Garou: Mark of the Wolves



Garou: Mark of the Wolves (餓狼 MARK OF THE WOLVES, Garō Māku obu za Uruvusu); and sometimes abbreviated Garou, Mark of the Wolves or MOW; is a 1999 fighting game produced by SNK, originally for the Neo Geo system. It is the ninth and final game in the Fatal Fury series, set ten years after the death of Geese Howard in Real Bout Fatal Fury. It is known for pushing the graphical capabilities of the Neo Geo as well as its well-balanced roster of characters and highly technical gameplay.

Background
Unlike previous entries, the game bore the Japanese Garou (餓狼, Garō) label instead of the normal English Fatal Fury for its localized versions (the North American Dreamcast release of the game was, however, titled Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves). There may be several reasons for this. The "Fatal Fury" designation was an analog for "Legend of the Hungry Wolf" (餓狼伝説, Garō Densetsu), but the Japanese name itself was shortened for this one game. Moreover, many of the gameplay features (such as the button configuration and the use of pseudo-3D sidestepping) and nearly all the characters of previous Fatal Fury titles are non-playable in the game. Therefore, while the game is part of the series both officially and as part of the Fatal Fury universe, it could be said that it is not a complete continuation of the previous games.

The game is known for pushing the capabilities of the Neo-Geo (and particularly those of the graphics) to their limits. While the Neo Geo is completely incapable of rendering 3D graphics and semitransparency, the game uses some of the most advanced strictly 2D graphical techniques to give the illusion that both are taking place.

Garou: Mark of the Wolves more closely resembles SNK's The King of Fighters series than the Fatal Fury series. Mark of the Wolves features a character art style somewhere between the almost cartoonish Real Bout Fatal Fury 2 and the unique but still anime-like KOF style (both styles, however, manage to display a high amount of detail despite the low resolution of the Neo Geo system, and Garou has quite detailed graphics as well). The fighting system of previous Fatal Fury titles is cast aside for Garou; the general rhythm of the fighting system, the button layout, the more electronic-inspired nature of the music, and the collision detection are all factors that are more styled like the King of Fighters than Fatal Fury.

Just as the Fatal Fury series has many parallels with Capcom's Street Fighter series, Garou: Mark of the Wolves parallels Street Fighter III in many ways. Both games were released around the same time in the late 1990's, just as the fighting game craze of the decade was cooling down. Garou: Mark of the Wolves takes place a full generation after the rest of the Fatal Fury series, discarding nearly all of the recurring characters (except Terry Bogard) in favor of new ones, as well as introducing a system of "just defending" (similar to SFIII "parrying" in that attacks are negated by performing a special block at the last split-second). Moreover, while Garou and SFIII characters have crossed over into other games, both games have not had true sequels produced for nearly a decade.

Playable Characters

 * Rock Howard
 * Terry Bogard
 * Kim Jae Hoon
 * Kim Dong Hwan
 * Tizoc
 * Khushnood Butt
 * Gato
 * Hotaru Futaba
 * Freeman
 * Kevin Rian
 * Bonne Jenet
 * Hokutomaru

Sub-Boss

 * Grant

Boss

 * Kain R. Heinlein