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Done on 3/7/98

Real Bout Fatal Fury 2 -The New Comers- Beta Test Results

The Game's Basics First up, all the chracter graphics are basically re-used from RBS. Most normal moves for al l the character are the same, as the same goes for 75% or so of the special moves. I frankly do not know where exactly the 500 Megs went, unless the previous RBS was 499 megs or something. Hopefully there are a lot of hidden characters in the game. I am speculating at least 3. Also, none of the old chracter's voices seemed to chve been changed. When the game starts, "Get In The Ring !" appears on the screen. In the chracter select screen there is Xiangfei and Rick at the top and all the other characters at the bottom. There is about 3 chracters of space in between Xiangfei and Rick, so that is why I suggested the magical number of hidden chracters. Quite frankly everyone looks pissed off and ready to kill in the close-up shots, including Mai. They also look quite ugly and badly drawn in the Madman's opinion. Despite the chracters having two meters of life like RBFF and RBS, the rounds go by very quickly since once combo takes away near a full bar.The fact that there are no victory poses for the characters inbetween rounds also helps out in speeding up the game, as well as the fact that there is no victory screen at the end of a fight- only the usual victory pose in the fighting screen, and that is it. However the one thing that the Fatal Fury staff did not speed up was the game engine itself, and the characters and their move goes in the same speed as RBS. Thus those of you who have been getting used to the speed of KOF97' will be in for a real surprise. The game system is also very similar, as it seems to basically use the same game engine. The A button is Punch, B is kick, C is feirce attack and D is line change. Also, the "dodge attack" which has always been done by "forward + A while guarding" can also be done now by just pressing the A + B buttons simultaneously. The interesting part is, unlike the forward + A this one can be done at any time, even while not guarding. All the special moves have been "dumbed down", especially the DMs. What was once Geese's trademark, the Raging Storm command is now the same as Joe Higashi's screw-uppercut. All the SDM throws are now 1 Circle + C, but fortunately the input time seems very opened and they are very easy to do. The line system is a tad different as it is more close to that from RBFF. In RB2, there are two planes- the background and the forground. While most of the fight takes place in the foreground, but the player can move into the background with the D button. Once in the background, other than walking around or dashing the player can only do three things- 1: move to the foreground with the D button, move to the foreground while attacking with the A or B or C button (each of which has different effects depending on chracters) or guard. The range of chracters that the beta testers used were very limited. Most players selected Kim, Geese, Mai, Mary, Joe and sometimes Terry. Not a single person picked Laurence, Duck, Tung, Franco or Sokaku. I was the only one who dared to challenge with the New comers, and there was a Cheng user who was getting over 66 wins straight. While I am not suggesting thatthe game is unbalanced since it is too early to tell, I can say that the new chracters are definitely not popular. Characters Xiangfei Despite not being so big in physique, most of her moves involve tackling or going straight into the opponent. Her Nanpa is like Andy's Sho-ha from KoF97'. Her Zen chu-oh is a tackle move which can be enhanced with the Kanku- in a hit (kinda like Andy's Elbow) and her Ten Poh Zan is an anti air which comes out softly. In her DM, Xiang dashes so fast that a cloud of dust accumulates and she pops up in the front while attacking the opponent, kind of similar to Yashiri's burst punch in KoF97'.

