Characters of the Fatal Fury series
The following is a list of video game characters featured in the Fatal Fury fighting game series developed by SNK.
Creation and design
Series' creator Takashi Nishiyama stated that giving the characters depth was of great importance when making the series. He noted that the first Fatal Fury featured a more polished plot and more fleshed out characters than that of his previous work, the original Street Fighter, which led to the game gaining a strong fanbase. To help market the games, certain character details were revealed in magazine promotions rather than the games themselves.Introduced in ''Fatal Fury''
Andy Bogard
Andy Bogard is Terry Bogard's younger brother. After his foster father Jeff's death, Andy goes to Japan to train under Hanzo Shiranui, from whom he learns Shiranui-ryū Ninjutsu and a form of empty-handed ninja combat called Koppō-ken. During this time, he grows up alongside Hanzo's granddaughter Mai, who falls madly in love with him and begins proclaiming him her fiancé. While in Japan, Andy meets Muay Thai fighter Joe Higashi, inviting him to return with him to the United States and enter Geese Howard's King of Fighters tournament.Late in the tournament, Andy tried to kill Geese by himself, but Geese overpowers him and Andy nearly falls to his death. Terry saves Andy, who then acknowledges Terry as the superior fighter. Andy continues to join Terry in the subsequent King of Fighters tournaments, though he sustains a serious chest wound in the brothers' final battle with Geese.
After Geese's death, Andy resumes his training, taking on a young apprentice named Hokutomaru. Instead of participating in the KOF: Maximum Mayhem tournament himself, Andy sends Hokutomaru in his place to see what his apprentice has learned. In Hokutomaru's ending, Andy writes him a note expressing pride in Hokutomaru's strength, saying he has nothing left to teach him. In City of the Wolves, Andy continues to suffer from his chest wound, but decides to enter the new tournament despite the risks to prove to himself that he is strong enough to defeat Terry in a fight.
In the King of Fighters series, Andy regularly appears on a team alongside Terry and Joe, joined in entries with four person teams by Mai or Blue Mary. During the Ash Crimson Saga, Andy briefly leaves the team to care for the ill Hokutomaru before later returning at his brother's request. In his anime incarnations, though sometimes perplexed by her actions, Andy is more open to showing his affection towards Mai.
In The King of Fighters XIV, its established that Andy and Mai are now in a relationship.
Billy Kane
Billy Kane is introduced in Fatal Fury as the righthand man of Geese Howard, a crime lord in the fictitious American city of South Town. Geese holds The King of Fighters tournament every year with Billy as his champion. Billy was the undefeated champion of the tournament, until he is defeated by Terry Bogard, who moved on to later defeat Geese. He also appears in Fatal Fury Special as a playable character for the first time. After Geese recovers, Billy appears in Real Bout Fatal Fury to assist him in the conquer of South Town. Though Geese requests Billy destroy the Jin Scrolls, Billy cannot bring himself to do so, replacing them with fakes and hiding the real ones away, and he leaves South Town after Geese's death. He later appears in the two following games from the series Real Bout Fatal Fury Special and Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers which do not contain a storyline. In the PlayStation version from Real Bout Fatal Fury Special, Billy is brainwashed by his half-brother White in order to aid him in the conquer from South Town. He then appears as a sub-boss character in the arcade mode, but once he is defeated, he returns to normal. A 3D fighting game version of the series, Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition was produced as well, which retells the plot of the first game. By the time of City of the Wolves, Billy has assumed control of the Howard Connection after Geese's death, and works with Geese's son Rock Howard and brother-in-law Kain R. Heinlein to retrieve Geese's stolen legacy, including the Jin Scrolls. After the Scrolls are destroyed and learning of the Jin dynasty's connection to Geese and Rock, Billy accepts Rock's decision to move on, retaining control of Geese's legacy.In The King of Fighters series, Billy was meant to appear in the first game from the series as a member of an England Team, composed of him, Mai Shiranui, and Big Bear, but due to several problems with the capacity of the game, and the desire from the Art of Fighting staff to add Yuri Sakazaki, Billy was removed from the game. When the new King of Fighters tournament began in The King of Fighters '95 under the control of a man named Rugal Bernstein, Billy is ordered by Geese to go in his boss' place because Geese was still healing. He joins with a ninja named Eiji Kisaragi and a mysterious man named Iori Yagami. Billy's team does not win, and at the end of the tournament Iori beats up Billy and Eiji. In The King of Fighters '97 Geese sends Billy to investigate the mysterious Orochi power in Iori. Geese hires a sadistic outlaw named Ryuji Yamazaki and tricks a good freelance agent named Blue Mary to help as well. After the tournament ends, Yamazaki demands his pay from Geese by attacking him and Billy. The same team is shown in The King of Fighters '98, The King of Fighters 2002 and Neowave but none of those contain a storyline. He also appears as an assistant character in The King of Fighters '99: Evolution and The King of Fighters 2000. In the former he is available for any character, while in the latter he is a striker for Andy Bogard.
