Split-Screen :: The Game-Geek’s Daily Read

By Ravi Sinha

You look at some old games and it becomes easy to quantify their merits. Leaning back on stats, fighting rosters, millions of polygons per second and play-balancing helps us identify the core game engine. Tack on a few personal experiences and you essentially have a game journalist’s recognitions of a classic. Some titles grant an equal recognition to the gamer – “old-school”, “hardcore”, “gamer geek” – for their perseverance in not only completing a game but picking it up to begin with, most times for it’s off-beat nature. Talking about the merits of a title in relation to one’s personal experiences is highly subjective but a great way to describe exactly why the game captured the sense of nostalgia that it did.

Which brings me to an impasse on how to quite describe what has been, is, and will definitely remain my utmost devotion to SNK’s Garou: Mark of the Wolves.

I came across Garou after perusing several other Dreamcast fighting games like those with next-gen sequels like Soul Calibur, niche yet addictive titles like Kikaioh: Tech Romancer and the button mashing clusterfuck of Marvel vs. Capcom 2. And I didn’t like it. Yes, I’m ashamed to admit it but it’s that same cold-water-in-the-face-of-a-non-devotee impression that helped build my love for the game. I saw the game. I watched the game. It all looked so easy. And yet, I sucked at it enough to never get past Hotaru while playing as Gato. I inexplicably got better with Gato, relying on the button-mashing rights of noob-dom, and managed to defeat Cain easily enough to earn a SSS rank. I never went back to the title afterwards. Though I had technically “beaten” the game, I wasn’t satisfied.

A few years later, I indulged in the title once more on a Neo-Geo emulator with my older brother. It was tough enough pulling off combos and supers using the cheap USB, Dual-Shock-less PS1-knockoff controllers in our possession but eventually, it happened. I don’t know if it came from selecting B. Jenet and having a ball countering Hotaru’s supers or trouncing Rock Howard who’s best attacks crushed anti-air attempts (this was mostly due to Jenet’s two-step floating kicks, where one step kept her hovering in the air and allowed the second step – multiple kicks – to be entered as long as she was airborne. Needless to say, tricking my brother wasn’t hard). But after selecting series’ legend Terry Bogard, a whole new world opened up.

Suddenly, I learned the beauty of an intricate system and the amount of fun and dedication mastering one character’s take on it could be. Predicting the opponent’s moves was imperative even in Soul Calibur but it became a powerful skill for trumps and counters in Garou. Timing was imperative – it was a blast to suddenly nail a successful axe-kick and deploy Buster Wolf in desperation to turn the fight around. A groove existed within the game that none but the best fighters could properly master: Canceling combos mid-way and restarting them, throwing in the odd super or two, for an infinite string of attacks that could trample defensive opponents. The T.O.P. gauge wasn’t a make-or-break system for me, but added attack damage was always welcome.

The aesthetic beauty of Garou: Mark of the Wolves shines the most when observed against the glut of games containing that proper “retro” feel. Not to knock Street Fighter IV’s gorgeous graphics but there’s something about the appeal of true 2D animated fighters. Maybe Garou was so nuanced in it’s animations and character detail – watch Rock simply standing around or after finishing a fight to reveal his plasma-like angel wings and you’ll agree. Maybe it’s super attacks employed flashiness to emphasize their utmost brutality. Maybe it’s environments were as good-looking as the main fighters. Maybe it was just so damn good-looking, no matter what kind of fighting games you liked. The fact remains that it had that special edge that few fighting games, even new-age hardcore titles like SFIV or even Guilty Gear XX, could mimic.

Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, of all titles, is probably the only fighter I can think of that properly eclipses Garou and make no mistake, they’re as different as Mortal Kombat and Super Smash Bros. But the unique class and confidence, the impenetrable depth and balance of the fighting, the vivid artistry and rigid discipline elevated both to the mantle of Greatest Fighting Games Ever. I recently heard about the title rumoured for an Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network release. Now is most definitely the best time to immerse a whole new generation of gamers in the world of Fatal Fury, and would especially satiate their desire for a new challenge in the vein of SFIV’s “old-school appeal”.

However, just like the rumoured Garou 2′s use of new technology, the game should remain as it is. No balancing, no new characters, no updated graphics, nothing. Why? Because trying to “improve” it would be an insult to not just it’s legacy but the abject brilliance of it’s identity, where the visuals, sound and design are inseparable from it’s gameplay. For the pinnacle of fighting game perfection, in my opinion, no title can match Garou: Mark of the Wolves.