Fatal Fury: First Contact (Neo Geo Pocket Color)

Fighting games on portable game systems frequently struggle with how much needs to be downgraded compared to arcade and console counterparts. Not only does the weaker hardware already lead to a reduction in visual splendor, but the limited buttons available in a genre so reliant on them often leads to strange or ineffective control methods. Leave it up to SNK to figure out how to do it properly though, their system the Neo Geo Pocket Color not only having a joystick to make precise control easier but they seemingly knew exactly what to trim away and what to keep when designing Fatal Fury: First Contact.

Taking inspiration from Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers, Fatal Fury: First Contact brings over many familiar stages, characters, and music from the arcade game as best it can but also quite wisely doesn’t try to copy things one-to-one. Rather than trying to depict the character as similar to real human proportions, all the fighters have been made compact, cartoony, and fairly cute, the look fairly appealing even if it doesn’t exactly look like a blood-pumping one-on-one fighter anymore. However, the reduction in size and specific proportions used are perfect not only for depicting the characters in a different art style, but they make their attacks easy to read and properly react to despite taking place on a small screen. Moves are often large gestures as well without sacrificing speed too much, meaning you can properly defend or gauge the distance between the fighters. Characters are rendered in fairly few colors during a fight, but that again likely connects to legibility so it’s easier to accept in that light.

Of course, the more important element of a fighting game will be how it handles the actual attacking, and Fatal Fury: First Contact does sound a touch worrying at first when you learn its two buttons, A and B, can also execute different attacks depending on if they’re pressed briefly or held down. There doesn’t seem to be much of an issue with the game gauging your intent though, the player needing to commit to the press for the Strong Attack variants so they won’t make many accidental inputs. A and B are generally assigned to punches and kicks respectively, but the proving ground comes in how the game implements its special moves, each character having a good set of them that require slightly more advanced inputs. Right out of the gate the game makes a wise decision to have a fair few special moves share inputs across characters, making it easier to jump between them and find useful attacks. Diagonals are not a factor, the player usually needing to quickly press in a few directions and then an attack button to unleash a more specialized technique like an energy blast or jumping attack. Some special moves need a proper lead-in or a button rapidly pressed, but even the more advanced moves often involve figuring out the specific four directions to press, the game valuing that knowledge but not keeping things out of reach with something that might feel too precise on the Neo Geo Pocket Color.

How those special moves manifest across the cast gives the individual characters their unique battle options and styles. There are 11 characters available by default as well as some rather difficult to unlock secret characters that are at least earned at the same time, but each character plays quite differently. There are obvious cases like Billy Kane who brings a staff that can split into nunchucks in a game where everyone else mostly fights with their hands, but Kim Kap Hwan’s martial arts are heavily kick focused and look more refined compared to some of the bare knuckle brawling seen in the rest of the cast. Wolfgang Krauser puts a lot of weight behind his moves, but fellow brusier Ryuji Yamzaki is a less predictable fighter with his deceptively relaxed posture of fighting with his hands in his pockets. Even before you start doing special moves, you’ll find the characters have their ups and downs, but one important element is the length of possible combo chains. Fatal Fury: First Contact has modest but effect attack strings, a 5 hit combo usually fairly good at dealing appreciable damage as they are can range from a fairly simple sting to a more practiced sequence of smart attack choices that reward the extra effort. Fights don’t wrap up too quickly because combo size is kept in check fairly well but you don’t feel stiff or limited, there often room for comebacks even when you start to factor in some special moves that can tear out nearly an entire life bar in the game’s two-layered life bar system.

Those powerful special moves don’t come for free though, as you need to build energy by participating in the fight to pull off those heavy hitters. Characters do have specific special attacks they can pull off any time, these being the kinds of things that a character’s game plan can be built around. Terry Bogard can launch himself across the battlefield with a punch. Ryuji can unleash energy lashes high, medium, or low, helping with his less predictable nature. Geese Howard has some incredibly strong moves like a power burst all around him, but the boss character does have an easily spotted wind-up you can use to avoid the pain if you’re on the other side of it. Power tackles, fireballs, flaming tornados, the attacks come in many varieties, but for the stronger stuff or enhanced variants, you’ll need that Power Gauge to reach certain thresholds. Build it up to H (standing for Heat Power) to unleash Break Shot attacks, S (Special Power) for the Mighty Mauler Moves, or P (Potential Power) for the strangely named Hidden Ability Boppers, and you’ll get steadily stronger moves for each tier. The specials tied to Potential Power are those ones that could wipe away huge chunks of life if they land, but they’re possible to guard against same as any other attack and more importantly, when the Power Gauge reaches S or P level, it starts to automatically drain. You will expect the opponent to start trying to land their heavy hitters while they can, but since power comes and goes rather quickly, matches don’t often slow down for stalling out the meter’s drain.

