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Same old Bogard, totally different Howard…

Overview
After all the fist flying and bone crushing have been said and done, Terry has finally dispose Southtown of Geese Howard. Unlike past events, Geese cannot cheat death this time. Where one Howard falls, another takes his place, for Terry has taken in Geese's son, Rock, to learn the art of combat. While Rock's past is shady, he is confirmed not to follow in the same trail his infamous father took.

Many years have gone by and now that Rock is experience enough to be a powerful force, he joins Terry and many others in a new fighting tournament being held in Second Southtown to test their skills. What Rock, Terry, and the others don't know is that many secrets will be uncovered and that someone will find out that he cannot escape from the destiny he chose for himself. Will “Garou: Mark of the Wolves” get a mark of excellence or a mark of disappointment?

Graphics 10/10
My eyes are watering up right now as SNK has executed the most visually stunning work of graphical arts I have ever seen out of all the games they had produce. It is literally a masterpiece and still very hard to believe that all of this was push within such an old piece of limiting gaming hardware. Each of the fighters in battle are very crisp with colorful special effects, dazzling personalities, and I didn't notice any major choppiness or breakup going on, for that matter. The characters' artwork and stages, many which does an old SNK cliché of making each round different in time or setting, are superb and fits perfectly for the game's atmosphere, hands down.

I think one of the biggest showings of how wonderful the graphics are portrayed is the intros and bios to the fighters' stage. From the tower bells' ringing back and forth, a train blazing through the tracks, Hokutomaru stupidly jumping into traffic, or even seeing guys like Rock, Tizoc, and Gato readying themselves for action is truly untouchable and can never be duplicated.

The storyline cut scenes and endings are very impressive and convincing with the serious/humorous collage of pictures to understand the story of where that particular fighter is going. Thankfully, it's improves the fact that the English translation of the wordings onscreen are much more readable, although a few of them are still misspelled.

Gameplay/Controls 7/10
First up, you'll notice this doesn't really play anything like the Fatal Fury series. One thing you will see is that there is only one plane, so none of the hovering back or forward into another area of the field will be needed. Three creative structures had been implanted for a real basic idea fight that we can all enjoy. The first is the Tactical Offensive Position, or “The T.O.P. System”, which starts with placing it somewhere in your life bar, either in the three areas shown to you or pressing up/down to shorten it to make it a perfect fit for where you want it to be for your plans. When reached, it gives you some great benefits. It slowly recovers your life energy; it boosts your attack power, and gives you an additional attack that counters. However, if you lose the entire TOP part, you'll start back to square one. An easy adaptable gimmick that is sure to please many players. Number two, is the “Break” tactic, which enables you to fake a movement and turning it into another command attack, normally a special move. It a nice trick of the trade to fool around your opponents, but I really see no purpose for it. Unless, you studied this to the bone, this is completely forgettable. Finally, the “Just Defend” command, a move that pretty much anyone can do and I'm not kidding. All you have to do is carefully block back the moment the move hits you. Do it correctly and not only do you gain a little bit of life back, but you get a chance to send payback towards your opponent with a open opportunity.

The controls setup is something seen in other franchises like “The King of Fighters”, with two kinds of punch and kick, weak and strong, and that works for me. The special moves are very clear to activate on the joystick and buttons. The only real problem I had were how of the most complex moves like Rock's Neo Rave combo, Tizoc's full rotation throws, and B. Jenet's tricky counter super. However, those alone didn't damage the fun I was having in this game.

You know, come to think of it. Almost everything memorable from the past Fatal Fury games are gone, except the special meter system, the round grade, and the guard crush. Speaking of the super moves, if you know about the Real Bout: Fatal Fury saga, you remember the S/P Power meter. SNK decide to entice things by making all the supers double quarter circle motions and under S Power, you can only register weaker versions, while P Power lets you use any strong buttons to the more powerful versions. Interesting idea, but I'll admit, it felt weird doing Terry's Power Geyser in that way. It's nothing to cry over really. The computer AI this time around is very smart on its feet as it starts from being a clueless tackling dummy to a countering freak near the end, sometimes becoming a thorn by your side and an absolute beast.

Sound/Music 9/10
The narrator's (which is spoken in perfect English) and the announcer's voices perked things up fine and the speech acting for the fighters were also fitting on how the guys played and act, however I was still annoyed of the broken English speaking, but you can't win them all. The sound effects for the game were in the middle. Like every time a hit was detected, it sounded like someone was banging on a soft drum. However, the clapping/cheering of a crowd, busy streets, and the blasting of projectiles were enough to balance this section. I will say that to me, it made no sense seeing as how you read on the screen it reads “Butt”, but the announcer says “Marco Rodriguez” or on the screen it reads “Tizoc”, but the announcer says “The Griffon”. Why change names when we hear it differently otherwise? We don't need to change names to make it sound cool for the American audience.

Now aside from a few themes, I wasn't really impressed with the music. Most of the songs weren't classic worthy. To be quite honest, I felt that the game's overall playing helped the musical aspect of the game go up a little, making it seem like it does belong in Mark of the Wolves. I did like the multiple random choices of music that came in after someone won the whole entire bout and Kain's gloomy stage intro.

Replay Value 6/10
The game's initial cast is of twelve fighters. The only familiar face is Terry, whose returns in some new attire. Our main hero is Rock, who possesses Terry's and Geese's signature moves and modifies them in his own way. Kim Kaphwan's two sons have also grown up to become the new generations of Tai Kwan Do. Jae Hoon is calm and cool, like his dad, while older brother Dong Hwan is more carefree and loud. Both are after the notorious criminal known as Freeman, a man with a creepy vibe and thirsts for slicing satisfaction, for injuring their father. A police officer, Kevin Rian, comes from the Second Southtown Police Force with his own personal issues. Gato, a mysterious kung-fu expert who wanders to confront someone of his past, is being followed by a little girl named Hotaru, who thinks Gato is her long lost brother. Hokutomaru is a student of Andy and Mai, which tells you he going to have some of their moves, not to mention he's as goofy as they come. B. Jenet, a modern day pirate vixen with her own pirate crew looking for treasure. Tizoc, a large masked man wrestler who is quick on his reflexes, and Khushnood Butt, an master of Kyokyugen Karate, taught by his master Ryo.

The boss is the ever suffering monster known as Grant, concealed in a cloak and an evil glaring mask. If you're grades tally up with super high performance, you will meet the real organizer of the tournament, Kain, who has some rather startling news to tell to one lucky fighter. The single player is definitely very short, especially after you get all the endings, but as always, the two player mode will help save the day, especially with the deep game play inside this release. Those alone will keep the replay value high on your list for years to come.

Overall 8/10
What makes Mark of the Wolves so special is the fact that game went back to the basics with something we hadn't seen in the ever growing history of fighting games in years since the beginning. Garou: Mark of the Wolves proved that you don't always need extreme 3D graphics or over 50 fighters in response of fans wanting this and that to make a good game in this day in age. So I suggest to you that if you don't have this in your game library, to look for it and buy it. If you don't, you are missing out on a worthy game that refuses to fade from existence.

- By Boombada