Rating
Fatal Fury First Contact
Those legendary wolves stake their claim on a new stage! Utilize earth-shattering special moves and reach for the top! - FATAL FURY newcomers like Rick Strowd and Li Xiangfei clash fists with nostalgic fan-favorites Terry, Geese, and Mai Shiranui! - Easier for beginners thanks to single-lane fighting! Unleash an ultra-lethal POTENTIAL POWER move at...
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Fatal Fury First Contact Reviews
Professional reviews from gaming critics
The game tries hard to play like Real Bout 2, and it pulls it off pretty well.
Even without these unlockables, there’s still plenty of charm to First Contact. The sprites for each character are full of unique personality, and the chibi style works quite well with the character designs of Fatal Fury. The stages are similarly pleasant, as is the catchy music that accompanies each stage. The customization options are as good as ever, as is the ability to rewind fights for newer players who may find the game to be too difficult.
Fatal Fury First Contact is a solid little fighting game, but it has little to offer beyond that. Unless you are specifically a huge fan of the Neo Geo Pocket or all things Fatal Fury, there are definitely better fighting games you can spend your money on.
The usual overlay features are still here, as is the single-system two-player mode. There still isn’t an on-screen moves list, although even a passing familiarity with the usual SNK fighter directional combos will serve you well here. Otherwise, there’s a big beautiful scan of the game’s manual for you to consult (just write everything down somewhere). While I remain tickled that these NGPC ports even exist, though, I am beginning to long for different things, especially since these fighters all look more or less like the same game.
However, there remains the lingering question of exactly who the re-release of Fatal Fury: First Contact is for. Every positive of the game comes with a caveat; the game looks good and plays well for an old handheld, but not in comparison to other games in the series or other home console fighting options. Given that the mainline Fatal Fury games are readily available, Fatal Fury: First Contact is unlikely to be a must-have purchase for general fighting game fans, in spite of how well this port plays.
Fatal Fury: First Contact is still a joy to play and – I really can’t say this enough – it remains impressive that the developers were able to create such pristine fighting games on such modest hardware. With that being said, the five games Neo Geo Pocket Color games that have now been released really should have been compiled together into one collection, and I would really like to see some of the other, non-fighting games that appeared on the console given the same emulation and restoration process now. I don’t begrudge SNK going to the effort with the five fighting game classics tha…