Rick A total boxer, all or Rick's moves are punches. He has moves similar to HeavyD!'s from KoF94', such as the Hellion which is a bit similar to HeavyD's Blast uppdr except it slices a cross in the air. Rick has a semi-projectile like move in which he can shoot a short range projectile- this move too is a bit like HeadyD's Blast upper. The Full-moon fever is similar to Balrog's Turn punch from Street Fighter. His DM is similar To HeavyD's. Rick's SDM is a rapid punch like that of Dudley's from Street Fighter 3, but he does not dash before he does it so it it nessesary to execute it somewhat close up. While it may sound corny, his SDM is pretty cool in the Howlin Mad's opinion, reason being that his fists punch out at a very fast rate like Yamazaki's Level 4 SDM in KoF97' except with a shorter range, and it can also make hits to opponents who are 2 or so chracters away as an invisible airborne shot seems to hit them. I find Rick to have potential. Terry Not many people used Terry. He has a new move, the "Fire Kick" in which he does a slide kick and then does another kick while standing up. He doesn't seem to have his Power Dunk, but I think he probably has his Crack shoot. his Guysers seems to still miss the other line. Andy EX Andy may not be in RB2 anymore. This I say becuase the normal Andy now has both the regular Hisho-ken and the Neo Hishou-ken. Both of them are the RBS versions, so you can guess that his projectile is still small and fades away after a while. His new SDM, Dandadan seems to be a move which needs additional inputs like Franco's Aarmagedon Buster, since it seems to hit the opponent only once. Joe Only one person used him. Joe did not seem to have changed much. Mai A lot of users played with her. Quite frankly there is not much new about her-- same fan throw, Fire tail, mussasabi attack, and the ol' RBS DM which made her flame tackle into the air. Her new attack Nightbird is a fan slash from top to bottom. Her New SDM "Flower Hurricane" makes her do a multi-hitting twisting body uppercut with fans in both hands, much like Chun-shu and Chon-rei's uppercut. Geese Geese has both his counter throws- the anti-special counter donw with the B button and the unlisted anti-normal counter done with the C button where he throws the opponent for to the other side for a combo like in RBS. His Under counter Thrust is a misnomer- it's actually his ol' "Buzzsaw" move except it hits much lower. His raging storm hits both lines, and his new SDM "Rashoumon" is an upgraded version of his airborne throw, in which he flips the opponent into the air and finishes them off in their fall with a power balst similar to the end move in his Deadly rave. And yes for you Geese lovers out there, he still has his Deadly Rave as well, but it is the stupidly easy version from RBS and not the expert's move from RBFF. In fact the game seems to have a quite number of unlisted moves. Sokaku Noone used him. Figures. Bob His normal moves seemed to be the same but some of his specials have been renued. His Sidewinder looks way more natural now although it has weakened, and his Monkey dance looks a bit different. His SDM is a upgraded version of his Monkeydance. Hon-fu His normal moves are the same from RBS but some specials seemed to have been renued. His Flame Uppercut now has a wide range upwards, but is norrow ranged when it comes to sideways and the opponent doesn't fall down if they get hit on the ground and that means easy counters. His ground roll's finishing headbutt in now done standing a bit up, not like it make a strategis difference. Mary Blue can now only do her Spider from the air. This means that the player can decide to attack or spider as they jump, but her spider looks obvious so I am not exactly sure if it can be used strategically. She seemed to have lost her Spinfall, although you can see that the image data is in the game since she executes it as a part of her SDM. It may seem like she have lost her Vertical arrow, but actually she hasn't- in her Snatcher, she actually does it first and if it hits, she throws automatically. It seems that the same goes for her crabclutch- she does a straight slicer first and if it hits, it becomes a crab clutch automatically. In other words she has dumbed down. Her new move "Real counter" is basically the dodge and throw that EX Mary had in RBS. Her DM has been renued for the third time. This time she rolls forward for a short lengthand throws. While it is easy to jump away from her new DM, it may actually be able to go under some moves. Her new SDM "Mary's Secalation" is basically her DM from RBS "Mary Splash Rose" except that it is an additional input move like Franco's Arrmagedon Buster, and she can do different moves and specials while at it. Franco Noone Used him. Yamazaki For those of you who are used to the strong and almighty Yamazaki from KoF97', it's time to take a step back to Fatal Fury Reality. Yamazaki is back to his slow and bulky self from RBS. He does not seemed to have changed much from RBS. I do not remember how it was in RBS, but in RB2 his judgement dagger seems to stop in the middle of execution when it gets guarded. His Sadomaso still comes out slowly. His Snake Arm comes out pretty fast as RBS, but the lag time which follows it seemed to be a tad longer and it seems like the opponent can hit it easily as well -in fact there was a time when my snake arms were hit twice in a given round. I was trying to snake fake his attack but perhaps becuase it is still the beta version, it did not work. His new "Lynch Crunch" is basically the sand swipe from KoF97', except I think that his kick also made a hit on its way down. The guillitine is the same except for the control movement, which can get old Yama users to struggle. He still has his ferocious ACCC... combo, and unlike in KoF97', his Lv4 Drill is very slow. Chon-shu Not much changed. He can summon out a dragon projectile in his SDM. Chon-rei He shoots out his projectile with one hand now. He may still be able to hold on and power it up. Other than that, basically the same from RBS. Duck Nooone used him. Kim Although his normal moves are basically the same, a lot of his specials look different now. His Somersault is refreshed, his crecent slice has a minor change, and his His Sand Sweep is totally different from before, as he flys a lot lower and more forwards.

Billy He seems similar to his Normal version in RBS. His dragon flame is the attack version and not the counter. Although Billy is still long ranged and strong, he seemed weaker than back in RBS as his jump C is a new move and a lot more short ranged, and his DM (same graphic as RBS) is unimpressibly a lot, lot weaker. The oppoent can jump in or do a regular attack while he is twisting the flame, and still lose one way without a single burn to the enemy plus they can just line dodge it. What looked like a renued version of his DM is actually his SDM. Cheng He now has a new move where he gulps around and then bloats out a hug amount of spit while hopping up a bit. It comes out slow and has short range but it may be unblockable downwards. As previously noted, there was a player getting over 66 wins with him which means that there is no way that Cheng can be weak. But his SDM cannot tick down an enemy's energy since is only makes an attack on a clean hit. Tung Not a single person used him. Laurence Diddo. Noone used him. Krauser Basically the same. His Kaiser wave is stillholdable for power-ups. Stages

New York City A Street In ol' NYC. Actually it looks strikingly just like my ol' neighborhood too. Mary (night) and Yamazaki (noon) fight here. Japanese Temple Looks a tad like Geese's special stage in RBS. Billy (night) and Geese (noon) fight here. Japanese Road Similar looking to Mari's stage in RBS, with lots of more Cherry Blossom trees. Andy (night) and Mai (daytime) fight here. Freeway with Truck Obviously the end of Southtown, there is a truck in the background and a wodden store in the right. Terry (afternnoon) and Rick (noon) fight here. Dragon Lair Memories of the special stage from FF3 comes up when seeing this stage. Chon-shu and Chon-rei's stage. Brazilian Fighting Ring Just an ordinary colorful ring with audiences in the back. Bob and Franco's stage. German Castle The hallway of Krauser's castle. Laurence (noon) and Krauser (dawn) fight here. Korean Dojo Very similar to Rim's stage in RBS, the fight takes place in front of a Dojo. Fatal Fury's Jubei and Kim's family is in the back. Hon-fu, Kim and Xiang-fei fight here. Real Bout Fatal Fury 2
Copyright SNK Co. 1998