The Power Gauge energy can also be used for interesting counterplay. Beyond your attacks, movement options, and guarding, there are also Break Shots where you use some of your energy to essentially guard the incoming attack while unleashing an attack of your own. While combos aren’t large and the focus is often on more meaningful but strong sets of hits, this does help to give you a counter to overly aggressive players content to throw themselves against your guard repeatedly. A great way to get out of the corner and shift the battle back in your favor, it’s not too difficult to execute because it involves inputting a special while guarding and most characters usually have a simple one they can pull this off with. Other maneuvers like the Evasion Attack as well as pretty common access to easy to execute anti-air attacks help with defensive and watchful play, players leaping in to cover distance easy to punish if they’re doing it carelessly. Everything comes together well into a fighter where attacks are satisfying to land because of their effectiveness but you have tools to make for deeper reactive battles despite the control limitations.

It is a bit of a shame that Fatal Fury: First Contact put together an effective fighting system and then has very few ways to experience it. There is a single player mode where you fight eight battles back to back, there not really a story to the set of fights and even the ending for a character is a single illustration that is usually a touch silly or mundane. Notably the solo play does avoid the common SNK fighting game issue of having bosses who are downright unfair, although that may be because the game embraced the fact its not in an arcade setting and lets you set the difficulty freely so you can enjoy a fair fight or pump things up if you miss that brutality. Surprisingly, continuing after a loss can even bring up a screen where you can apply some handicaps like being spotted a free round win or some Power Gauge energy, Fatal Fury: First Contact really allowing for a kinder experience if you so desire. Going through the single player can still be enjoyable with each character simply because the fighting is well-handled though, but there is thankfully multiplayer as well where the game would be more likely to thrive for those who own it. The AI is competitive enough that it’s not required to see the potential of the fighting systems, but this does find most its value if you know you can get someone else to join you, the learning curve not that high either so it’s not a big ask to get a new player involved.

THE VERDICT: Fatal Fury: First Contact exhibits a strong sense for what needs to be present in a handheld fighting game despite the inevitable compromises. The fights here can still be technical but don’t strain the system, character animations are easy to read, and attacks manageable to pull off. The give and take during a round is well-balanced thanks to meaningful but not overwhelming combos and opportunities for more powerful special moves, the Power Gauge implemented well to allow shifts in your available options despite there being only two attack buttons. It is unfortunate the solo play is so basic, but the fighting on show means even straightforward fights can still be entertaining to dive back into again and again.

And so, I give Fatal Fury: First Contact for Neo Geo Pocket Color…

A GOOD rating. There are definitely better fighters to play out there and ones that provide more longevity with content beyond stringing some fights together in a weak solo play format, but Fatal Fury: First Contact isn’t bad just because it’s on an obscure system. All of the adjustments it makes to the Fatal Fury formula do lead to it losing some elements, but all of them are wisely done to allow this game to shine on what it does pull off. The fighting system does what it needs to, giving the player a good range of variable options that are accessible but contain some decent depth. Special moves aren’t hard to see coming so you have to pick your moments to use them well, especially if you’re sacrificing some energy from the Power Gauge for them, but the power of attacks is often proportional to the investment. Attacks that are easy to land are often weaker, but the ones that reward exploiting an opening or comboing into them well are the heavy hitters. Characters bring a range of options, Mai Shiranui’s fan based swipes and fire moves control space differently than Li Xiangfei whose punches have puny reach but her leg strikes and specials let her close gaps to compensate. It’s not hard to find preferences as movesets can be understood easily enough but still contain enough variety within them to keep the opponent on their toes. Really, it’s how you experience these battles needs that expansion, the single basic solo play option not really offering anything beyond a chance to fight a few different foes, although the difficulty settings at least let you learn the game and then tackle it at a tougher level.

Fatal Fury: First Contact does feel like one of those cases where a game is definitely good but most people wouldn’t really have a reason to play it. It crafts an effective combat system that accounts for the restrictions inherent to the console it’s on, but there are many excellent fighting games out there, often ones with more pronounced mechanics or involved modes to draw player attention. Fatal Fury can be a bit intimidating in the arcade with its difficulty and more advanced controls, Fatal Fury: First Contact perhaps a nice way to make first contact with the franchise for someone interested in the series. You’d probably get similar thrills from a game like Street Fighter II though, a game you’re much more likely to get your hands on and find others to play with. That doesn’t diminish the quality of Fatal Fury: First Contact even though it may not be too appealing as a product, but the skillful fighting here still entertains because a diverse cast interact with a smart combat system that keeps battles feeling competitive even with options like the powerful Hidden Ability Boppers.