Fighter's History Dynamite


		The march of the Neo-Geo continues this week as SNK (DataEast) sees fit to release their new and fairly recent games on platforms other than their own Neo-CD and Neo-Geo. This has been a growing trend and a shift towards consoles that have a wider audience than their own niche (some may say cult) consoles. Fighter's History Dynamite belongs in neither the new or fairly recent category however. It belongs in the 'two years old and counting' category of SNK's fabled Neo library. We could question their intentions and accuse them of releasing just for the sake of it (and to profit a bit along the way on a title that's been sitting on their shelves) but nevermind. NCS has taken delivery of the game and we've got some thoughts on it.
13 bad-boys and gals are at your beckoning

Fighting games are a dime a dozen. When the Street Fighter 2 boom first hit the arcades and took over the nation's supply of quarters, arcade manufacturers looked hungrily at Capcom's profits and dreamt of their own fighting 'masterpieces'. One of those companies was DataEast and they released one of the earlier Street Fighter 2 clones, Fighter's History. They were immediately sued by Capcom for copying the 'look and feel' of their SF2 game. FH had characters that looked like Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li and Balrog. DataEast won that court battle...and everyone and their uncle back home subsequently brought their own Street Fighter 2 to the arcades. Some were embarrasingly bad, some innovated fighting games as we know them today. Sad to say, Fighter's History was not one of those early innovators. In other words, it wasn't quite dynamite...yet.
		Ryu....no, it's Mizoguchi!

		It would be safe to say that DataEast released Fighter's History to get in on the whole fighting game craze. Their sequel to that game, Fighter's History Dynamite improves on the play mechanics and graphics...but is it worthy of the dynamite designation? The characters in FHD animate very well and the speed is fast as you jump and kick through the ranks. The gameplay is solid and fighting fans will find the moves very familiar, after all, this license was the subject of a Capcom lawsuit. FHD has all of the trademarks of a flashy arcade game but it lacks the originality and innovation to make it a license that perpetuates itself the way a Samurai Shodown does. This was true of the Neo-Geo original and it is true of the Saturn version as well. I would not classify FHD a bad game, since it plays well and looks good but among a sea of fighters, it does not stand out.
Ray, Ken's half brother spins a mean kick

Saturn owners who are also Neo-Geo fans should be pleased that in terms of conversion quality, FHD is again, near perfect. The character sizes, frames of animation and background picture quality are true to the Neo-Geo original. One facet that the Saturn version might be found lacking is in the sound quality. The sound is still good but they lack the ambience, body and forceullness of the Neo-Geo original. For example, a punch in FHD sounded like an incredible wallop that resounded like a wooden plank banging against human skull. On the Saturn, it sounds almost tinny as your punch goes unnoticed behind the background music. Sigh, but the gameplay and graphics are ported over perfectly and thats one area that Neo to Saturn conversions seem to excel in. Fighters History Dynamite marks the 7th ram-card release in the Sega Saturn library. We have already seen and enjoyed, in order of appearance: Real Bout Fatal Fury, Samurai Shodown 3, King of Fighters '96, Metal Slug, Groove On Fight, and Waku Waku Seven. Capcom's Cyberbots did not require a ram card but it was able to utilize it if present so we do not count it in our ram card round-up. Capcom's upcoming Marvel Super Heroes will follow this ram-card arrangement as well.
		The cover art for Fighter's History D.