Garou Mark Of The Wolves Comes To XBLA This Week!

[bork]

Releases this Wednesday, 6/22, for 800 points.

Who's getting this awesome 2D fighter?  For those who haven't played the game before, Garou was the last Fatal Fury game, originally released in late 1999.  The game is SNK's version of Street Fighter III, using a similar parry system (done by hitting back instead of forward) called "Just Defense," high-quality animation, and a completely new or redesigned cast of characters.

Regular characters

Rock Howard – Rock is the son of Geese Howard and protιgι of Terry Bogard and the new lead character of Garou. His fighting style combines techniques of both Terry and Geese, giving him an edge on both offense and defense. He wears a red and white jacket with a white star on the back, similar to Terry's classic vest.

Terry Bogard – The main character from the previous Fatal Fury games and the only returning character in Garou. In Garou, he has a new look: his long blond ponytail is trimmed, and he has exchanged his trademark red vest, hat, and shoes for a bomber jacket and brown shoes. Terry has a new Desperation Move (the "Buster Wolf"); however, he can no longer perform his original trademark move (the "Rising Tackle"), which now belongs to Rock Howard.

Kevin Rian – Kevin is a high-spirited police officer of Second South. He is also a friend to both Terry and Rock. He fights using Sambo (similar to his distant relative Blue Mary),[1] although much of his fighting style revolves more around direct strikes than grappling. He is cheered on during fights by his friend's son Marky. In Garou, he seeks revenge for the death of his partner, murdered by Freeman.

Bonne Jenet – Bonne Jenet is a female pirate who is looking for treasure in Second South. Her fighting style involve wind-like projectiles that hit multiple times, and swooping attacks intended to catch opponents with suddenly-changing directions.

Kim Dong Hwan – Dong Hwan was taught Taekwondo by his father, Kim Kaphwan, and has a friendly rivalry with his brother Kim Jae Hoon. He is more of a show-off and slacker than his brother, relying more on aerial attacks and juggles (i.e. attacks that strike the opponent into the air uncontrollably). He believes he is a "genius" in the story, and doesn't need to study diligently in order to master Taekwondo, but his father and brother see it differently.

Kim Jae Hoon – Jae Hoon was taught Taekwondo by his father, Kim Kaphwan, and is a brother of Dong Hwan's. Jae Hoon admires his father, so he fights more like him than Dong Hwan does, with a combination of high and low attacks with plenty of power behind them. Like his father, he has a strong sense of justice and chivalry, but unlike his brother, he establishes his strength through constant practice.

Gato – Gato is a powerful fighter always in search of stronger opponents. He is the older brother of Hotaru Futaba, but hotly denies this. His actual background and motivations aside from these are unknown.

Hotaru Futaba – Hotaru is the younger sister of Gato. She searches for her brother. She is generally very polite and charming, and is accompanied by her pet sable, Itokatsu. Her stage takes is a belfry, where a flock of birds removes her cloak.

Hokutomaru – Hokutomaru is a ninja who trained under Andy Bogard. He is extremely fast and crafty (with many moves that are among the fastest in the game), making him a nearly unpredictable opponent to deal with. His stage is a traffic accident that he caused, as he was unfamiliar with urban ways due to his age and training. Hokutomaru carries a sword on his back, but he seldom draws it except during one special move.

Khushnood Butt – Butt is a Kyokugen-style karate expert, who trained under Ryo Sakazaki. He is named Marco Rodriguez in Japan but was renamed in the U.S. version. He leads a somewhat austere life in a wooded area on the outskirts of town, and fights using powerful, deliberate attacks. Just like Ryo, he has several famous moves from Art of Fighting with some of his own derivatives.

Tizoc – Tizoc is a famous pro wrestler in Second South and is seen as a hero in the eyes of children. Somewhat disillusioned, he enters the tournament in order to rekindle his own interest in fighting. His name in Japanese versions of the game is "The Griffon Mask".

Freeman – Freeman, real name unknown, is a mysterious English serial killer that fights using slashing movements with his hands as if they were claws. Little is known about him, except that he killed the partner of Kevin Rian, and defeated Kim Kaphwan in a fight, prompting Kim's sons to enter the tournament.

Bosses

Grant - Grant, real name Abel Cameron, is a master of the dark style known as Ankoku Karate. Being Kain R. Heinlein's closest friend and personal bodyguard.

Kain R. Heinlein: Kain is the mysterious host of Southtown's "King of Fighters: Maximum Mayhem" tournament. Being the younger brother of Marie Howard (Geese Howard's deceased wife and thus Rock Howard's mother), he is Rock's uncle.

Garou: Mark of the Wolves - Achievement List
Xbox360Achievements.org - Every Point Counts

There are 12 achievements with a total of 200 points.
 