In The King of Fighters 2003, Geese orders the team of Billy Kane, Ryuji Yamazaki, and Gato to infiltrate the tournament in another attempt to take over South Town. During the spin-off game The King of Fighters Kyo Billy appears as boss character along Geese to fight against the Bogard brothers and the protagonist Kyo Kusanagi. In KOF: Maximum Impact 2, it is revealed Billy has moved to the countryside of the UK with his young sister, Lilly Kane, and has decided to return to South Town once again, willing to show the Meira twins: Alba and Soiree the town should be embarked by no one.
Billy also appeared in the console version of The King of Fighters XIII, released in November 2011. He is also present in the otome game King of Fighters for Girls.
Billy Kane appears in the TV anime film Fatal Fury: Legend of the Hungry Wolf, where he is voiced by Daiki Nakamura in the original Japanese version and Paul Dobson in the English dubbed version. Like in the original Fatal Fury video game, Billy Kane is one of Geese Howard's underlings alongside Raiden, Ripper and Hopper. He enters the King of Fighters tournament alongside Raiden on Geese's behalf and later mortally wounds Tung Fu Rue while the Bogards and Joe are escaping from Geese's men. In the final battle of the film, he ends up fighting against Andy Bogard and ends up being defeated by him. He appears again in the sequel Fatal Fury 2: The New Battle, where he makes an unvoiced appearance in the beginning of the film, in which he is confronted by Laurence Blood at the Pao-Pao Cafe and is defeated off-screen. Billy makes an extended cameo appearance in the third film, Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture, this time voiced by Tomohiro Nishimura in the original Japanese version and once again by Paul Dobson in English. He encounters his old adversary Andy in a night club, but the two are confronted by Laocorn's henchman Hauer before they get a chance to fight again.
In the second episode of the anime spin-off mini-series The King of Fighters: Another Day, Rock Howard, Geese's son, stops Billy from killing Lien Neville who was carrying out a hit on him. Billy tries to convince Rock to help him, because as he carries Geese's heritage, Lien would try to take him out too. Instead, Rock decides to save Lien's life and fights Billy, who almost manages to kill him as well for shaming Geese's legacy, but is blown away by a beam fired over Geese Tower. He also stars in manhua from the video games which retells his actions from the games. Additionally, in the manga The King of Fighters: Kyo authored by Masato Natsumoto, Billy starts investigating Kyo Kusanagi in order to make him talk about the ancient demon Orochi.
In Gamest's 1997 Heroes Collection, Billy was voted as the staff's fourth favorite character. In the character popularity poll on Neo Geo Freak's website, he was voted as the seventeenth favorite character with a total of 757 votes. For the special endings in The King of Fighters '97, three video games journals, Gamest, Famitsu and Neo Geo Freak, had to create a team composed of three characters from the game so that they would be featured in an image after passing the arcade mode. The special team created by the Neo Geo Freak's staff was a team of fire wielders: Billy, Kyo Kusanagi, and Mai Shiranui. The special ending only appears in Japanese versions of the game.
Duck King
Duck King appears in the original Fatal Fury as one of the first four opponents in the single-player mode. Possessing incredible talent when it comes to brawling and street dancing, Duck King once challenged Terry Bogard to a street fight and lost. He trained himself in order to surpass Terry. Duck uses a unique fighting style which includes rhythmical dance-like movements and attacks. His primary special move is a flying cannonball technique.In Fatal Fury 2, Duck was one of the characters from the original game who is defeated by Krauser in one of the games cut scenes, although he would appear as a playable character in Fatal Fury Special. He would retain his cannonball technique, now dubbed the Head Spin Attack, along with new special moves such as the Dancing Dive, Break Storm, and the Beat Rush. He also has a new hidden special move called the Break Spiral. From Special and onward, Duck would be accompanied by his pet chick "P-chan". He makes another quick cameo in Bob Wilson's ending Fatal Fury 3 before returning as a playable character in Real Bout Fatal Fury and its sequels, Real Bout Special and Real Bout 2. He also appears as an exclusive character in the PlayStation version of Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition.
Although Duck King has made numerous cameo appearances thorough The King of Fighters series, including as an alternate Striker in The King of Fighters 2000, he did not appear as a playable character until The King of Fighters XI, where he appears as a member of the new Fatal Fury Team along with Terry and Kim Kaphwan.