This Week In Retro: Garou: Mark of the Wolves

November 26, 1999: Certainly, they existed…Those blinded by ambition

by Diamond Feit 

For creative types working on any long-running franchise, continuity can turn into a real bugbear. Calling back to an element from the distant past rewards those fans who have kept coming back year after year, but it'll leave newcomers scratching their heads. In the worst circumstances, maintaining continuity becomes a burden for writers trying to tiptoe around past material in order to tell new stories. Altering or ignoring series canon runs the risk of turning self-important "fans" into a nuisance.

All of these caveats apply to video games, naturally, with fighting games forced into a particularly precarious position. Every character follows their own personal motivations, and each faces a unique outcome should they end up standing on the champions podium. Yet how does one account for all these conflicting conclusions when it comes time to create a sequel? I don't know how Mortal Kombat—a series where victors can execute their opponents—has maintained a throughline for over three decades now.

The folks at SNK dabbled in continuity when they went out of their way to establish that the company's two marquee fighting games existed in the same fictional city, South Town. This proved fruitful when they decided to combine the two series—along with characters from old 80s arcade games—in a crossover mega-contest called The King of Fighters. Yet even with this established history, it still surprised me 25 years ago when I first saw Garou: Mark of the Wolves, a Fatal Fury sequel that dared to shake things up by leaping into an uncertain future.

SNK made a lot of shocking choices in developing Garou, beginning with its unusual title. The Fatal Fury series had always used the Garō Densetsu moniker in Japan, but aside from collectors or dedicated nerds who looked up NEO•GEO games online, most Americans wouldn't understand the connection between this new game and the previous eight entries.

Speaking of sequels, Mark of the Wolves tosses years of Fatal Fury continuity right out the window by declaring frequent antagonist Geese Howard as definitely, decisively dead—for real this time. Both the 1991 original game and the 1995 Real Bout edition ended with heroes Terry or Andy Bogard defeating Geese atop his high-rise, only to see him slip off the edge upon defeat. Geese managed to get better time and again, returning to later games and making an appearance in The King of Fighters '96, but Mark of the Wolves put an end to his resurrections. In the arcade game's attract mode, players see Geese fall to his death before they even insert a coin.

Via the time-tested method of montage, Mark of the Wolves shows Terry bonding with a young boy, one we learn to be Geese's orphaned son Rock. Terry raises the boy as his own and trains him to fight before eventually parting ways once Rock comes of age. Rock Howard—keeping his father's name—thus serves as our protagonist of Mark of the Wolves, a fiery-tempered brawler with a boulder-sized chip on his shoulder.

Aside from Rock and a more mature version of Terry, Mark of the Wolves features an all-new cast, only a select few of whom have tangential connections to the old Fatal Fury games. Taekwondo master Kim Kaphwan's two sons appear, each dressed similarly to their father but each with their own personality and elemental attacks. Spritely ninja Hokutomaru fights with a mix of moves from Andy Bogard and Mai Shiranui; for years I assumed he was their offspring, but official materials describe him as their "disciple." Marco Rodrigues professes his devotion to Kyokugenryū karate—the same style seen in Fatal Fury's sister series Art of Fighting—although Marco apparently hails from Brazil rather than South Town.

The rest of the roster has no direct linkage to previous characters but I have to highlight one newcomer in particular, B. Jenet. Of all the fresh faces in the cast, I developed an immediate interest in B. Jenet, and not just because she's a buxom blonde who speaks French and wears a low-cut dress. No, B. Jenet is a buxom blonde pirate captain with her own submarine who speaks French and wears a low-cut dress. Aside from throwing small tornadoes and wielding her dress as a weapon, B. Jenet's most powerful combo has her beat the tar out of her opponent with her own stiletto heel. C'est magnifique!

Alongside a roster reset, SNK elected to revamp traditional Fatal Fury gameplay for Mark of the Wolves. Since the series began, players had access to two or even three separate planes as they fought, allowing them to step forward or backward and approach their opponent from the side. Unfortunately, this also opened the door to cowardly tactics where characters continuously run away rather than stand their ground. Mark of the Wolves restricts combat to a single plane, a decision intended to make the game "snappy, without getting tiresome" according to a 2000 interview with planner Yasuyuki Oda.

