Rock Howard

"'The successor of two legends! Will his heritage decide his future? ROCK HOWARD.' - The King of Fighters XV"Rock Howard is a character from the Fatal Fury series. He was introduced in Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory as the biological son of the main antagonist of the series, Geese Howard, who gained a friendship with his arch-nemesis, Terry Bogard. He made his proper playable debut in Garou: Mark of the Wolves, the latest chapter in the Fatal Fury series, as the new protagonist of the franchise.

His official nickname is "The Wolf's Pedigree", and in KOF XV, "Fly-By-Night Wolf".

Personality
Rock is a shy young man with an inner struggle. Usually as a bit of a gag, he's often nervous around women, especially those older than him, with the exception of Hotaru Futaba (for being kind and compassionate with him). He is also a childhood friend of Kim Kaphwan's sons, Kim Jae Hoon and Kim Dong Hwan.

He is shy with women as aforementioned due to being around men throughout most of his early life as Terry was raising him, though in a more serious case of his insecurities, every day Rock fights off his evil side in order not to succumb to it, and tries to get out of the shadow of his father. He often decries the evil blood in him, which intensifies whenever he uses stronger energy-based attacks, which in some cases causes him pain. He is not proud of his heritage and refuses to refer to Geese as his father, stating him to be "that man" or "that person".

He is the "middle ground" between Geese's excessive evil and Terry's excessive festive personality. Rock is also very compassionate, offering to help those in need (he offered to help Hotaru find her brother). Another notable foil that sets them apart is that in most of his battle quotes, Rock when speaking in the Japanese script has more usage of clear Japanese compared to both Terry and Geese's English.

Powers

 * Gather Chi - Rock can gather chi energy.
 * Sense - Rock can sense the presence of people nearby.
 * Energy Projectile - Rock can fire a projectile of energy called Reppuuken, just like his father's. He can even use the Double Reppuuken.
 * Energy Attack - Rock can use chi to increase the damage of his normal attacks (punches, kicks and so forth). He uses this power in a similar fashion Terry does and, sometimes, the energy takes the form of wings.
 * Energy Geyser - By touching the ground with his hands, Rock can make a geyser of energy come from below the ground. He called this attack Raging Storm. Rock's Raging Storm differs from Geese because Rock's version is weaker (as well as resembling a gust of wind more so than Geese's).

Skills

 * Acrobatics - Taught by Terry, Rock is proficient in acrobatics. His move Rising Tackle is an example of this.
 * Basketball - Having played basketball with Terry since a young age, he has become a very proficient player.
 * Cooking - Having learnt to live by himself since a young age under Terry's tutelage, Rock is very proficient at cooking, as he knows how to cook and prepare several kinds of different culinary recipes.
 * Motorcycle Driving - Rock likes to drive around Second Southtown with his Honda.
 * Musical Instrument - Rock is a very skillful bass player.
 * Musical Mimicry - Rock can recall and replay a musical melody he hears.

Fighting Style
Much of Rock's fighting style came from Terry and Geese. Terry taught him the arts of Boxing, Karate, Kung Fu, Kickboxing and Street Fighting, while he instinctively uses aikijutsu moves derived from his father, Geese Howard. A combination of both of these sides tends to be his Crack Counter technique, a counter/reversal move that is a combination of aikijutsu's reversal-techniques and Terry's form of basketball-motif kickboxing (via Terry's Crack Shoot). Rock also uses a version of Terry's Buster Wolf known as the Shining Knuckle.

The techniques Rock directly lifts from his father are so far, the Reppuuken, Raging Storm, Shinkuu Nage and Deadly Rave (known instead as the Deadly Rave Neo); like his father, he too has a mythology demon-based attack, known as the Rasetsu (the Japanese name for Rakshasa). Via Terry's influence, Rock uses a variation of his Power Dunk during his Rage Run: Type "Dunk" (with his Type "Shift" variation being named after the over-shift term), though the only shared technique between them is the Rising Tackle.

Even so, by mixing all these arts, Rock uses a unique fighting style, which gameplay-wise transitions into a well-rounded style that can allow him to apply pressure, mix-up and mindgames all at once. However, this comes with trading both Geese's power and Terry's simplicity in favor of versatility and speed, which still leaves gaps he must try hard to make up for.

