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Interesting story about how I got this game. I had been trying to get this title for a while (another great addition to my wonderful Saturn fighting game collection) but a lack of funds always seemed to catch up to me. I had given up and went for Real Bout Fatal Fury (no Special) instead. Fortunately for me, the guy who was running the auction didn't quite know what he was selling. I got Real Bout Special in the mail instead! Whee!

So, what is the difference between Real Bout and Real Bout Special, you ask? (I know, you either don't care or you already know, but I have faith that there are a few people left in the middle ground somewhere) Real Bout Special earns the "Special" at the end of its name by bringing back almost all the characters from the ORIGINAL Fatal Fury Special that weren't already in Real Bout. That means the return of Tung Fu Rue, Cheng Shinzan, Lawrence Blood, and SNK's original big German badass, Wolfgang Krauser. (Still no Axel Hawk. Aww...) The characters made the transition from old to new seamlessly, which is becoming an SNK hallmark (think of the KoF games, and Samurai Shodown 4!)

Since the only Fatal Fury experience the average U.S. gamer (or Aussie gamer. Hi Luke) has is probably the lackluster SNES and Genesis ports, or maybe some Dreamcast Mark of the Wolves if they're lucky, I will elaborate on why Real Bout is so damn great. First off, characters. Real Bout Special is one of the entries in the long line of "All-Star" fighting games, sharing the space with the likes of Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper, Fighters Megamix, and Mortal Kombat Trilogy. Sure, RB2 had the 2 new characters Rick and Xiangfei, but they're....Rick and Xiangfei. ^_^ Secondly, you get this feeling while playing Real Bout Special... if you're any kind of expert on fighting game engines, you just have to say to yourself "Hey, this is like Killer Instinct's engine...done right!" yes, autocombos. But not to the point of "Hey, let's pick Orchid and hammer the buttons until we get a 20-hit Ultra!" It's like SNK took 1 part Killer Instinct, 1 part Fatal Fury Special, and 1 part Fatal Fury 3 and stuffed it all into a blender. The learning curve is great, I was smacking my opponents from foreground to background in no time.

The guys at Tecmo's Team Ninja must have spent at least SOME time with Real Bout Special. At the time, RB Special's levels were amazingly interactive for a fighting game. While the most you could do before was kill people in creative ways with the background, or watch for people to throw random things into the foreground, Real Bout gave you 2 planes of fighting (not new, I know, but it's done a lot better this time around) and objects in the corners to break! Yes, various walls made up of everything from bamboo to roast pig stands are in the levels, and if you pin the opponent against them and slap him/her around enough, the wall breaks! Automatic dizzy! Talk about new combo possibilities. This game was almost all about corner traps.

To recap, as I said before, the learning curve is great. RB Special is a great game to play when you just want to beat some random people up without worrying too much about strategy. Plus, your favorite character is almost guaranteed to be in here, with the complete cast of Fatal Fury Special (minus Axel...can you tell I'm a bit upset by his exclusion?) and the newbies from Fatal Fury 3 in here. Plus a few new faces as well, like Chonshu and Chonrei. The only real downside is that this game has the most annoying fighting game announcer ever. Alpha 3's announcer ain't got NOTHIN' on this guy! "Now kick back, champ! 'Till we meet again!"

- Yashiro Nanakase