Real Bout Fatal Fury Special

Real Bout Fatal Fury Special (RBFFS, RBS)
Developers	SNK
Systems	Arcade WW: 28 January 1997
	NeoGeo WW: 28 February 1997
	NeoGeo CD WW: 28 February 1997
	Sega Saturn JP: 23 December 1997
Online Play	Rollback (Fightcade)
Player Resources	StrategyWiki RBS page
	GameFAQs RBS Arcade page
Community Channels	General Fatal Fury Discord server

Introduction

Real Bout Fatal Fury Special is the 6th Fatal Fury game released by SNK in 1997. Real Bout Special (RBS) drops from the prior Real Bout 1 ring outs, the third line and Gesse Howard as a playable character in the vanilla arcade release. This game is, in the vein of KOF '98, a dream match. Once again you are graded from C to SSS for your performance in a round, and your K.O. time is recorded, with the best time being displayed at the end of a match. Four legacy characters are added with new sprites, animations and moves: Tung Fu Rue, Cheng Sinzan, Laurence Blood and Wolfgang Krauser. While the character roster goes up to 19 for this ultimate edition, four characters have EX versions that are chosen with a code. This brings the number of characters to 23, or 24 if you count the hidden boss, Nightmare Gesse.

Roadmap

10% complete

Completed	In Progress	To-Do/Wish List
Basically done but room for improvement: Front page Controls Gameplay Overview FAQ Andy page Cheng page Duck page Mai page	Working on: Billy page	To-do: Bob page Terry page Add dizzy system to System Wish List: Practically every character needs to be redone Need to add more esoterics to System

Basic Strategy

• Line abuse is key. When you're on the opposite plane, your collision box disappears and you can 'walk through' your opponent, positioning yourself for ambiguous crossups. You can then hit with a line check, which can be special cancelled for a decent combo. Line abuse is powerful because the opponent has no means to counter it barring their own line checks; however, even that is taken away from them if they can't act fast enough. Score a knockdown, shift to the other line and start fishing.
• Line shifting can help on defense, but it is not designed to get you out of pressure. Usually, your opponent will recover from hops, chains etc. fast enough to punish you with a line check. What shifting does in neutral is help you avoid getting into bad spots before it's too late. Dealing with fireballs on the same line, for instance, involves a lot more commitment and risk than simply shifting to the other line to avoid them entirely. Effective use of lane shifting involves a decent amount of foresight.
• The game is built around crossups even outside of line abuse. By pressing D while airborne, your character will turn around, aiming all of their air attacks the opposite way. In practice, this gives everyone crossups; highly important for breaking through defense, considering throw invincibility is plentiful and not everyone has good high/low. Starting from RBS, this can only be done from jumps — not hops.
• Hops are faster than jumps, but their lower trajectory makes them more susceptible to reversals. However, their speed means you can generate pressure with much smaller holes; while jumps evade a lot more stuff on the ground, they are also vulnerable to getting checked by anti-airs, air-to-airs and other slower options. A healthy mix of both is ideal for offense.
• A lot of Fatal Fury's neutral revolves around jumping and hopping; not only does it constitute offense for a lot of characters, but a big part of defense involves using air-to-airs of varying heights to stand your ground.

System at a Glance

Assume character is facing right

Movement or to walk forward or backpedal

to crouch

to jump, tap to hop

or to guard against attacks

Punch

Kick

Strong Attack

Throw / in close proximity

Switch Planes

Dive Attack from opposite line

Dive Kick/Slide Kick from opposite line (overhead/low)

Reach Attack from opposite line Pulls opponent to your plane if attack hits or is blocked

Line Sweep from opposite plane must be blocked low pulls opponent to your plane if attack hits or is blocked

Power Gauge

Fills as you use special moves, attack the opponent or block enemy attacks

H. Power Use Break Shots and Ground Techs

S. Power Super Access to Break Shots, Ground Techs and S Power DMs

P. Power Super While on red life, access to Break Shots, Ground Techs, S Power DMs and deadly P Power DMs