Fatal Fury 2: The New Battle is the sequel to the first Fatal Fury movie, and based off on the the first game's sequel, Fatal Fury 2. So the movie takes after the events of the first movie. We first see Geese Howard hiding in the mountains, until he was visited by his half-brother and main villain of the movie, Wolfgang Krauser. Terry Bogard is back in this movie and was seen working at a construction site, until he was introduced by a young boy named Tony. Tony asked Terry if he would like to be Terry's pupil, but Terry refused. Terry encounters Krauser and ends up getting his ass kicked by Krauser. Krauser tells Tony to give a Terry saying to meet him in the Strorlheim Castle in Germany, which is where Krauser lives.
After being treated by Tony's mother, Terry took off and decided to become a drunk because of his loss of Krauser, thinking that he is a lot stronger then Terry himself. Joe Higashi found out about Terry's loss from Krauser and told Andy about it. So, Andy and Joe were out on a journey, along with Mai Shiranui, to face Krauser instead. Now, I'm not too impressed with the story of the movie. All it's about is Terry losses a fight from the main villain, becomes a drunkaholic, gets back into shape with a little help from Tony and Joe, learns a new technique for facing Wolfgang, beats Krauser and that's it. The story is too simple and not even too story driven then the first movie.
Terry Bogard, Andy and Joe are still portrayed as how they were in the first movie. So, if you like him in Legend of the Hungry Wolf, then you will like them in this movie. I also like Tony in this movie as well. He is not like one of those unofficial sidekick characters that comes across loud and annoying, like in some movies. But Tony is not like that at all. He is very calm and somewhat determined in this movie. Geese Howard isn't shown all well, but he's portrayed quite well. Krauser is great, in this movie. He's a villian that you really don't wanna mess with. The one minor issue I have with the appearance of Krauser was that the developers removed his mustache, which was how he looked like in the second game. I just think they could've kept in the movie.
Mai Shiranui is good in this movie. She does make you laugh in a couple of spots in the movie. Jubei Yamada, who was in the second game, also makes an appearance in this movie, along with Axel Hawk, Laurence Blood and Kim Kaphwan. I was really happy on how the developers finally gave Andy blonde hair, unlike on how he had gray hair in the first movie. I was happy on how they changed the color of Geese Howard's shirt on the karate suit that he wore in the first movie. In the first movie, he wore a black shirt, where he wore a white shirt in the first game. But at least they got the color of his pants correct. I also didn't like on how they gave Axel Hawk a shirt, while he was shirtless in the second game. Can this movie make the characters make them look exactly by how they look in the second game, instead of putting little changes on them? But that aside, most of the characters still look like from how they were in the second game.
The artstyle and animation is pretty much what you would expect. Nothing different or anything. It's pretty much the same that was from Legend of the Hungry Wolf. The only problem with the animation is in the scenes where Andy, Joe and Mai were at the airport and Tony was reunited by his mother at the end of the movie, the lights in the background were really shiny making it too hard to see Joe's and Tony's mother's mouth moving. That's the only minor problem I have with the animation.
I watched the english dub version of this move and the english voice acting is still good in a Fatal Fury movie. Mark Hildreth returns as Terry Bogard in this movie and he does a fine job at voicing the character. The actors that play Andy and Joe also returned from this movie, and they still do a fine job in this movie. The actor that plays Geese Howard, Ward Perry, is back and he still does a fine job at voicing Geese. But Ward also voices another character in the movie and that's Laurence Blood. And Ward does a good job at voicing that character. Paul Dobson, who is the guy that voiced Billy Kane in the first movie, is also back, but is now voicing the role as Krauser. Kim Kaphwan is voiced by David Kaye, who is responsible for the voices of Clank in the Ratchet & Clank games and Treize Kushrenada in Gundam Wing. And also, Jubei Yamada is voiced by French Tickner, who also did Watari in Death Note. The movie also brought back the same style of music that was in the last movie and the music still holds up good in this movie.
Overall, The New Battle might not be as good as Legend of the Hungry Wolf, mainly it's because of how the plot in this movie isn't really as deep compared to the first movie. But this movie is still worth checking out regardless. So if you love the first Fatal Fury movie to death, then check out this movie. However if you are stuck between choosing this flim and the first movie, as for what Fatal Fury movie you want to see first, I would suggest you watch the first movie over this one because the story in that movie is better.
8.5 out of 10
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