Garou: Mark of the Wolves

Garou: Mark of the Wolves (餓狼マークオブザウルブズ) is a 1999 fighting game produced by SNK, originally for the Neo Geo system and then as Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves for the Dreamcast. It is the sixth main installment of the Fatal Fury series.

Gameplay
Gameplay in Mark of the Wolves is set on a single two-dimensional movement plane, removing the "lane" system from prior Fatal Fury games that allowed characters to move between the foreground and background. The game introduces a new mechanic called the "Tactical Offense Position" (T.O.P.), indicated by a highlighted area on the characters' life gauges. When the gauge reaches this area, the character enters the T.O.P. mode, granting the player's character the ability to use a T.O.P. attack, gradual life recovery, and increased attack damage; players can set which portion of their life bar activates the T.O.P. mode before the match begins. The game also introduces the "Just Defend" system, which rewards the player who successfully blocks an attack at the last moment with a small amount of health recovery and the ability to immediately counterattack out of block stun. Just Defend was later added as a feature of the K-Groove in Capcom's Capcom vs. SNK 2.

Similar to previous titles, the player is given a fighting rank after every round. If the player manages to win all rounds from the Arcade Mode with at least an "AAA" rank, they will face the boss Kain R. Heinlein, which unlocks an ending after he is defeated. If the requirements are not met, then Grant will be the final boss and there will be no special endings. Additionally, through Arcade Mode, before facing Grant, the player will face a mid-boss which can be any character from the cast depending on the character they use.

In addition to the standard Story mode, the console versions of the game include a second single-player mode, "Survival", in which the player must defeat as many opponents as possible while only regaining a limited amount of health after each battle. By completing each mode with different characters, the player will unlock new content in an in-game gallery such as character portraits and promotional artwork.

Playable characters
Mark of the Wolves features 14 playable characters. Terry Bogard is the only returning character from the previous Fatal Fury games, though many of the new cast are relatives or disciples of other characters from past entries. • B. Jenet

• Freeman

• Gato

• Grant

• Hokutomaru

• Hotaru Futaba

• Kain R. Heinlein

• Kevin Rian

• Kim Dong-Hwan

• Kim Jae-Hoon

• Marco Rodrigues

• Rock Howard

• Terry Bogard

• Tizoc

Plot
Ten years after crime lord Geese Howard's death, South Town has remained peaceful as Terry Bogard continues to raise Geese's son Rock Howard. The two suddenly receive a personal invitation to participate in a new King of Fighters tournament, the first to be held since Geese's death, dubbed "King of Fighters: Maximum Mayhem". Upon seeing in the invitation that the host also has information about Rock's deceased mother Marie, they travel to the neighboring city of Second Southtown to participate in the tournament, as do several other fighters, many of whom have ties to the previous tournaments' combatants.

Development
Multiple changes to Garou were made to show a bigger difference from previous games due to most characters being new. The character of Rock Howard was created by Nobuyuki Kuroki in 1998. Both he and Yasuyuki Oda wondered what type of hero would succeed Terry Bogard in Fatal Fury's latest game, Garou: Mark of the Wolves. While they were not confident with Rock, they still decided to make him as the new protagonist. Rock was designed to contrast previous 'masculine' Fatal Fury characters by giving him a more bishonen appearance, something Nobuyuki Kuroki felt the sequel needed to balance the cast and an issue he felt Real Bout suffered. Similarly, Hotaru was given a moe inspired look to balance the playable characters. Terry was also redesigned, labeled as "cool" by the SNK staff was because they thought Terry's previous look had become outdated. Kengo Asai, who previously worked in Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer, Money Puzzle Exchanger and The Last Blade series, is also involved in development of the game.

Release
Garou: Mark of the Wolves was originally released for Japanese arcades on November 26, 1999. It was first ported to the Neo Geo on February 25, 2000, and to the Dreamcast on September 21, 2001. The Dreamcast port was re-released on May 23, 2002, under the label of "SNK Best". The original Dreamcast version was the only port released in North America on November 23, 2001, being one of the last games for the system in that region. In such version, it was renamed Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves. A PlayStation 2 port of the game was released in Japan on June 30, 2005, but was not released in North America. This port was re-released in the title of "NeoGeo Online Collection" and a "Limited Edition" of the same title on June 30. On June 21, 2007, it was once again released as "SNK Best Collection". The title also came to Xbox Live Arcade on June 24, 2009. The PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita ports were later released, the latter for PlayStation Network in December 2016. A Nintendo Switch port would be released by Hamster Corporation on May 11, 2017, digitally under the ACA Neo Geo label, marking the first time the game was available on a Nintendo system. The Xbox One wouldn later receive its own port of Garou on August 16, 2018, under the ACA Neo Geo banner. This version — a straight, barebones port of the original arcade game — was also released for the PlayStation 4 on the same day, separate from the online-capable version that had already been released for the console more than two years prior. In 2020, GOG, Steam, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita versions of Garou featured rollback netcode from an update by Code Mystics, who also added their port of the game which replaced DotEmu's port that was released on Steam.

Reception
In Japan, Game Machine listed Garou: Mark of the Wolves on their January 1, 2000 issue as being the most-successful arcade game of the month. GameSpot named Mark of the Wolves the best fighting game of 2001. It was nominated for the publication's annual "Best Game No One Played" and "Best Dreamcast Game" prizes among console games, but lost these respectively to Victorious Boxers: Ippo's Road to Glory and Phantasy Star Online. It was also nominated for "Outstanding Fighting Game Sequel" by the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers, but lost to Dead or Alive 3.

Sequel
During the KOF Year-End Party 2005 fan event, illustrator Falcoon mentioned that a sequel to Mark of the Wolves for the Neo Geo was around 70% complete, though this never materialized. In June 2016, SNK revealed production artwork and sprites of the cancelled sequel's characters.

In 2022, a new Fatal Fury game was officially announced. Titled Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, the sequel will be 2.5D, similar to other contemporary SNK fighting games, and will continue the story of Mark of the Wolves while also bringing back characters from earlier Fatal Fury games. City of the Wolves is currently planned for a 2025 release.