Voice Actors

 * Eiji Takemoto - Garou Mark of The Wolves, Capcom vs. SNK 2, Neo Geo Battle Coliseum, KOF: Maximum Impact 2, KOF Maximum Impact Regulation "A"
 * Yūma Uchida - The King of Fighters XIV~present
 * Ami Koshimizu - The King of Fighters: Destiny (as young Rock)
 * Jon Thomas - KOF: Maximum Impact (English)
 * Mike Lane - KOF: Maximum Impact 2 (English)

Appearances
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Games

 * Garou: Mark of the Wolves
 * Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001
 * KOF: Maximum Impact
 * Neo Geo Battle Coliseum
 * KOF: Maximum Impact 2
 * KOF Maximum Impact Regulation "A"
 * The King of Fighters XIV - DLC Character
 * The King of Fighters XV - DLC Character

Mobile

 * Days of Memories (fourth, eighth, and ninth title) - unplayable
 * SNK Dream Battle
 * KOF x Fatal Fury
 * The King of Fighters: World - NPC
 * The King of Fighters: Destiny (Game)
 * Kimi wa Hero
 * The King of Fighters All Star

Cameos

 * Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory - during Terry's ending; Fatal Fury 3 is his debut title
 * Real Bout Fatal Fury - during Terry's ending
 * Real Bout Fatal Fury 2 - during Terry's ending
 * The King of Fighters 2001 - during Terry's winposes
 * The King of Fighters 2002 & The King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match - during Terry's winposes
 * The King of Fighters 2003 - during the opening
 * The King of Fighters Neowave - during Terry's winposes
 * The King of Fighters '94 Re-Bout - background cameo in the Fatal Fury Team and Art of Fighting Team stages
 * Garou Densetsu Special - cameo
 * SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy - in Terry's ending
 * Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - background cameo in King of Fighters Stadium Stage

Anime
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 * The King of Fighters: Another Day
 * Garou Densetsu ~ Memories of Stray Wolves
 * The King of Fighters: Destiny

Trivia

 * Rock, Ryo Sakazaki, Terry Bogard and Billy Kane are the only characters to win a KOF tournament outside the KOF universe.
 * Rock, Billy and Terry are the only Fatal Fury series characters to win a KOF tournament.


 * Rock, Tizoc, B. Jenet, Hotaru Futaba and Gato are the only original characters of Garou: MOTW who makes an or more appearances in The King of Fighters series.


 * Rock's face looks similar to Awakened Kaede from The Last Blade series, featuring nearly identical hair color, style and eyes. Possibly to take a jab at this similarity, SNK Playmore included Kaede's outfit as an extra uniform for both KOF: Maximum Impact games.
 * In Kimi wa Hero, Terry was unable to tell them apart and greets Kaede under the assumption that he's Rock.
 * He inadvertently caused a redesign for K' due to a similar hairstyle; K' is now wearing his shades constantly since XIII.


 * Rock's theme in Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Spread the Wings, uses part of the melody from the late Robert Miles's song, Children. This was intentional as the composer of Garou′s soundtrack is a fan of Miles.
 * Unlike some theme song entries in KOF XIV, Rock's original theme does not receive an arranged, new version, but instead is replaced by an entirely new theme, Emergence, possibly due to copyright issues. This also extends to Rock and Geese's Destiny Battle Theme, Way to The Horizon, which contains elements to both Spread the Wings and Emergence.


 * Ironically, Rock's predicament of losing his mother Marie, and developing a vendetta against his own father, is exactly the same scenario in Geese's life as well, unwittingly repeating history with his own son.
 * The only difference is due that Rock not having a sibling (in Geese's case, with Wolfgang Krauser and Jeff Bogard).


 * A character that looks similar Rock Howard appears in the Fatal Fury Team's ending in The King of Fighters 2003. He has blue eyes and an orange-and blue jacket, and blond hair similarly shaded to Rock's. However, this character is not Rock, as he appears as a child in KOF 2003 's opening.


 * At the time of his debut, he was voted as the number one favorite character with a total of 190 votes.


 * Although his canonical appearance in The King of Fighters main series was highly anticipated, the KOF staff revealed that they had no plans to place him in the roster due to their respects for the old Fatal Fury staff; SNK members seem more interested in placing Rock in the next Fatal Fury installment. Despite this, Rock would make his first playable appearance in KOF: Maximum Impact, and then again in a mainline entry, The King of Fighters XIV and later in The King of Fighters XV, for the first time having an official team as the leader of Team Garou.


 * In his development blog for KOF: Maximum Impact 2, Ureshino states that he doesn't know about Rock's mother or the true inheritor of Geese's legacy, but hints that it would most likely conflict with Terry. Rock's scenario in KOF: Maximum Impact 2 explores his personal take on the character's actions in the yet to be released Mark of Wolves sequel.