At last, Garou: Mark of the Wolves is up, SNK Fans Rejoice! I SAID REJOICE!

XBOX Live Arcade
Garou Mark of the Wolves

Genre: VS. Fighting
Developer: SNK Playmore
Past Releases: King of Fighters XII, Metal Slug 7,  Etc.
Published by: SNK Playmore
Price: 800 Microsoft Points XBLA Game Site
Size: 148 MB

Announced last week for Xbox Live Arcade in Japan, Garou: Mark of the Wolves had fighting game fans and old school arcade enthusiasts excited for a US release. Well after a surprisingly short wait, we are now privileged to be able to play this gem on our 360’s (ideally with that sweet ass SFIV Madcatz TE stick you got. You did get one right? RIGHT?!) Toss in local multiplayer (vs. mode) play, online ranking and match play, Arcade mode, and a swell Training mode, slap an 800 MSP tag on her and you have one happy monkey.

Mark of the Wolves, the last title in the Garou Densetsu series of fighting games by SNK, (known as Fatal Fury in the US) is considered by many to be the best entry to the series, and arguably one of the most polished and enthralling 2D fighters to come out of SNK’s huge stable of fighting games. Mark of the Wolves was originally released in 1999 on the SNK MVS (Multi Video System) arcade hardware weighing in at a whopping 688 MB (huge at the time considering the hardware). Mark of the Wolves was the 8th official entry to the franchise which was known for changing game play and art styles between games, and was looked at as the SNK counter to Capcom’s Street Fighter 3 series.

I really can’t say enough great things about Mark of the Wolves. First of all the game is beautiful. It is old school sprite work at its finest. 14 characters, (13 new, 1 returning) all hand drawn over gorgeous 2D backgrounds, Mark of the wolves was one of, if not the finest looking game to come out on the MVS hardware and hosts easily some of the best sprites ever made by SNK’s army of pixel pushing Picasso’s. The game is impressive looking even now, and animated very, very well.

Aside from the game looking so damn sexy, it plays great too. Fast paced 1 on 1 fighting with tons of mind games and layers upon layers of strategy. Mark of the Wolves introduced a slew of new fighting engine changes, moving away from the multi-plane shifting of the older games and playing like a more straight-up traditional fighting game (IE: Capcom’s Street Fighter series and SNK’s own King of Fighters series).
SNK added a “parry” style defensive move called “Just Defend”, fake special moves (to confuse opponents and construct combos), and a “T.O.P. (Tactical Offensive Positioning)” system that allowed you to select when you could use special TOP attack moves during a match. Mark of the wolves is quick, very competitive, easy to get into, and hard to put down.

Mark of the Wolves was released in the US originally on the Sega Dreamcast (I still love you!) as Fatal Fury Mark of the Wolves, close the DC’s death. Suffering from some minor port issues, it was somewhat tough to find and criminally underplayed. The Japanese PS2 saw Mark of the wolves released 4 times, once as the arcade port, twice as under the “Neogeo Online Collection” label (the second as a “limited edition”) then once more under the “SNK Best” collection. The Xbox 360 version seems to be a port of the AES (SNK’s Neogeo home console) version with a PS2 practice mode. The game plays in its original ¾ aspect ratio with original SNK art from the game as borders.

Mark of the Wolves sports a quaint little online mode that is really a mixed bag. There is certainly lag free games but overall the net-coding is not nearly as impressive as Super Street Fighter II: HD Remix, but definitely playable. For those who have been enjoying online multiplayer on PC via GGPO, there is definitely some getting use to, as the net coding is not nearly as well implemented as GGPO. That said, there is some very good matches to be had but as with any good fighting game, ALL serious matches should be handled face to face, on arcade sticks. (Man up you bunch of sissies, stay away from the d-pads.)

So there you have it, one of the best 2D fighters made on one of my favorite pieces of arcade hardware, packed with online play, practice mode and a nice “impulse buy” price point.
4 words…

RUSH THAT SHIT DOWN.