Real Bout Fatal Fury Special was originally made by SNK for their own Neo-Geo arcade and home console hardware in 1995 as the sixth game in the Fatal Fury fighting series. SNK also made an official Saturn port of its predecessor, Real Bout Fatal Fury, the very next year, but released it only in Japan. The first two Fatal Fury games, Fatal Fury 1 and 2, did see official ports to Genesis in 1993 and 1994 respectively, while the latter got to be part of the Genesis/Mega-Drive Mini 2. Now we get to see what could’ve been had SNK brought the Real Bout chapters of Fatal Fury to the Genesis.

The game is in Portugese, but also has an English translation. When you start the game, go into the options menu (The lowest option on the title screen, which reads “Opcoes), then go to the second-to-last option reading “Linguagem” and press right or left to swap between Portuguese and English.

This Genesis port, while being an impressive translation of the original Neo-Geo game, does feature some compromises. Not all of the characters are included, with some like Tung Fu Rue, Franco Bash, Duck King, and even one of the main characters, Andy Bogard, being absent. The EX versions of Terry Bogard, Joe Higashi, Mai Shiranui, and Blue Mary and the Omega version of Wolfgang Krauser are included, along with the original versions of each character. Their special moves and other special maneuvers like Guard Cancels, Super Cancels, and Final Impact finishing moves are all available. The port even includes a new original stage featuring Samurai Shodown’s Hattori Hanzo.