Fatal Fury: Legend of the Hungry Wolf
Director
Masami Obari
Production
Fuji TV, NAS
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Film
Running time
45 mins
Year
1992
Fatal Fury: Legend of the Hungry Wolf VHS
By John Huxley
28th Apr 04  SNK's Fatal Fury series of videogames have always been aimed at a more specialist market than it's greatest rival, Capcom's Street Fighter series, and this is reflected perfectly in this adaptation of the very first Fatal Fury game. The anime of Street Fighter is a big-budget, critically acclaimed and popular animation, while Fatal Fury is little-known, low-budget and barley even reviewed, never mind acclaimed. Fatal Fury, much like the game, centers around the Bogard brothers, Andy and Terry. Their farther Jeff Bogard is murdered before their eyes by the evil Geese Howard - overlord of South Town and himself an accomplished fighter. Seeking revenge, the two brothers must train in order to receive their master's s ecret Hakkyokuseiken technique, which will hopefully dispose of the evil tyrant and give them the revenge they seek; although only one can receive this knowledge and must have both the strength and the correct attitude to win their master's favor. This is a more focused, direct plot than Street Fighter and is more enjoyable for it. We know why Terry and Andy want to fight and the relationship between the two carries the film to the inevitable finale, something which the Street Fighter film struggled to keep together. So, why is Fatal Fury a weaker anime and very much under the shadow of it's more popular cousin? Simple: the fight scenes just ain't much cop. For a film that relies on martial arts as it's theme, Fatal Fury falls flat on it's face with a severe lack of hand-to-hand combat and fights that barely last a minute. Terry, Andy and every adversary they face (Billy, Raiden, etc.) merely show of their special moves before one of the heros walks off the victor. This is very disappointing considering the audience it's aimed at has much higher expectations of such a worthy licence, and the fact that the Street Fighter film is above and beyond Fatal Fury is just the final, fatal blow. I can recommend this film if only as a prelude to the excellent sequel (merely a year later), which goes some way to making amens for this waste of an opportunity. Average, and very disheartening.
-- John Huxley 28th Apr 04
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