine listed Real Bout Fatal Fury Special on their March 1, 1997 issue as being the most-successful arcade game of the month. The game was a success in the arcades. According to Famitsu, both the AES and Neo Geo CD versions sold over 9,169 and 20,246 copies in their first week on the market, respectively.

Gallery[]

External Links[]

• Real Bout Special page at the Garou 15th Anniversary Site
• Real Bout Garou Densetsu Special at Sega Retro