With the release of Street Fighter 4 last year, fighting games have seen something of a resurgence as of late. Often reserved for the hardcore, SF4 and Xbox Live have most certainly bumped one on one fighting games back into the spotlight again. Joystick mania accompanied the release of SF4 and with a string of great releases on Xbox Live Arcade I began to take interest in a lot of games hitting the service. Marvel Vs Capcom 2, King of Fighters 98, Samurai Shodown II and Street Fighter 2 HD all found their way onto my Xbox. Accompanied by my Tournament Edition joystick, I've been dipping in and out of the aforementioned games a fair bit over the past year. As of late though, one game has had a lot more play time.Garou: Mark of the Wolves was released in arcades towards the end of 1999. It is the final game in the Fatal Fury series, something I am not overly familiar with. I won't go into details about the plot seeing as this is a fighting game, but many people deem this game a masterpiece, and within good reason.
Garou features some of the most accessible gameplay mechanics in a fighting game. If you are familiar with the Fatal Fury/King of Fighters series (Terry Bogart features in Garou) then you will know what to expect. I find it difficult to go into detail about the core mechanics, but it is a deep fighting experience complete with plenty of replay value. I'm having a lot of fun simply trying out different characters, memorising moves and just kicking ass in general. It feels as fluid as it looks, and it looks stunning.
Often cited as one of the best looking games on the Neo Geo, Garou is no slouch in terms of graphics. The featured screenshots which I snapped in MAME don't do the game justice. From start to finish Garou is dripping with style and flaunts it's artistic flair at every opportunity. Every fighter is distinctively characterized and has their own interesting background within the story. The character sprites are pristine and the backgrounds and storyboards are bold and colourful. One of the main reasons I find myself returning to this game is partly due to the backgrounds, which change slightly with every round. Each background is full of life, with lots of stuff moving about and not one single hint of lag during matches. With fights taking place on a speeding freight train at sunset, a dense forest full of animals, a traffic jammed street, a bell tower, a marina and more, each stage is unique to the corresponding character. The music is also great and adds even more flavour to each fighter and their relative stage. Whether you enjoy fighting games or not, Garou is an extremely well rounded game which is accessible and as fun to play as it is to look at.
1999 also saw the release of Street Fighter 3: Third Strike, which is also an amazingly deep fighting game. Despite their differences, both Third Strike and Garou were probably viewed as the benchmark for 2D graphics at the time. They both stand up exceptionally well, even today. For me personally though, Mark of the Wolves wins every time. With around 14 characters, intricate stages, bold storyboards and a real sense of character throughout, I am constantly drawn to its beauty. It's little wonder Garou is often hailed as a masterpiece. If you fancy something different to Super Street Fighter 4, then don't hesitate to give this a go. SNK at their finest.
