Ah the 2-D fighter, quite possibly the undisputed champion of arcade games in the early 90's. I remember being in college and crowding around the Street Fighter machine that was in the student cafeteria, a line of people waiting to play if only for one turn as the reigning champ of the day mowed down all comers. Then, the unthinkable happened, they put another fighting game in the cafeteria and it wasn't Street Fighter, it was some strange looking Neo-Geo machine with the title Fatal Fury. At first, you could easily hop on and play with hardly anyone waiting for you to finish, but as the year went on, more and more students came over to the Fatal Fury side and rivalries were formed. Sometimes it turned ugly and inevitably someone would say "wouldn't it be cool if the characters from both games could fight?"  Wouldn't it indeed.

Since it's inception, Xbox live has pretty much revolutionized, perfected and stayed on top of the online market for console gamers. Those folks at Microsoft know what they are doing and constantly release older, popular arcade games for small amounts of money, which coincidently brings me to my current review. Fatal Fury Special. As you may or may not know, Fatal Fury was the answer to Capcom's Street Fighter series, the game was a two-dimensional brawler with wacky-looking characters that all possessed some form of fighting abilities. The cast was led by the Bogard brothers Terry and "what's his name," and I mean that, Terry Bogard was clearly the game's primary hero; his brother Andy, with the slick-backed long hair clearly was meant to forever stand in Terry's shadow. Either way, at the time of it's release, which I believe was 1993, the game had many more characters to choose from than it's competition across the arcade, which meant that players could spend that much more in quarters trying to master them all. And as if to imply something, the characters seemed to be that much bigger, fatter and more robust than it's competition.

 "Trying to look as cool as possible, Andy didn't realize that the other fighters were throwing rocks at him."

Now the really weird thing about FFS on Xbox live, is an Xbox 360 controller doesn't really work well with 2-D fighting games. The D-pad anymore is used to toggle through equipment and activate items in most games, not for actual control, and therefore it doesn't fit well with the special moves every character has that requires you to quickly activate. For you older gamers out there, you will remember that you must do quick quarter turn rocks (moving the D-pad from one side to the other) while pressing specific buttons. In this case either the hard, slow punch or the quick, weak jab, the powerful kick, or the quicker kick. Doing any number of countless combinations of D-pad movements and button pressing unleashes holy cheese on your enemy. Half the fun of the arcade was trying to figure out these special moves. Now, they are told to you and while that only barely tarnishes the fun factor, being told how to do the moves and then not being able to pull them off because of a clunky control gimmick (really, the left thumbstick would have made this so much easier) can cause great frustration.

Since this is an Arcade game, there is no real cause to celebrate the graphics. They are there, in front of you in all their original grainy glory. Pixilated shading for muscle definition, raw background colors that will burn your retina if you stare at them too long - it's all there, whether you like it or not. This is a true port of a 14-year-old arcade game. The same could be said of any sound effects and noises you hear. In 1993, there simply was not a big call for quality voice work and or sound effects. The echo-y sound of the final hit to end a round, or the complete incomprehensible noises actually coming out of the characters mouths is for lack of a better word, bad. But, staying true to the title, that is exactly what it sounded like.

"Ah, majestic Mt. Rushmore, the calm, the serenity... 
now c'mere and let me punch you in the jaw."

Fatal Fury boasted something in the early 90's that was completely unheard of, 3-D action in a 2-D fighting game. Yes, this is where everything changed for players. In the game, in order to combat the projectile attacks many of the characters have, the ability to jump further into the screen exists. By bouncing back and forth, the game opens up another aspect of strategy, since technically you can chase one another as well while punching and kicking, it allows for some rather unique fights. Now don't get me wrong, this isn't fantastic by any means, but it is interesting to see as I don't recall being able to do this way back in the day. I am probably wrong, but it was kind of cool to see it in this edition of the game.

Gameplay: 5.5
The D-pad simply is not made for the really crazy moves you have to do on it to perform those over-the-top attacks. Jumping between depths of the screen is nice though.

Graphics: 5.8
In the day, this was high quality, now it is not. I think players who remember this title should prepare themselves for how bad the game looks now.

Sound: 4.8
Sound? I thought that was two cats fighting in a galvanized garbage can.

Difficulty: Hard
Even on the normal setting, this is a game that requires you to have six fingers, I swear.

Concept: 6.3
I like how Microsoft keeps bringing back these classic games, and there is no doubt this is a classic. Very wisely it will only cost you $5 bucks, anything more is not worth it.

Multiplayer: 7.0
The game's real money, playing online will allow for some vicious wars. Plus you can even see another players ping so as to get the best flowing action as possible. Multiplayer is where it is at.

Overall: 6.1
You could do worse then to play this title. I know, a 6.1 isn't the greatest of scores, but with the way the 360 controller is designed, I just think the gameplay should have been tweaked more.