    Perfect Match (5 points)
Achieve 1 round perfect. (No damage victory)
 
    Blood of Geese Howard (10 points)
Use ROCK, take "Deadly Rave Neo" once. *STORY MODE only
 
    Impregnable Defense (20 points)
Take "Just Defense" more than 10 times in one match. *STORY MODE only
 
    Rage of Mademoiselle (15 points)
Use B.JENET, take "Ennui Mademoiselle" once. *STORY MODE only
 
    Lonely Wolf (10 points)
Clear STORY MODE without encount KAIN. *In default BATTLE SETTING
 
    Invincible Wolf (20 points)
Clear STORY MODE, don't lose any round, any continue, don't encount KAIN *In default BATTLE SETTING
 
    Legendary Wolf (25 points)
Clear STORY MODE, don't lose any round, any continue, encount KAIN. *In default BATTLE SETTING
 
    Survivor (10 points)
Achieve more than 7 straight victories in SURVIVAL MODE.
 
    Hunter (30 points)
SURVIVAL MODE Clear.
 
    Bishop (10 points)
In Xbox LIVE MODE, achieve more than 10 victories in total. *Only in RANKED MATCH
 
    Knight (15 points)
In Xbox LIVE MODE, achieve more than 20 victories in total. *Only in RANKED MATCH
 
    King (30 points)
In Xbox LIVE MODE, achieve 5 straight victories. *Only in RANKED MATCH

[Enl]

[tiesto]

Deffo. getting this, even though I'm not as into SNK's fighters as I am Capcom's... well I have one friend who is a hardcore SNK fanboy, so we will probably be challenging each other a lot at it. Plus I gotta get a bit more mileage out of my SF4 pad

[originalz]

I can barely understand some of those achievements.

[Rman]

Great price.

[bork]

I can barely understand some of those achievements.

Haha..."TAKE DEADLY RAVE NEO ONCE."  You can just hear Geese Howard's voice actor attempting to say this in Engrish.

Deffo. getting this, even though I'm not as into SNK's fighters as I am Capcom's... well I have one friend who is a hardcore SNK fanboy, so we will probably be challenging each other a lot at it. Plus I gotta get a bit more mileage out of my SF4 pad

Garou is very "Capcomish" though.  I have a preference for the Real Bouts over Garou because they just feel more like Fatal Fury should, but Garou is definitely one of the best fighters ever made regardless.

[Enl]

It's too bad that the Real Bout series will more than likely never see the light of day on XBLA (unless it's in some future compilation). I've always prefered the plane shifting and characters of that series over Mark of the Wolf. They really should've ported RBSpecial or RB2 over instead of Fatal Fury Special.

[bork]

It's too bad that the Real Bout series will more than likely never see the light of day on XBLA (unless it's in some future compilation). I've always prefered the plane shifting and characters of that series over Mark of the Wolf.

Did you ever play RBS: Dominated Mind?  It's a Playstation One-only FF game that was released in Summer '98 after Real Bout 2 hit the Neo-Geo.  It's interesting what they did with the game.  Instead of being a straight-up port of Real Bout Special, they reworked the game and added new moves, a new character (Alfred, the hidden boss from RB2), a new boss, removed the plane shifting, and added in super cancels.  The removal of the second plane freed up memory so all the animation could be fit into the PSOne port, and then they added some additional animation to the backgrounds.  It was an awesome port and nothing else like it was released since it came out.

They really should've ported RBSpecial or RB2 over instead of Fatal Fury Special.

Fatal Fury Special was a ridiculous choice for a game to release on XBLA.  It's too dated and even though SF2 Turbo was as well, it had the name recognition going for it.  SNK should have released a KOF game from day one.  People stopped playing FFS after like a week.  It was terrible.  Samurai Shodown II didn't really fair much better, either.  A lot of people had nostalgia-hype going on for it, then saw that it was nothing more than an Ukyo/Kuroko-fest and that was the end, lol.

I'd LOVE to see one of the Real Bouts on XBLA.  Special would probably be the best bet; RB2 has some harder move inputs and weird changes.  I go back and forth on it, but in the end I think RBS is the better game.  I played the shit out of all three RB games from '96-'98.

[Enl]

Forgot how much I liked the music in this. Rock's theme is great fightin music! Online is a mixed bag so far. A majority of my matches ran smoothly, but when it lags it lags bad (taking more than a second for button responses).

[demi]

Rock Howard is my nicca, love using him in CvS2

[youtube=560,345]f7RDGbpmf4A[/youtube]

[Beezy]

I hate being broke.

If anyone knows of any future XBL point exploitations, let me know.

[Enl]

Great matches tonight Lyte. I was getting too tired to continue on at the end. Missing a bunch of moves and getting my ass handed to me because of it. You're first player I've fought today that actually put up a good fight.

