Fatal Fury Battle Archives: Vol. 1
Retro mania rages on, but some things are best left to the past.
Tags: Fatal Fury: Battle Archives (vol 1) Categories: PS2 Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Mike "Two Tone" McConnell on Sep 12th, 2007
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Fatal Fury: Battle Archives (vol 1) (title page) | 2 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Fighting (2D) | No | ||
 |
There are some games the are created to waste time. Addictive repetitive games, that will move the clock several hours closer to dawn, leaving you red-eyed and sleep deprived. There are others that are a complete waste of time, Fatal Fury Battle Archive Volume 1 is among them. Yet another compilation of classic games to satiate your nostalgia for the 8 and 16 bit glory days. Some things are best left in the grave. These faceless fighters are Street Fighter clones that were made to munch quarters in the Neo-Geo Machines. This collection covers the first four games in the series, although Fatal Fury: Special is not really a game in its own right, but an update of Fatal Fury 2 with new characters and new difficulty options.
 |
While these games are remembered as classics, they were thrown out once or twice a year for almost every year of the 1990’s. Volume 1 is 1991 through 1995. One of the issues with this collection is that fighting games do not age well. Generational leaps in technology make games feel slow. The physics are so random and laughable, that these games just can’t even be compared to their successors. What really drives these classic complications is the timelessness of the gameplay, and these games do not meet that requirement. Considering that SNK has released new games featuring these players, maybe a complete update, rather than just a simple port, is necessary. Considering that many of the characters have been in the KOF series this would have been possible. Sure, keep the originals, but as a bonus to an update, not as the main game.
One of the more interesting aspects of this game is watching the evolution of female characters in game. There are no female fighters in the original Fatal Fury, but by the third game they have Blue Mary, who’s got as much jiggle as characters in Soul Calibur III.
 |
These games are so frustrating though. These were the days where knowing all the special moves was key to winning any multiplayer match. Single player was best left to the home console, but here we have one of the oddest AI’s in history. Inexplainable variations in difficulty take place, sometimes within the same match. Not to mention the two plane fighting that was the first hints at 3-D ends up confusing the AI, this means it will spend a lot of the time just jumping between the planes again and again. This oddity appears across all of the games. Damage varies by the life bar of the computer character , so one must play with care. The controls were not ported perfectly either, meaning that specials don’t always work when you enter them. As these are so crucial to the game, this is inexcusable.
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.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
| + Fans of the characters, and the overall series can relive the early years | 5.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Game didn't age well - Controls are not perfect - Frustrating AI |
|
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| A package that will only appeal to long time fans. SNK would have done them a better service with a total update of the game, allowing it to benefit from the improved technology available today. Then instead of making these ports the main feature, they would be a great bonus. | |
[ Post the first comment | View related posts ]
Tags: Fatal Fury: Battle Archives (vol 1)
Posted by Mike "Two Tone" McConnell on Sep 12th, 2007 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
