Game #978: Fatal Fury Battle Archives Volume 2

  These guys are still furious.

 Fatal Fury: Battle Archives Volume 2 is the second, and final, compilation of Fatal Fury, and it compiles the next games in the series, the Real Bout series. In my opinion, it should've included Garou, and this version is actually missing the console rerelease of Real Bout 2, Dominated Mind, which included a few bells and whistles, although this version makes up for that in a nifty little way....

 The Real Bout series continues where FF 3 left off, so combo strings are still a thing, but it changed how the games play, as attack buttons were simplified into three: Punch, Kick and Strong, as well as now characters having a double life bar per round. That much remains consistent throughout all three games, but other things change a bit between installments.

 Real Bout: Fatal Fury is the first game here. It has 16 different characters The game looks fantastic, it uses a much more vibrant palette than the previous games and the overall presentation is much more hype. This game introduces ringouts, something I wasn't particularly fond of, although it can make for some funny business, like performing a Burning Knuckle only for your opponent to dodge into the background and you ring outing yourself! It's a fine game, but I could've done without the ringouts.

 Real Bout Fatal Fury Special only adds two new characters, although a few returning characters got new sprites, but the mechanics were changed further and every stage is new, so it feels more like a sequel than a simple upgrade. Ring-outs are gone, thankfully, and we're back to how FF played before 3, as we are back to only having two lines to fight in: Foreground and background, no middle-ground! This game was quite fun, as it retains the best things about RB 1 and changes things, in my opinion, for the better.

 Real Bout Fatal Fury 2 is probably my favorite Fatal Fury that isn't Garou. This game has 23 different characters, and it introduced Rick Stroud, one of my all-time favorite fighting game characters and my favorite boxer. Gameplay-wise, it's pretty similar to RB Special, most differences are more technical and advanced in nature. One thing I always resented was that I was never able to play as Alfred, as he was only playable in Dominated Mind. WELL, you can play as Alfred in this version by holding L1 at the character select screen! That said, White remains exclusive to the Japanese PS1 port, which is disappointing.

 This collection might have less games, but I'd argue that it has better games. I'd argue further that all 7 games should've been on a single DVD and that Dominated Mind and Wild Ambition should've been included too, but I'd just be preaching to the choir. If anything, I'm glad I own legit versions of these games, as Fatal Fury is pretty dope and underrated.

 8.0