FATAL FURY SPECIAL CHARACTERS

Fatal Fury Special is SNK's 1993 redo of Fatal Fury 2, the entry that finally gave the South Town saga the depth its rivals were already running with. Fifteen fighters, including resurrected boss Wolfgang Krauser and a returning Geese Howard, share the same arcade cabinet for the first time, and the speed bump over Fatal Fury 2 makes everything feel sharper. The two-plane system is still here, with characters dodging onto the back rail to dodge fireballs and reset spacing.

Combo chains are the headline addition, the first time SNK let you string normals into specials with proper cancels, which set the template for everything KOF would later build on. The roster covers Terry, Andy, Joe, Mai, Kim, Cheng, Jubei, Big Bear, and the rest of the South Town regulars, and the port list is enormous, hitting Neo Geo, SNES, Sega CD, Game Gear, and Wii Virtual Console. It still holds up as a clean, snappy fighting game.