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Garou-Mark of the Wolves was originally released in 1999 for the Neo Geo and is the ninth and final game in the Fatal Fury series. It is set ten years after Lord Geese Howard's death, where the city of Southdown has become a much more peaceful place, however Kain R. Heinlein wants revenge on Geese for his poverty-stricken childhood and sets out to find Geese's son Rock Howard with aims to become the new Lord of Southtown. Kain creates a new fighting championship called King of Fighters: Maximum Mayhem...

For anyone not familiar with this title, think Street Fighter. As with Street Fighter games, the Neo Geo beat-em-ups have such a great depth to their fighting style and has a second to none two player.



Garou-Mark of the Wolves has very similar moves to Street Fighter, quarter circles with button presses for punch and kick. The moves are easily accessible by pressing pause and bringing up the moves list.

Although primarily a two player game played either on local or Xbox Live which is where this game would have the most life. Garou-Mark of the Wolves also sports a story, survival and practise mode. The story mode taking you through twelve characters' story with two bosses to unlock, so plenty of practise for the Xbox Live and VS modes.



Garou-Mark of the Wolves introduces the T.O.P. (Tactical Offense Position) mode, which is a special area on the life bar which enable the characters the ability to use T.O.P. attacks, gradual life recovery and increased attack damage when the life bar reaches the point where you have placed it, you are given the choice of whether to place this on the left, right or in the center of the life bar, depending on when you wish to access the T.O.P mode within a fight.



GMOTW is a straight forward port of the original and looks good even now, it's a very pretty game with bright colours, but being a straight port there is no way to stretch the screen and you are left with borders

If you are not familiar with Fatal Fury games and especially haven't played this one, it's a little hard to understand the T.O.P mode as there is no tutorial as such, the game expects you to just jump straight in and learn the moves as you go.

The following Achievements can be earned;

Perfect Match—Achieve one round perfect. (5 points)

Blood of Geese Howard—Use ROCK, take “Deadly Rave Neo” once. (10 points)

Impregnable Defense—Take “just defense” more than 10 times in one match. (20 points)

Rage of Mademoiselle—Use B.JENET, take “ennui mademoiselle” once. (15 points)

Lonely Wolf—Clear story mode without encountering KAIN. (10 points)

Invincible Wolf—Clear story mode, don’t lose any round, any continue, don't encount KAIN *In default BATTLE SETTING (20 points)

Legendary Wolf—Clear story mode, don’t lose any round, any continue, encount KAIN. *In default BATTLE SETTING(25 points)

Survivor—Achieve more than 7 straight victories in survival mode. (10 points)

Hunter—Clear survival mode. (30 points)

Bishop—Achieve 10 Xbox Live victories. (10 points)

Knight—Achieve 20 Xbox Live victories. (15 points)

King—Achieve 5 straight Xbox Live victories. (30 points)



Garou-Mark of the Wolves brings back memories for those who know and love the Fatal Fury series, those who love the Street Fighter series would also love this game, it's bright, colourful and in depth, although most of its life would be online.

800

7.6