Fatal Fury 2

The Good
What really stands out from Takara about this version of the game is the really, really, really tight controls, allowing for execution of moves to be exact and precise. Top that off with really coloful graphics (a rarity on the Genesis because of it's 64 color limitations) and all background animations are here, too. It's also a blast to play on the Genesis Nomad for Fatal Fury on the go, arcade perfect. Some impressive technics about this cart, though, is Takara and SNK managed, somehow, to cram the whole Neo-Geo game into a 3 MB cart, and still leave in Mai's bouncy win stance. It also used the Arcade Pad (the 6-button Genesis controller) and uses all six buttons, to boot. It was released nine months after the SNES version and worth the wait. It also has a new intro, for whatever reason, instead of the arcade original where they're all standing on a cliff.

The Bad
While colorful, the Genesis resolution is poor, and sharp graphics didn't make it. I know the Genesis has a high-res mode (Eternal Champions, Sonic 3, Vectorman) so I don't know why it wasn't given an once-over to up it to the higher resolution. Also, the music is simple. Oh, you'll recognize the tunes, but putting it up to the funky SNES version or the excellent PC Engine version, and it's just simple MIDI files that a 4th Grader in Colorado could've done on the Apple IIs in the PC lab. Topping that off is all of the sounds are digitized and scratchy. Just like Street Fighter II. I can tell by the amount of scratchiness that high compression schemes were used by the programmers to perserve all of the arcade sounds, so cheers will be given there, but the terrible sound does get annoying. Doesn't sound scratchy on the Nomad's tiny speaker, however. Lastly, the aren't any high scores, or scores in general. It almost feels like a waste to execute a multi-hit, multi-chain combo and not be rewarded. No score for the time, viatality, health, combos, finishes, nothing. The other two versions have scores to reward for effort well done.

The Bottom Line
If you have a hankering for SNK and can't find any of the more recent games on Xbox (SNK vs. Capcom, Capcom vs. SNK 2) or other recent systems, I suggest getting this game. If you have a Nomad and you like fighting games, get it. That's an order. The quality of the game is almost as exactly as close to the Neo-Geo version (moreso than the SNES version) and I think that requires a buy.