While this change removed one potential defensive tactic, SNK added another in its place with Just Defend. Holding back on the joystick has always allowed players to block incoming attacks, but if they correctly time their movement in Mark of the Wolves to intercept the blow right before it connects, they will Just Defend it instead of block. This offers three immediate benefits: Characters receive a small health bonus, they cannot have their guard broken, and they recover from block stun slightly faster which gives them a brief window to mount a counter-attack.

Fighting game fans will recognize Just Defend as similar in nature to Street Fighter III's infamous Parry system. The two functions offer similar rewards, but differ greatly when it comes to player risk. A Street Fighter parry requires pressing the joystick into an attack, so improper timing means taking damage. Just Defend mimics the normal block command, so players only suffer if they press back too late. Speaking from experience, I had little trouble executing Just Defends even though I wasn't fast enough to slip in any offense afterwards, but I never got the hang of parrying in any version of Street Fighter III.

On the flip side, Mark of the Wolves offers plenty of offensive tools for players to mix-up and get the better of their rivals. Feints resemble the initial frames of a special attack, only to abruptly stop; this lets players mask their true intentions as well as interrupt other moves to expand their combo potential. Break moves provide a similar trick except they prematurely halt special moves, giving players an escape route if they might have misread their opponent. Like Feints, Breaks can also open the door to even longer combos.

Mark of the Wolves' signature addition is the T.O.P. system, with the acronym short for Tactical Offense Position. At the start of each match, players designate a portion of their lifebar to T.O.P. Mode; as soon as their health enters that zone during combat, they gain an immediate strength and meter boost and even recover some health. T.O.P. Mode also unlocks one unique move for every character. Deciding when to trigger T.O.P. Mode adds to the mental aspect of Mark of the Wolves, since each player can see when the other will activate their T.O.P. Do you want to start the fight with an advantage, or would you prefer to save it for when your health runs low?

Back in 1999, my friends and I counted down the days to Mark of the Wolves' arrival. We knew where we could find the arcade edition in Chinatown and as soon as the NEO•GEO home cartridge hit the market, we ponied up hundreds of dollars to get a copy for ourselves. With SNK's future already uncertain, we worried Mark of the Wolves might prove to be the final Fatal Fury game ever made; for over two decades, this proved true.

As last acts go, Mark of the Wolves did not disappoint. We had our reservations about the wholesale changes that jettisoned most of the characters we loved, but the revamped mechanics allowed us to spend hours upon hours experimenting with the latest techniques and getting to know the new faces. It helped that the always-talented artists at SNK delivered a gorgeously-animated game that, while not quite on par with Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, represented an incredible leap in quality from previous Fatal Fury or even the marquee King of Fighters games.

As part of the company's recent revitalization and return to making games in earnest again, SNK announced a new Fatal Fury game called City of the Wolves; this sequel is, as of this writing, due to launch 25 years and five months after Mark of the Wolves first debuted. Unlike last time, this new chapter won't leap forward another generation or abandon established characters; instead Terry, Rock, and a host of other familiar folks will return along with other famous fighters from past Fatal Fury games. There's even a pair of Street Fighters showing up because every video game today wants to maximize its audience with promises of a crossover.

As far as continuity goes, your guess is as good as mine. The Mark of the Wolves bunch look like they haven't aged a day since 1999, but neither have Ken Masters or Chun-li despite the fact that their older selves appear in Street Fighter 6 alongside a young Terry Bogard. Of course, young Terry and teen Rock—two people who should not exist at the same time—already fought each other in The King of Fighters XIV. Confusing things even further, Terry aged up back in The King of Fighters 2003 even as his peers Joe and Mai remained the same, only to revert to his classic look in subsequent King of Fighters games.

Obviously none of this actually matters even for a second; as much as I adore the citizens of South Town they're not real nor are they my friends, they're just sexy avatars I'm privileged to take out for a spin every so often in various video games. I can still commend Mark of the Wolves for taking as many risks as it did without nitpicking SNK for retconning it all decades later.

Writer/podcaster/performer Diamond Feit lives in Osaka, Japan but xer work and opinions exist across the internet.