[BobFromPikeCreek]

I hear the netcode is crap. Any truth to that?

[The Sceneman]

Ive been wanting to get into a 2d beat em up for YEARS...... but Ive never got around to picking one up and getting good at it.

should I get this? Lyte you are the expert on all things beat-em-up, fill me in! I was pretty good at Street Fighter 2  Is there a command list in game and/or a tutorial?

[bork]

Great matches tonight Lyte. I was getting too tired to continue on at the end. Missing a bunch of moves and getting my ass handed to me because of it. You're first player I've fought today that actually put up a good fight.

Haha, we had a hardcore TAUNT WAR going on!     It was great, BUT even with your low ping, it was still on the laggy side for me; I had a hard time getting moves off a lot of the time.     After we played, I played a few more random matches and went up against one guy that was actually trying to brake moves.  With the connection we had, I LOL'd. 

I hear the netcode is crap. Any truth to that?

It's the same as FFS and SS2 were, so if you play someone with really low ping (like under 100), it's pretty good or great, but anything over that can get really, really bad.  I hope this game lasts longer than the other two did.  It is a hell of a lot more modern in comparison.

Ive been wanting to get into a 2d beat em up for YEARS...... but Ive never got around to picking one up and getting good at it.

should I get this? Lyte you are the expert on all things beat-em-up, fill me in! I was pretty good at Street Fighter 2  Is there a command list in game and/or a tutorial?

No one to play locally?  Online is your fiend!   

There should be a demo version; give it a try...the game is more Street Fighter-like than other SNK games.  But if you really want to get into something with a big community that's not going to dwindle, you're gonna have to get SF4 or maybe BlazBlue (BB is not a noob-friendly game though) or KOF XII when that comes out.  SSF2T HD Remix still has players, but it really just seems to be the hardcore. 

[The Sceneman]

yeah Ive been contemplating SFIV for a while. I played a little at my friends place and really enjoyed it.

Cool I'll get the trial version of this then 

[The Sceneman]

just got it, game is amazing!

[The Sceneman]

Okay really liking this game, but I cant figure out how to pull off the 'Deadly Rave Neo' as Rock?
Im pushing the right buttons I think but he never throws any punches after the initial run...

[bork]

It's all in the timing...are you trying to do this online?  I think it would be a lot harder to pull off unless the connection is very good.

[The Sceneman]

played a few online matches..... one was good, the rest were baaaaaaaaad (in terms of lag I mean). I got my noob ass handed to me anyway... one dude I played already had 200/200 achievement points, so he was good!

but I managed to pull off a few deadly rave neos in practice mode. So im getting better.... I still havent a clue how 'just defence' works. I may have to read a faq...

[bork]

Fuck this game, KOF '98 ULTIMATE MATCH HITS XBLA THIS WEEK!   

[Enl]

Fuck this game,

 :'(

KOF '98 ULTIMATE MATCH HITS XBLA THIS WEEK!   

 

[Akala]

Fuck this game, KOF '98 ULTIMATE MATCH HITS XBLA THIS WEEK!   

[archie4208]

Fuck this game, KOF '98 ULTIMATE MATCH HITS XBLA THIS WEEK!   

Netcode will probably suck. :'(

[bork]

Fuck this game, KOF '98 ULTIMATE MATCH HITS XBLA THIS WEEK!   

Netcode will probably suck. :'(

DO NOT JINX IT

[The Sceneman]

cool, thanks for the tips!Will definitely work on geting better at this. Will prob get KOF98 too!

[MCD]

as a casual fighting cigarillo i found this game much more fun than KOF98 thus i bought it.

though i doubt i would be able to pull moves like deadly rave neo let alone all those hardcore achievements.

[The Sceneman]

deadly rave neo isnt too tough, I managed to pull a couple

spoiler (click to show/hide)

in practice mode 

[close]

[MCD]

You don't say that to Geese Howard's son.

[Enl]

Howard is a pussy, who plays with that cigarillo?

Tizoc and Butt are the real damage dealers

My Hotaru will both kick your Butt and Zoc in the buttocks. 

[Enl]

Howard is a pussy, who plays with that cigarillo?

Tizoc and Butt are the real damage dealers

My Hotaru will both kick your Butt and Zoc in the buttocks. 

Kevin >>> Hokutomaru >>> Hotaru

Kevin has a pretty devastating combo that does around 70% damage.

I love fighting against scrubs who play with Hokutomaru. They sure do love abusing his disappearing attacks thinking that'll surprise me each time. Of course I'm always waiting with my standing block, ready for my free attack.

[MCD]

my friend brought his sf4 tourney stick and pulled deadly rave neo for me

now all that left is that blonde slut achievement.

[demi]

weak, minus points for having someone else do an achievement for you

[MCD]

 the thought that counts, demi bro.