Fatal Fury Special, known as Garō Densetsu Special (餓狼伝説SPECIAL, Hungry Wolf Legend Special) in Japan, is a 1993 fighting game developed and published by SNK and originally released for the Neo Geo arcade and home platforms.

It is an updated version of 1992’s Fatal Fury 2, introducing several changes to the gameplay system while expanding the available character roster.

Gameplay – Fatal Fury Special

Fatal Fury Special is an updated version of Fatal Fury 2. It features many of the same graphics and gameplay, although some slight changes were made to the system, including faster game speed and an all new combo system.

Unlike the previous Fatal Fury games, Special allows the player to combine their attacks. When an attack lands, the player will have a brief moment of invincibility.

The number of Line Move Attacks have also increased; pressing the Light Punch or Light Kick button while the opponent is on an opposite line will perform a Low Line Jump Attack.^[1]

The single-player mode has the player fighting all of the playable characters, beginning with the eight regular characters from the previous game, as well as Tung and Duck, with the player given a choice in their first opponent.

After the first ten opponents, the player will fight against Billy, Axel, Laurence, Geese, and Krauser, in that order. If the player wins every match in two rounds, then the player will be challenged by Ryo in a special “Dream Match”.

Characters – Fatal Fury Special

The character roster of Fatal Fury 2 returns. The four AI-only characters from the previous game (Billy Kane, Axel Hawk, Laurence Blood, and Wolfgang Krauser) can now be controlled by the player, and three characters from the original Fatal Fury (Tung Fu Rue, Duck King, and Geese Howard) return, increasing the number of playable characters to fifteen.

 Ryo Sakazaki, the protagonist of Art of Fighting, appears as a hidden opponent at the end of the Single Player Mode and is playable in the home versions. This cross-over inspired SNK to create The King of Fighters series, the first installment of which, The King of Fighters ’94, was released a year after Fatal Fury Special.