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Rock is the son of the most infamous crime lord of Southtown, Geese Howard. Although he knew of his father's existence as a young boy, Rock lived a modest life with his mother in a small apartment. He often wondered about his father and was excited about potentially meeting him someday. When Rock was seven, his mother contracted a mysterious disease and he tried his best to nurse her to health. As her illness worsened, Rock went to Geese Tower and met his father for the first time in his life. Though the boy pleaded for medical aid and told him that Marie desperately wanted to see him, Geese wanted nothing to do with the matter and sent him away. Marie died that same night, and Rock formed a deep grudge against his father ever since.

A year later, Rock met Terry Bogard, who recently settled his personal vendetta against Geese. Rather than hate his father's enemy, Rock felt a mix of loneliness and joy knowing that his father died. Rock decided to follow Terry and attended his street fights. Terry soon became somewhat of a father figure to Rock, and began teaching him martial arts. Rock soon became a formidable fighter, fighting similarly to both Terry and his father, Geese.

About ten years after Geese's death, Second Southtown was established. During this time, The King of Fighters: Maximum Mayhem tournament took place, which Rock joined to find his purpose in life. By the end of the tournament, Rock faced Kain R. Heinlein, who revealed himself as Rock's uncle. After defeating Kain, Rock discovered that the tournament was orchestrated by Kain to bring Rock to him. Kain was aware that Geese Howard's will held presumably valuable secrets but was unable to discover them without assistance. Kain earned Rock's aid in working through the document by offering information regarding Rock's mother, whom Kain claimed was still alive. Terry accepted Rock's decision to become Kain's new partner, as Rock promised to return.

       

       
 

Updated: December 23rd, 2011
Rock is a cool design, firstly, because he's a mix of Geese and Terry. In late 1999, it wasn't easy to measure up in "coolness" with the many existing SNK protagonists, but Rock Howard pulled it off with flying colors. Rock has style, charisma, and a unique fighting style that stands out among others.  Rock has appeared in many games since his epic debut in Garou, and he even acquired some cool new moves over time. Most of his later appearances were solid... his cross over to Capcom VS SNK 2 was awesome and he was great in Neo Geo Battle Coliseum as well! His jump to 3D in KOF: Maximum Impact 2 wasn't bad either, although I find his KOF: Maximum Impact 2 extra outfits to be pretty bad (like most outfits in that game). At the end of the day, Rock is an awesome SNK character and I hope he makes a comeback soon.
	Fighting  Style  /  Moveset
	Personality  /  Charisma
	Outfit(s)  /  Appearance
	Effectiveness  in  series
	Overall Score