Developed and published by SNK in 1999 Follow me on Twitter:
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Game 01: Terry Bogard 0:00 Game 02: Khushnood Butt: 21:15 Garou: Mark of the Wolves is 2D fighting game set in the Fatal Fury universe and is one of the first titles that really impressed me when I discovered the Neo Geo. SNK had built a reputation for creating some of the best arcade fighting games around and Garou continues this tradition. Despite the game taking place during a "King of Fighters" tournament, the game distances itself from that particular series by featuring purely one-versus-one battles with a cast of (mostly) original characters not seen in the KOF games. As is typical with most games of the genre, the player must fight through a series of increasingly challenging fights against other characters before facing not one, but two boss characters. Once a character has been selected, the player must also make a choose which T.O.P style to use. The system divides the fighter's health bar into three segments and allows the player to choose a segment for the T.O.P to be active. Once active, the system increases the damage of players attacks, allows the character to perform more combat moves and even regenerates health. The system provides an advantage to the player whilst it's active and the player must decide whether they want to take advantage from the start at the fight, keep it in reserve to mount a comeback when losing. Each fight is a best-of-three rounds fight where each combatant must claim victory over their opponent using a variety of kicks, punches and special attacks. As with other fighting games, attacking your opponent also charges up the 'Special' gauge located to the bottom left/right of the screen. Once filled, a swift combination of stick-waggling and button-pressing can unleash even more devastating versions of the fighter's special moves. Although these moves can be blocked, getting hit by one often means the fight will be over pretty quickly. Since this is a game that places emphasis on well-timed strikes, blocks and counters, it's crucial that the controls be responsive and precise enough to ensure the player has total control over their character. Fret not, for the game handles extremely well and makes the game great fun to play. As with many of the later generation Neo Geo titles, Garou looks absolutely fantastic. The boasts high-colour sprites with tons of detail and brilliant animation. One of the things I really love about these 2D fighting games is attention to detail that the artists give to the folds and wrinkles in the material of the characters clothes; although many 3D games employ physics systems to try and convey realistic movement of cloth, these effects still don't look as good as hand-crafted efforts on display here (in my opinion at least). Sound-wise, the game features some thumping audio tracks and equally crunching sound effects. Although most of the music playing during each fight is likely original, whoever wrote the scores must have been a big fan of Robert Miles' "Children" because you can clearly hear it featured during Rock Howard's stage! With excellent core game mechanics, controls and graphics that are still colourful and vibrant today, Garou: Mark of the Wolves is a great game and remains one of my favourite fighting games of all time. #retrogaming
