Welcome back to the world of Head to Head. In this installment we take a look at the original Fatal Fury on the SNES and the Genesis. The second version of this game will be following fairly soon, so I would expect to see a rematch.
Before I began with the game comparisons I'd like to take a second and look at where the market is heading. When Game Zero first started a little over a year ago there were very few cross licensed products, and we all wondered if this column would even have enough games to keep it alive. But now, only a short while later, if a game comes out on one system, you can expect it to come out on others. Except for the most protected of games (Mario, Sonic) everything is sharing formats. With Mortal Kombat coming out on just about every format here real soon I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. If you have any opinions, please write us.
Well, back to the game at hand--Fatal Fury. Both the SNES and Genesis were both impressive, however they were quite different. The SNES leans towards a modified slightly more playable version, where as the Genesis tries to copy the arcade original. This proves as an interesting comparison for graphics. The Genesis is much more colorful, and has a lot more to look at on the screen at a time. But the SNES version makes it very easy to see your character, and hence wage a better fight. My personal opinion is that the Genesis provides for a better feel of the graphics.
The next category is that of sound. Both the units have excellent sound, but the SNES provides for sharp, clean sound. Other than that there was not very much that went into the decision.
It is obvious that no game would receive good marks without great control. Both of these games offer excellent control--although they act very differently. The Genesis stays to the traditional arcade feel--while the SNES makes an effort to smooth things out. For pure playability the SNES is a little better.
To declare a winner? Hard call- for arcade action the Genesis walks away with top honors. But for pure playability the SNES slides right in.
