Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition
(LAST UPDATE: 9/2/08)

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Profile

General: SNK's Fatal Fury finally makes the jump from 2D to 3D... Adding in some new faces, and bringing back some classics from the franchise. The intro to this game is pretty cool, especially since this is the first time going 3D for a few classic characters. The art is also pretty decent, but the game itself is definitely a letdown.

   The gameplay of Wild Ambition is on the simple side (along so are the graphics)... Just like in previous Fatal Fury games, your character can "roll" in or out of the background to dodge attacks. The new "heat gauge" allows for more damaging attacks, and of course your character can perform a super move. The gameplay just feels sluggish, and actually worked much better in 2D.

   Graphically this game is bad news. The 3D characters are extemely blocky and behave equally as stiff. Character models also aren't light sourced and are prone to polygonal glitching. The "backgrounds" are low quality 2D images, pasted behind a flat square with grainy textures (that's supposed to be a floor?). Yep, sounds like a bad Playstation game.

Manufacturer: SNK
Platforms: Neo Geo Hyper 64, Playstation
Release: January 28, 1999
Characters: Terry, Andy, Joe, Mai, Billy Kane, Kim, Yamazaki, Raiden, Toji, Geese, Xiangfei, Duck King, Mr. Karate, Tsugumi
Related Games: Fatal Fury, Fatal Fury 2, Fatal Fury 3, Fatal Fury Special, Fatal Fury Real Bout, Fatal Fury Real Bout 2, Fatal Fury Real Bout Special, Fatal Fury: 1st Contact, Garou: Mark of the Wolves
 
Gameplay Engine
3 / 10
Story / Theme
5 / 10
Overall Graphics
3.5 / 10
Animation
5 / 10
Music / Sound Effects
7 / 10
Innovation / Creativity
5 / 10
Customization / Options
 3 / 10
Intro / Presentation
8 / 10
Replayability / Fun
 3 / 10
"Ouch" Factor
4.5 / 10
Characters
 7.5 / 10
Overall Score
4 / 10

Closing Comment: Capcom thought they could bring Street Fighter into 3D with SF:EX, and barely made par... So of course SNK had to try their hand at the 3D game, but they failed even worse. Both companies had much to work on for their future 3D fighting games. ~F.Yagami, Webmaster of TFG