Fatal Fury 3
  

    
STORY:  It has been two years since the second King Of Fighters tournament took place. Now Terry, Andy, Joe, Mai and Geese are back in South Town to battle five new characters and three bosses. All of them have their own reasons of coming to South Town, but in the end, everything links to a scroll that reveals the secret to the lost ancient martial arts.

 

  
REVIEW:  Debuting in 1995, Fatal Fury 3 was a pretty massive improvement over its predecessors. Fatal Fury 3 introduces brand new re-drawn character sprites for all characters (yet again) and offers better overall animation and visual quality. A handful of colorful new characters join the roster, in addition to all new 2D environments.

 

 

The two-plane gameplay was upgraded to a three plane format known as the Oversway System. Players fight primarily in the middle plane or the main plane, but can move or "Oversway" into either of the sway lines at the background or foreground . Attacks between planes have returned but are now called "Oversway Attacks" and players can use special technique to defend these attacks. Other new gameplay elements introduced include air blocking, combination arts, new special & super moves, and even alternate (more powerful) super moves which can only be used once per round.

 

 
 

The evolution and improvement of SNK's presentation in their fighting games was very apparent in Fatal Fury 3. In addition to cool looking world map, Fatal Fury 3 also features a ranking system when fighting against the computer, bringing innovation to the fighting genre with a pretty flashy and unique single-player arcade mode experience. When the player wins a round, they'll be ranked from D to triple S. The final opponents the player faces at the end of the single player mode is determined the by the player's average... with a lower score, the game will end with the player facing Ryuji Yamazaki, but with a higher score they will square off against one of the Jin twins, or possibly both. Overall, Fatal Fury 3 easily boasted the best presentation of the series to date.

Page Updated: July 29th, 2025 Developer(s): SNK Publisher(s): SNK Artwork By: Shinkiro   Promotional Art Platform(s): Neo Geo, Neo Geo CD, Sega Saturn, Windows 95 Release Date(s): Mar. 27th, 1995       Arcade Apr. 28th, 1995        NeoGeo CD Characters:  Terry Bogard, Andy Bogard, Joe Higashi, Mai Shiranui, Franco Bash, Blue Mary, Sokaku Michizuki, Bob Wilson, Hon Fu, Ryuji Yamazaki, Jin Chonrei, Jin Chonshu, Geese Howard Featured Video: Related Games: Fatal Fury, Fatal Fury 2, Fatal Fury Special, Real Bout Fatal Fury, Real Bout Fatal Fury Special, Real Bout Special: Dominated Mind, Real Bout Fatal Fury, Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition, Fatal Fury: 1st Contact, Garou: Mark of The Wolves, King of Fighters '95, Samurai Shodown 3, Darkstalkers 2, Street Fighter Alpha, Marvel Super Heroes, Mortal Kombat 3, Killer Instinct 2, Savage Reign, Galaxy Fight    Gameplay Engine  7.0 / 10 Story / Theme  7.0 / 10 Overall Graphics  7.0 / 10 Animation  6.5 / 10 Music / Sound Effects  6.5 / 10 Innovation  7.5 / 10 Art Direction  7.0 / 10 Customization  6.0 / 10 Options / Extras  6.0 / 10 Intro / Presentation  8.0 / 10 Replayability / Fun  5.0 / 10 "Ouch" Factor  5.5 / 10 Characters  6.0 / 10 BOTTOM LINE  7.2 / 10  Review based on Arcade version       Final Words: Upon its arrival, Fatal Fury 3 was arguably the best and most polished installment of the series to date. The presentation, colorful new sprites, and quality animations were among SNK's best stuff at the time (outside of the Samurai Shodown series, that is). SNK demonstrated they can still do a proper fisticuffs fighting game, offering new gameplay ideas and spawning the Real Bout series. In my opinion, Fatal Fury 3 was perhaps "outshined" by several other popular fighting games of 1995 and 1996. FF3 already started looking and mechanically feeling a bit "old fashioned" not long after its arrival, especially when compared to some of the more exciting fighting games blowing up arcades in 1996 such as X-Men: Children of the Atom and X-Men vs. Street Fighter by Capcom. All that said, Fatal Fury 3 leaves much to be desired in the replayability and fun department when compared to the top tier fighting games. After revisiting the game with nostalgia glasses on, there's still much to appreciate about Fatal Fury 3's innovative aspects and positive steps forward. While the beefy character sprites and backgrounds are pretty nice, the gameplay engine and the character designs still had some developing to do... with FF3 thankfully paving the way for exceptional sequels such as Real Bout 2. On a more personal note, Fatal Fury 3 introduced one of my future all-time favorite Fatal Fury and KOF characters, the one and only Ryuji Yamazaki. Yaaa hahahaha! ~TFG Webmaster | @Fighters_Gen    Click Here for all Posters / Box Art! Click Here for more Animated Stages! Click Here for all Character Bios / Movelists! Click Here for all Screenshots! FOLLOW    ON:                             TFG NEWS CHARACTERS GAMES