Fatal Fury 3

[Zabel]

I never hear much about this game in comparison to the bigger FF games FF Special, RBS, and RB2. The game introduced a lot of really popular FF characters and some of my personal favorites *Yamazaki, Mary, Bob, and Sokaku*. Why does it seem like the game never took off as big as the aforementioned? I unfortunately had only gotten ahold of the game after all the players in Spanaway interested in SNK games moved and before I met Sytha and FullMetalRoss so the game had slipped my mind for a bit.

[Rex Dart]

What a coincidence, I was just thinking about this game today. Fatal Fury 3 has some of the best presentation of any Fatal Fury game, and that's really saying something. The art is great, the character interactions are hilarious, the music is classic and the level of detail is staggering.

... but I also never really got into it. In my view, the game suffered from two main problems:

1. Having three different planes, as opposed to two, made things really awkward. And since there are still four attack buttons, the plane shifting is mapped to two buttons. I think AB moved to the front plane, and AC to the back? And then there was another button combination to attack someone in the other plane, but I could never keep it straight... It took a lot of getting used to, and I felt as if I was always hitting the wrong button combination. The AI seemed to be able to read my mind, and real life opponents just flailed around. Not fun.

2. The PS2 version ruins the Hidden Moves. In order to do these moves, you need to hit the start button. But the start button simply brings up the menu, unlike the start button on the NeoGeo versions. So every character loses their Hidden DM. Nice job there.

I'd love to give the game another chance some day. Here's some cool trivia:

• This is the first FF game Takashi Nishiyama and Hiroshi Matsumoto worked on. They had previously worked on King of Fighters and Art of Fighting, and would continue to work on most of the remaining FF games.
• In Mai's stage, Jubei (from FF2) sometimes appears swimming in the aquarium. What's he doing in there??
• Kyo and Kensou also cameo in the background of the Pao Pao cafe. I think this is the only time that KOF characters cameo in an FF game, rather than the other way around. Maybe.
• The reptiles in Joe's stage (an alligator and a turtle) have some weird quirks. In the fourth round, a bow appears on the gator's head. Also, performing Sokaku's Demon Staff Toss can cause the turtle to jump.

There's probably lots more stuff I don't know about too. SNK really outdid themselves with this stuff, and I love it.

[Zabel]

Yeah the presentation of the game is just great, especially the stages and the Live action commerical they did for the game.

I do remember the line switching system being really awkward, I belive it was AB for front and AC for back.

[MUSOLINI]

yeah SSIII and FFIII are both some of the best games in terms of graphics and atmosphere. too bad the playabiletty couldnt have been better.

FFIII's worst flaw is the speed of the game and the speed of jumps. also the cotrols are really terrible compared to even FFS, not even comparable to any of the RB games (man the RB games have some of the best controls of any game ever made imo). that being said i luv this game, i played it on my neo cd non stop (with some ss2 sprinckled here and there) till kof 95 came out. i actually found out about the boss codes by trying the characters 1 by 1 till i had the right order. man the first time playing yamazaki and the chons was a blast. the bg's and music in this game are fantastic, same for the art. in fact RB1 looks like crap compared to ff3.

[steamwolf]

I know this thread is older, but I feel like posting here anyway.

1. Having three different planes, as opposed to two, made things really awkward. And since there are still four attack buttons, the plane shifting is mapped to two buttons. I think AB moved to the front plane, and AC to the back? And then there was another button combination to attack someone in the other plane, but I could never keep it straight... It took a lot of getting used to, and I felt as if I was always hitting the wrong button combination. The AI seemed to be able to read my mind, and real life opponents just flailed around. Not fun.

Fatal Fury Special had three planes as well didn't it? I'm fairly certain three planes were not new to Fatal Fury...maybe I'm wrong here? Either way, I don't think this was quite the issue with FF3. Really, it was the hardest game to play. The Hidden Moves were a little awkward to access due to needing to hit start. But there were various other things difficulty-wise that just chased off players I think. I dunno how Japan took to the game at the time but considering the vast improvements visually over FFS, and the heavy marketing (lul commercial) I imagine it was a success over there as the series didn't end with its release.

2. The PS2 version ruins the Hidden Moves. In order to do these moves, you need to hit the start button. But the start button simply brings up the menu, unlike the start button on the NeoGeo versions. So every character loses their Hidden DM. Nice job there.

Is there a way to switch the controls so that you can assign the in-game "start" to a different button like select? I'll have to try this out...

[SSJ_Sonikku]

Is there a way to switch the controls so that you can assign the in-game "start" to a different button like select? I'll have to try this out...

Get the Japanese version of the collection.  The start button works as intended.  The USA version (applies to USA versions of all Neo Geo Collection PS2 games) made the start button have the same function as the select button.  That is what prevents us from using the Hidden moves.

I will definitely buy Fatal Fury 3 when it is released on the Neo Geo Station.